https://phys.org/biology-news/ en-us Read the latest science news from Phys.org on biology, evolution, microbiology, biotechnology As the U.S. looks to expand domestic seafood production, a new University of Miami study argues that long-term competitiveness will depend on how well fisheries can withstand climate-driven disruptions. The study comes as NOAA advances new efforts to increase domestic seafood production and suggests that producing more seafood will require investments that reduce disruptions to the nation's fisheries and seafood supply chains. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-climate-resilience-strategy-seafood-competitiveness.html Agriculture Wed, 29 Jul 2026 19:20:03 EDT news704556062 Invasive alien species are driving human displacement, according to a new research paper published this month in Frontiers. In Kenya, Opuntia stricta has displaced pastoralist communities, while the invasive little fire ant has led to farm abandonment in New Caledonia, the Galápagos Islands and French Polynesia. Water hyacinth has disrupted fishing livelihoods in much of Africa. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-invasive-species-emerge-driver-human.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:40:01 EDT news704550791 In many animal tissues, stem cells continually divide to create new cells that replace old or damaged ones. However, this capacity requires strict regulation, as uncontrolled stem cell proliferation can disrupt tissue homeostasis and contribute to tumorigenesis. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-stem-cells-mechanism-cell-junction.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:20:03 EDT news704550780 For decades, a 30 million-year-old fossil sat entombed in rock in an Oregon museum collection. When it was first found, paleontologists thought it might be an early relative of sheep, camels and pigs, whose fossilized skeletons are, in the researchers' view, abundant. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-skeleton-million-year-dog.html Evolution Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:20:01 EDT news704552101 What happens after death? An international study led by the University of Granada (UGR), involving Ana Mateos and Jesús Rodríguez, researchers at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), argues that this question, long overlooked by ecology, can help us understand a wide range of processes and offer new perspectives across different disciplines. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-carrion-emerges-key-ecosystems-disease.html Evolution Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:00:01 EDT news704550743 Drought creates increasing challenges for agriculture. As well as affecting crop growth, it also affects interactions with pests. A research team at the University of Göttingen investigated how different levels of drought affect sugar beet's susceptibility to damage caused by the beet leaf miner (Pegomya cunicularia)—a fly whose larvae create visible tunnels inside leaves. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-interaction-sugar-beet-pest-varies.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:20:03 EDT news704549401 Coho salmon released by recreational anglers are far more likely to survive when handled without a landing net, according to new research. In salmon fisheries where anglers may be required to release salmon that are undersized, wild or not the target species, post-release survival is critical to conservation efforts. The paper is published in the journal Fisheries Research. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-simple-fishing-gear-greatly-survival.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:00:01 EDT news704549102 The creation of fully artificial organs is a sci-fi dream, and researchers in Japan may have brought it one step closer to reality by developing a new photofabrication technique (i.e., a light-controlled synthetic method) for constructing arteriole-scale tubular hydrogels. Their research is published in the journal Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-closer-artificial-uv-arteriole-scale.html Biotechnology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:40:06 EDT news704550301 The Canadian government is proposing sweeping changes to accelerate industrial development and reduce environmental oversight. These proposed legislative, regulatory and policy reforms could significantly diminish the government's capacity to assess environmental impacts and weaken protections for fish habitats and species at risk. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-canada-infrastructure-pacific-salmon-habitats.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:40:03 EDT news704549041 Summer can be lovely—until a wasp turns up. Whether they present as an irritating picnic visitor or an uninvited attic guest, common social wasps are as much a part of our summer as festivals, sunscreen and the growing despair of how to entertain children who've forgotten how to be bored. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-wasps-summer.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:20:04 EDT news704548982 New research, led by the University of Glasgow reveals that adaptation to warmer waters causes fish to display a range of behavioral and biological differences, including obesity, overeating and lower metabolism. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-icelandic-fish-hot-tubs-reveal.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:00:08 EDT news704547601 Scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Oxford have developed a promising new way to kill antibiotic-resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, using a targeted therapy that is activated at the bacterial surface while minimizing damage to human cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gonorrhea-enzyme-triggers-therapy-multidrug.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:20:06 EDT news704543581 Why do humans keep pets? A new international study suggests that some of the behavioral foundations of human-animal companionship may have much deeper evolutionary roots than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-monkey-friendships-dogs-deer-pigs.html Evolution Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:10:01 EDT news704551502 A new study on how rising temperatures will affect rice production in Science Advances compares 214 observations from field-warming experiments with seven crop models, revealing modeled estimates for yield reductions from 1°C of global warming were roughly half those of the real-world observed experiments (3.8% instead of 8.1%). The study was led by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research with contributions from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-global-threatens-rice-harvests-crop.html Agriculture Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:00:16 EDT news704542021 Forest trees growing in air containing higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) radically change the way they "cycle" nitrogen, a key plant nutrient, with implications for forests as a nature-based climate solution. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-trees-microbes-team-nitrogen-nutrient.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:00:13 EDT news704471281 Scientists from China, Europe and the U.S., including Dr. Stephan Spiekman, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Hohenheim, have described a fossil of the long-necked marine reptile Austronaga minuta from China. Although this reptile descended from land-dwelling reptiles, it was already well adapted to life in the water around 245 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unique-fossil-reveals-internal-million.html Evolution Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:00:11 EDT news704451961 It is a mystery that has puzzled scientists for years. How can the world's only winged mammals carry viruses that cause severe disease while rarely becoming seriously ill themselves? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-antibody-gene-vesper-unusual-viral.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:00:04 EDT news704473621 Ex-captive elephants released into the wild adapt well to wild environments, according to a study published July 29, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Tenisha Roos and Tamara Eggeling of the Elephant Reintegration Trust of South Africa and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-year-rewilded-elephants-successful-coping.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:00:01 EDT news704473741 Extant and ancient cephalopods—including octopuses, squids, extinct ammonites, cuttlefish and nautiluses—have all had to solve the problem of buoyancy, whether they have hard external shells or not. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-early-cambrian-fossil-uncovers-key.html Evolution Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:40:05 EDT news704541901 Nepal's tiger population has risen by roughly 20% in the past four years to an estimated 429, officials said Wednesday, a conservation milestone despite challenges from human-wildlife conflict. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nepal-tiger-climb-percent-survey.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:20:05 EDT news704540725 Hundreds of feet below Earth's surface, rocks and water teem with fungi and support complex ecosystems of tiny organisms, according to a University of Michigan study that finds fungi are far more abundant deep underground than researchers previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-entire-world-fungi-mile-underground.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:00:06 EDT news704446801 Researchers at the Centre for Ecosystem Management (CEM), together with scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Cornell University, Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, have published a paper showing that ecosystems become more resilient to environmental change through "portfolio effects" operating across multiple levels of ecological organization. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ecosystems-climate-nature-hidden.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:40:03 EDT news704541481 A multidisciplinary study has uncovered a critical component in the formation of biofilms, the complex structures used by bacteria to colonize surfaces. The research may have implications for future infection treatments, including for people with cystic fibrosis. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-biofilm-clue-route-anti-infection.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:40:01 EDT news704539829 Scientists have long wondered whether loud, human-caused noise interferes with wild animals' cognition—their ability to think and learn—by causing stress, distraction or making it harder for them to focus. The results of a novel study of eastern bluebirds conducted by a team of researchers at Penn State suggest that, at least in some cases, short-term noise doesn't affect them much. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-industrial-noise-bluebird-behavior-cognitive.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:00:03 EDT news704540360 Feeding wild animals is a popular activity at tourist destinations. While these interactions often appear harmless, scientists are recognizing how supplemental feeding of wild animals can alter ecosystems in unexpected ways. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bunny-tourism-hidden-consequences-unregulated.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:20:03 EDT news704539796 Scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Manchester have developed a promising new way to create safer and more effective treatments for life-threatening fungal infections. The research, published today in Nature, describes a new family of antifungal agents that—when tested in mice—were more potent and less toxic than existing treatments. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-antimicrobials-tackle-deadly-drug-resistant.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:19 EDT news704447461 The vast majority of proteins in our bodies contain regions that are in a constant state of wiggling, shape-shifting every few nanoseconds to completely change how they look. Information on how these shape-shifting proteins work is critical to understanding health and disease and developing drugs for cancer, neurodegeneration and myriad other conditions. However, it has been challenging for scientists to pin down precisely how these regions function and how they go awry in disease. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-chaos-cells-shifting-proteins-tool.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:17 EDT news704448061 The octopus is a biological oddity. It can use tools, open jars, and its complex nervous system supports as many neurons as a small primate. Now Harvard biologists have discovered a mysterious distinction in octopuses' core biology: Some octopuses have an unusual adaptation in the protein-making machinery of their cells that helps ensure accuracy, perhaps an evolutionary byproduct of their acute sensory system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-biology-cells-octopus-sleeve.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:10 EDT news704447041 Researchers at Duke University School of Medicine have developed an artificial intelligence framework that can redesign proteins on a scale previously seen only in natural evolution. The tool can create shorter, longer and highly modified versions of proteins while preserving their structure and function. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-molecular-ray-ai-tool-redesigns.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:07 EDT news704447701 A remarkably preserved fossil from Mongolia's Gobi Desert is reshaping scientists' understanding of mammal evolution during the age of dinosaurs. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gobi-fossil-reveals-inch-cretaceous.html Evolution Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:05 EDT news704448001