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. A small sample of human tissue can hold a remarkable amount of information. Researchers can use it to search for molecular clues associated with cancer, investigate the chemical landscape of the brain or determine where a drug travels after it enters the body. Mass spectrometry imaging, or MSI, helps answer those questions by mapping where different molecules are located within tissue. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-simple-recipe-guesswork-mass-spectrometry.html Biochemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 18:40:03 EDT news712325222 Who knew a monarch butterfly could borrow a cellphone to check in with friendly people he met on his journey? That is essentially what happens now that new technology has reduced the weight of a radio-pulse tag to less than half a gram (0.02 ounces). https://phys.org/news/2026-10-monarchs-cellphone.html Plants & Animals Sun, 25 Oct 2026 15:00:06 EDT news711983213 Every storybook opens a window for our imagination to be freed from the reality of the world around us and escape into the fictional world. While the author's words act as a guide, everyone experiences fiction in their own way, creating vivid mental pictures and even forming an emotional connection with the characters. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-worlds-readers.html Social Sciences Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:00:33 EDT news711885746 The loss of Earth's animal and plant species is a crisis. Just don't call it an "extinction crisis" if you aim to mobilize public concern. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-word-choice-extinction-animals-biodiversity.html Plants & Animals Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:40:01 EDT news711885121 Georgia has been a destination for quail hunters for more than a century. But recent declines in its bobwhite population have researchers searching for answers to boost the popular game bird's numbers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-woody-vegetation-boost-populations-georgia.html Plants & Animals Tue, 13 Oct 2026 09:40:01 EDT news711100381 Millions of people worldwide, likely without realizing it, are capturing rare and valuable data that can help researchers assess trends in ecosystem health. Such data, however, are hidden in an ocean of comments on free online platforms like eBird and iNaturalist used by birdwatchers and other nature enthusiasts. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nature-lovers-aid-ecology-ai.html Ecology Mon, 12 Oct 2026 11:40:20 EDT news711016082 Many naturally occurring molecules such as menthol or limonene exist in two mirror-image forms, known as enantiomers, that look almost identical but can differ greatly in smell, taste or effect on the body. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-enzymes-mirror-image-molecules.html Plants & Animals Fri, 09 Oct 2026 11:20:01 EDT news710759952 Disease and heat pose a deadly combination for coral reefs, according to a new University of Georgia study published in the journal Coral Reefs. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-florida-keys-reveals-fourfold-death.html Plants & Animals Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:20:17 EDT news710424301 Astronomers using Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array have found that nearby stars darken toward their edges more strongly at near-infrared wavelengths than predicted by several widely used models of stellar atmospheres, providing a new benchmark for understanding how stars are structured. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-stars-infrared-expose-gaps.html Astronomy Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:20:20 EDT news710153702 From vaccines to gene therapies, mRNA medicines often rely on tiny fat-based particles called lipid nanoparticles, or LNPs, to carry treatments where they need to go. But researchers still face a fundamental challenge: getting those therapies to the organs where they are needed most while limiting side effects elsewhere in the body. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gut-mrna-tech-supercharges-vaccine.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:00:02 EDT news710062742 La Trobe archaeologists have described 18 new hominin fossils, including a second Homo erectus skull fragment that confirms the species first appeared in southern Africa 2.0 million years ago—200,000 years earlier than traditionally thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-adult-fossil-evidence-homo-erectus.html Evolution Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:00:02 EDT news709983601 Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astronomers led by the University of Maryland identified water, methane and ammonia in the atmosphere of HATS-6 b, a giant planet 500 light-years from Earth. The observations also revealed that HATS-6 b may be significantly cooler than standard calculations predict—suggesting that the planet's relationship with its star may be far more complicated than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-webb-ammonia-unexpected-chill-distant.html Astronomy Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:40:05 EDT news709549202 In a discovery as broad and far-reaching as the Big Muddy itself, a new Yale–led study says farmers in the Mississippi River Basin are storing more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the soil than they emit when they add limestone to their fields, an agricultural practice known as "liming." https://phys.org/news/2026-09-adding-limestone-mississippi-river-basin.html Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 11:00:30 EDT news709373342 The human brain is terrible at healing itself from injury or disease. But some animals can harness their own cellular abilities not only to repair injuries but also to regrow their brains entirely. Researchers from the University of Georgia have pinpointed several of the genes that make brain regeneration possible in one type of flatworm. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-genes-flatworms-regenerate-brains-revealed.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 21 Sep 2026 05:00:09 EDT news708946681 Many of the moons orbiting Saturn, Uranus and Neptune likely conceal oceans of liquid water beneath miles of icy shell. Because life as we know it needs water, these buried oceans rank among the most promising places to search for life beyond Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-simulate-cosmic-icy-moons.html Astrobiology Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:00:06 EDT news708960640 A firm handshake used to be all a job candidate needed to make a good first impression, but today a growing number of firms are relying on artificial intelligence to screen applicants. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-robot-affect-behavior.html Economics & Business Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:39:27 EDT news708262709 New research shows that larval Antarctic krill could be carried far from their birthplace by drifting sea ice, linking distant ecosystems in ways conventional models may miss. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-sea-ice-hidden-highways-young.html Plants & Animals Tue, 08 Sep 2026 10:40:01 EDT news708077641 A few years ago, I drove with an old friend from Togo, West Africa, towards the country's last remaining large protected area, Fazao-Malfakassa National Park. Our destination was the Hotel Fazao, where his uncle had once worked as a professional chef after its opening in 1980. For decades, while the park was managed by the Swiss Franz Weber Foundation (FWF), the hotel had hosted tourists from around the world who came to see elephants, monkeys, and other wildlife for which Africa is famous. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rangers-residents-togo-national.html Plants & Animals Mon, 07 Sep 2026 18:00:09 EDT news707988573 A new study led by Francesca Storici, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and faculty member of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, has uncovered an unexpected feature of human DNA linked to gene activity and the physical organization of DNA. The findings, published in Cell, could change how scientists think about DNA organization, transcription and genome function. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-layer-human-genome-embedded-rna.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:20:02 EDT news707571601 When Joro spiders first arrived stateside more than a decade ago, scientists worried the massive black-and-yellow spiders would gorge themselves on the same bugs as native spiders (or even the native spiders themselves). If the invasive arachnids did make massive meals of Georgia's insects, the local orb weaver population—already facing dangers from insecticide and pesticide use—could suffer. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-joro-spiders-wider-range-insects.html Plants & Animals Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:00:08 EDT news707135881 More than 150 people are dead and hundreds more are missing after an enormous wave of water, ice, mud and rock cascaded more than 170 kilometers (106 miles) down the Bhote Koshi River valley in Nepal. The valley is the main link between Kathmandu in Nepal and Lhasa in Tibet. At least 34 Australians are missing. There was little warning. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tsunami-dirt-nepal-deadly-glacial.html Earth Sciences Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:20:05 EDT news707054162 One of the world's favorite sweet treats, chocolate, may have been enjoyed in eastern North America much earlier than previously thought, about 1,000 years ago. New research published in the journal PLOS One suggests that people in the Mississippian city of Etowah were consuming cacao, the plant used to make chocolate, in the 11th and 12th centuries. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ancient-dna-reveals-cacao-consumed.html Archaeology Thu, 27 Aug 2026 10:00:08 EDT news707041258 Some of the world's brightest colors don't just reflect light; they create it. Scientists and museum conservators are now uncovering why these luminous pigments fade and how to preserve them for future generations. The findings could help protect artwork while informing the development of longer-lasting phosphorescent materials for a variety of applications, from fashion runways to airport runways. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hidden-chemistry-dark-art.html Materials Science Tue, 25 Aug 2026 05:00:12 EDT news706777134 When I first arrived in Peru's Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve in 2005, a local youth surprised me with an offer to sell me a live owl, despite the fact that we were in a protected area where commercial hunting was prohibited. We set the owl free together, but this turned out to be an early lesson about the vulnerability of tropical protected areas to exploitation, even when laws and policies had been put in place to protect them. At that time, Allpahuayo-Mishana was a newly designated protected area with no paid staff except for its director, who was stationed in the nearby city of Iquitos. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bird-eye-view-illegal-consequences.html Plants & Animals Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:40:06 EDT news706783338 The Land Institute and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, in collaboration with key partners, have assembled the first chromosome-scale, haplotype-phased genomes for Silphium integrifolium (rosinweed, silflower) and Silphium perfoliatum (cup plant, silphie). This landmark research promises to expand and accelerate the development of more climate-resilient, sustainable perennial crops. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-giant-wild-sunflower-family-genomes.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:40:02 EDT news706801021 Age isn't just a number for one of the ocean's top apex predators. It's a mystery University of Georgia researchers are solving. A new UGA study has determined how to estimate the age of sharks by analyzing changes to individual animals' DNA. Known as epigenetic clocks, these scientific age estimators focus on chemical alterations known as DNA methylation to measure wear and tear on an animal's cells, providing a noninvasive, fast and accurate assessment of an animal's age. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-shark-dna-age.html Ecology Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news706527066 100 million years ago, long before human intervention, ancestors of grasses, including wheat, rice and maize, developed "bypasses" in chemical pathways used to create two critical compounds: lignin and starch. These more efficient pathways could explain why grass plants are so successful in nature and agriculture, according to a new paper published in Science on Aug. 20 by researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and their collaborators. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-million-year-molecular-bypasses-grasses.html Plants & Animals Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:00:03 EDT news706369801 The Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine was destroyed on June 6, 2023. The event unleashed a catastrophic flood that forced thousands of residents to evacuate their communities as water levels rose 10 feet (3 meters) above normal. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rare-satellite-reveal-major-limits.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 18:10:01 EDT news706289642 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 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