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. A team of Chinese scientists has studied the first lunar farside samples brought back by the Chang'e-6 mission. The findings mark a significant milestone in lunar exploration science and technical exploration capability. The study was published in National Science Review on Sept. 16. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-lunar-farside-samples-mission.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 26 Sep 2024 17:08:51 EDT news646589328 Christian de Caestecker, a Ph.D. student in the lab of Ian Macara, Louise B. McGavock Professor and chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, has proposed and validated a mechanism that addresses a decades-old mystery surrounding epithelial cells. de Caestecker's research, published in Nature Cell Biology, sheds light on the process by which epithelial cells, polarized cells that face the outside world, sort and deliver the specialized proteins they need at each cell's top (outermost) surface. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-decades-protein-mystery.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 26 Sep 2024 17:01:02 EDT news646588861 On Sept. 9 and 10, scientists and engineers tested NASA's LEMS (Lunar Environment Monitoring Station) instrument suite in a "sandbox" of simulated moon regolith at the Florida Space Institute's Exolith Lab at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-nasa-artemis-science-instrument-moon.html Space Exploration Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:01:13 EDT news646581669 Tiny nanoparticles are at the forefront of materials science—with special properties that make them great at absorbing light in solar panels, cleaning wastewater, and delivering drugs precisely. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-greener-nanomaterials-everyday.html Nanomaterials Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:35:07 EDT news646580104 With typhoon Yagi battering Asia, storm Boris drenching parts of Europe, extreme flooding in the Sahel and hurricane Helene racing towards Florida, September so far has been a very wet month. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-hurricanes-storms-typhoons-september-wetter.html Environment Thu, 26 Sep 2024 12:56:02 EDT news646574157 A team of astrophysicists from several institutions in Italy, working with a colleague in the U.S., has found that aliphatic hydrocarbons observed on Ceres' surface have short lifetimes, suggesting they likely appeared there within the last 10 million years. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-aliphatic-hydrocarbons-ceres-surface-short.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 26 Sep 2024 11:30:01 EDT news646566741 Nitrogen in the soil, where plants can readily utilize it, benefits crop growth and health. However, nitrogen leaving the soil—whether through leaching into the groundwater table, flowing with surface runoff into streams or escaping into the air as ammonia or in nitrous oxide emissions—is detrimental to the environment. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-manure-crops-pollution-corn.html Agriculture Thu, 26 Sep 2024 10:41:18 EDT news646566074 As NASA moves forward with efforts to establish a long-term presence on the moon as part of the Artemis campaign, safely moving cargo from landers to the lunar surface is a crucial capability. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-robotic-crew-preps-moon.html Space Exploration Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:20:02 EDT news646498065 Immediate action is needed at all levels to protect communities in the Asia Pacific from sea levels that are rising significantly faster than the global average, say climate scientists ahead of the next key UN climate summit. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-climate-scientists-alarm-asia-seas.html Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:57:04 EDT news646495021 Mars wasn't always the cold desert we see today. There's increasing evidence that water once flowed on the red planet's surface, billions of years ago. And if there was water, there must also have been a thick atmosphere to keep that water from freezing. But sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, the water dried up, and the air, once heavy with carbon dioxide, dramatically thinned, leaving only the wisp of an atmosphere that clings to the planet today. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-mars-early-thick-atmosphere-planet.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:00:01 EDT news646472268 The ocean's twilight zone is deep, dark, and—according to new research—iron deficient. No sunlight reaches this region 200 to 1,000 meters below the sea surface, where levels of iron, a key micronutrient, are so low that the growth of bacteria is restricted. To compensate, these bacteria produce molecules called siderophores, which help the bacteria scavenge trace amounts of iron from the surrounding seawater. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-unexpected-deep-sea-discovery-life.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news646474418 A large, ordinary-looking warehouse in the German city of Cologne is the closest you can get to walking on the moon—without leaving Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-moon-cologne-europe-lunar-life.html Space Exploration Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:39:52 EDT news646479585 With strong bactericidal properties, graphene has the potential to become a game changer in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. So far there have been no efficient ways to control these properties—and thus no way to make use of graphene's potential in health care. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-graphene-spike-mat-ordinary-fridge.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:50:12 EDT news646401006 To know whether we are complying with emission treaties, all CO2 must be traceable. Incomplete bookkeeping recently sent scientists on a search in the Greenland Sea. Their research is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-dissolved-inorganic-carbon-greenland-sea.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 23 Sep 2024 16:31:04 EDT news646327861 A new analysis of maps of the near and far sides of the moon shows that there are multiple sources of water and hydroxyl in the sunlit rocks and soils, including water-rich rocks excavated by meteor impacts at all latitudes. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-sources-hydroxyl-widespread-moon-analysis.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 23 Sep 2024 12:02:12 EDT news646311727 New research published Sept. 19 in Geophysical Research Letters shows that using data collected by deep ocean robots, called Deep Argo floats, combined with historical data from research vessels has increased confidence that parts of the global deep ocean are warming at a rate of .0036 to .0072°F (.002 to .004°C) each year. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-robots-steady-deep-ocean.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:39:54 EDT news646303188 A research team has unveiled an innovative technology for ultraprecision surface polishing and cleaning using simultaneously operating magnetic micro spinbots. These tiny robots, capable of nanometer-scale contaminant removal and polishing, offer a lightweight, scalable, and cost-effective alternative for advanced industries like semiconductors and optics. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-magnetic-micro-spinbots-ultraprecise-surface.html Nanomaterials Fri, 20 Sep 2024 11:19:04 EDT news646049941 The boundary between the ocean and the atmosphere, where the air and sea interact, is known as the sea surface microlayer. Understanding how nutrients, pollutants and organic matter are exchanged between the air and the sea is also vital for better understanding the role they play in regulating carbon cycles and climate. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-sea-surface-micro-layer-boundary.html Environment Fri, 20 Sep 2024 09:16:04 EDT news646042561 The ion's pathway is strongly influenced by a process that is ubiquitous across bio- and electrochemistry: ions need to reorganize their solvation shell before they can intercalate into battery cathodes, enter ion channels across biochemical membranes or adsorb and convert to chemicals, such as green hydrogen, on electrocatalyst surfaces. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-ions-hiking-insights-solvation-kinetics.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 19 Sep 2024 13:12:03 EDT news645970321 A new technique may make it easier for researchers to create real-time images of microscopic samples by considering the waves that propagate through sample surfaces as light interacts with them. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-tunability-optical-differentiation.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 19 Sep 2024 09:30:03 EDT news645957001 Tropical cyclones can have severe consequences for both the marine and terrestrial environments, as well as the organisms and communities who inhabit them. In the oceans, there can be alterations in sea surface temperature that disrupt biological processes and hospitable conditions for life, the devastation of surface algae and other primary producers, which impacts complex marine food chains, as well as damaging coral reefs. Meanwhile, on land, the heavy rainfall, strong winds and storm surges can lead to significant damage to property and infrastructure, as well as loss of lives. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-tropical-cyclone-intensity-exacerbated-depth.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Sep 2024 08:00:02 EDT news645940414 Anyone who has ever pet a cat or shuffled their feet across the carpet knows that rubbing objects together generates static electricity. But an explanation for this phenomenon has eluded researchers for more than two millennia. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-petting-cat-static-electricity.html Nanophysics Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:10:27 EDT news645891019 Climate change and a range of other human impacts are putting marine animals at risk of extinction—even those living in almost pristine marine habitats and diverse coastal regions—reports a new study by Casey O'Hara of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S., and colleagues, published September 18, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-marine-animals-untouched-habitats-greater.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 18 Sep 2024 14:00:02 EDT news645867661 Presenting the world's smallest (and scrappiest) scuba diver: A species of semi-aquatic lizard produces a special bubble over its nostrils to breathe underwater and avoid predators, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-scuba-lizards-underwater-predators.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 17 Sep 2024 19:00:01 EDT news645722401 Energy demands are at an all-time high, as is the need to be environmentally conscious. That's why chemical engineering professors Drs. Joseph Kwon and Mark Barteau have developed a strategy to predict the performance of new catalysts for greener ammonia production. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-greener-pastures-ammonia-production-sustainable.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 17 Sep 2024 14:31:04 EDT news645802261 TU Wien (Vienna) has succeeded in generating laser-synchronized ion pulses with a duration of well under 500 picoseconds, which can be used to observe chemical processes on material surfaces. The work has been published in Physical Review Research. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-technology-ultrashort-ion-pulses.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 17 Sep 2024 11:37:04 EDT news645791822 Accurately predicting how rapidly tropical cyclones (TCs) will intensify is a significant challenge due to the complex processes involved. Limited observations show that smaller TCs tend to intensify faster, suggesting a simple linear relationship between a cyclone's inner-core size and its intensification rate. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-key-size-rapid-tropical-cyclone.html Environment Mon, 16 Sep 2024 16:58:03 EDT news645724682 Black and gray sediment stretches as far as the eye can see. Boulders sit on top of ground devoid of vegetation. Humans appear almost miniature in scale against a swath of shadowy mountains. At first glance, it seems a perfect scene from an excursion on the moon's surface … except the people are in hiking gear, not spacesuits. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-nasa-artemis-ii-crew-iceland.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:40:04 EDT news645712802 A research team has proposed a novel approach to accurately describe electron transfer mediated nonadiabatic dynamics of molecules at metal surfaces. Their works were published in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-strategy-simulating-nonadiabatic-dynamics-molecules.html Condensed Matter Mon, 16 Sep 2024 10:57:17 EDT news645703031 An astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory has developed a hypothesis to explain the unique shape and terrain of Mars. He suggests both are due to a long-lost moon. Michael Efroimsky has published a paper outlining the hypothesis on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-hypothesis-mars-unique-due-lost.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:30:01 EDT news645697145