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. For decades, astronomers have assumed that the Martian surface froze solid around 3 billion years ago and has stayed that way ever since. If this were really the case, any liquid water would have long since either been locked away underground or lost to space. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mars-liquid-thought.html Astrobiology Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:00:13 EDT news705587200 China and the southern United States were hit last year by some of their worst sand and dust storms in decades, the United Nations said Friday. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-intense-storms-struck-china.html Environment Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:20:02 EDT news702908402 A study examining air quality and respiratory health in communities surrounding the Salton Sea in Southern California shows how environmental conditions, poor housing quality and structural inequities combine to place children at greater risk for respiratory illness. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-families-daily-health-salton-sea.html Environment Thu, 02 Jul 2026 03:40:01 EDT news702139082 The European Space Agency's Mars Express has captured part of Mars's Mamers Valles, a fascinating valley system speckled with brief, tornado-like whirlwinds known as dust devils. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dozens-devils-caught-swirling-mars.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:20:02 EDT news700914890 Geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe underscore the urgency of addressing the climate and radiological consequences of a regional nuclear conflict. Even a small-scale nuclear conflict at the Ukraine–Russia border could cause years of severe global climate disruption and radioactive fallout across much of the world, new research suggests. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-nuclear-war-ukraine-russia-border.html Earth Sciences Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:40:04 EDT news696159181 In recent years, residents of Spain, France and the UK have looked up to see an eerie sight: deep orange sunrises and skies thick with a yellowish haze. These hazy skies often deposit "blood rain," rust-colored precipitation that leaves a fine grit on cars and windows. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-climate-saharan-europe-downwind.html Earth Sciences Sun, 29 Mar 2026 09:00:05 EDT news693745346 The technology used to predict sand and dust storm (SDS) severity has for decades systematically overestimated when and where sediment is transported across Earth's surface, a new study shows. Existing models, which draw on satellite, surface, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and weather data, make emission predictions and underpin early warning systems to try and reduce the health and climate impacts of SDS events globally. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-satellite-driven-realistic-reliable-sand.html Earth Sciences Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:40:06 EDT news693581581 Two microscopic grains collide and produce a tiny spark. This phenomenon may have provided the energy to kick off life on Earth. But if these solid particles have the same composition, what factor causes the charge to flow in a given direction? In a study published in Nature, physicists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) identify the key factor as environmental carbon-based molecules that adhere to the materials' surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-colliding-creation-carbon-coated-grains.html Astrobiology Wed, 18 Mar 2026 12:00:15 EDT news692980261 What governs the speed at which raindrops fall, sediment settles in river estuaries, and matter is ejected during a supernova? These questions circle around one, deceitfully simple factor: the rate at which a fluid filled with particles mixes with a particle-free one. Raindrops travel from one layer of air to another; sediment falls from river to seawater, and ejecta travels from the exploding star through the surrounding dust cloud. The same principle dictates sediment mixing in rising smoke, dust storms, nuclear explosions, hydrocarbon refining, metal smelting, wastewater treatment, and more. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-fluid-simulation-unprecedented-scale-toolkit.html General Physics Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:10:07 EDT news692463481 Amid chronic groundwater depletion, water overallocation, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution, all compounded by global heating, a UN report today declared the dawn of an era of global water bankruptcy, inviting world leaders to facilitate "honest, science-based adaptation to a new reality." https://phys.org/news/2026-01-world-era-global-bankruptcy-scientists.html Earth Sciences Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:00:01 EST news688054981 Deep in Iraq's southern desert, bulldozers and earthmovers spread layers of moist clay over sand dunes as part of a broader effort to fight increasingly frequent sandstorms. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-iraqis-soil-clay-curb-sandstorms.html Environment Sun, 28 Dec 2025 06:01:13 EST news686124051 Dust storms regularly affect northern China, including its capital, Beijing. In recent years, Chinese scientists and officials have traced the source of the dust storms to its neighbor Mongolia. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-china-mongolia-massive-storms.html Environment Wed, 17 Dec 2025 17:00:03 EST news685198604 Mars is a dusty planet dominated by vast, dry deserts, with no easily accessible sources of liquid water. Much like on Earth, dust is lifted from Mars's surface by wind and rotating air columns, transported through the atmosphere, and deposited back onto the planet's surface via sedimentation. The Martian dust cycle is governed by multiple factors, including interactions between the planetary surface and atmosphere, seasonal variations, and the formation of massive dust storms that can span the globe. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-gomars-simulates-year-martian.html Space Exploration Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:42:32 EST news685183322 Air pollution is the latest environmental crisis causing havoc across Iran. Large parts of the country are already suffering from a drought, one of the worst in decades. Its wetlands are dry, and its land is subsiding at alarming rates. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-iran-drought-cheap-fuel-air.html Environment Mon, 15 Dec 2025 22:40:02 EST news685028049 Sometimes you get a small electric shock from touching your car door handle on a dry summer's day. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-nasa-robot-rover-fly-storms.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:10:01 EST news684414514 Using images from the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb), an international research team including Western's Stanimir Metchev has discovered new answers to explain how some brown dwarfs form giant dust storms, contradicting previous assumptions. These storms may look similar to Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot, but the new study, led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, shows they actually form quite differently. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-super-jupiters-jupiter-necessarily.html Astronomy Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:12:26 EST news683831521 Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA's Perseverance rover. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-scientists-capture-crackling-lightning-mars.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 27 Nov 2025 12:00:04 EST news683386402 Conditions on Venus's surface have largely remained a mystery for decades. Carl Sagan famously pointed out that people were quick to jump to conclusions, such as that there are dinosaurs living there, from scant little evidence collected from the planet. But just because we have little actual data doesn't mean we can't draw conclusions, and better yet models, from the data we do have. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-anti-weather-venus.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 08 Nov 2025 12:00:01 EST news681739186 Iran and Israel fought a 12-day war in June. Although a ceasefire was declared the same month, news coverage of Iran continues to focus on the conflict's aftermath and the Middle East's tense political situation. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-drought-sand-storms-evacuations-iran.html Political science Mon, 20 Oct 2025 11:24:04 EDT news680178241 Combing through 20 years of images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, scientists have tracked 1,039 tornado-like whirlwinds to reveal how dust is lifted into the air and swept around Mars's surface. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-mars-devils-revealing-faster.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 08 Oct 2025 14:00:05 EDT news678988921 Strong winds from a South Pacific anticyclone triggered a massive sand and dust storm in southern Peru on Thursday, catching residents in coastal regions by surprise, authorities said. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-sand-storm-southern-peru.html Environment Fri, 01 Aug 2025 04:28:55 EDT news673241331 Sand and dust storms affect about 330 million people in over 150 countries and are taking an increasing toll on health, economies and the environment, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization says. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-sand-storms-affect-million-people.html Environment Sat, 12 Jul 2025 06:23:44 EDT news671520219 Our two-person team loaded the car with a GPS, a drone, notebooks, sample bags, a trowel and a flat spatula lovingly called a scoopula. Then we drove 30 minutes in our rented truck from Yuma, Arizona, to the Algodones Dunes, a sandy field bordering California, Arizona and Mexico. The day was sunny, with a strong breeze. Turning off the highway, we carefully headed onto a gravelly path that acted as our road. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-dune-patterns-california-clues-mars.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 10 Jul 2025 12:06:04 EDT news671367962 After nearly 20 years of operations, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is on a roll, performing a new maneuver to squeeze even more science out of the busy spacecraft as it circles the Red Planet. Engineers have essentially taught the probe to roll over so that it's nearly upside down. Doing so enables MRO to look deeper underground as it searches for liquid and frozen water, among other things. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-science-mars-orbiter-years-space.html Space Exploration Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:48:59 EDT news670171725 One-third of the Earth's land surface is already degraded. The UN estimates that more than 2.6 billion people are harmed by land degradation, with countries losing up to US$10.6 trillion (£7.8 trillion) a year because of damage to "ecosystem services," including the benefits people get from nature such as water and food. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-declining-soil-health-global-ai.html Ecology Tue, 17 Jun 2025 13:45:05 EDT news669386702 About 66 million years ago—perhaps on a downright unlucky day in May—an asteroid smashed into our planet. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-ancient-fossils-mass-extinction-scrambled.html Evolution Tue, 10 Jun 2025 13:00:01 EDT news668778767 Climate change is already happening. But 36% of the world's population still disputes the realities of its origins and impacts. When the science is clear but public understanding lags, more lives and livelihoods are put at risk. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-climate-everyday-story-media-coverage.html Environment Wed, 04 Jun 2025 13:00:01 EDT news668259819 Much to the surprise of Sydney-siders, a dusty haze settled over the city on Tuesday morning after a week of heavy rain. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-week-dusty-storm-rainy-sydney.html Environment Wed, 28 May 2025 07:33:05 EDT news667636382 Microplastics, tiny plastic particles found in everyday products from face wash to toothpaste, are an emerging threat to health and ecology, prompting a research team to identify what keeps them trapped in stream ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-microplastics-emerging-threat-streams.html Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Apr 2025 16:18:04 EDT news664471081 As Earth continues to warm, more and more of the planet is becoming dry. A 2024 UN report found that in the last three decades, over three-fourths of all the world's land became drier than it had been in the previous 30 years. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-earth-drylands-affecting-billions-climate.html Earth Sciences Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:03:06 EDT news661784581