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 deep, dark part of the Gulf of Mexico, the number of marine animals plummeted by about 60% in the years following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, a new study found. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-marine-life-declined-gulf-mexico.html Ecology Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:39:07 EDT news711693484 During the 2023–2024 El Niño, about 75% of the world's tropical forest areas experienced at least six months of unprecedented simultaneous drought and heat. According to a study published in Earth's Future, this scenario offers more than just a snapshot of an extreme event; it offers a preview of the "new normal" for the next two decades if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-extreme-drought-el-nio-tropical.html Earth Sciences Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:00:06 EDT news710523301 When Marineland Canada in Niagara Falls, Ontario, closed in September 2024, it had no regular income to support the care of the 30 belugas and four dolphins housed there. To ensure their welfare, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums led an international effort to relocate the animals to the United States and Spain. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-homes-whales-dolphins-isnt-easy.html Ecology Sun, 27 Sep 2026 14:00:06 EDT news709376669 Plesiosaurs swam into river deltas to vomit up shells and other indigestible elements of their marine meals, suggests new research published by Cambridge University Press. The behavior resembles that of today's fur seals and marine crocodiles. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-queasy-plesiosaurs-swam-shore-vomit.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 22 Sep 2026 19:00:01 EDT news709201289 A dolphin that harasses fish until they regurgitate their food—then swoops in to steal it—has astonished University of the Sunshine Coast researchers who have documented this novel feeding strategy. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-food-dolphin-shortcut-easy-meal.html Plants & Animals Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:20:06 EDT news708683888 While the highly virulent avian influenza strain has only recently been discovered on Australian shores, researchers at Deakin University have been working behind the scenes for years, anticipating what an outbreak might look like. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bird-movements-track-global-virus.html Plants & Animals Sun, 06 Sep 2026 17:00:01 EDT news707401817 The brain cells you see in the above image help an African fish decode electric signals to spot prey, scan its murky surroundings and communicate with its fellows. By rigorously mapping how these cells in the electrosensory lobe are wired together, scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute and their colleagues reveal how this brain area continually learns to filter out interference that would otherwise blind the fish's electric sense. They report their findings in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-electric-fish-brain-cells.html Plants & Animals Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:00:14 EDT news707400715 A new study by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers shows that nearly 23% of short-finned pilot whales that stranded over 13 years in the main Hawaiian Islands ingested several pounds of plastic ropes, netting, fishing gear and plastic bags discarded in the ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tangled-plastic-fishing-gear-whales.html Plants & Animals Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:20:06 EDT news706956718 Researchers at the University of St Andrews have gained unprecedented insight into marine mammal behavior when they become tangled in fishing nets. In a paper published Aug. 26 in Royal Society Open Science, researchers from the Sea Mammal Research Unit and Scottish Oceans Institute at St Andrews discovered that their passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) systems, deployed on a gill net, had unintentionally recorded a bycatch event. This is thought to be the first time this kind of recording has taken place in such detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-porpoise-entanglement-real-revealing.html Plants & Animals Tue, 25 Aug 2026 19:10:01 EDT news706808402 For dolphins, the ocean is a world of sound. Their whistles carry social information, helping them communicate and stay connected, while echolocation—rapid-fire clicks—functions like underwater sonar, helping them navigate their surroundings and detect potential prey. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-snooping-dolphins-acoustic-clues-hotspots.html Plants & Animals Tue, 18 Aug 2026 10:40:07 EDT news706263421 Four more belugas have arrived at a Chicago aquarium as part of a plan to move Canada's last remaining captive whales from a shuttered theme park to aquariums in the United States and Spain. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-belugas-chicago-aquarium-shuttered-canadian.html Ecology Sat, 15 Aug 2026 07:40:02 EDT news705983202 Risso's dolphins around the British Isles are part of a single population—genetically distinct from those elsewhere in the Atlantic, new research shows. Scientists studied the DNA of dolphins that stranded in England, Scotland and Wales from 1992 to 2016. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-genetic-analysis-distinct-risso-dolphin.html Plants & Animals Mon, 03 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news704971621 Two plants that cause neurotoxicity and paralysis in the tiniest doses are also known to counter pain, malaria, cancer and pests. For the first time, researchers discovered a way to recreate these powerful compounds in the lab, helping lead the way to improved, naturally sourced therapeutics. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-deadly-blooms-genetic-blueprint-hard.html Agriculture Sat, 01 Aug 2026 07:00:06 EDT news704728495 Research on Southwest Florida cyanobacterial blooms shows that the toxins they produce are aerosolized and potentially inhaled by people far from contaminated water bodies. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-florida-bloom-toxins-air-inhalation.html Environment Sat, 18 Jul 2026 16:00:01 EDT news703499108 Bottlenose dolphins in the Adriatic Sea are spending much of their time following trawlers to scavenge for food, scientists say. The Adriatic seabed has been plowed by bottom trawlers for decades, resulting in ecosystem damage. Many apex predators are no longer present there. Only bottlenose dolphins are left, and the frequency of their presence around fishing trawlers—up to 76% of the trawlers inspected by scientists off Marche, Italy, were followed by dolphins—suggests they may be struggling to hunt normally. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bottlenose-dolphins-adriatic-sea-heavily.html Plants & Animals Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:01 EDT news702201181 When female bottlenose dolphins want to avoid males known for pushy mating behaviors, they listen out for their unique signature whistles. That's the suggestion of a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that tracked a population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dolphins-troublesome-males.html Plants & Animals Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:20:02 EDT news700831986 Wild dolphins are known for their complex social lives, but new research shows those social networks can be influenced by human activity. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-human-linked-foraging-reshapes-dolphin.html Plants & Animals Thu, 28 May 2026 18:10:01 EDT news699208201 Researchers at University of Tsukuba used advanced techniques to visualize the water flow generated by flutter kicking during front-crawl swimming. They analyzed how this kicking motion generates propulsive force and contributes to body stabilization, demonstrating that the vertical vortices resulting from the alternating left and right leg movements not only impart forward propulsion but also suppress body sway. These results provide a fluid-dynamical explanation of the functional value of the flutter kick. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-visualizing-flutter-vertical-vortices-generate.html Soft Matter Mon, 25 May 2026 13:40:02 EDT news698932622 DNA is everywhere in the world's oceans—not only packaged inside cells from skin, scales, mucus, feces, and blood, but also floating freely. Sequencing such "environmental DNA" (eDNA) from open water has long been used as a cost-effective way of gauging the number and identity of species in a region, especially when they are rare and elusive or living at great depths. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dna-seawater-scientists-health-america.html Ecology Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:04 EDT news698326022 Dolphins are famous for their speed and agility in the water, but what exactly allows them to swim so effectively? Scientists have been asking this question for years, hoping to learn how to optimize propulsion in fluids from these elegant creatures. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dolphins-fast-secrets-hidden-whirlpools.html Soft Matter Mon, 27 Apr 2026 08:00:04 EDT news696495482 Cooperation is a pillar of human society, promoting an exchange of skills and knowledge between different individuals and social groups. Humans typically do not only cooperate with their own family, friends and members of their community, but also with others who are unrelated to them and are outside of their social circle. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-bonobos-dolphins-unexpected-alliances-outsiders.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:20:07 EDT news696072028 Researchers have found that a group of chemicals known as PFAS can be transferred from mother dolphins to their nursing calves, adding to the evidence that these persistent contaminants can be transferred from mothers to offspring during early development. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-pfas-dolphin-mothers-calves.html Ecology Sat, 18 Apr 2026 07:04:50 EDT news695714541 In 2021 and 2023, hundreds of dolphins were stranded in shallow waters in San Antonio Bay in northern Patagonia. Some died, but many were returned safely to the sea. But what remained a mystery until now was how they ended up stuck on sandbanks in the first place. Now, a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science suggests that orcas may be to blame. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-dolphin-mass-strandings-patagonia-linked.html Plants & Animals Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:50:04 EDT news692458283 A well-established fact of infancy in mammals is that the mother is the primary adult with whom an infant will interact. This holds true across species, from the tiniest shrew to the most massive blue whale. However, infants of many species also interact with adults who are not their parents. This is called "allomaternal behavior" and it is commonly seen in social mammals that move in groups or herds. One such allomaternal behavior is when young females without infants of their own handle and care for infants. Young females learn to raise infants, while the mother can forage for food more effectively. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-narrow-ridged-finless-porpoises-social.html Plants & Animals Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:00:05 EDT news692269672 Liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) are critical components of laptop, television, and smartphone screens. Given their ubiquity in the environment, these compounds are considered persistent pollutants, posing threats to marine life that scientists want to understand. Research published in Environmental Science & Technology provides initial evidence that LCMs from household electronics or electronic waste (e-waste) can accumulate in dolphin and porpoise tissues, including blubber, muscle, and brain, demonstrating their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-chemicals-dolphins-porpoises.html Environment Wed, 25 Feb 2026 08:00:05 EST news691087981 Bottlenose dolphins usually live in small to medium-sized groups in coastal and open-sea waters, but every once in a while, a dolphin might leave its pod behind, flock to coastal areas and approach human settlements. While this is a relatively rare occurrence, cases of dolphins entering coastal or urban areas are well documented. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-celebrity-dolphin-venice-doesnt-special.html Plants & Animals Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:02 EST news691058461 A new UNSW-led global meta-analysis shows that PFAS concentrations can double at every step up the food chain, leaving top predators—and humans—potentially exposed to higher chemical loads. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-pfas-food-chain.html Environment Mon, 22 Dec 2025 08:57:49 EST news685616222 Drones have been used to successfully collect samples from the exhaled breath—or "blow"—from wild humpback, sperm and fin whales in northern Norway, hailing a new era of non-invasive health monitoring for these marine giants in Arctic regions. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-drone-sampling-whale-reveals-evidence.html Ecology Thu, 18 Dec 2025 18:30:01 EST news685269314 Male bottlenose dolphins that form friendships age more slowly than loners, new research shows. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-social-aging-dolphins-echoing-patterns.html Plants & Animals Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:01:40 EST news685022461 Killer whales or orca (Orcinus orca) have been observed hunting with Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) in the waters off British Columbia, Canada, and sharing fish scraps with them after making a kill, according to research published in Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-orca-tail-dolphins-salmon.html Plants & Animals Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:00:09 EST news684578221