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A cosmological simulation study by researchers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has systematically revealed, for the first time, how the interaction between dark matter and dark energy significantly influences the rotation and shape alignment of dark matter halos in the universe.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
What if a surface could instantly switch from sticky to slippery at the push of a button? By using electricity to control how ions and water structure at the solid liquid interface of self-assembled monolayers of aromatic molecules, researchers at National Taiwan University have created a molecular-scale adhesion switch that turns attraction on and off.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
When describing collective properties of macroscopic physical systems, microscopic fluctuations are typically averaged out, leaving a description of the typical behavior of the systems. While this simplification has its advantages, it fails to capture the important role of fluctuations that can often influence the dynamics in dramatic manners, as the extreme examples of catastrophic events such as volcanic eruptions and financial market collapse reveal.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
Researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Riverside, have investigated how the loss of forest soil gaseous nitrogen (NO, N2O, and N2) is affected by climate warming, highlighting the critical role of these gases in regulating forest nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
A new study led by the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has detected quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) signals in an unusual gamma-ray burst (GRB) event. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
Scientists have captured an exceptionally rare, high-resolution view of an active region that produced two powerful X-class solar flares—an achievement rarely possible from Earth. Using the GREGOR solar telescope in Tenerife, researchers recorded the explosive activity of the sun's most energetic sunspot group of 2025, revealing twisted magnetic structures and the early stages of flare ignition with unprecedented detail. The flares triggered fast coronal mass ejections that lit up Earth's skies with vivid auroras in the nights that followed.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
This fall, when Adam Leontowich headed to southeast Saskatchewan to hunt whitetailed deer and ruffed grouse, he once again opted for lead-free ammunition—cartridges with copper bullets for his .308 rifle and shells with steel pellets for his 12-gauge shotgun. It's the fourth hunting season that he's done so.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
A new paper published in Nature Communications could put scientists on the path to understanding one of the wildest, hottest, and most densely packed places in the universe: a neutron star.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
Flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius), the world's largest skate species measuring over two meters in length, live hidden on the rugged seabed around Scotland. Their life in the darkness, deep underwater, makes it extremely difficult to find out more about their whereabouts and movements. However, there is considerable interest in these animals. As predatory fish at the top of the marine food web, they play a very important role in marine habitats and the balance of marine ecosystems.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is often portrayed in popular culture as an enigma. The rationale is clear: The tiny, remote island in the Pacific features nearly 1,000 enormous statues—the moai. The magnitude and number of these monuments defy easy explanation.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
A team of researchers at IOCB Prague headed by Dr. Tomáš Slanina has developed a new method for labeling molecules with fluorescent dyes that surpasses existing approaches in both precision and stability. The new fluorescent label remains covalently bonded to its target molecule and does not fall apart even under demanding conditions inside living cells. This allows scientists to track labeled molecules over long periods with high reliability—an advantage for research in biology, chemistry, and medicine.

Recharge day

Nov. 29th, 2025 03:57 am
tyger: Eraqus' Avatar Kingdom chibi. Text: Eraqus (Master Eraqus - chibi)
[personal profile] tyger

Yeah I uh. I slept a LOT of today. I really needed it, not gonna lie.

Sushi is doing much better! He's figured out how to eat AND sleep in his cone, phew!!! And hasn't got out of it again, double phew!

I mainly just read stuff and played some games, when I was awake. Chill day, yes. Required. (Tomorrow I'm going to have to figure out what the fuck is up with my webserver stuff, because it's still not back up, which is going to be. Annoying. Because shit always is. Siiiiigh.)

I did forget that I moved another chest of drawers yesterday! So that's a thing. We haven't heard from the window people though, so it won't be starting on Monday. Hopefully they'll give us SOME notice? And double hopefully it'll be soon? It's very inconvenient to live like this.

[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
Despite the ubiquity of cats in modern homes, we still don't know many details about the timing and routes of early cat domestication and dispersal into Europe and beyond, aside from the common association of cats with ancient Egyptian culture.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
Stars usually form in clusters, which can also form in pairs or groups. Binary clusters (BCs) are defined as pairs of open clusters closely associated both in position and kinematics. They provide insight into how stars form within giant molecular clouds, making them important indicators of star formation and cluster evolution.
[syndicated profile] phys_breaking_feed
There are fewer ice nuclei in the air above the large ice surfaces of Antarctica than anywhere else in the world. This is the conclusion reached by an international research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) based on filter measurements of cloud particles at three locations in Antarctica. These are the first of their kind on the continent. The data fills a knowledge gap and could explain the large proportion of supercooled liquid water in the clouds of the southern polar region.

savanna

Nov. 28th, 2025 09:07 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
savanna or savannah (suh-VAN-uh) - n., a tropical or subtropical grassland with scattered trees.


grassland with scattered trees
Thanks, WikiMedia!

These occur where the rainfall is seasonal, so that the plants need to be drought resistant -- this causes the trees to be far enough apart that the canopy doesn't touch, allowing grasses to cover the ground. The earlier form was zavana, from Spanish zavana, which in turn had the earlier form çavana, from Taíno zabana.


And because I have an excess word, a bonus: tobacco (tuh-BAK-oh), any of several plants of genus Nicotiana of the nightshade family, especially N. tabacum, cultivated for its leaves which are prepared for use in smoking or chewing or as snuff. From Spanish tabaco, which has an iffy etymology, as it could be from an Arawakan or Carib language, but one Spanish chronicler recorded Taíno tabago, meaning either a tube for smoking tabacco or a roll of tabacco leaves i.e. a cigar; if this is correct, the consonant shift was probably influenced by atabaca/altabaca, a Mediterranean plant with aromatic leaves widely used in traditional medicine, named from Arabic al-ṭubbāq.


And that wraps up this theme of words from the Caribbean language Taíno. That's the late group of words from indigenous languages of the Americas that I have, but I'm not quite done with this series -- but first a week of random lexicography.

---L.

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