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. In a win for pollinator conservation, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have developed a machine learning-based method to identify chemical compounds that can safely repel honey bees from pesticide-treated crops. The research offers a potential solution to one of agriculture's most urgent ecological challenges: the ongoing decline in honey bee populations, driven in part by pesticide exposure. The paper is published in the journal eLife. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-machine-chemicals-repel-honey-bees.html Ecology Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:30:01 EDT news709480681 Propolis may not only inhibit the growth of certain fungi but also affect the activity of drugs used to treat fungal infections. Researchers have investigated how an ethanolic extract of Polish propolis interacts with various antifungal agents. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-bee-propolis-boosts-antifungal-drug.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 23 Sep 2026 18:00:10 EDT news709398541 A new study reveals that an important pollinator is rapidly losing genetic diversity in Britain. Moss carder bumblebees were once widespread across the UK, living in flower-rich meadows, marshes and heathlands, where they pollinated a wide variety of plants. However, the loss of these habitats has caused the species to retreat into strongholds along the country's coasts and islands. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-threatened-bumblebee-populations-england-wales.html Ecology Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:20:21 EDT news708859322 Populations of the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera) are under immense pressure in the wild in Europe. New research published in Conservation Science and Practice by researchers at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart and Agroscope in Zürich shows that wild honeybees occur frequently across Europe. However, the researchers estimate that, without an influx of swarms from managed hives, wild honeybee populations in the European Union (EU) would decline by about 56% within 10 years. Wild honeybees have therefore been classified as "endangered" in the EU on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-wild-honeybee-populations-eu-red.html Plants & Animals Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:20:02 EDT news708854361 Human development may be changing more than where pollinators live—it may also be changing when they are active. University of Florida researchers at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) have found that pollinator seasons shifted later in the year across some of the most human-modified landscapes in the eastern United States. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-pollinators-calendar-human-landscapes.html Plants & Animals Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:40:10 EDT news708594061 Life is not always easy for a bee: Not all plants place their pollen outside. Some flowers have to be set to vibrating before the pollen can get out of their tube-like stamens. Certain bee species have developed a special technique for this: They bite on the flower and use their flight muscles to generate rapid vibrations. The stamen is shaken and the pollen is released. This phenomenon is known as "buzz pollination." https://phys.org/news/2026-09-bees-pollen.html Ecology Fri, 11 Sep 2026 15:40:03 EDT news708345661 The honey bee has held a special place in vision research. It is one of the best-studied insects, and much of what scientists know about how bees perceive the world is based on studies of honey bees. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-bees-world-ways-previously-thought.html Plants & Animals Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:00:03 EDT news707470501 There is an old saying that nature is the best medicine, and it turns out bumblebees might agree. A new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science suggests that buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) may self-medicate when exposed to a fungal brood disease. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bumblebees-medicate-exposed-fungal-infections.html Plants & Animals Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:50:01 EDT news707125828 A few months ago, a friend of mine told me that his father-in-law had been rushed to the hospital after eating some wild honey brought back from the hills of Nepal. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mad-honey-heart-sold-online.html Ecology Thu, 27 Aug 2026 21:00:03 EDT news707051205 Bees are the most important pollinators of flowering plants, and approximately 10% of flowering plants are functionally specialized for buzz pollination. Buzz pollination is a mechanism in which pollen can be extracted from flowers only through the application of mechanical vibrations. Many important crops, such as tomatoes, eggplants and blueberries, are buzz-pollinated because they conceal their pollen in so-called poricidal anthers—floral structures with only a minute opening through which pollen can be released only when mechanical vibrations are applied. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-scoop-pores-pollen-efficiently.html Plants & Animals Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:00:01 EDT news706969561 A study conducted in the Swiss Alps by the University of Lausanne and the University of Milan shows that glacier retreat and changing vegetation could influence the spread of certain pathogens between honeybees and wild bees. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-glacier-retreat-diseases-bees.html Plants & Animals Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:20:02 EDT news706800363 A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) has developed a new optical corner-detection imaging method that uses azimuthal Hilbert transform metasurfaces and is designed to work as a universal framework. The study marks an important advance in high-speed, low-power optical information processing and has demonstrated potential for motion-tracking applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-corners-focus-metasurface-enables-motion.html General Physics Mon, 24 Aug 2026 13:00:06 EDT news706792142 Letting late-summer weeds grow could help honeybees when they find it most challenging to gather nectar, according to new research published in the journal, Functional Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-honeybees-struggle-nectar-august-reveal.html Plants & Animals Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:10:01 EDT news706281421 Don't assume an uptick in ant activity after setting out pesticide traps means the treatment failed. New UC Riverside research shows their behavior changes as chemicals make their way through a colony. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-pesticides-argentine-ants-crazy-roaming.html Plants & Animals Mon, 17 Aug 2026 17:50:01 EDT news706205761 Bees may be relying on your lawn for their next meal, according to a new study from the University of Georgia. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-pollinators-grass.html Plants & Animals Mon, 17 Aug 2026 13:30:01 EDT news706190045 Bumblebees are able to learn to associate new odors with their colony's queen, instead of being preprogrammed to recognize the queen's pheromones from birth, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. For the study, published in the journal Communications Biology, the researchers treated buff-tailed bumblebee queens daily with one of two different floral scents as they built their colonies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bumblebees-associate-queen.html Ecology Wed, 12 Aug 2026 08:40:03 EDT news705742562 Humans trust dogs to help find missing people, and bees to pollinate their crops. But scientists still don't fully understand how these animals use their extraordinary sense of smell to locate the source of an odor. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-decoding-reveals-odor.html Ecology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:20:05 EDT news705657481 Todd Montgomery pops the lid off a small tube and taps out hundreds of mosquitoes into the backyard of a suburban home outside Washington. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-firm-backyard-mosquitoes.html Ecology Fri, 07 Aug 2026 03:20:02 EDT news705288775 Newborn German cockroaches use pheromones in cockroach feces to identify members of their own colony and form a kind of social bond, a discovery that could be used to improve pest control efforts. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-german-cockroaches-social-animals-previously.html Plants & Animals Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:40:08 EDT news705149701 Dinosaurs are famous for being big, from the towering Tyrannosaurus rex to the colossal Apatosaurus. But a new study published today in the journal Evolution by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and Princeton University suggests that one of the greatest mysteries of dinosaur evolution isn't how some species became giants—it's why even the smallest dinosaurs never became truly tiny. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tiny-dinosaurs-explores-evolution-biggest.html Evolution Wed, 05 Aug 2026 10:00:05 EDT news705050822 For more than 60 years, evolutionary biologists have debated whether a unique genetic system found in ants, bees and wasps helps explain one of nature's most remarkable innovations: eusociality, a form of social organization in which colonies divide reproductive labor between queens and workers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-decades-theory-insect-societies-evolve.html Plants & Animals Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:20:01 EDT news705071641 Strict regulations have prevented continental U.S. beekeepers from participating in the lucrative organic honey market, but new research finds that bees' actual habits make certain rules too extreme. The findings potentially provide evidence for federal agencies to ease restrictions and open organic markets to U.S. producers. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-insights-bee-biology-ease-honey.html Ecology Sat, 01 Aug 2026 12:00:01 EDT news704644013 For the first time, a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, has demonstrated that insects can mimic floral scents to manipulate pollinators. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-oil-beetle-larvae-bees.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:20:06 EDT news704533321 Female sweat bees need to make a pivotal life decision: remain in the nest to help their mother raise more offspring or leave to establish nests of their own. New research from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) found that queen pheromones help influence that choice, offering new insight into how cooperation evolved in insect societies. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-queen-bee-pheromones-daughters-stay.html Plants & Animals Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:10:04 EDT news704363701 Diets rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids—a type of fat that supports brain function, cell growth and heart health—may help protect honey bees against the toxic effects of pesticides, according to a study led by researchers at Penn State. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-diets-high-fat-bees-pesticides.html Plants & Animals Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:40:07 EDT news704468941 Researchers have developed a low-cost, semi-automated, AI-driven method that uses remote cameras to survey bumblebees and potentially other insects. The new tool could have important implications for efforts to conserve declining insect populations. Several bumblebee species have been petitioned to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-powered-camera-bumblebees-potentially.html Plants & Animals Tue, 28 Jul 2026 06:00:01 EDT news704358062 When a fruit fly catches a whiff of a ripe peach, it quickly heads toward it. Time after time, it finds the fruit—even from many feet away and even if the scent arrives only as a few drifting, disconnected puffs. How do they home in with such unerring accuracy? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-fruit-flies-fleeting-scent-puffs.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Jul 2026 11:00:29 EDT news703857961 What determines which tasks bees perform in their colony? Biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the universities in Cologne and Frankfurt/Main have investigated the role neural activity plays in this process. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they explain that by manipulating a specific gene, they can selectively inhibit neural circuits in bees and thus influence their work behavior. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bee-brains-reveal-colonies-central.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 11:40:03 EDT news703766341 Honeybees do not like cold weather. When temperatures dip, they can become sluggish and unable to fly. But no matter the conditions in the outside world, they try to keep their hives close to a comfortable 34°C–36°C (93°F–97°F). However, extreme weather, both hot and cold, can overwhelm this internal temperature control and ultimately cut their lives short. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bees-probiotic-diet-extreme-temperatures.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:00:06 EDT news703758461 If you've driven down two-lane highways in rural parts of North Florida recently, you may have noticed a spate of new signs that designate the grassy knolls bordering the asphalt as wildflower areas. The signs likely feel redundant right about now as thousands of milkweeds produce thick umbels packed full of pentagonal buds and fully developed flowers. Many of these flowers and all the monarchs they attract have the same attention-grabbing orange color as the safety vests worn by workers who carefully planted each milkweed by hand months earlier. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-butterfly-experts-milkweed-florida-roadsides.html Plants & Animals Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:30:01 EDT news703499199