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. Nearly 3.8 billion people could face extreme heat by 2050 and while tropical countries will bear the brunt cooler regions will also need to adapt, scientists said Monday. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-world-ready-extreme-scientists.html Environment Mon, 26 Jan 2026 13:50:04 EST news688657642 With growing concerns over fossil fuel depletion and the environmental impacts of petrochemical production, scientists are actively exploring renewable strategies to produce essential industrial chemicals. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-chemobiological-platform-enables-renewable-conversion.html Biochemistry Mon, 13 Oct 2025 12:42:04 EDT news679578121 A pivot from fossil fuels to clean energy technologies by 2060 would improve energy security and reduce trade risks for most nations, according to a study in Nature Climate Change. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-decarbonization-energy-countries.html Environment Wed, 09 Apr 2025 09:33:04 EDT news663409981 New research shows how the Eurasian common shrew (Sorex araneus) changes its brain and bodily size throughout the year. The study, published online in eLife, reveals how changes in gene expression enable these small mammals to shrink their brain in winter and regrow it in spring, defying the typical mammalian pattern where organ size does not change. Their findings offer genetic clues to neurological and metabolic health in mammals. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-gene-shifts-shrew-brain-size.html Evolution Thu, 21 Nov 2024 13:55:04 EST news651419701 EPFL researchers have published a programmable framework that overcomes a key computational bottleneck of optics-based artificial intelligence systems. In a series of image classification experiments, they used scattered light from a low-power laser to perform accurate, scalable computations using a fraction of the energy of electronics. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-energy-efficient-optical-neural-networks.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 06 Aug 2024 08:13:31 EDT news642150807 Imagine if your dead laptop or phone could charge in a minute or if an electric car could be fully powered in 10 minutes. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-laptop-minute-supercapacitors-clues.html Condensed Matter Sat, 25 May 2024 05:30:25 EDT news635833819 Over the past decades, environmental scientists and engineers have been trying to devise effective solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. This has led to the creation of various energy models, frameworks that can be used to investigate emission mitigation scenarios in the hope of meeting the goals outlined by the Paris Agreement. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-fingerprints-energy-exploring-emission-mitigation.html Earth Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 11:50:01 EST news620560643 Our body's fat metabolism plays a vital role in energy production in our body. A research team at the University of Basel, Switzerland, has discovered a molecular switch that regulates lipid metabolism in our cells. This switch controls the storage or conversion of lipids into energy. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-molecular-lipid-metabolism.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 03 Jul 2023 11:00:01 EDT news607350258 In an advance they consider a breakthrough in computational chemistry research, University of Wisconsin–Madison chemical engineers have developed model of how catalytic reactions work at the atomic scale. This understanding could allow engineers and chemists to develop more efficient catalysts and tune industrial processes—potentially with enormous energy savings, given that 90% of the products we encounter in our lives are produced, at least partially, via catalysis. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-atomic-scale-catalysis-massive-energy.html Materials Science Thu, 06 Apr 2023 14:00:02 EDT news599977603 Using a new dataset, Rafael Prieto-Curiel of the Complexity Science Hub and colleagues analyzed the coordinates and surface of 183 million buildings in nearly 6,000 cities across all 52 countries in Africa. With their model, they quantify the shape of cities. Thus, they show that if a city's population doubles, the energy demand associated with commuting triples. These results clearly show how important it will be to plan fast-growing cities in a sustainable way. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-african-cities-population-triple-energy.html Mathematics Mon, 27 Feb 2023 08:56:44 EST news596710598 The number of millionaires in the world is steadily increasing, and their emission patterns make it difficult, if not impossible, to meet the Paris Agreement's target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to a new study by tourism professor Stefan Gössling, the millionaires will, within just a few decades, be responsible for almost three quarters of carbon dioxide emissions. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-strong-political-action-millionaires-enormous.html Environment Wed, 25 Jan 2023 16:40:06 EST news593887202 NASA and several other national space agencies have recently revived their lunar colonization programs. One of the key factors that needs to be solved is how to power such a colony. Can uninterrupted solar power feasibly be realized without energy storage? On Earth, providing 100% of electricity demand 100% of the time solely from renewables, but without energy storage, is unfeasible. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-power-lunar-colony-solely-solar.html Space Exploration Mon, 31 Oct 2022 13:56:03 EDT news586443361 Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School have discovered new molecular details of how cells ensure that their energy supply is adjusted to meet energy demand. Their study, carried out in collaboration with researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, U.S., highlights the crucial role microproteins play in assembling larger protein complexes inside energy-generating cell components known as mitochondria. Their results are published in Cell Reports. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-small-proteins-big-role-cellular.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 15 Sep 2022 08:52:03 EDT news582450721 A new study published today in Nature Communications by researchers from the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, the European Institute on Economics and the Environment and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine finds that adapting to climate change will require more energy than previously estimated, leading to higher energy investments and costs. Avoiding this additional energy burden is another important benefit of ambitious mitigation that so far has remained neglected in academia, international negotiations and the public debate. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-climate-extremes-energy-required-stronger.html Environment Thu, 25 Aug 2022 10:28:03 EDT news580642081 A new study finds that decarbonization pathways need to incorporate more efficient electric heating technologies and more renewable energy sources to minimize strain on the U.S. electric grid during increased electricity usage from heating in December and January. Otherwise, harmful fossil fuels will continue to power these seasonal spikes in energy demand. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-inefficient-electrification-prolonging-fossil-fuel.html Environment Thu, 28 Jul 2022 16:17:10 EDT news578243826 The 1972 book "The Limits to Growth" shared a somber message for humanity: the Earth's resources are finite and probably cannot support current rates of economic and population growth to the end of the 21st century, even with advanced technology. Although disparaged by economists at the time, it turns out that, 50 years later, the message still deserves our attention. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-outer-limits-future-economic-growth.html General Physics Thu, 21 Jul 2022 11:00:09 EDT news577618061 Lightweight as a window cling and replicable as a newspaper, organic solar cells are emerging as a viable solution for the nation's growing energy demand. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-polymer-property-boost-accessible-solar.html Biochemistry Mon, 06 Jun 2022 10:29:55 EDT news573730191 A new study challenges the universal land-saving claims of vertical farming, finding that there is no one size fits all approach for land use, food security and sustainable agriculture. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-hidden-footprint-low-carbon-indoor-farming.html Agriculture Thu, 03 Mar 2022 09:06:49 EST news565520806 Climate change will drive an increase in summer air conditioning use in the United States likely to cause prolonged blackouts during peak summer heat if states do not expand capacity or improve efficiency, according to a new study of household-level demand. https://phys.org/news/2022-02-household-air-conditioning-electric-capacity.html Environment Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:06:38 EST news563123194 Using conductive metal oxides as catalysts, researchers have developed an electrification strategy aimed at decreasing the ignition temperature of soot. Relevant results were published in Nature Catalysis. https://phys.org/news/2022-01-low-temperature-ignition-diesel-soot.html Materials Science Mon, 10 Jan 2022 07:02:19 EST news561020537 Scientists from the University of Aberdeen School of Biological Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have completed a 13-year long investigation into the survival strategies of an enigmatic small mammal, the plateau pika, that lives on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau in China. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-plateau-pika-tiny-mammal-survives.html Plants & Animals Tue, 20 Jul 2021 09:28:55 EDT news545992128 The addition of meat alternatives such as poultry and fish is not reducing the global production and consumption of energy-gobbling land-based meats, according to new research. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-alternative-meats-suppressing-reliance-grazing.html Environment Tue, 27 Apr 2021 10:23:55 EDT news538737825 As the planet continues to warm, the twin challenges of diminishing water supply and growing energy demand will intensify. But water and energy are inextricably linked. For instance, nearly a fifth of California's energy goes toward water-related activities, while more than a tenth of the state's electricity comes from hydropower. As society tries to adapt to one challenge, it needs to ensure it doesn't worsen the other. https://phys.org/news/2021-01-framework-impacts-climate-california-energy.html Earth Sciences Thu, 07 Jan 2021 14:58:01 EST news529253875 Twenty years ago, wind energy was mostly a niche industry that contributed less than 1% to the total electricity demand in the United States. Wind has since emerged as a serious contender in the race to develop clean, renewable energy sources that can sustain the grid and meet the ever-rising global energy demand. Last year, wind energy supplied 7% of domestic electricity demand, and across the country—both on and offshore—energy companies have been installing giant turbines that reach higher and wider than ever before. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-supersized-turbines-energyand-physics.html General Physics Tue, 24 Nov 2020 03:48:41 EST news525412113 Just as a living organism continually needs food to maintain itself, an economy consumes energy to do work and keep things going. That consumption comes with the cost of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, though. So, how can we use energy to keep the economy alive without burning out the planet in the process? https://phys.org/news/2020-08-energy-hunger-tethered-economic.html Environment Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:00:11 EDT news517736645 Low-carbon technologies that are smaller scale, more affordable, and can be mass deployed are more likely to enable a faster transition to net-zero emissions, according to a new study by an international team of researchers. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-smaller-scale-solutions-rapid-emissions.html Environment Thu, 02 Apr 2020 15:17:14 EDT news505059430 Lithium ion batteries aren't keeping up with energy demands from higher power electronic devices, electric vehicles and smart electric grids. To develop higher capacity batteries, researchers have looked to lithium sulfur batteries because of sulfur's high theoretical capacity and energy density. https://phys.org/news/2019-09-high-energy-density-material-electrode.html Materials Science Mon, 30 Sep 2019 11:00:12 EDT news489043105 Many of the consequences of climate change are well reported in the press: rising seas, more severe storms, droughts and floods, and increasing numbers of heat-related illness and deaths. Now Ian Sue Wing, a Boston University College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of earth and environment, Bas van Ruijven, a former visiting scholar at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and Enrica De Cian, a professor at Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Italy, project another troubling outcome: a significant increase in global energy needs, largely anticipated to arise from cooling and air-conditioning usage. https://phys.org/news/2019-07-global-energy.html Environment Mon, 29 Jul 2019 12:55:51 EDT news483623742 A new study published today in Nature Communications by researchers from IIASA, Boston University and the Ca' Foscari University of Venice found that by mid-century, climate change will increase the demand for energy globally, even with modest warming. https://phys.org/news/2019-06-energy-cope-climate.html Environment Mon, 24 Jun 2019 07:05:40 EDT news480578724 Global energy demand will surge by a third over the next two decades on advancing prosperity, but Indian demand growth will eclipse that of flagging giant China, Britain's BP forecast Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-global-energy-demand-soar-bp.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 14 Feb 2019 14:17:02 EST news469376199