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. Buffalo's legendary snowfall totals are largely the result of one unlucky geographic reality: the city sits east of the Great Lakes instead of west. Anyone who has lived through a winter in Buffalo, Cleveland or any snowbelt city knows that prevailing westerly winds pick up moisture from the lakes and dump lake-effect snow on their eastern shores. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-iceberg-reveal-reverse-great.html Earth Sciences Wed, 13 May 2026 15:56:40 EDT news697906562 A new peer-reviewed study conducted by researchers at The University of Toledo and University of Missouri provides some of the first rigorous experimental evidence that goldfish—one of the world's most popular pets—can dramatically change freshwater ecosystems when released or they escape into the wild. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-pet-pest-invasive-goldfish-reshaping.html Ecology Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:40:03 EDT news696595982 New observations and simulations by a team of researchers led by MPE reveal that a massive binary star near our galaxy's center is responsible for creating a series of enigmatic gas clouds—compact gas clumps that help feed the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. The study is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mysterious-gas-clouds-milky-black.html Astronomy Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:00:08 EDT news696159422 As the West faces increasingly destructive wildfires, land managers rely on mechanical thinning to reduce hazardous fuels and restore forest health. But one obstacle continues to slow this work down: Thinning costs are notoriously difficult to estimate from one project to the next. Uncertainty around those numbers raises concerns that outdated cost estimates may be holding critical restoration projects back. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-hurdles-forest.html Ecology Sun, 12 Apr 2026 08:00:04 EDT news694777871 Algae blooms make a pond's surface shine in mesmerizing green hues. But if the microorganisms responsible are cyanobacteria, they can also release toxins that harm humans and wildlife alike. A team reporting in ACS ES&T Water has designed a "set it and forget it" system for distributing algaecide using specialized buoys tethered at the site of a bloom. In tests, the buoys removed nearly all cyanobacteria without the need for frequent reapplication. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-algae-blooms-bacteria-buoys.html Cell & Microbiology Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:00:02 EDT news694105176 Some brands of bottled water contain significantly higher levels of microplastics than tap water, according to new research by scientists who have developed a novel method for detecting these tiny particles. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-bottled-worse-microplastics.html Environment Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:36:12 EST news689250901 No matter where you live in the United States, you have likely seen headlines about PFAS being detected in everything from drinking water to fish to milk to human bodies. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-pfas-great-lakes-fish.html Environment Thu, 29 Jan 2026 01:00:01 EST news688827404 Warm Arctic waters and cold continental land are combining to stretch the dreaded polar vortex in a way that will send much of the United States a devastating dose of winter weather later this week with swaths of painful subzero temperatures, heavy snow and powerline-toppling ice. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-meteorologists-blame-polar-vortex-moisture.html Environment Wed, 21 Jan 2026 13:30:28 EST news688224590 Archival discoveries including a 19th-century autobiography transform our understanding of Shadrach Byfield, an English veteran of the War of 1812 who buried his own amputated arm and designed a custom prosthesis. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-british-redcoat-lost-memoir-reveals.html Archaeology Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:00:04 EST news687541559 Growing up in the 1970s, I took for granted the trash piles along the highway, tires washed up on beaches, and smog fouling city air. The famed "Crying Indian" commercial of 1971 became a symbol of widespread environmental damage across the United States. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-dirty-environmental-cleanup-laws-huge.html Environment Mon, 05 Jan 2026 13:00:19 EST news686840402 Trees contain valuable information about Earth's past, so much so that studying their rings may help fill in hidden gaps in Ohio's environmental history. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-trees-spruce-future-efforts.html Earth Sciences Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:38:38 EST news685345081 More than half the people in jail or prison in the U.S. have been diagnosed with substance use disorder (SUD). By law, inmates in New York State with opioid use disorder must be provided with medication-assisted treatment within 24 hours of intake. So it's often incarceration that gives many of these people their first real chance at recovery. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-people-opioid-disorder-prison-stay.html Social Sciences Wed, 10 Dec 2025 11:34:35 EST news684588841 When University at Buffalo chemists analyzed samples of water, fish, and bird eggs, they weren't surprised to find plenty of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). After all, these "forever chemicals" turn up nearly everywhere in the environment. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-tracking-chemicals-food-web-isomers.html Biochemistry Tue, 02 Dec 2025 16:32:24 EST news683915521 An international research team led by PD Dr. Florian Peissker at the University of Cologne has used the new observation instrument ERIS (Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) facility in Chile to show that several so-called "dusty objects" follow stable orbits around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-stars-defy-black-hole-stable.html Astronomy Fri, 28 Nov 2025 10:40:06 EST news683548405 The world has changed dramatically in the decade since leaders celebrated a historic climate agreement in Paris a decade ago, but not quite in ways they expected or wanted. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-landmark-paris-agreement-path-world.html Environment Sun, 09 Nov 2025 14:28:42 EST news681920916 Two hundred years ago, on Oct. 26, 1825, New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton boarded a canal boat by the shores of Lake Erie. Amid boisterous festivities, his vessel, the Seneca Chief, embarked from Buffalo, the westernmost port of his brand-new Erie Canal. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-erie-canal-big-ditch-america.html Environment Mon, 20 Oct 2025 23:00:01 EDT news680191086 If you visit the Erie Canal today, you'll find a tranquil waterway and trail that pass through charming towns and forests, a place where hikers, cyclists, kayakers, bird-watchers and other visitors seek to enjoy nature and escape the pressures of modern life. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-erie-canal-200th-anniversary-technological.html Environment Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:19:05 EDT news679749542 Finally, something to unite President Donald Trump, his Democratic opponents and the Canadians he's threatening to annex: a ferociously hungry carp. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-americans-canadians-machine-carp.html Ecology Sun, 05 Oct 2025 12:40:01 EDT news678886283 A new nationwide database developed by researchers at Northern Arizona University is helping land managers answer a long-standing question: Are fuel treatments actually reducing wildfire risk? https://phys.org/news/2025-09-nationwide-database-track-wildfire-treatments.html Environment Wed, 10 Sep 2025 10:05:03 EDT news676717501 Until now, additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, of engine components was limited by the lack of affordable metal alloys that could withstand the extreme temperatures of spaceflight. Expensive metal alloys were the only option for 3D printing engine parts until NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, developed the GRX-810 alloy. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-nasa-printable-metal-extreme-temperatures.html Materials Science Mon, 18 Aug 2025 08:46:12 EDT news674725570 Trevor Pitcher's students at the University of Windsor's Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research have made breakthroughs in the international effort to restore sturgeon populations in the Great Lakes. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-science-chill-canadian.html Environment Mon, 11 Aug 2025 07:09:13 EDT news674114943 The first Australian -made rocket to attempt to reach orbit from the country's soil crashed after 14 seconds of flight on Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-australian-rocket-seconds-flight-orbit.html Space Exploration Wed, 30 Jul 2025 04:39:38 EDT news673069173 Harmful algal blooms are not all the same. That's true even of the blooms within northwest Ohio, where researchers have long known that the strain of cyanobacteria that typically dominates blooms in the western basin of Lake Erie differs from the strain of cyanobacteria that typically dominates blooms more than 100 miles south in Grand Lake St. Marys. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-microbial-interactions-early-indicators-algal.html Ecology Thu, 24 Jul 2025 09:58:04 EDT news672569881 Astronomers may have caught a still-forming planet in action, carving out an intricate pattern in the gas and dust that surrounds its young host star. Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), they observed a planetary disk with prominent spiral arms, finding clear signs of a planet nestled in its inner regions. This is the first time astronomers have detected a planet candidate embedded inside a disk spiral. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-cosmic-sculptor-astronomers-young-planet.html Astronomy Mon, 21 Jul 2025 08:00:01 EDT news672298909 Spotted lanternfly season is back in Pennsylvania. The polka-dotted, gray-and-red-winged adult insects make their appearance each July and tend to hang around until December. It's an unwelcome summer ritual that started in 2014 when the invasive pests were first detected in the U.S. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-lanternflies-grapevines-bad-pennsylvania-wine.html Agriculture Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:40:01 EDT news671711904 Between 2010 and 2017, there were approximately 50 drowning fatalities each year associated with rough surf and strong currents in the Great Lakes. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-great-lakes-powerful-rip-currents.html Environment Wed, 09 Jul 2025 14:40:02 EDT news671287887 A joint project which saw two boreholes drilled in northern Singapore has revealed subsurface temperatures reaching up to 122°C at a depth of 1.76 km in Sembawang, significantly higher than earlier findings recorded in Admiralty, where 70°C was measured at a depth of 1.12 km. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-strong-geothermal-potential-northern-singapore.html Earth Sciences Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:00:03 EDT news671125483 Ecologists celebrated the release of thousands of palm-sized lake sturgeon into the Maumee River in 2018, kicking off an ambitious two-decade plan to re-establish the ancient species in the waters it once called home. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-year-survival-maumee-river-sturgeon.html Plants & Animals Thu, 03 Jul 2025 07:02:05 EDT news670744922 Beginning in the 1960s, satellite instruments have measured Earth's reflected broadband shortwave radiation and emitted longwave radiation. These measurements have been used to estimate Earth's "energy balance," defined as the difference at the top of the atmosphere between the amount of incident solar irradiance absorbed by the Earth system and the amount of terrestrial radiation emitted in space at infrared wavelengths. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-tiny-satellite-giant-potential-cloud.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 02 Jul 2025 16:53:03 EDT news670693981 In his second term, President Donald Trump has not taken many actions that draw near-universal praise from across the political spectrum. But there is at least one of these political anomalies, and it illustrates the broad appeal of environmental protection and conservation projects—particularly when it concerns an ecosystem of vital importance to millions of Americans. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-invasive-carp-threaten-great-lakes.html Ecology Tue, 01 Jul 2025 11:42:05 EDT news670588922