https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from National Science Foundation In a new study, a team of researchers suggests that 4 billion years ago, plate tectonics likely looked closer to what we experience today than previously thought. The team published its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-billion-years-plate-tectonics-closer.html Earth Sciences Thu, 26 Sep 2024 11:53:03 EDT news646570381 Researchers have developed a new way to see organs within a body by rendering overlying tissues transparent to visible light. The counterintuitive process—a topical application of food-safe dye—was reversible in tests with animal subjects, and may ultimately apply to a wide range of medical diagnostics, from locating injuries to monitoring digestive disorders to identifying cancers. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-window-body-technique-skin-invisible.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 05 Sep 2024 14:00:01 EDT news644751351 Researchers at Columbia University's Department of Earth and Environment Science have discovered new implications for the Arctic carbon cycle in the face of climate change. Their paper, published in Communications Biology, shows how differing plant coverage levels affect the region's carbon sink-to-source transition threshold. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-coverage-affecting-arctic-carbon.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 04 Sep 2024 14:53:51 EDT news644680429 Once upon a time, the Teton Range, a 40-mile-long mountain range in the northern Rocky Mountains, may have extended much longer than it does now. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-mountains-hungry-volcano-evolution-teton.html Earth Sciences Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:15:02 EDT news643475701 Researchers have recently released a study in Ecology and Evolution outlining their in-depth analysis of historic baleen plates, the comb structures that are used by some species of whales to filter food, from Southern Hemisphere blue and fin whales. The research was conducted using samples collected in the late 1940s that were recently rediscovered in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-baleen-plates-insight-life-history.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 17 Jul 2024 17:28:02 EDT news640456081 In a significant step towards resilient, sustainable energy, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) are undertaking an initiative to enhance the performance and longevity of grid transformers, a critical component of the electric grid. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-07-simulations-resilient-sustainable-electric-grid.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 03 Jul 2024 16:10:01 EDT news639241194 A wide range of innovative products, from biomedical implants to aerospace composites, come from research in materials informatics (MI)—the combination of machine learning, artificial intelligence and computational methodologies with materials science. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-collaborative-approaches-materials-informatics-workforce.html Education Tue, 18 Jun 2024 12:45:25 EDT news637933523 The French Polynesian island Moorea is the most beautiful isle in the world, some say. Its lagoons are surrounded by reefs dominated by Porites corals. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-coral-reef-decline-due.html Ecology Fri, 14 Jun 2024 14:08:02 EDT news637592881 New data on over 1,500 trees across nearly 1,000 sites shows that an existing theory of how individuals within a species will respond to a changing climate might not be true. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-widely-climate-theory-doesnt-true.html Ecology Tue, 04 Jun 2024 16:05:45 EDT news636735943 As life on Earth rapidly expanded a little over 500 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion, Earth had tectonic plates slowly crashing into each other, building mountains and starting a series of unfortunate events that led to a mass extinction. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-mountain-linked-major-extinction-event.html Earth Sciences Fri, 31 May 2024 12:52:58 EDT news636378776 Working with nearly 3,000 observations across almost 1,500 host-parasite combinations, researchers at Notre Dame University have found that biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, introduced species, and climate change, but not urbanization, are driving increases in infectious disease risk. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-big-disease.html Ecology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 08 May 2024 13:21:41 EDT news634393292 Glittering threads of stars around the Milky Way may hold answers to one of our biggest questions about the universe: what is dark matter? With images taken through six different color filters mounted to the largest camera ever built for astronomy and astrophysics, Vera C. Rubin Observatory's upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time will reveal never-before-seen stellar streams around the Milky Way—and the telltale effects of their interactions with dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-rubin-observatory-reveal-dark-ghostly.html Astronomy Mon, 15 Apr 2024 17:08:07 EDT news632419681 Using archival data from the Gemini North telescope, a team of astronomers has measured the heaviest pair of supermassive black holes ever found. The merging of two supermassive black holes is a phenomenon that has long been predicted, though never observed. This massive pair gives clues as to why such an event seems so unlikely in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-astronomers-heaviest-black-hole-pair.html Astronomy Thu, 29 Feb 2024 15:26:03 EST news628442761 In less time than it will take you to read this article, an artificial intelligence-driven system was able to autonomously learn about certain Nobel Prize-winning chemical reactions and design a successful laboratory procedure to make them. The AI did all that in just a few minutes—and nailed it on the first try. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-coscientist-ai-lab-partner-succeeds.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 20 Dec 2023 11:00:01 EST news622279944 Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope, one-half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF's NOIRLab, have captured the eroding remains of more than 100 dwarf galaxies as they transition into ultra-compact dwarf galaxies, objects with masses much greater than star clusters yet much smaller than dwarf galaxies. These findings confirm that many ultra-compact dwarf galaxies are likely the fossil remains of normal dwarf galaxies that have been stripped of their outer layers. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-dwarf-galaxies-stars-link-formation.html Astronomy Wed, 08 Nov 2023 13:54:03 EST news618674041 Biologists at The University of Texas at Arlington have published new findings from a study to learn how different coral species respond to a devastating disease and which species are more vulnerable. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-scientists-clues-devastating-coral-disease.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 05 Jul 2023 12:35:12 EDT news607779307 On 9 October 2022 a flash of high-intensity gamma rays was detected by NASA's Swift satellite coming from a galaxy 1.9 billion light-years away. Dubbed the "BOAT"—the "brightest of all time"—GRB 221009A was so exceptionally powerful that it actually sent shockwaves through Earth's ionosphere, the outer layer of our planet's atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-brightest-gamma-ray-ordinary-supernova.html Astronomy Fri, 16 Jun 2023 09:29:46 EDT news606126582 Algae that commonly grow on snow in the Pacific Northwest have been ignored in melt models, but their presence significantly increases snowmelt compared with clean, white snow, according to a study conducted on Mount Baker in the North Cascades, Washington. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-algae-blooms-snowmelt-pacific-northwest.html Environment Thu, 15 Jun 2023 17:17:03 EDT news606068221 The Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF's NOIRLab, has returned from a seven-month hiatus literally with a bang, as it has captured the spectacular aftermath of a supernova, a massive star that exploded in the large, face-on, spiral Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101). The supernova, named SN 2023ixf (lower left), was discovered on May 19 by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-gemini-north-sky-dazzling-image.html Astronomy Wed, 07 Jun 2023 16:06:04 EDT news605372762 A study published in Scientific Reports shows that catastrophic volcanic mudflows, known as lahars, can be effectively monitored with infrasound remote sensing technology. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-inaudible-volcanic-mudflows.html Earth Sciences Wed, 17 May 2023 10:51:03 EDT news603539462 The image of the tattered shell of the first recorded supernova was captured by the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, DECam. The camera is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation's Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a program of NSF's NOIRLab. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-dark-energy-camera-captures-documented.html Astronomy Wed, 03 May 2023 12:48:35 EDT news602336913 Earth's magnetic field does more than keep everyone's compass needles pointed in the same direction. It also helps preserve Earth's sliver of life-sustaining atmosphere by deflecting high energy particles and plasma regularly blasted out of the sun. Researchers have now identified a prospective Earth-sized planet in another solar system as a prime candidate for also having a magnetic field—YZ Ceti b, a rocky planet orbiting a star about 12 light-years away from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-earth-like-exoplanets-magnetic-fields-far-off.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:24:07 EDT news599739841 People have inhabited the Andes mountains of South America for more than 9,000 years, adapting to the scarce oxygen available at high altitudes, along with cold temperatures and intense ultraviolet radiation. A new genomic study published in the journal iScience suggests that Indigenous populations in present-day Ecuador also adapted to the tuberculosis bacterium, thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-genomic-reveals-tuberculosis-ancient-andeans.html Genetics Wed, 29 Mar 2023 13:01:53 EDT news599313710 On March 22, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a series of five reports authored by federal agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation, outlining bold research and development goals for the U.S. bioeconomy. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-outline-bold-goals-bioeconomy.html Biotechnology Thu, 23 Mar 2023 16:16:16 EDT news598806974 On March 13th, 2023, astronomers around the world will mark the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world's largest radio telescope. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-decade-unveiling-hidden-universe-alma.html Astronomy Mon, 13 Mar 2023 15:38:52 EDT news597940729 The tattered shell of the first-ever historically recorded supernova was captured by the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, which is mounted on the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. RCW 86's ring of debris is all that remains of a white-dwarf star that exploded more than 1800 years ago, when it was recorded by Chinese stargazers as a 'guest star.' https://phys.org/news/2023-03-supernova-year-rare-view-entirety.html Astronomy Wed, 01 Mar 2023 13:00:01 EST news596888169 As some species of animals follow their instinct to migrate, some become disoriented by the glow from urban areas and wander off route, where far too many meet their fates. A recent study found evidence of the effects of light pollution on migrating animals, as well as areas where we're still in the dark in our understanding. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-reveals-pollution-migrating-animals.html Ecology Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:40:01 EST news594477067 Today, the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, or NCSES—part of the U.S. National Science Foundation—released Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 2023, the federal government's latest and most complete analysis of diversity trends in STEM employment and education. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-diversity-trends-stem-workforce.html Economics & Business Education Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:45:17 EST news594305114 Because breathing is generally involuntary, we sometimes forget how complicated it is. But biologists are gaining new insight into the intricate process in plants, with big implications for how to feed the world in the future. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-scientists-mechanism-mouths.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 07 Dec 2022 14:00:05 EST news589626720 Corals are especially vulnerable to damage from ocean acidification, and rising CO2 levels jeopardize the future of coral reefs globally. However, a new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Queensland report that certain corals may do better than others at withstanding ocean acidification. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-coral-samples-australia-great-barrier.html Ecology Tue, 25 Oct 2022 10:35:28 EDT news585912925