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. When we think about nature in our cities, what often comes to mind are parks and reserves—planned, managed and clearly marked spaces that support animal and plant life in our urban environment. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-overlooked-melbourne-patch-reveals-animal.html Ecology Wed, 04 Nov 2026 13:00:01 EST news713008754 Zombies have taken many forms in popular culture. In Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video, corpses climb out of their graves and perform an impressively coordinated dance. In HBO's "The Last of Us," a fungus infects humans, takes over their bodies and turns them into hosts that help spread the infection. Even Plankton has tried his hand at taking control of another organism in "SpongeBob SquarePants." https://phys.org/news/2026-11-zombies-real-parasites-bodies-brains.html Plants & Animals Mon, 02 Nov 2026 13:40:12 EST news712833184 University of Cape Town (UCT) researchers recently named a series of approximately 400,000-year-old fossilized underground nests of an extinct termite species after Calitzdorp, the Little Karoo town near which they were found. In October 2026, the research team returned to the town to donate a poster documenting their discovery to the Calitzdorp Museum, helping to connect local communities with the region's fossil heritage. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-year-fossilized-termite-karoo-town.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 02 Nov 2026 13:00:01 EST news712841275 When we think of extraterrestrial intelligence that might be out there among the stars, we tend to think of creatures not too unlike us, though maybe with gray skin, probably bald and with big black eyes. We focus on the familiar, humanoids. But there are many intelligent species on Earth that are nonhumanoid: dolphins, crows, pigs and—with swarm if not individual intelligence—ants and bees. The film "Arrival" conceived of hexapod beings more capable than humans and with a more sophisticated communication system. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-extraterrestrial-firefly-communications-distinguish-alien.html Astronomy Fri, 30 Oct 2026 08:50:02 EDT news712568508 Around this time of year, elaborate decorations featuring ghosts, vampires, zombies, witches and werewolves adorn front doors, gardens and store windows across the country. But you may be surprised to hear that in the animal world, there are many real-life creatures with tendencies similar to those of the fictional characters in our Halloween nightmares. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-werewolf-mice-ghostly-frogs-cockroach.html Plants & Animals Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:20:01 EDT news712486624 The energy required for brains of different sizes to function could play a role in how different species evolved over time. While the energetic costs of brains have long been deemed important in evolution, direct measurements of the rate at which the brains of different species consume energy, also known as brain metabolic rates (MRs), remain scarce. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-smaller-ants-devote-resting-energy.html Plants & Animals Thu, 29 Oct 2026 08:20:14 EDT news712411896 What has the consistency of both toothpaste and dough, can absorb twice its weight in water and still remain sticky, was used by medieval artists as a binder in paint and has been hypothesized by physicians to repel insects? It's earwax. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-earwax-slippery-sticky-weird-combo.html Ecology Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news712393398 The human brain accounts for roughly 2% of total body weight but uses approximately 20% of our body's energy. Relative to our body size, human brains are much larger than those of other mammals and take a lot of energy to keep humans going. The evolution of our unusually large "social brain" is thought to have given us advanced intelligence and enabled the formation of large, complex societies. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ants-prioritize-brain-energy-starvation.html Plants & Animals Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:00:10 EDT news712396381 As winter approaches, many of us start clearing leaves and tidying up our gardens. But these jobs can remove vital winter habitats for wildlife, particularly with increasingly volatile weather conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-embrace-lazy-fall-gardening-wildlife.html Ecology Tue, 27 Oct 2026 15:00:12 EDT news712311500 In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from The University of Manchester and Lancaster University have isolated and characterized uranocenium, the positively charged form of a landmark uranium compound called uranocene. The work shows that this long-sought molecule is stable, and that it behaves in a way that challenges how chemists usually think about bonding in heavy elements. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-elusive-uranium-sandwich-molecule-isolated.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:00:12 EDT news711969002 A new study led by researchers in the Eco-Evo-Devo lab at the University of Ottawa finds that ants can decouple antenna size from both head and body size as they develop into different social castes, revealing how social signals and hormones help shape traits for specialized colony roles. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ants-basic-biology-environments.html Plants & Animals Thu, 22 Oct 2026 16:40:01 EDT news711901981 Losing more ground in the fight against climate change, humanity is heading for a hotter world than experts projected last year—and the United States is a big reason for that, a new United Nations report says. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-big-world-ground-climate.html Environment Thu, 22 Oct 2026 04:50:01 EDT news711862671 Losing more ground in the fight against climate change, humanity is heading for a hotter world than experts projected last year—and the United States is a big reason for that, a new United Nations report says. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-world-ground-curb-climate-faulting.html Environment Wed, 21 Oct 2026 11:20:25 EDT news711794023 Researchers have discovered honey beehives act as "living immune systems" that help protect the bee colony, its offspring and food supplies from disease. The finding underlines the need to protect bee habitat to ensure their health. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-beehives-immune-layered-antimicrobial-defenses.html Plants & Animals Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:00:11 EDT news711643621 Humans throughout history have invented a variety of ways to fight back against troublesome bacteria. But bacteria live in a dangerous world too. The human body and other bacteria-rich environments abound with bacteriophages, or viruses that prey upon bacteria. Phages can sometimes outnumber bacteria a hundredfold, yet the bacteria endure and even thrive. What gives? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bacteria-survive-world-full-killer.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 19 Oct 2026 09:20:08 EDT news711618962 To produce pharmaceuticals, food ingredients, and flavors and fragrances, it is often necessary to oxidize alcohols. In conventional chemistry, this transformation typically relies on harsh oxidants and elevated temperatures and generates toxic waste. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bacterial-galactose-oxidase-toolkit-greener.html Biochemistry Thu, 15 Oct 2026 18:20:04 EDT news711295622 Most kinds of coral spawn once a year. In an enormous multiday event synchronized to specific phases of the moon, they release vast slicks of eggs and sperm into the ocean to be mixed together by the drifting currents. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-spawning-coral-quintillions-eggs-year.html Ecology Wed, 14 Oct 2026 18:20:01 EDT news711193934 Many of the Australian animals most at risk of extinction are extremely tough to track down. That's because they live in small pockets of disappearing nature, such as rare grasslands or ancient forests, in worryingly low numbers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-dogs-australia-imperiled-lizards.html Ecology Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:20:13 EDT news711193632 Some insects, including honeybees and ants, live in highly organized colonies where individuals take on specific roles. In many ant societies, young adult workers typically care for developing young inside the nest before beginning to forage, or search for food, outside it. Some ant species, however, start hunting for food as soon as they reach adulthood, without undergoing a transition period. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-young-ants-early.html Plants & Animals Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:00:06 EDT news710584123 Do people eat insects when there is nothing else to eat? Are insects really "food for the poor" or famine food? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-insects-poor-people-food.html Ecology Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:00:01 EDT news710684317 If you've ever felt overwhelmed by menu options at a restaurant, cereal varieties at the grocery store or potential partners while scrolling through dating apps, you've experienced choice overload. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-males-overwhelm-female-frogs.html Plants & Animals Sun, 04 Oct 2026 16:20:01 EDT news710072966 While insects provide an essential food source for many vertebrate species, they're more than just a protein-laden snack. Chimpanzees use them to sterilize wounds, and herons use them as fishing bait. Sloths rely on moths to maintain the algae in their fur, which they then eat. Birds and reptiles lay their eggs inside the temperature-controlled sanctuary of termite mounds, while some desert frogs reside in ant nests because of the humidity. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-insects-essential-vertebrate-life-food.html Plants & Animals Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:10:01 EDT news709901461 Galaxies are enormous and hold hundreds of billions of stars. These stars form from cold, dense gas. Every large galaxy, including the Milky Way, is wrapped in a huge envelope of gas called the circumgalactic medium, or CGM. This reservoir of raw material stretches 10–20 times the size of the visible portion of the galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-black-hole-jets-galaxies-visible.html Astronomy Sat, 26 Sep 2026 17:00:01 EDT news709472146 In the world of carnivorous plants, Venus flytraps—with their showy, snapping reflexes—have long hogged the limelight. But plants have many creative bug-capture strategies, from slippery waxes to vibrating lids to bizarrely textured fluids. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-elastic-fantastic-deadly-fluid-pitcher.html Ecology Thu, 24 Sep 2026 22:00:02 EDT news709483141 About 66 million years ago, the asteroid that ended the age of the dinosaurs paved the way for a spectacular expansion of new animal species. During this period, ants rose to ecological dominance. Today, they form the largest family of social insects, with more than 15,000 species worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-genes-ants-evolutionary-triumph-extinction.html Evolution Thu, 24 Sep 2026 11:40:15 EDT news709460406 Tropical army ants are known to form devastating armadas that march through forests eating other insects and small creatures. As they march, they deposit chemical trails of pheromones that others behind them sense and follow. But occasionally one of these ants will walk in a circle, prompting a subset of ants behind them to follow until they all collapse and die. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-reveals-biological-echo-chambers.html Plants & Animals Wed, 23 Sep 2026 15:20:01 EDT news709388731 A Facebook post about your trip to Peru. An Amazon review of a new toaster oven. An email to the super about the inflatable reindeer blocking the hallway. You phrase and rephrase things all day without thinking that anyone—or anything—is putting words in your mouth. But what happens when AI joins the conversation? Are chatbots changing the way you write, talk and interact with others? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-bots-people-language-age-ai.html Social Sciences Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:51:23 EDT news708940190 To enter cells, the COVID-19 virus fuses its surrounding membrane with the membrane of the target cell. This is where the fusion peptides of the spike protein come into play. These regions function as molecular keys that allow the virus to open the door to the target cell and initiate fusion between the two membranes. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-spike-keys-sars-cov-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:20:13 EDT news708864482 Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a technology that uses quantum sensors to measure biomagnetic signals, such as heart activity. Researchers from the DIAQNOS (DIAmond-based Quantum Sensing for NeurOSurgery) flagship project, coordinated by Dr. Arne Wickenbrock in Mainz, have demonstrated the potential of quantum technology for future medical applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-diamond-quantum-sensors-heart-magnetism.html Condensed Matter Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:40:08 EDT news708854822 Two-thirds of a century after Jane Goodall observed "David Greybeard" break off a twig to fashion a fishing rod for termites, researchers following in her footsteps have found that adult chimpanzees in Senegal literally hand youngsters the tools for learning. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-chimpanzees-youngsters-tools-tricky-techniques.html Plants & Animals Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:02 EDT news708597361