Great ape genetic diversity catalog frames primate evolution, future...
A model of great ape history over the past 15 million years has been fashioned through the study of genetic variation in a large panel of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. The catalog of...
View ArticleFirst Firefox smartphone launches in Spain
The world's first consumer sales of a smartphone powered by the Firefox operating system have launched in Spain.
View ArticleA chimp-pig hybrid origin for humans?
(Phys.org) —These days, getting a Ph.D. is probably the last thing you want to do if you are out to revolutionize the world. If, however, what you propose is an idea, rather than a technology, it can...
View ArticleStudy shows hawkmoths use ultrasound to combat bats (w/ Video)
For years, pilots flying into combat have jammed enemy radar to get the drop on their opponents. It turns out that moths can do it, too.
View ArticleTweet timing tells bots, people and companies apart
Tweet timing can differentiate individual, corporate and bot-controlled Twitter accounts independent of the language or content of a tweet, according to research published July 3 in the open access...
View ArticleAnimal master-burglars: Cockatoos 'pick' puzzle box locks (w/ Video)
A species of Indonesian parrot can solve complex mechanical problems that involve undoing a series of locks one after another, revealing new depths to physical intelligence in birds.
View ArticleStudy of mitochondrial DNA ties ancient remains to living descendants
Researchers report that they have found a direct genetic link between the remains of Native Americans who lived thousands of years ago and their living descendants. The team used mitochondrial DNA,...
View ArticleAntifreeze, cheap materials may lead to low-cost solar energy
A process combining some comparatively cheap materials and the same antifreeze that keeps an automobile radiator from freezing in cold weather may be the key to making solar cells that cost less and...
View ArticleArchaeologists unearth carved head of Roman god in ancient rubbish dump
An 1,800-year-old carved stone head of what is believed to be a Roman god has been unearthed in an ancient rubbish dump.
View ArticleNew insights concerning the early bombardment history on Mercury
(Phys.org) —The surface of Mercury is rather different from those of well-known rocky bodies like the Moon and Mars. Early images from the Mariner 10 spacecraft unveiled a planet covered by smooth...
View ArticleWhite dwarf star throws light on possible variability of a constant of Nature
An international team led by the University of New South Wales has studied a distant star where gravity is more than 30,000 times greater than on Earth to test its controversial theory that one of the...
View ArticleDid Andromeda crash into the Milky Way 10 billion years ago?
(Phys.org) —For many years scientists have believed that our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is set to crash into its larger neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy, in about 3 billion years' time and that this will be...
View ArticleMicrogravity memory-test for granular materials suggests landing on asteroids...
(Phys.org) —Results from a microgravity experiment suggest that the rubble and dust covering asteroids and comets can feel changes in force-chains between particles over much larger distances than on...
View ArticleIndiana University student offers Harlan programming language for GPUs
(Phys.org) —A doctoral candidate in computer science has come up with a programming language, Harlan, that can leverage the computing power of a GPU. His contribution may turn a corner in working with...
View ArticlePhysicists cast new light on spin-bowling
(Phys.org) —As the Ashes series gets underway next week, a pair of brothers from Australia have been exploring the physics behind the spin of a cricket ball.
View ArticleStudy clarifies role of bacteria in pandemic diseases
(Phys.org) —Wolbachia are intracellular bacteria that infect invertebrates at pandemic levels, including insects that cause such devastating diseases as Dengue fever, West Nile virus, and malaria....
View ArticleAutonomous rover drills underground in the Atacama
A rover named Zoë recently traveled the Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest place on Earth and a landscape that has much in common with the harsh terrain of Mars. From the unrelenting UV radiation, to...
View ArticleThriving tundra bushes add fuel to Northern thaw
(Phys.org) —Carbon-gobbling plants are normally allies in the fight to slow climate change, but in the frozen north, the effects of thriving vegetation may actually push temperatures higher. In a...
View ArticleResearch that holds water
(Phys.org) —It's squishy, synthetic, flexible, mostly water and almost as tough as rubber. No, it's not "flubber"—it's a hydrogel, and now scientists at The University of Akron are exploring new...
View ArticleFruit fly midguts provide human abdomen acumen
(Phys.org) —Nicolas Buchon, associate professor of entomology, is giving the fruit fly research community a lot to digest: a detailed molecular and anatomical atlas of the fruit fly digestive tract....
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