https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Technology is often seen as a threat to democracy, with the surge in AI capabilities the latest big concern. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-social-media-platform-good-democracy.html Social Sciences Political science Thu, 26 Sep 2024 10:50:01 EDT news646566115 A Western study could help farmers get out of a potential jam by using artificial intelligence (AI) and passive camera monitoring to enhance strawberry cultivation. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-strawberry-cultivation-machine.html Agriculture Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:10:01 EDT news645368595 Open-source online imagery can play a vital role in investigating and prosecuting alleged crimes—but only if courts can reliably assess its authenticity. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-source-imagery-international-crimes-real.html Social Sciences Political science Wed, 11 Sep 2024 12:29:04 EDT news645276542 A team of scientists and engineers at NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has collaborated to see if a small piloted drone, equipped with a specialized payload, could help create detailed maps of how fast water is flowing. Rivers supply fresh water to our communities and farms, provide homes for a variety of creatures, transport people and goods, and generate electricity. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-current-events-scientists-river.html Earth Sciences Mon, 05 Aug 2024 15:36:57 EDT news642091012 Northwestern Medicine scientists have developed a new technique to identify individual cells for RNA sequencing, which will empower scientists to gather more accurate and precise scientific data, according to details published in Cell Genomics. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-gene-cells.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 26 Jun 2024 06:59:21 EDT news638603956 Point defects (e.g. missing, extra or swapped atoms) in crystalline materials often determine the actual electronic and optical response of a given material. For example, controlled substitutions in semiconductors like silicon are the backbone of modern technology. Despite their importance, point defects are notoriously difficult to simulate and characterize, particularly across wide regions of the periodic table. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-framework-databasing-properties-crystal-defects.html Condensed Matter Thu, 23 May 2024 17:21:03 EDT news635703661 In the occupied far east of Ukraine, Russian forces are aiming waves of missiles against Ukrainian civilian targets. Each of Russia's state-of-the-art missile launch systems costs more than US$100 million (A$150 million). They allow Russia to launch attacks from safe positions many kilometers behind the front lines. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-track-secret-russian-missile-launchers.html Political science Wed, 22 May 2024 12:55:41 EDT news635601338 As climate change continues to warm the planet, scientists expect natural hazards such as flooding to increase. Urban flooding can be caused by extreme precipitation events, storm surges, or high tides, with dangerous and expensive consequences for public health and infrastructure. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-communities-hyperlocalized-urban.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 10 May 2024 13:19:04 EDT news634565941 The return of spring in the Northern Hemisphere touches off tornado season. A tornado's twisting funnel of dust and debris seems an unmistakable sight. But that sight can be obscured to radar, the tool of meteorologists. It's hard to know exactly when a tornado has formed, or even why. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-ai-dataset-paths-tornado.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 30 Apr 2024 03:53:03 EDT news633667974 When disaster hits, a quick and coordinated response is needed, and that requires data to assess the nature of the damage, the scale of response needed, and to plan safe evacuations. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-closer-real-disaster.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 03 Apr 2024 12:29:51 EDT news631366187 A new study published in Science Advances finds that a more sustainable, flexitarian diet increases the feasibility of the Paris Agreement climate goals in different ways. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-food-healthy-diets-economic-physical.html Environment Wed, 27 Mar 2024 14:00:01 EDT news630753427 Even in tech-heavy Washington state, the numbers of students with access to computer science classes aren't higher than national averages: In the 2022–2023 school year, 48% of public high schools offered foundational CS classes and 5% of middle school and high school students took such classes. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-kids-code-cultural-embroidery-machines.html Education Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:56:04 EDT news629650562 Scientists at the UK Dementia Research Institute at King's at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience have developed a process enabling custom cell culture device creation. This pipeline has been published in PLOS Biology and is available as an open source on GitHub. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-scientists-pipeline-custom-cell-culture.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Thu, 14 Mar 2024 11:09:02 EDT news629633340 Federal immigration minister Marc Miller recently announced the government is implementing a two-year cap on the number of international students admitted into Canada. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-source-tech-canada-immigration-fairer.html Political science Fri, 01 Mar 2024 07:20:01 EST news628499155 Drug development is currently an extremely long, expensive and inefficient process. Findings generated in a lab are often very hard to replicate once translated into animal models or in humans. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-technological-platform-drug.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:39:03 EST news628180742 We are swimming in a sea of information, built on a 24/7 cycle of content produced for our endless consumption. Average Americans stare at their smartphones for three and a half hours a day—and soak it all up. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-qa-misinformation-disinformation-role-ai.html Social Sciences Political science Mon, 26 Feb 2024 12:40:04 EST news628173601 Two years of war in Ukraine have caused widespread devastation to the country's citizenry, infrastructure and environment, and new research utilizing publicly accessible satellite imagery lays bare the scope of destruction. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-animated-reveal-true-devastation-ukraine.html Other Mon, 26 Feb 2024 12:30:14 EST news628173006 Customized shoes, personalized drinks and specialized menu offerings. In a world where carbon copies of products are everywhere, retailers have to make their products stand out and provide customers with a unique purchasing experience. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-coke-cans-menus-personalized-products.html Economics & Business Sun, 18 Feb 2024 11:20:01 EST news627304719 Researchers mapped genetic blueprints for 51 species including cats, dolphins, kangaroos, penguins, sharks, and turtles, a discovery that deepens our understanding of evolution and the links between humans and animals. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-genome-cats-dolphins-birds-dozens.html Evolution Biotechnology Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:37:55 EST news625747070 A new camera system allows ecologists and filmmakers to produce videos that accurately replicate the colors that different animals see in natural settings, Vera Vasas at the University of Sussex, UK, and colleagues from the Hanley Color Lab at George Mason University, US, report in the open access journal PLOS Biology. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-source-camera-software-captures-animal.html Ecology Biotechnology Tue, 23 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news625225957 Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have revolutionized forestry by enabling high-throughput data collection of tree phenotypic traits. Despite advances in remote sensing and object detection technologies, accurate detection and spectral data extraction of individual trees remain significant challenges, often requiring laborious manual annotation. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-role-extspecr-uav-based-tree.html Molecular & Computational biology Agriculture Tue, 16 Jan 2024 13:50:01 EST news624632897 MIT's Astrodynamics, Space Robotics, and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab) announced the public beta release of the MIT Orbital Capacity Assessment Tool (MOCAT) during the 2023 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Space Forum Workshop on Dec. 14. MOCAT enables users to model the long-term future space environment to understand growth in space debris and assess the effectiveness of debris-prevention mechanisms. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-source-space-debris.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:30:21 EST news624205818 A team of researchers from TU Delft has succeeded in long-term mapping of beach topography to within a few centimeters. The unique dataset provides insights into coastal changes for every hour, for three years. This data is important for dune maintenance and to keep the hinterland well protected. The methodology is also being used to monitor other coastlines and even glaciers. The data are open source and were published in Scientific Data in 2022. The new methodology was also recently published. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-unique-permanent-coastal-minimal.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:08:52 EST news624125330 "We will not sign our death certificate," said Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) last week, calling for a clear commitment to phasing out fossil fuels. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-nd-gain-spotlight-small-islands-climate.html Environment Wed, 20 Dec 2023 13:40:01 EST news622301092 A new set of tools for astronomers and planetary explorers use interactive visual analytics and machine learning to reveal and contrast properties of objects in our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-astronomy-toolkit-users-sky-weirdest.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 13 Dec 2023 17:30:03 EST news621711001 Movement of rivers, mountains, oceans and sediment nutrients at the geological timescale are the central drivers of Earth's biodiversity, research published in Nature has revealed. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-landscape-dynamics-evolution-biodiversity-earth.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 29 Nov 2023 11:00:01 EST news620476404 Graphene, a material which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms, has been celebrated by many as the "next big thing" in material science. But according to Purdue University researchers, its thermal properties may not be as revolutionary as previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-graphene-conductor-four-phonon.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 28 Nov 2023 11:14:23 EST news620392460 Researchers have developed a new deep learning AI tool that generates lifelike bird songs to train bird identification tools, helping ecologists to monitor rare species in the wild. The findings are presented in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-deep-ai-tool-ecologists-rare.html Ecology Biotechnology Wed, 15 Nov 2023 00:00:03 EST news619201228 Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a land change model that simulates interactions between urban growth, increased flooding and how humans adapt in response. The new model could offer a more realistic assessment of risk for urban planners, natural resource managers and other local government stakeholders. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-human-reactions.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 06 Nov 2023 11:49:03 EST news618493741 After years of development and testing, NASA's Landslide Hazard Assessment for Situational Awareness model (LHASA) has been integrated into the Pacific Disaster Center's (PDC) multi-hazard monitoring, alerting, and decision-support platform, DisasterAWARE. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-pacific-disaster-center-landslide.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 27 Oct 2023 12:27:20 EDT news617628435