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. It's been known for nearly a century that swarms of single-celled organisms thrive by consuming chemicals from their environments and expelling methane gas as a byproduct. In 2024, researchers in the laboratory of Roland Hatzenpichler, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in Montana State University's College of Letters and Science, published the first-ever descriptions of methane-producing microbes outside the lineage Euryarchaeota, which—in a study published on the bioRxiv preprint server—they have confirmed to be ubiquitous in the environment. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-newly-microbes-assumptions-methane-production.html Ecology Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:11:26 EST news685296661 Natural sunscreens shield the skin from harmful radiation, without triggering allergic reactions. In a recently published study, a group of researchers has discovered a novel compound, β-glucose-bound hydroxy mycosporine-sarcosine, which is produced in thermal cyanobacteria under UV-A/UV-B and salt stress. This compound has a unique biosynthesis pathway which is different from the typical mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) biosynthesis mechanism. This discovery aids industrial biotechnology in the production of natural UV-filter compounds. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-natural-sunscreen-compound-thermophilic-cyanobacteria.html Biochemistry Thu, 18 Dec 2025 11:40:03 EST news685278566 Hyperthermophilic archaea are true survival experts. They thrive in boiling hot springs and deep-sea vents—environments lethal to nearly all other forms of life. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-archaea-ribosomal-rna-survive-extreme.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 25 Nov 2025 09:51:04 EST news683286662 The towering peaks of the Southern Andes are not just shaping the skyline of South America—they are also quietly influencing Earth's atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-weathering-southern-andes-plays-critical.html Earth Sciences Mon, 27 Oct 2025 10:20:05 EDT news680779130 Earth was not always the blue-green world we know today: early Earth's oxygen levels were about a million times lower than we now experience. There were no forests and no animals. For ancient organisms, oxygen was toxic. What did life look like at that time then? https://phys.org/news/2025-09-hot-japan-insight-ancient-microbial.html Ecology Thu, 25 Sep 2025 08:55:05 EDT news678009301 Discover a vast, previously unknown world of microbial life that survives—and even thrives—for hundreds of millions of years in some of the planet's harshest environments. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-alive-secret-life-deep-earth.html Earth Sciences Tue, 05 Aug 2025 10:30:02 EDT news673607145 People have long wondered what life was first like on Earth, and if there is life in our solar system beyond our planet. Scientists have reason to believe that some of the moons in our solar system—like Jupiter's Europa and Saturn's Enceladus—may contain deep, salty liquid oceans under an icy shell. Seafloor volcanoes could heat these moons' oceans and provide the basic chemicals needed for life. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-microbes-deep-sea-volcanoes-scientists.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:00:05 EDT news672320536 Biodiversity is in rapid decline, across the UK and globally. Butterflies are excellent for helping us understand these changes. Where butterfly communities are rich and diverse, so too is the ecosystem. But the opposite is also true: if butterfly numbers are low and there are few species, it is a bad sign for the overall variety and abundance of life in the area. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-uk-butterflies-booming.html Ecology Sun, 20 Jul 2025 14:50:03 EDT news672050854 Scientists at Montana State University have examined the unique and extreme environments of nearby Yellowstone National Park for decades, but one team has recently published some of the first research exploring how insects manage to thrive in hot and often acidic places around the park's thermal features. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-scientists-explore-thermal-mechanics-yellowstone.html Ecology Wed, 23 Apr 2025 12:37:04 EDT news664630621 Scientists have discovered a new phylum of microbes in Earth's Critical Zone, an area of deep soil that restores water quality. Ground water, which becomes drinking water, passes through where these microbes live, and they consume the remaining pollutants. The paper, "Diversification, niche adaptation and evolution of a candidate phylum thriving in the deep Critical Zone," is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-scientists-microbes-earth-deep-soil.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:27:04 EDT news663265622 A new thermal vent spewing steam in the air at Yellowstone National Park is gaining attention, mainly because it's visible from a road rather than any significant change in the park famous for its thousands of geysers, hot springs and bubbling mud pots. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-thermal-steam-vent-attention-yellowstone.html Environment Mon, 24 Mar 2025 15:30:06 EDT news662048011 Animals, plants and many other living organisms inhale oxygen to "burn" (oxidize) compounds like sugar into CO2 and water—a process during which the energy-rich molecule ATP is produced. Cells require ATP to power vital reactions. In the early phase of our planet's existence, however, the earth's atmosphere did not yet contain any oxygen. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-discovery-oldest-enzyme-cellular-respiration.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 17 Mar 2025 13:04:04 EDT news661435441 Boiling hot water bubbles up into pools of vibrant teal and blue. The steam rises, burning anyone who gets too close. The water is acidic—sometimes as acidic as stomach acid. Microbes in a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park have evolved to live in such extreme circumstances. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-hot-insights-microbe-communities.html Ecology Fri, 28 Feb 2025 09:48:04 EST news659958481 An article published in the journal Scientific Reports describes how researchers analyzed biofilm produced by bacteria found in the El Medano hot springs, located in Chile in the central Andes, and concluded that one of its key ingredients can be used to develop natural additives for the pharmaceutical and food industries. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-bioactive-compounds-industrial-applications-extremophilic.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 17 Jan 2025 13:03:04 EST news656341382 Microbial organisms adapted to extreme and inhospitable environments carry proteins within their proteome that significantly accelerate the dissolution of CO₂ in water, while also withstanding very high temperatures and pH. These enzymes are valuable promoters of CO₂ capturing from industrial exhaust streams. Researchers at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center Alexander Fleming (BSRC Fleming) in Vari, Greece, have identified such a bioactive molecule. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-super-enzyme-capture-extreme-conditions.html Biochemistry Wed, 11 Dec 2024 13:14:09 EST news653145245 One of the biggest scientific mysteries is where life on Earth started. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-minerals-hot-key-chemical-reaction.html Earth Sciences Sun, 01 Dec 2024 11:50:01 EST news652103275 NASA's Curiosity rover is preparing for the next leg of its journey, a months-long trek to a formation called the boxwork, a set of weblike patterns on Mars's surface that stretches for miles. It will soon leave behind Gediz Vallis channel, an area wrapped in mystery. How the channel formed so late during a transition to a drier climate is one big question for the science team. Another mystery is the field of white sulfur stones the rover discovered over the summer. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-mars-curiosity-rover-mysterious-sulfur.html Astrobiology Mon, 18 Nov 2024 15:57:45 EST news651167859 Trees are the most abundant natural resource living on Earth's land masses, and North Carolina State University scientists and engineers are making headway in finding ways to use them as sustainable, environmentally benign alternatives to producing industrial chemicals from petroleum. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-lignin-molecular-property-discovery-trees.html Biochemistry Fri, 18 Oct 2024 14:00:01 EDT news648462070 Biofilms—slimy communities of bacteria—grow on all sorts of surfaces: from glaciers and hot springs to plant roots, your bathtub and fridge, wounds, and medical devices such as catheters. Most biofilms are composed of multiple bacterial species, but how these species manage to live together is unclear. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-biofilms-reveals-multiple-bacteria-species.html Ecology Thu, 17 Oct 2024 14:13:03 EDT news648393181 RIKEN scientists looking for clues to the origins of life on Earth have discovered a new microbe that may shed light on how organisms first developed on Earth, the search for life elsewhere in the universe and how to improve microbial factories. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-microbe-door-carbon-dioxidedriven.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 17 Oct 2024 09:55:04 EDT news648377701 Scientists for the first time have uncovered an underworld of animal life thriving beneath the seafloor. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-tubeworms-snails-weird-creatures-seafloor.html Plants & Animals Tue, 15 Oct 2024 11:53:21 EDT news648211987 Researchers at University of Tsukuba have shown that the 1995 Kobe (Hyogo-ken Nanbu) earthquake, which struck southern Hyogo Prefecture, may have been triggered by deep underground flooding beneath Arima Hot Springs. By analyzing the stable isotope ratios of hydrogen and oxygen as well as chloride ions in Arima hot spring water over several decades, the researchers have uncovered a likely connection between the earthquake and water originating from the subducting Philippine Sea Plate. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-deep-underground-beneath-hot-potential.html Earth Sciences Fri, 13 Sep 2024 10:05:02 EDT news645440701 An assist from a Google Artificial Intelligence tool has helped scientists discover how the proteins of a heat-loving microbe respond to the crushing conditions of the planet's deepest ocean trenches, offering new insights into how these building blocks of life might have evolved under early Earth conditions. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-ai-extreme-microbe-reveals-life.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 09 Sep 2024 15:50:04 EDT news645115802 Japan, one of the most earthquake-prone nations on earth, issued its first-ever "megaquake advisory" last week after a powerful quake struck off the southeastern coast of the southern main island of Kyushu. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-japan-megaquake-advisory.html Environment Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:50:57 EDT news642930651 In Antarctica there is a small lake, called Deep Lake, that is so salty it remains ice-free all year round despite temperatures as low as -20°C in winter. Archaea, a unique type of single-celled microorganism, thrive in this bitterly cold environment. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-ancient-antarctic-microorganisms-aggressive-predators.html Ecology Fri, 02 Aug 2024 07:32:32 EDT news641802746 A team of scientists from Montana State University has provided the first experimental evidence that two new groups of microbes thriving in thermal features in Yellowstone National Park produce methane—a discovery that could one day contribute to the development of methods to mitigate climate change and provide insight into potential life elsewhere in our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-scientists-publish-experimental-evidence-groups.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 24 Jul 2024 17:35:05 EDT news641061302 A surprise eruption of steam in a Yellowstone National Park geyser basin that sent people scrambling for safety as basketball-sized rocks flew overhead has highlighted a little-known hazard that scientists hope to be able to predict someday. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-blast-steam-yellowstone-dozens-safety.html Environment Wed, 24 Jul 2024 04:07:43 EDT news641012855 Atmospheric scientists get a little more excited with every rock core NASA's Perseverance Mars rover seals in its titanium sample tubes, which are being gathered for eventual delivery to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. Twenty-four have been taken so far. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-intrigued-air-nasa-mars.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:44:20 EDT news638117054 An international scientific team has redefined our understanding of archaea, a microbial ancestor to humans from two billion years ago, by showing how they use hydrogen gas. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-secrets-life-energy.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 11 Jun 2024 11:00:01 EDT news637313641 A multi-institutional team of plant specialists, microbiologists and paleontologists in the Czech Republic and the University of Minnesota, in the U.S., has found evidence of a hot spring oasis during the last ice age in a part of central Europe. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-evidence-hot-oasis-ice.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 03 Jun 2024 09:47:26 EDT news636626840