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. Parts of Florida face "unsurvivable" conditions when Hurricane Helene hits later Thursday, the US weather service said, warning that howling wind will drive destructive waves and storm surge as high as 20 feet (six meters) onto the low-lying coast. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-unsurvivable-hurricane-helene-florida.html Environment Thu, 26 Sep 2024 12:13:54 EDT news646571629 A small team of biologists and animal movement specialists in the Netherlands and the U.K. has found that birds such as the emu have a grounded running style at medium speeds, allowing them to conserve energy compared to the ungrounded running style of other animals such as humans. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-bird-grounded-styles-energy.html Plants & Animals Evolution Thu, 26 Sep 2024 10:18:54 EDT news646564720 An article published in PeerJ Life & Environment has uncovered insights into how mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) respond to approaching vehicles, revealing that these common waterbirds are poorly equipped to avoid collisions, particularly at high speeds. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-reveals-mallards-flight-responses-ineffective.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 12:41:58 EDT news646486907 Within the cycling realm, "to Everest" involves riding up and down the same mountain until your ascents total the elevation of Mt. Everest—8,848 meters. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-physicist-reveals-tailwind-negligible-effect.html General Physics Fri, 20 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news645979922 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 Emergency workers cleared fallen trees and other debris from Shanghai's streets after the strongest storm to hit the Chinese megacity since 1949 disrupted transport and left tens of thousands of people without power. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-strongest-typhoon-shanghai-megacity.html Environment Mon, 16 Sep 2024 04:27:44 EDT news645679654 A pair of asteroid dynamics researchers from Universidad Complutense de Madrid Ciudad Universitaria have found that a small asteroid will make one orbit around the Earth starting this month before departing back into other parts of the solar system. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-earth-mini-moon-months.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 13 Sep 2024 10:00:01 EDT news645439964 NASA will coordinate with U.S. government stakeholders, partners, and international standards organizations to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) following a policy directive from the White House in April. The agency's Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program is leading efforts on creating a coordinated time, which will enable a future lunar ecosystem that could be scalable to other locations in our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-nasa-lunar-standard-exploration.html Space Exploration Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:01:03 EDT news645361261 Scientists may have found an antidote to pesticides that are directly and indirectly killing bees, according to a new paper published in Nature Sustainability showing promising early results in common eastern bumblebees. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-bee-antidote-deadly-pesticides.html Ecology Biotechnology Wed, 11 Sep 2024 12:22:04 EDT news645276121 The effect of urbanization on temperature is relatively well-known: cities are often measurably warmer than their surrounding rural areas. This is called the urban heat island effect. What fewer people know is that the urban heat island has a twin counterpart with similarly important consequences: the urban precipitation anomaly, where the presence of urban development measurably affects the amount of rainfall in an area. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-global-cities-rainfall-rural-areas.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 09 Sep 2024 15:00:01 EDT news645090061 During the Age of Sail, sailors riding the trade winds past the equator dreaded becoming stranded in the doldrums, a meteorologically distinct region in the deep tropics. For at least a century, scientists have thought that the doldrums' lack of wind was caused by converging and rising air masses. Now, new research suggests that the opposite may be true. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-theory-doldrums-equatorial-region-stranded.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 09 Sep 2024 13:34:53 EDT news645107678 Researchers have achieved data rates as high as 424Gbit/s across a 53-km turbulent free-space optical link using plasmonic modulators—devices that use special light waves called surface plasmon polaritons to control and change optical signals. The new research lays the groundwork for high-speed optical communication links that transmit data over open air or space. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-plasmonic-modulators-enable-high-capacity.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 06 Sep 2024 13:43:49 EDT news644849026 Super Typhoon Yagi slammed into southern China's Hainan island on Friday, bringing windspeeds of over 230 kilometers (143 miles) an hour in what is set to be the strongest storm to hit the region in more than a decade. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-super-typhoon-yagi-threatens-southern.html Environment Fri, 06 Sep 2024 04:39:24 EDT news644816359 The Boundary Layer Transition 1B (BOLT-1B) experiment, a joint research project of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), blasted off from Andøya Space in Norway aboard a sounding rocket on Sept. 2. The experiment traveled over the Norwegian Sea at Mach 7.2 and provided a stream of important data on the physics of airflow at hypersonic speeds. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-1b-hypersonic-soars-vital.html Space Exploration Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:32:34 EDT news644772746 Imagine a sensor so sensitive it can detect early cancer in a single drop of blood, enabling diagnosis and treatment before the first symptoms—possibly before a tumor even forms. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-space-based-advance-early-cancer.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:26:49 EDT news644772398 A team of researchers has developed a novel computational imaging system designed to address the challenges of real-time monitoring in ultrafast laser material processing. The new system, known as Dual-Path Snapshot Compressive Microscopy (DP-SCM), represents a significant advancement in the field, offering unprecedented capabilities for high-speed, high-resolution imaging. The team was led by Yuan Xin from Westlake University and Shi Liping from Xidian University. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-imaging-empowers-laser-material-snapshot.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:57:02 EDT news644083021 Using observations from a NASA suborbital rocket, an international team of scientists, for the first time, has successfully measured a planet-wide electric field thought to be as fundamental to Earth as its gravity and magnetic fields. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-scientists-sought-global-electric-field.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:47:04 EDT news644075222 Hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste are generated worldwide every year. Scientists are working tirelessly on new methods to recycle a large proportion of this waste into high-quality products and thus enable a genuine circular economy. However, current recycling practices fall short of this goal. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-chemical-plastics-recycling-ready.html Polymers Materials Science Wed, 28 Aug 2024 10:17:04 EDT news644059021 Governments, medical institutions and other bodies require accurate models on health-related matters in order to better organize their activities. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-underrated-impact-humidity-deaths.html Environment Wed, 21 Aug 2024 15:29:04 EDT news643472941 Good morning! Here are a few of this week's most interesting science stories to read while you're settling into the couch with your cup of General Foods International French Vanilla Cafe. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-citizen-scientists-fast.html Other Sat, 17 Aug 2024 09:00:02 EDT news643028349 Understanding the nature of consciousness is one of the hardest problems in science. Some scientists have suggested that quantum mechanics, and in particular quantum entanglement, is the key to unraveling the phenomenon. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-photon-entanglement-rapid-brain-consciousness.html General Physics Quantum Physics Fri, 16 Aug 2024 08:55:03 EDT news643017296 Mars has a notoriously inhospitable environment, with temperatures that fluctuate dramatically over the course of a Martian day and average minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Its surface is mostly covered in red dust, with terrain typified by craters, canyons, and volcanoes. And its atmosphere is extremely thin, comprising only about 1% of the density of Earth's. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-anemometer-tracks-speedier-precise-mars.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:00:01 EDT news642756421 Astronomers learn about the universe by pointing their telescopes to the sky. But what happens when a satellite comes between them and the cosmological objects they hope to study? https://phys.org/news/2024-08-astronomers-satellite-internet-sky.html Astronomy Mon, 12 Aug 2024 09:54:33 EDT news642675269 Like a supersonic jet being blasted with high-speed winds, Earth is constantly being bombarded by a stream of charged particles from the sun known as solar wind. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-massive-solar-disturbance-earth-magnetosphere.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:00:44 EDT news641811640 A pair of astrophysicists from Ciudad Universitaria and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, both in Spain, report evidence that comet A117uUD was put on its current "hyperbolic trajectory" when it passed close to Saturn two years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-comet-a117uud-hyperbolic-trajectory-saturn.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Fri, 02 Aug 2024 08:34:04 EDT news641806439 Mountain hikes are invigorating. Crisp air and clear views can refresh the soul, but thin air presents an additional challenge for high-altitude birds. "All else being equal, bird wings produce less lift in low density air," says Jonathan Rader from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, U.S., making it more difficult to remain aloft. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-large-turkey-vultures-aloft-thin.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 01 Aug 2024 18:00:01 EDT news641712895 How do we measure chaos and why would we want to? Together, Penn engineers Dani S. Bassett, J. Peter Skirkanich Professor in Bioengineering and in Electrical and Systems Engineering, and postdoctoral researcher Kieran Murphy leverage the power of machine learning to better understand chaotic systems, opening doors for new information analyses in both theoretical modeling and real-world scenarios. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-machine-chaos.html General Physics Tue, 30 Jul 2024 13:53:47 EDT news641566417 Typhoon Gaemi passed through Taiwan overnight and was headed towards eastern China on Thursday, leaving two dead as heavy rains and strong gusts continued to lash the island in its wake. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-typhoon-gaemi-weakens-taiwan-china.html Environment Thu, 25 Jul 2024 04:30:47 EDT news641100644 A team of engineers and zoologists affiliated with several institutions in Japan has developed a new way to study riblet denticles on shark skin. In their study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the group used their new technique to make estimates of shark swimming speeds among species. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-riblet-denticles-modern-great-white.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 24 Jul 2024 10:20:01 EDT news641033862 Taiwan closed schools, suspended the stock market, and declared a typhoon holiday Wednesday as Gaemi barreled towards the island, bringing torrential rains and whipping winds to its northeast. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-taiwan-braces-typhoon-gaemi-landfall.html Environment Wed, 24 Jul 2024 04:30:01 EDT news641013265