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. Scientists are increasingly worried we may be witnessing the start of the "sixth mass extinction"—the first to be caused by human activities. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unique-fossil-marine-mollusks-scientists.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 07 Jul 2026 18:40:01 EDT news702649441 Every year, thousands of parrots confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade arrive at rehabilitation centers across Latin America. For many of these birds, rescue centers can provide safety but not necessarily a path back to the wild. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-birds-life-wild-technique-boosts.html Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Jul 2026 16:00:33 EDT news702560522 In the humid jungle of Vietnam, Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela and Monte Neate-Clegg spent hours patiently waiting to spot the rare "Halloween bird." Officially known as the collared laughingthrush, this songbird has striking orange, silver and black coloring and a distinct, singsong call. It's extremely valuable and heavily traded as a pet in Vietnam, and is considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-songbirds-higher-extinction.html Plants & Animals Thu, 02 Jul 2026 11:20:05 EDT news702205470 A new genomic study by researchers from the HKU School of Biological Sciences (SBS) has found that Hong Kong's introduced population of yellow-crested cockatoos retains unexpectedly high genetic diversity and could serve as a genetic reservoir for this critically endangered species. Published in Evolutionary Applications, the study also underpins a new conservation initiative with local schools to install artificial nest boxes and monitor this rare urban population. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-reveal-hong-kong-biodiversity-ark.html Ecology Mon, 22 Jun 2026 14:00:06 EDT news701352785 On a remote beach near Esperance, Western Australia, two sick seabirds have brought the bird flu crisis to Australia. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-australia-h5n1-cases-wild-birds.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 22 Jun 2026 07:40:02 EDT news701330882 For months, a flood of mice has engulfed Western Australia's agricultural regions. For people living through it, this latest mouse plague is all-consuming. Houses, sheds, paddocks and roads are blanketed with mice. And the smell of mice, both dead and alive, is impossible to escape. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-australian-farmers-desperate-latest-mouse.html Ecology Sat, 20 Jun 2026 10:30:01 EDT news701010648 Birdwatching is one of the most common and popular ways people experience nature. But it's not often that even the most enthusiastic birdwatcher returns to the same place more than 800 times to witness the changes over four decades. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-suburban-epic-40year-birdwatching-quest.html Plants & Animals Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:00:13 EDT news700910341 For humans, death is surrounded by culture, emotion, ritual and language. But the question can be framed in a much more basic way: What would an animal have to understand in order to recognize that someone has died? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cockatoos-touchscreen-rewards-die-contexts.html Plants & Animals Tue, 16 Jun 2026 18:40:03 EDT news700833541 Humans are the only species known to use fully symbolic language: a system capable of expressing abstract ideas, imaginary worlds and endless combinations of meaning. But how did we get there? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-language-theories-fascinating.html Social Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:00:01 EDT news700223402 Megalomaniacal leaders are fascinating. They exude boundless confidence, harbor sometimes excessive ambitions and make decisions that are often out of touch with reality. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-megalomaniac-leaders-group.html Social Sciences Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:20:04 EDT news699616202 New research has found that masturbation among bird species, including parrots, is natural, despite prevailing assumptions that it is a harmful behavior in response to environmental factors. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-bird-masturbation-natural-species-held.html Plants & Animals Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:20:06 EDT news699613730 I'm a proud Yorta Yorta and Barapa Barapa man, an Indigenous astronomer and a trainee ecologist. When I look at the night sky, I don't just see stars. Instead, I see an ancient knowledge system that has guided people, culture and Country for tens of thousands of years. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-indigenous-australians-world-astronomers-knowledge.html Astronomy Tue, 19 May 2026 08:40:01 EDT news698394001 It is one of the strangest puzzles in human evolution. About 90% of people across every human culture favor their right hand—with no other primate species showing a population-level preference on this scale. Despite decades of research into the brains, genes and development behind handedness, why humans ended up so overwhelmingly right-handed has remained an evolutionary enigma. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-why-is-almost-everyone-right.html Evolution Fri, 15 May 2026 13:00:06 EDT news698068021 Paleontologists from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) have published a new study in the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science, in which they describe a new species based on a fossil skull approximately 230 million years old. The specimen was discovered within the Quarta Colônia UNESCO Global Geopark, in southern Brazil, at a fossil site that has already yielded some of the oldest dinosaurs in the world. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-brazil-unearths-bizarre-beaked-reptile.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:40:02 EDT news696164521 Bruce the kea is missing his entire upper beak. Yet he is the alpha bird of his circus (the apt collective noun for a group of New Zealand's famously playful alpine parrots). https://phys.org/news/2026-04-bruce-halfbeak-kea-weaponized-disability.html Plants & Animals Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:40:06 EDT news695991541 A study reported in Current Biology shows how physical disabilities in the animal world can be overcome through behavioral innovation. The report features an endangered kea parrot in captivity at New Zealand's Willowbank Wildlife Reserve named Bruce who is missing his entire upper beak. While earlier reports had described his unique use of pebbles as self-care tools, the new findings show how he uses a novel beak jousting technique to turn his disability into social dominance. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-disabled-parrot-undefeated-alpha-male.html Plants & Animals Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:00:13 EDT news695901422 Like many animals, parrots make sounds that suggest they are talking with each other, maybe even calling out to a specific parrot. But do they truly have names in the same way people do? To find out, Lauryn Benedict, a biology professor at the University of Northern Colorado, didn't set up shop in the tropics to record parrot chatter, as they've done in the past. She instead found birds who spoke her language—birds that live with humans and mimic what they hear, including people's names. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-parrots-mimicking-words-proper-humans.html Plants & Animals Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:04 EDT news695636041 Birds have, for centuries, been captured from the wild to be kept in cages—valued for their looks, songs and ability to imitate sounds. Data compiled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the global agreement that regulates trade in threatened animals and plants, indicate that in the 1990s and early 2000s Africa was a leading supplier of live birds to global markets. Most were captured from the wild and sold to western European countries. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-global-wild-birds-poorly-wildlife.html Ecology Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:10:01 EDT news694867382 Neuroscientists have uncovered new insights into a key evolutionary question: Why can humans talk when most animals can't? The journal Science published the research led by Emory University and the New College of Florida. The findings suggest that seals and sea lions may have vocal flexibility as a side effect of developing a brain "bypass" for voluntary breath control. This same bypass allowed them to adapt to aquatic life. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-sea-lions-clues-evolution-vocalization.html Plants & Animals Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:10:01 EDT news692553061 The Amazon rainforest is famous for storing massive amounts of carbon in its trees and soils, helping regulate the global climate. Yet a paper published in New Phytologist shows that one of South America's largest carbon-storing ecosystems exists in an often-overlooked grassy savanna: the Cerrado in Brazil. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-wetlands-brazil-cerrado-carbon-storage.html Earth Sciences Thu, 12 Mar 2026 10:00:04 EDT news692436781 New analysis of ancient parrot DNA has revealed that vibrant Amazonian parrots were transported alive across the Andes to coastal Peru centuries before the Inca Empire, highlighting a sophisticated pre-Inca, long-distance trade network spanning rainforest, highlands and deserts. The international team of researchers, including scientists from The Australian National University (ANU), analyzed parrot feathers that were discovered at Pachacamac, Peru—one of the preeminent religious centers of the Andean civilization—far outside the birds' native rainforest range. The research is published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-ancient-parrot-dna-reveals-sophisticated.html Archaeology Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:00:07 EDT news692293141 Anyone who has seen a hummingbird poking her beak deep into a trumpet creeper blossom, or a honeyeater using its brush-tipped tongue to extract nectar from eucalyptus flowers, has witnessed something that, from a human perspective, is rather remarkable. Although many bird species avoid sugar-rich foods, others survive almost entirely on sugar-rich nectar or fruit, processing massive sugar loads without developing the diseases that such diets cause in people and other animals. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-birds-sweet-success-high-sugar.html Evolution Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:00:09 EST news691326961 A protein called neurofilament light chain (NfL)—studied in humans in the context of neurodegenerative diseases and aging—is also detectable in the blood of numerous animals, and NfL levels increase with age in mice, cats, dogs and horses. Experts from the DZNE and the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research (HIH) at the University of Tübingen report these findings in PLOS Biology. In their view, this biomarker could help to assess the biological age of animals and estimate their life expectancy. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-blood-marker-dementia-track-aging.html Plants & Animals Fri, 20 Feb 2026 12:40:01 EST news690808575 Every living organism has its own genetic "blueprint": the source code for how it grows, functions and reproduces. This blueprint is known as a genome. When scientists sequence a genome, they identify and put in order the chemical building blocks—adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C) and guanine (G) nucleotides—that make up an organism's DNA. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-genomics-decoding-blueprints-australia-biodiversity.html Ecology Tue, 17 Feb 2026 06:18:04 EST news690531421 Minutes after getting to a park in the middle of Phoenix, you can see flashes of green in the sky and hear chatter because love is in the air—or at least, the lovebirds are. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-lovebirds-rare-birds-life.html Plants & Animals Sat, 14 Feb 2026 05:10:01 EST news690266562 With a few minutes of searching, anyone can find videos online of chatty birds: macaws talk to their keepers, cockatoos sing to the camera, corvids mimic the jarring sounds of construction sites. Research has shown that some birds can understand and use words in context—so, when Polly speaks up from inside her cage, she may really want a cracker—but scientists know far less about how birds use their vocal abilities in the wild. Christine Dahlin, professor of biology at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, is working to change that. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-syntax-warbling-duets-wild-parrots.html Plants & Animals Fri, 13 Feb 2026 14:20:02 EST news690205948 Purrs of contentment. Soulful eyes locked on yours over dinner. Valentine's Day? Not for pet owners. For those of us who share our lives with animals, this is a daily—if not exactly romantic—experience. So are the various barks, meows, whines, and other, sometimes adorable, often insistent, methods of communication our four-legged friends use to express what they want. Or how they feel when we don't get it. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-pets-science.html Plants & Animals Fri, 13 Feb 2026 09:20:04 EST news690195756 Islands are famous for producing some of the world's strangest creatures, and now a new international study shows that the evolution of bird species on Hawaiian islands includes an ibis with unusually small eyes and limited visual capacity. The team from University of Lethbridge in Canada and Flinders University in Australia made the discovery while examining the skull of Apteribis, an extinct flightless ibis that once inhabited the Hawaiian islands. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-extinct-hawaiian-ibis-strangely-small.html Evolution Wed, 11 Feb 2026 13:12:44 EST news690037922 Australian and New Zealand scientists have unearthed the remains of ancient wildlife in a cave near Waitomo on Aotearoa's North Island, the first time a large number of million-year-old fossils have been found—including an ancestor of the large flightless Kākāpō parrot. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-lost-world-ancient-cave-reveals.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:13:39 EST news688835581 During conversation, people sometimes synchronize their voices in ways that often go completely unnoticed. Talking speeds converge, sentence lengths shift, turn-taking rhythms fall into sync. New research from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria has revealed how nightingales also deploy complex vocal coordination when competing for territory and mates in fierce night-time singing duels, coordinating both the pitch and timing of their songs. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-nightingales-chord-territorial-duels.html Plants & Animals Mon, 12 Jan 2026 14:19:50 EST news687449967