https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Kiel have provided experimental evidence showing that reducing plant species diversity alters plant chemical signals across whole communities and within individual plants. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-diversity-chemical-communication-ecosystems.html Ecology Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:42:23 EST news687778921 Two new studies show how climate influences behavior, communication, and genome evolution—driving adaptation in a long-running conflict. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-climate-arms-ants-social-parasites.html Evolution Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:03:30 EST news685022581 Up to 30% of life, by weight, is underground. Seismic activity may renew the energy supply for subterranean ecosystems. Published in PNAS Nexus, Eric Boyd and colleagues chronicled the ecological changes in subsurface microbial communities that took place after a swarm of small earthquakes rattled the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field in 2021. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-earthquakes-yellowstone-subterranean-ecosystems.html Earth Sciences Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:31:32 EST news683289088 A new dataset from the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) is now publicly available, opening the door for scientists worldwide to make discoveries in one of the richest molecular clouds in our galaxy, TMC-1. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-astronomers-largest-molecular-survey-date.html Astronomy Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:42:15 EDT news680445719 In approximately 5 billion years, the sun will deplete its hydrogen fuel and collapse under its own gravity, becoming a white dwarf. Though Earth-sized, this dense remnant will retain much of the sun's gravitational influence. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-billion-year-white-dwarf-consuming.html Astronomy Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:31:33 EDT news680358668 Arsenic is a natural component of Earth's crust and highly toxic in its inorganic form. The element is a cause of a global public health crisis, as it is present in groundwater and the drinking water consumed daily by millions of people in countries such as Bangladesh, China, India, Mexico and Pakistan. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-chemical-treatment-deadly-arsenic-contaminant.html Materials Science Mon, 20 Oct 2025 10:01:52 EDT news680173294 An international research team led by the University of British Columbia has proposed the first comprehensive global framework for regulating tire additives, linked to mass fish die-offs and detected in humans. These chemicals are a ubiquitous yet largely unregulated source of environmental contamination, affecting ecosystems and human health worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-global-framework-tackling-toxic-pollution.html Environment Tue, 29 Jul 2025 16:18:57 EDT news673024733 Southwest Research Institute has collaborated with Yale University to summarize the scientific community's notable progress in advancing the understanding of the formation and evolution of the inner rocky planets, the so-called terrestrial planets. Their paper focuses on late accretion's role in the long-term evolution of terrestrial planets, including their distinct geophysical and chemical properties as well as their potential habitability. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-exploring-late-accretion-role-terrestrial.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Jun 2025 16:00:01 EDT news669480731 Nearly a third of people in the U.S. have been exposed to unregulated contaminants in their drinking water that could impact their health, according to a new analysis by scientists at Silent Spring Institute. What's more, Hispanic and Black residents are more likely than other groups to have unsafe levels of contaminants in their drinking water and are more likely to live near pollution sources. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-million-residents-exposed-unregulated-contaminants.html Environment Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:10:01 EST news656066521 In recent years, two cutting-edge technologies have rapidly gained momentum: quantum entangled light sources and ultrafast stimulated Raman spectroscopy. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-high-camera-molecules-entangled-photons.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 17 Jul 2024 12:38:19 EDT news640438693 Plants have long been known to release chemicals to respond to stress and relay information to their neighbors. A team of scientists from Bigelow Laboratory have shown that glaucophytes, a small group of single-celled algae distantly related to plants, appear to have the same penchant for chemical communication. This suggests that the ability to use chemical cues in this way may not be unique to complex life as once thought, but rather evolved further back on the tree of life. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-illuminates-cues-algae-environment.html Ecology Tue, 02 Jul 2024 12:24:03 EDT news639141841 In the field of organic chemistry, scientists are always looking out for new types of reactions to unlock synthesis routes for challenging compounds. Most of the progress that we have witnessed in pharmaceutics and agrochemicals over the past few decades can be traced back to the discovery of novel practical reaction pathways. Such pathways often involve the selective replacement of a functional group with another, the formation of aromatic rings, or the strategic cleaving of parts of a molecule. But what about the rearrangement of existing functional groups within a molecule? https://phys.org/news/2024-04-benzofuran-synthesis-method-enables-complex.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 16 Apr 2024 15:30:28 EDT news632500225 Insect pheromones are odor molecules used for chemical communication within a species. Sex pheromones play a crucial role in the mating of many insects. Species-specific odors attract males and females of the same species. At the same time, they maintain the natural boundaries between species. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-oxidant-pollutant-ozone-barriers-fly.html Ecology Thu, 11 Apr 2024 05:00:02 EDT news631968301 A group of synthetic bacteria that can efficiently turn plastic waste into useful chemicals is presented in Nature Communications. These bacteria could help to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution and produce valuable chemicals and products—used in adhesives, insulators, and to make nylon, for example. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-genetically-plastic-eating-bacteria-life.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 27 Sep 2023 09:38:03 EDT news615026281 Two molecular languages at the origin of life have been successfully recreated and mathematically validated, thanks to pioneering work by Canadian scientists at Université de Montréal. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-decoding-molecules-nanotechnologies.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 15 Aug 2023 12:00:02 EDT news611299046 Understanding the ionosphere high in the Earth's atmosphere is important due to its effects on communications systems, satellites and crucial chemical features including the ozone layer. New insights into the activity of high energy electrons have come from a simulation study led by geophysicist Yuto Katoh at Tohoku University, reported in the journal Earth, Planets and Space. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-geomagnetic-field-earth-electron-showers.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 03 Aug 2023 08:31:47 EDT news610270304 Scent marking is a communication strategy for many mammals. These scent marks provide key information about the animals that leave them, with those animals that detect them often changing their behavior in response to them. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-chemical-communication-female-rats-complex.html Plants & Animals Wed, 28 Jun 2023 09:59:28 EDT news607165160 A team of chemical engineering researchers has developed a self-driven lab that is capable of identifying and optimizing new complex multistep reaction routes for the synthesis of advanced functional materials and molecules. In a proof-of-concept demonstration, the system found a more efficient way to produce high-quality semiconductor nanocrystals that are used in optical and photonic devices. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-self-driven-laboratory-chemical-discovery.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 15 Mar 2023 09:50:03 EDT news598092601 Catalina Island, located 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, once collected Hollywood royalty, smugglers and silver miners. Now, it collects trash. Its windward-facing harbor is a collection point of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous spread of microplastics with accumulated larger debris that stretches more 1.6 million square kilometers. It is stark evidence of the impact of ever-increasing production of plastics globally, which is estimated to reach a volume of 1.1 billion tons annually by 2040. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-windfall-plastic-trash-pharmaceuticals.html Materials Science Mon, 28 Nov 2022 17:05:57 EST news588877551 A new method to anchor single atoms of platinum-group metals on nanometer-sized islands allows for efficiently using these expensive metals as catalysts for a wide variety of applications. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-nano-sized-islands-possibilities-application-single-atom.html Nanophysics Wed, 26 Oct 2022 11:00:08 EDT news585989127 Oregon State University scientists are decoding how cells communicate and collectively respond to chemical stimuli in the extracellular environment, knowledge that's critical to understanding physiological processes and blocking disease mechanisms. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-cells-stimuli-insight-disease-mechanisms.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 12 Oct 2022 04:52:32 EDT news584769147 The complexity of life on Earth was derived from simplicity: From the first protocells to the growth of any organism, individual cells aggregate into basic clumps and then form more complex structures. The earliest cells lacked complicated biochemical machinery; to evolve into multicellular organisms, simple mechanisms were necessary to produce chemical signals that prompted the cells to both move and form colonies. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-chemo-mechanical-oscillations-mimic-protocell-behavior.html Biochemistry Wed, 05 Oct 2022 17:01:55 EDT news584208105 Researchers from the University of York have discovered why reducing particle pollution is actually increasing surface ozone pollution in some emerging economies, negatively impacting health, ecosystems and agriculture. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-reveals-tackling-particle-pollution-photochemical.html Earth Sciences Thu, 07 Jul 2022 11:00:09 EDT news576401938 Many plastics that are labeled as biodegradable are only compostable under industrial conditions, but scientists at the University of Bath have now found a way to make plastics break down using only UV light. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-scientists-plastic-degradable-uv.html Polymers Tue, 24 May 2022 11:06:58 EDT news572609213 A team led by current and former Carnegie plant biologists has undertaken the largest ever functional genomic study of a photosynthetic organism. Their work, published in Nature Genetics, could inform strategies for improving agricultural yields and mitigating climate change. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-algae-secrets-photosynthesis.html Plants & Animals Mon, 09 May 2022 10:00:01 EDT news571307842 In recent years, messenger RNA, DNA's close cousin in life's complex process of going from a string of genetic blueprints to fully functioning organism, has received intense scrutiny in the scientific and medical community for the role it can play in creating next-generation vaccines, cancer treatments, and stem cell therapies addressing a myriad of previously incurable diseases. The previously obscure topic of mRNA became a nearly universal household utterance following the rush to discover a type of vaccine that could prevent COVID-19 related fatalities. The scientific community's herculean effort did result in Pfizer's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, and products with similar mechanisms of action closely follow from other U.S. and global pharmaceutical companies. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-scientists-chemical-markers-future-therapeutic.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 26 Apr 2022 10:29:49 EDT news570187786 According to a paper recently published in Chemical Communications, Prof. Meng Guowen's group from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed an efficient electrocatalytic material to reduce nitrate in water to nitrogen gas, providing a promising way to degrade nitrogen concentration in water. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-efficient-electrocatalytic-reduction-nitrate-nitrogen.html Materials Science Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:20:07 EDT news567940804 Cells communicate with one another in the language of chemistry, but those from different kingdoms, such as bacteria and yeast, speak dialects virtually unintelligible to the other. By learning how microbes "talk," researchers hope to one day manipulate their behavior to protect against disease, for example. Efforts like this are in their infancy, but in a new study in ACS' Nano Letters, researchers describe the first system that enables two unrelated organisms to communicate. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-bacteria-yeast-nanotranslator.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 16 Mar 2022 09:45:33 EDT news566642730 A team of researchers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), working with colleagues from the Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH and North Carolina State University has conducted a review of the research done on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS)-containing products and has found that very little is known about their impact on either the environment or human health. They have published a Review piece in the journal Science outlining their work, their findings and what they believe needs to happen regarding the use of the chemicals in products moving forward. https://phys.org/news/2022-02-impact-pfas-containing-products-environment.html Environment Fri, 04 Feb 2022 09:40:01 EST news563189045 Quick bursts of laser light, lasting less than a trillionth of a second, are used in a range of applications today. These ultrashort laser pulses have allowed scientists to observe chemical reactions in real-time, image delicate biological samples, build precise nanostructures, and send long-distance, high-bitrate optical communications. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-simple-silicon-coating-long-standing-optical.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:15:42 EST news555855339