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 new study, Northwestern University scientists explored how snow flies—small, wingless insects that crawl across snow to find mates and lay eggs—survive in freezing cold temperatures. They discovered this snow-dwelling fly uses a surprising combination of strategies: it generates its own body heat like a mammal and produces antifreeze proteins like an Arctic fish. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-flies-proteins.html Plants & Animals Tue, 24 Mar 2026 11:00:03 EDT news693478621 Sometimes, doing research stinks. Quite literally. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-corpse-terrible-strategy-female.html Plants & Animals Tue, 16 Sep 2025 12:46:05 EDT news677245562 University of Tokyo researchers have investigated the origin and dispersal scenarios of Homo sapiens into East Eurasia. The team examined how migration routes, genetic contributions from archaic humans, and environmental adaptations helped shape modern populations and found an improbable flaw in one origin idea. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-africa-east-eurasian-genomic.html Evolution Tue, 04 Mar 2025 07:30:05 EST news660219872 The unusual odor of the titan arum, commonly called the corpse flower because its scent is reminiscent of rotting flesh, draws crowds of curious visitors to greenhouses around the world during its rare blooms. What also intrigues scientists is the corpse flower's propensity for warming itself up just before blooming through a process known as thermogenesis, an uncommon trait in plants that is not well understood. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-secrets-corpse-revealed.html Plants & Animals Mon, 11 Nov 2024 09:28:04 EST news650539675 Thermogenesis is a process by which organisms generate internal heat. Although it is usually associated with animals, some plants have also developed this ability. This metabolic process allows certain parts of the plant, such as flowers and inflorescences, to raise their temperature above that of the surrounding environment. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-thermogenesis-played-key-role-pollinating.html Plants & Animals Fri, 06 Sep 2024 05:00:01 EDT news644756881 "Who are we and where do we come from?" This quintessential question has intrigued humanity for millennia. Currently, the "Out-of-Africa (OOA) theory" is prevailingly accepted regarding the origin of modern humans, as a line of evidence indicates that Homo sapiens originated in Africa. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-africa-story-dna.html Evolution Tue, 02 Jul 2024 12:42:05 EDT news639142921 Around 100 million years ago, a remarkable evolutionary shift allowed placental mammals to diversify and conquer many cold regions of our planet. New research from Stockholm University shows that the typical mammalian heater organ, brown fat, evolved exclusively in modern placental mammals. The work is published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-marsupials-key-heater-mammals.html Plants & Animals Thu, 06 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news636883398 Mitochondria, organelles with an inner and outer membrane, are responsible for creating the energy that cells use to survive, and their morphology is key to accomplishing this task. The inner mitochondrial membrane contains folds, called cristae, that maximize the surface area available for mitochondrial energetic processes. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-mitochondria-life-stages.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 08 Apr 2024 13:17:22 EDT news631800929 Researchers Toru Miyamoto, Ko Mochizuki, and Atsushi Kawakita of the University of Tokyo have discovered the first species pollinated by sap beetles in the genus Pandanus, a group of palm-like plants native to the tropics and subtropics of Africa and Eurasia. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-fragrant-pollinated-sap-beetles.html Plants & Animals Wed, 27 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EDT news630747061 Researchers have shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying hibernation, publishing their findings today as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-reveals-molecular-mechanisms-hibernation-mammals.html Plants & Animals Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:09:04 EST news627667741 Throughout the history of RNA research, one can immediately notice a significant breakthrough during 2007 and 2008, in which several groups independently reported the discovery of intact noncoding RNA (ncRNA) sequences in extracellular space. Later on, the discovery of these extracellular ncRNAs led to a scope switch of RNA study, from their regulatory roles within the cells to signaling properties in cell-to-cell communications. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-rnakine-nomenclature-extracellular-ncrnas.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 02 Jan 2024 16:24:11 EST news623435050 In a new study published in The Plant Journal, researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, University of Hamburg and partners have developed new approaches to compare and investigate the ability of plants in the genus Amorphophallus to produce their own heat, exploring the highly varied temperature patterns and their evolutionary significance. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-largest-kind-explores-rare-patterns.html Plants & Animals Tue, 20 Jun 2023 13:17:16 EDT news606485833 New research has unlocked insights into how "good fat" tissue could potentially be harnessed to combat obesity and remove glucose from the blood, helping to control diabetes. Published today in Science Advances, the work is a collaboration between researchers with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Cambridge, Free University of Brussels and University of East Anglia. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-uncovers-key-fat-cells-advancing.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 31 May 2023 14:00:04 EDT news604732375 A team of researchers from the University of Queensland, La Trobe University and Monash University, all in Australia, has found evidence that suggests the evolutionary loss of a ryanodine receptor isoform may explain how muscles in warm-blooded creatures evolved to allow for the generation of heat even when at rest. The paper is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-evolutionary-loss-ryanodine-receptor-isoform.html Evolution Thu, 19 Jan 2023 11:07:10 EST news593348825 An international team of researchers including Florian Etl and Jürg Schönenberger from the University ofVienna, Stefan Dötterl and Mario Schubert from the University of Salzburg, and Oliver Reiser and Christian Kaiser from the University of Regensburg, have for the first time succeeded in providing evidence for an important hypothesis on the evolution and diversity of animal pollination. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-animal-pollination.html Evolution Fri, 07 Oct 2022 09:35:30 EDT news584354125 Hot summer temperatures may have you reaching for a fan and an iced drink in your quest to keep cool. But now, researchers from Japan have found that some mutant proteins are even less tolerant of the heat, getting trapped in a cycle of activation that can have deadly consequences. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-links-malignant-hyperthermia-heat-hypersensitive-mutant.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Aug 2022 10:21:02 EDT news579172861 Nelumbo is a unique genus of Nelumbonaceae (lotus), which comprises two extant species: N. nucifera Gaertn. widely distributed in Asia and northern Australia, and N. lutea Pers. which is distributed in America. These two species exhibit differences in morphology, such as plant size, leaf shape, petal shape and petal color, but share the same chromosome number. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-analyses-american-asian-lotus-genomes.html Plants & Animals Thu, 30 Jun 2022 14:47:02 EDT news575819221 Researchers have shown that aggregation of amyloid-beta, one of two key proteins implicated in Alzheimer's disease, causes cells to overheat and "fry like eggs." https://phys.org/news/2022-05-alzheimer-disease-cells-overheat-eggs.html Biochemistry Tue, 31 May 2022 07:16:22 EDT news573200177 The evolutionary origin of endothermy (the ability to maintain a warm body and higher energy levels than reptiles), currently believed to have originated separately in birds and mammals, could have occurred nearly 300 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-warm-bodied-ties-mammals-birds-ancient.html Evolution Mon, 13 Dec 2021 16:53:19 EST news558636791 Sea otters are a hardy lot. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-scientists-otters-hotter.html Plants & Animals Thu, 08 Jul 2021 16:34:20 EDT news544980842 We have all heard the mantra that dolphins and whales (cetaceans) are highly intelligent animals. Some claim they're on par with great apes and humans—maybe even smarter. But where does this concept come from? https://phys.org/news/2021-04-whale-dolphin-brains-lots.html Plants & Animals Thu, 08 Apr 2021 09:30:04 EDT news537092223 Scientific evidence shows specialized features in the large brains of whales and dolphins that are adapted for heat production. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-whale-dolphin-brains-specialfor-production.html Plants & Animals Tue, 09 Mar 2021 10:18:08 EST news534507484 Although the CRISPR/Cas9 system has seen widespread application in editing the nuclear genome, using it to edit the mitochondrial genome has been problematic. The main hurdles have been a lack of suitable editing sites in the small mtDNA, and the traditional difficulty of importing the guide RNA into the mitochondrial matrix where nucleoids can be accessed. https://phys.org/news/2021-02-crispr-mitochondria-biotech.html Biotechnology Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:00:01 EST news531731817 A mitochondrial hormone expressed by cells deep in the brain appears to play a role in improving metabolism and fighting off obesity, according to a new study in mice. https://phys.org/news/2021-02-body-mind-hormones-brain-metabolism.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 02 Feb 2021 12:42:49 EST news531492163 By feeding arctic ground squirrels special diets, researchers have found that omega-3 fatty acids, common in flax seed and fish oil, help keep the animals warmer in deep hibernation. https://phys.org/news/2021-01-omega-fat-hibernating-arctic-ground.html Plants & Animals Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:34:34 EST news529864470 Precisely manipulating various liquids is essential in many fields and unlike solid objects, fluids are intrinsically divisible. Fluids are also sticky with appropriate functions for lossless manipulation to prevent loss and contamination. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Wei Li and colleagues in mechanical engineering and research and innovation in China presented photopyroelectric microfluidics to meet such diverse requirements. The fluidic platform facilitated the development of a unique wavy dielectrophoretic force field from a single beam of light to remarkably perform the desired loss-free manipulation of droplets and function as a "magic" wetting-proof surface. The liquid platform could navigate, fuse, pinch and cleave fluids on demand to establish cargo carriers with droplet wheels and has potential to upgrade the maximum concentration of deliverables such as protein by 4000-fold. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-photopyroelectric-microfluidics.html Nanophysics Thu, 24 Sep 2020 10:10:05 EDT news520158972 Researchers have discovered a new set of signals that cells send and receive to prompt one type of fat cell to convert fat into heat. The signaling pathway, discovered in mice, has potential implications for activating this same type of thermogenic fat in humans. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-approach-energy-burning-fat-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 12 Jun 2020 11:00:01 EDT news511170257 Yes, fat cells deep under your skin can sense light. And when bodies do not get enough exposure to the right kinds of light, fat cells behave differently. https://phys.org/news/2020-01-fat-cells-sunlightnot-metabolic-syndrome.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 21 Jan 2020 12:25:10 EST news498831904 A new Tel Aviv University study suggests that the genetic profiles of two extinct mammals with African ancestry—woolly mammoths, elephant-like animals that evolved in the arctic peninsula of Eurasia around 600,000 years ago, and Neanderthals, highly skilled early humans who evolved in Europe around 400,000 years ago—shared molecular characteristics of adaptation to cold environments. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-woolly-mammoths-neanderthals-genetic-traits.html Evolution Mon, 08 Apr 2019 13:03:00 EDT news473947373 A technique that uses fluorescent dyes to measure the temperature inside living cells is helping to reveal the mechanism by which living organisms generate heat. https://phys.org/news/2016-10-light-emitting-dyes-cells-subcellular-accuracy.html Materials Science Fri, 07 Oct 2016 07:00:02 EDT news395041801