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Categories: Paleontology: General, Physics: Quantum Physics
Published More than a meteorite: New clues about the demise of dinosaurs



What wiped out the dinosaurs? A meteorite plummeting to Earth is only part of the story, a new study suggests. Climate change triggered by massive volcanic eruptions may have ultimately set the stage for the dinosaur extinction, challenging the traditional narrative that a meteorite alone delivered the final blow to the ancient giants.
Published Earliest-known fossil mosquito suggests males were bloodsuckers too



Researchers have found the earliest-known fossil mosquito in Lower Cretaceous amber from Lebanon. What's more, the well-preserved insects are two males of the same species with piercing mouthparts, suggesting they likely sucked blood. That's noteworthy because, among modern-day mosquitoes, only females are hematophagous, meaning that they use piercing mouthparts to feed on the blood of people and other animals.
Published Crocodile family tree mapped: New light shed on croc evolution



Around 250 million years ago, 700 species of reptiles closely related to the modern-day crocodile roamed the earth, now new research reveals how a complex interplay between climate change, species competition and habitat can help explain why just 23 species of crocodile survive today.
Published Researchers show an old law still holds for quirky quantum materials



Long before researchers discovered the electron and its role in generating electrical current, they knew about electricity and were exploring its potential. One thing they learned early on was that metals were great conductors of both electricity and heat. And in 1853, two scientists showed that those two admirable properties of metals were somehow related: At any given temperature, the ratio of electronic conductivity to thermal conductivity was roughly the same in any metal they tested. This so-called Wiedemann-Franz law has held ever since -- except in quantum materials. Now, a theoretical argument put forth by physicists suggests that the law should, in fact, approximately hold for one type of quantum material, the cuprate superconductors.
Published Unknown animals were leaving bird-like footprints in Late Triassic Southern Africa



Ancient animals were walking around on bird-like feet over 210 million years ago, according to a new study.
Published What was thought of as noise, points to new type of ultrafast magnetic switching



Researchers discover a new type of ultrafast magnetic switching by investigating fluctuations that normally tend to interfere with experiments as noise.
Published Landscape dynamics determine the evolution of biodiversity on Earth



A landmark study into the geological timescale distribution of sediment and nutrients over 500 million years shows that species biodiversity on Earth is driven by landscape dynamics.
Published How shifting climates may have shaped early elephants' trunks



Researchers have provided new insights into how ancestral elephants developed their dextrous trunks. A study of the evolution of longirostrine gomphotheres, an ancestor of the modern day elephant, suggests moving into open-land grazing helped develop their coiling and grasping trunks.
Published Nextgen computing: Hard-to-move quasiparticles glide up pyramid edges



A new kind of 'wire' for moving excitons could help enable a new class of devices, perhaps including room temperature quantum computers.
Published Compact accelerator technology achieves major energy milestone



Researchers have demonstrated a compact particle accelerator less than 20 meters long that produces an electron beam with an energy of 10 billion electron volts (10 GeV). There are only two other accelerators currently operating in the U.S. that can reach such high electron energies, but both are approximately 3 kilometers long. This type of accelerator is called a wakefield laser accelerator.
Published New way of searching for dark matter



Wondering whether whether Dark Matter particles actually are produced inside a jet of standard model particles, led researchers to explore a new detector signature known as semi-visible jets, which scientists never looked at before.
Published 'Strange metal' is strangely quiet in noise experiment



Experiments have provided the first direct evidence that electricity seems to flow through 'strange metals' in an unusual liquid-like form.
Published Earliest known European common hippopotamus fossil reveals their Middle Pleistocene dispersal



Modern hippos first dispersed in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, according to a new study.
Published First experimental evidence of hopfions in crystals opens up new dimension for future technology



Hopfions, magnetic spin structures predicted decades ago, have become a hot and challenging research topic in recent years. New findings open up new fields in experimental physics: identifying other crystals in which hopfions are stable, studying how hopfions interact with electric and spin currents, hopfion dynamics, and more.
Published Trilobites rise from the ashes to reveal ancient map



Ten newly discovered species of trilobites, hidden for 490 million years in a little-studied part of Thailand, could be the missing pieces in an intricate puzzle of ancient world geography.
Published Research reveals rare metal could offer revolutionary switch for future quantum devices



Quantum scientists have discovered a rare phenomenon that could hold the key to creating a 'perfect switch' in quantum devices which flips between being an insulator and superconductor.
Published Deep dive on sea level rise: New modelling gives better predictions on Antarctic ice sheet melt



Using historical records from around Australia, an international team of researchers have put forward the most accurate prediction to date of past Antarctic ice sheet melt, providing a more realistic forecast of future sea level rise. The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest block of ice on earth, containing over 30 million cubic kilometers of water. Hence, its melting could have a devasting impact on future sea levels. To find out just how big that impact might be, the research team turned to the past.
Published Three-pronged approach discerns qualities of quantum spin liquids



In 1973, physicist Phil Anderson hypothesized that the quantum spin liquid, or QSL, state existed on some triangular lattices, but he lacked the tools to delve deeper. Fifty years later, a team has confirmed the presence of QSL behavior in a new material with this structure, KYbSe2.
Published Like the phoenix, Australia's giant birds of prey rise again from limestone caves



Australia's only vulture, and a fearsome extinct eagle, are among the earliest recorded birds of prey from the Pleistocene period more than 50,000 years ago -- and now researchers are bringing them to 'life' again. Along with new scientific information, a bold new pictorial reconstruction of a newly named eagle and the only known Australian vulture will be unveiled at the World Heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves in South Australia's Limestone Coast this month.
Published Birds set foot near South Pole in Early Cretaceous, Australian tracks show



The discovery of 27 avian footprints on the southern Australia coast -- dating back to the Early Cretaceous when Australia was still connected to Antarctica -- opens another window onto early avian evolution and possible migratory behavior.