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 Until recently, Australia's efforts to tackle "forever chemical" pollution focused on highly polluted firefighting and defense sites. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-dont-communities-affected-chemicals-heard.html Environment Thu, 18 Dec 2025 10:29:49 EST news685276142 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 In 2023, Canada's worst wildfire season on record produced so much smoke that it spilled across national borders into the United States. At times, a thick haze enveloped much of the U.S. East Coast and triggered "Code Purple" and "Code Maroon" alerts—the most hazardous air quality warning categories—in the Washington, D.C. region. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-chemical-canadian-wildfires-maryland-months.html Environment Tue, 09 Dec 2025 13:26:58 EST news684509178 A new study by scholars from UCLA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the University of São Paulo not only sheds light on a unique blue pigment from the Amazon but also took the highly unusual step of including Indigenous people in every step of a research project on their own cultural and artistic practices. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-unique-blue-pigment-amazon-incorporates.html Social Sciences Mon, 08 Dec 2025 09:19:13 EST news684407942 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 Indigenous communities from North America are at talks on a global treaty on plastic pollution in Geneva, pleading the case for the environment they depend upon, which is slowly being choked by microplastics. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-indigenous-communities-action-plastic-pollution.html Environment Sun, 10 Aug 2025 14:09:45 EDT news674053777 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 Photocatalysts are powerful materials that use light as a source of energy for operation, becoming indispensable materials in many fields, from the food and biomedical industry to energy production. They are mainly composed of metal-based compounds like oxides, sulfides, etc., but despite their high effectiveness, with time they will become waste. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-defect-carbon-nitride-ability-degrade.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:41:25 EDT news669908479 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 Thousands of volunteers have helped to provide a snapshot of the health of the nation's rivers and waterways, highlighting high levels of nitrates and phosphates, as well as a cocktail of chemical compounds that pose a risk to ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-uk-rivers-cocktail-chemicals-pharmaceuticals.html Environment Wed, 23 Oct 2024 11:28:02 EDT news648901676 Crystalline boron imidazolate frameworks (BIFs) are a lightweight zeolite-like metal-organic framework (MOF) developed to simulate the zeolite molecular sieve structure. BIFs contain both covalent bonds (B–N) and metal coordination bonds (M–N). Therefore, it is also regarded as a unique family of materials between MOFs and covalent organic frameworks (COFs). https://phys.org/news/2024-10-microenvironment-boron-imidazolate-frameworks-electroreduction.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 10 Oct 2024 15:36:14 EDT news647793373 This morning, my six-year-old came into our bedroom and started reading a story from a book. She followed each word on the page, slowly forming full sentences. Sometimes she stumbled and asked for help with some "funny words," but by the end of the book, she had told us a story about a bear in the snow. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-silent-conversations.html Plants & Animals Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:20:04 EDT news645718801 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 PFAS, or forever chemicals, are widespread and more likely to be found in public water systems serving low-income communities and communities of color in New Jersey, according to new research from Northeastern University. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-income-communities-contaminated-chemicals.html Environment Thu, 25 Apr 2024 13:37:31 EDT news633271048 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 Combining two twins-tech—electrospinning and electrospraying—to fabricate novel nanomaterials is an urgent area of research for materials scientists and biomedical engineers, according to a new paper by Professor Hu Jinlian of City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) published in Matter. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-positive-electrospinning-electrospraying-synergism-nanomaterials.html Nanomaterials Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:00:01 EST news626002725 Compounds developed by University of Leicester Chemists aim to reveal the dual nature of formaldehyde, a chemical that is known to cause cancer but is also believed to play important roles in our biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-chemical-tool-probing-toxic-formaldehyde.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:17:05 EDT news615140221 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 Land use change is one of the greatest threats to soil biodiversity and ecological functions. Tropical deforestation to establish monoculture cash tree plantations poses the greatest threat to biodiversity. However, how such a transition affects soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics driven by fungal communities at the aggregate level remains unclear. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-insight-early-agroforestry-tropical-areas.html Ecology Wed, 16 Aug 2023 16:05:02 EDT news611420701 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 What do the following changes have in common? https://phys.org/news/2023-07-climate-communication-breakdown-animal-world.html Ecology Wed, 05 Jul 2023 12:17:01 EDT news607778217 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