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. Although increased cell proliferation is a hallmark of cancerous tissues, in some cases it may actually protect against tumor growth, according to a new study by Caltech researchers. Using mathematical models, the work suggests a new paradigm for the earliest stages of cancer development. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-jellyfish-reveal-rapid-cell-turnover.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 19 Aug 2026 11:20:03 EDT news706351503 For thousands of years, the Anindilyakwa people have lived in deep connection with the waters surrounding Groote Eylandt, a remote island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rangers-scientists-vulnerable-reefs-remote.html Plants & Animals Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:00:01 EDT news705671161 An international research team led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) investigated how the shape of black corals influences the functions of their cilia. The findings are published in the journal Communications Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-coral-microscopic-cilia-food.html Ecology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 10:00:02 EDT news703931701 The star that formed the Jellyfish nebula may have had a partner star that exploded 100,000 years earlier, according to international researchers, who say that this may be the first known discovery of a binary star system in which both stars have gone supernova. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-jellyfish-nebula-scene-stars-supernova.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:30:01 EDT news703866901 It can be easy to get sucked into social media for hours on end. Funny, cartoony science videos may be especially interesting, but not to everyone, according to a recent study from the University of Georgia. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-jellyfish-videos-reveal-science-content.html Social Sciences Sun, 12 Jul 2026 19:00:03 EDT news702738084 The world's largest whale graveyard has been discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean by Chinese scientists, who found that the vast expanse of both new and ancient carcasses supports huge communities of deep-sea life. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-world-largest-whale-graveyard-chinese.html Plants & Animals Sat, 11 Jul 2026 12:50:01 EDT news700314309 High above the rainforest floor, tiny ponds form in the leaves of plants perched on tree branches. Frogs breed in these ponds, alongside insects, microbes and even tiny crustaceans, creating miniature ecosystems suspended high in the canopy. These are the bromeliads—the remarkable plant family that also gave us air plants, the towering 12-meter (39-foot) "Queen of the Andes", and the pineapple on your terrible pizza. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hummingbirds-pineapples-ancient-relationship-evolutionary.html Evolution Thu, 09 Jul 2026 15:00:11 EDT news702820861 Popular science fiction is no stranger to escape-pod scenarios, typically featuring characters who narrowly avoid their demise by jettisoning from a spaceship—think R2-D2 and C-3PO shooting away from a rebel spaceship in the opening of Star Wars: A New Hope. Biologists at the University of California San Diego have found that communities of bacteria feature a similar ejection capability. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bacteria-ability-jettison-cells-survival.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 07 Jul 2026 05:00:14 EDT news702543214 Astronomers have spotted many "red and dead" galaxies in the early universe. These are massive systems that stopped forming stars surprisingly early in cosmic history. Now, they may have found evidence of one in the act of becoming dead: a massive galaxy being stripped of its star-forming gas just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. The clues behind why it lost its star-forming material are detailed in a paper posted to the arXiv preprint server on June 16. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-astronomers-caught-early-galaxy-dying.html Astronomy Sat, 04 Jul 2026 09:40:01 EDT news701947729 During his morning runs, Rod Keogh had no doubt that the whale poo he saw washed up on the beach had value. Science has finally caught up with him. Samples collected by the South Australian man have contributed to a groundbreaking study of the diets and microbiomes of southern right whales, led by Macquarie University in Sydney and Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. The study is now published in the journal Molecular Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-beachcomber-fuels-whale-breakthrough.html Ecology Fri, 03 Jul 2026 08:50:06 EDT news702287382 Marine scientists at the University of Chester have discovered that environmental conditions experienced by jellyfish before winter can have lasting effects on the size and intensity of jellyfish blooms many months later. The study focused on the moon jellyfish, Aurelia aurita, one of the most common jellyfish species found in coastal waters throughout Europe. While the spectacular blooms of adult jellyfish are familiar to many beachgoers, far less is known about the tiny benthic polyp stage that lies hidden beneath the surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-winter-conditions-future-jellyfish-blooms.html Plants & Animals Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:00:05 EDT news702212822 The reefs scattered throughout the tropics arose only after algae took up full-time residence in coral cells, supplying corals with abundant food and enabling them to build extensive shallow-water communities. But with warming oceans, algae are often abandoning coral—causing what's known as bleaching—and turning reefs that were once teeming with life into ghost towns. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-algae-coral-reefs-hijacking-cells.html Ecology Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:00:01 EDT news702115922 A decade ago this summer, at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Jocelyn Malamy watched jellyfish cells "walk" toward each other to close a wound for the first time. An associate professor of molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago, Malamy had received transparent, dime-sized medusae of the species Clytia hemisphaerica from Evelyn Houliston's lab at the Marine Observatoire in Villefranche. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-jellyfish-reveal-rapid-scar-free.html Plants & Animals Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:50:01 EDT news702055861 A new study has uncovered a previously unknown antiviral defense mechanism in sea anemones, revealing that animals may have evolved more than one way to fight viral infections. Researchers discovered that a protein resembling a key component of the human immune system actually plays the opposite role, yet remains essential for effective antiviral protection. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sea-anemones-reveal-antiviral-defense.html Evolution Fri, 26 Jun 2026 05:00:08 EDT news701592181 A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star's detonation sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for thousands of years, the surviving star blew up, too. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-fermi-mission-uncovers-sibling-supernova.html Astronomy Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:40:05 EDT news701018038 In order for vertebrate embryos to develop their body axes, they require what is known as an embryonic signaling center. This group of cells provides the instructions that determine where up and down, left and right, and front and back are. Biologists at Friedrich Schiller University Jena have now discovered that even cnidarians—which form the sister group to all other multicellular animals, according to current understanding—possess this fundamental coordinate system. The study is published in the journal Nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-jelly-embryos-reveal-embryonic-center.html Plants & Animals Wed, 17 Jun 2026 19:00:04 EDT news700925566 When a whale dies, a very special natural phenomenon can come alive. The carcass might float at the surface for some time, attracting sharks and other predators. As it becomes weathered, it may start to sink, falling through the water until it eventually settles on the seafloor, where deep-sea scavengers feast upon it. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-millionyearold-whale-graveyard-floor-indian.html Paleontology & Fossils Sun, 14 Jun 2026 13:00:01 EDT news700402145 Researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the University of Alicante have developed a new anti-jellyfish floating buoy that helps prevent these creatures from reaching the coast, thereby reducing the risk of stings among bathers. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-anti-jellyfish-buoy.html Plants & Animals Wed, 10 Jun 2026 22:20:02 EDT news700296745 Using box jellyfish as an example, researchers from Kiel University show how the physics of density, not behavior or physiology, can prevent animals from reaching the surface even as they actively swim upward. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-jellyfish-surface.html Plants & Animals Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:40:03 EDT news699782281 Box jellyfish are often feared as dangerous animals, with some species capable of causing severe or even fatal stings. However, box jellyfish nematocysts—organelles responsible for this toxic sting—are theorized to also play an unexpected role in reproduction. While many studies focus on researching the range of toxicity levels exhibited by the more than 50 species of box jellyfish, their reproductive process is poorly understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-jellyfish-reveal-secret-life-implications.html Plants & Animals Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:00:01 EDT news699533821 Cosmic rays seen at Earth show a wide range of particle energies, from 107 electron-volts (eV) to more than 1020 eV, the latter being about the same as the kinetic energy of a 450 gram football (soccer ball) being kicked across the pitch at about 8 meters per second. A plot of cosmic ray energies from the Milky Way galaxy often shows a fair amount of what scientists might call "structure"—interesting deviations from the underlying trend called "knees" and "ankles" that indicate new processes or methods of cosmic ray production taking place at that energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-evidence-cosmic-ray-nearby-supernova.html Astronomy Sat, 30 May 2026 07:20:01 EDT news699280638 Researchers have uncovered a remarkable fossil site in a remote part of Canada's Northwest Territories, offering unprecedented insight into the earliest evolution of complex animal life on Earth. Findings from the site represent life from the Ediacaran biota—soft-bodied organisms that lived on the seafloor more than 500 million years ago—and push back the origins of animal movement and sexual reproduction by 5–10 million years. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-discovery-fossils-northwest-canada-view.html Evolution Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:15 EDT news698486161 A new study of the blue button (Porpita porpita), a small and elusive sea creature which lives on the surface of the ocean, has found that it may live for several years adrift at sea, much longer than previously estimated. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tiny-sea-creature-porpita-adrift.html Plants & Animals Wed, 20 May 2026 08:40:03 EDT news698484541 Finding highly venomous box jellyfish that are almost invisible in water is not an easy task—but researching them is crucial so that we can learn how to safely avoid them. Stings from these "sea-wasps" are extremely painful and can be fatal. Knowing more about box jellyfish helps us know where to expect them, when to expect them, and how we can minimize the risk of encountering them while out for what should be a pleasant swim. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-species-venomous-jellyfish-singapore.html Plants & Animals Fri, 15 May 2026 08:49:22 EDT news698053742 A new study published in the journal People and Nature reveals a significant gap in public awareness regarding one of the world's most widespread invasive species: the freshwater jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbii. Despite being present on six continents and well-documented by scientists in Europe, this unnoticed (cryptic meaning "under the radar") invader remains largely unknown to the public, a factor that researchers say may be hindering the development of early warning systems and effective environmental policy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-silent-invasion-widespread-freshwater-jellyfish.html Plants & Animals Thu, 14 May 2026 20:00:02 EDT news697975661 Dr. Ainara Ballesteros is a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Environment and Marine Science Research at the Catholic University of Valencia, where she leads a research group focused on jellyfish biology, aquaculture, and the sustainable use of marine resources. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-qa-jellyfish-bycatch-valuable-collagen.html Ecology Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:01 EDT news697383061 When most people think about biodiversity in lakes and rivers, they imagine fish, plants, or perhaps birds and amphibians. But beneath the surface exists another world that often goes unnoticed: microscopic parasites that quietly shape aquatic ecosystems in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scientists-uncover-hidden-parasite-diversity.html Ecology Thu, 07 May 2026 18:00:08 EDT news697365840 Arctic glacial fjords are hotspots of marine life, yet their seafloor environments remain some of the least explored regions on Earth. Their extreme remoteness and the technical challenges of deep-water observation have led scientists to rely on indirect measurements like sonar. However, these methods cannot visually verify animal behavior or identify specific species. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-rare-footage-elusive-sea-floor.html Plants & Animals Wed, 06 May 2026 18:50:01 EDT news697306021 Canadian researchers studying 450-million-year-old fossils near Quebec City have identified a new species of basal-medusozoan: Paleocanna tentaculum, a soft-bodied, tube-shaped polyp with a ring of tentacles. Closely related to modern jellyfish, the species was identified from fossils discovered about 50 kilometers northeast of Quebec's capital. It's a rare find: only a few other species in its subphylum have ever been described in the fossil record. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-rare-soft-bodied-fossil-quebec.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:20:03 EDT news695903652 Most polychaete species spend their lives in burrows in the seabed. However, adult individuals of two species, Alitta succinea and Platynereis dumerilii, leave their burrows to spawn during warm summer nights around the full moon. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-unexpected-predator-jellyfish-shown-polychaete.html Plants & Animals Fri, 10 Apr 2026 13:40:03 EDT news695041467