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. Have you ever happened across a body of water completely covered in a mysterious green slime? https://phys.org/news/2025-07-isnt-bloom-doom-algal-blooms.html Ecology Mon, 07 Jul 2025 12:26:04 EDT news671109961 Ciliated protists represent one of the most primitive lineages of eukaryotes, with nuclear dimorphism, a distinctive sexual process (conjugation), and extensive genome rearrangements. Sessilida, among diverse ciliate lineages, is the only group containing members living a colonial lifestyle, i.e., many cells are 'connected' by their stalk and a colony is formed through binary fission. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-insights-evolutionary-phylogeny-ciliate-sessilida.html Evolution Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:40:05 EDT news601742401 How can we depict diversity? Biologists of the 19th century faced this question as they became aware not only of the huge variety of plant and animal species, but also of the connections between these species. Ultimately it was the acclaimed German biologist Ernst Haeckel who provided the answer. https://phys.org/news/2016-12-science-historians-years-tree-life.html Evolution Thu, 01 Dec 2016 10:55:19 EST news399812110 Experiments with monarch butterfly caterpillars and the milkweed plants on which they feed have shown for the first time that interactions across four biological kingdoms can influence disease transmission. https://phys.org/news/2015-10-biological-kingdoms-disease-transmission-monarch.html Ecology Tue, 13 Oct 2015 19:00:01 EDT news363967332 The climate is getting warmer, and sea levels are rising – a threat to island nations. As a group of researchers lead by colleagues from the University of Bonn found out, at the same time, tiny single-cell organisms are spreading rapidly through the world's oceans, where they might be able to mitigate the consequences of climate change. Foraminifera of the variety Amphistegina are stabilizing coastlines and reefs with their calcareous shells. The study's results have now appeared in the international online journal PLOS ONE. https://phys.org/news/2013-02-tiny-foraminifera-oceans-islands.html Environment Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:00:09 EST news279388925 (PhysOrg.com) -- The effort to classify life into various groups has been a bumpy ride. Prior to the 1900s, living things were usually pegged as either plants or animals – period. By the middle of the 20th century, however, it was asserted that this scheme did not adequately represent fungi, bacteria and protists, leading to a five-group classification – Monera (bacteria), Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. At roughly the same time, however, a fundamental distinction between prokaryotic bacteria and the four eukaryotic kingdoms (plants, animals, fungi, and protists) based on nuclei, cytoskeleton, internal membranes, and other shared eukaryote characteristics – for example, unlike eukaryotes, their genetic material is not wrapped by a membrane into a separate compartment – was acknowledged, resulting in a different system – and considerable confusion. Then, things changed anew when an entirely new prokaryotic group – the so-called third domain of life, living in high temperatures and producing methane – was discovered in the late 1970s. https://phys.org/news/2012-03-insights-ancient-life-chromosome-segregation.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:01 EDT news251110329 Researchers have discovered a novel mechanism in Salmonella that affects its virulence and its susceptibility to antibiotics by changing its production of proteins in a previously unheard of manner. This allows Salmonella to selectively change its levels of certain proteins to respond to inhospitable conditions. https://phys.org/news/2010-07-mechanism-uncovered-salmonella-virulence-drug.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:50:01 EDT news199639780