physics

SS-Raman spectroscopy employs a swept-source laser, a narrow-bandwidth bandpass filter (BPF), and a highly sensitive point photoreceiver for sample identification. These components enable the development of cost-effective portable Raman spectrometers. Credit: Journal of Biomedical Optics (2024). DOI: 10.1117/1.JBO.29.S2.S22703 In 1928, Indian physicist Sir C. V. Raman and his colleague K. S. Krishnan discovered that when … Read more

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Current levels of interest in learning a foreign language are unprecedented, and there have never been so many ways to learn. The internet has given rise to a wide variety of tools for listening, reading and writing in another language. It has also led to the emergence of platforms where students … Read more

This satellite image provided by NOAA shows clouds over North America on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Credit: NOAA via AP Some who hope to witness Monday’s total solar eclipse may see the sun obscured by clouds instead of by the moon. There’s still plenty of time for forecasts to change, but meteorologists predict that eclipse … Read more

An artist-generated image illustrating possible futures in policy and research due to human modifications of the atmospheric water cycle. Credit: Patrick Keys and Fabio Comin Human activity is changing the way water flows between the Earth and atmosphere in complex ways and with likely long-lasting consequences that are hard to picture. Land use change is … Read more

An example of a probate inventory from England in the late 17th century. This is the inventory of John Booth, a victualler (supplier of food and alcohol) from Macclesfield in the county of Cheshire, dated to 1697. Credit: Reproduced with the permission of Cheshire Archives & Local Studies. Britain was already well on its way … Read more

Credit: The Anatomical Record (2024). DOI: 10.1002/ar.25416 Mario Modesto Mata, a researcher in the Dental Anthropology Group at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), is the lead author of a paper published in The Anatomical Record, on the use of artificial neural networks to reconstruct the number of perikymata, which are … Read more

The Yangtze River. Credit: Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay The first study of toxic “forever chemicals” along the full length of Asia’s longest river, the Yangtze, has found 13 different types of PFAS, nearly half of them coming from textile treatments and food packaging. The study, led by a specialist in emerging contaminants at … Read more

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain After the introduction of the income tax in the United States, there has been a migration of higher income earners toward states with lower or no income tax, a new study reveals. This first-ever systematic analysis of 110 years of state income tax implementation throughout the United States also highlights the … Read more

Credit: Journal of the American Chemical Society (2024). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c14359 Scientists from the University of Oulu (Finland) and Texas A&M University (U.S.), have developed a new method to study how proteins interact with small ligand molecules, paving the way, for example, for faster and more efficient drug discovery. This interaction, known as protein–ligand interaction, is … Read more

Climate change is making cherry trees bloom sooner in Japan on average. Tourists and residents packed Tokyo’s top cherry blossom spots on Thursday to enjoy the full bloom that has arrived in the Japanese capital later than usual this year because of cold weather. The elegant dark branches bursting with pink and white flowers—known as … Read more