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. Fishing nets remain the most common cause of death among common dolphins that strand on Cornwall's coast, new research shows. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fishing-nets-main-death-cornwall.html Plants & Animals Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:00:02 EDT news705839408 From nuclear energy to lab-grown meat, the list of effective but unpopular climate solutions is long. A new University of Colorado Boulder study sheds light on why people reject or accept some proposed sustainability technologies: If it doesn't seem natural, they won't go for it. And that holds across political ideologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-naturalness-emerges-key-driver-climate.html Environment Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news705670561 Every monsoon, India's rivers turn brown. To most of us, that color simply means muddy water. But hidden within it is the material that builds fertile floodplains, creates river islands, nourishes deltas and even shapes coastlines: sediment. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-sediment-story-journey-impacts-india.html Earth Sciences Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:00:03 EDT news705594643 An international team of researchers has uncovered a previously undetected structure in the birdsong of Bengalese finches that has the same statistical patterns found in human languages. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-birdsong-whale-song-patterns-similar.html Plants & Animals Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:00:05 EDT news705227461 Deep in the world's oceans, large male sperm whales emit slow, low-frequency clicks with the highest source levels of any animal communication sounds. These slow clicks are not the echolocation clicks the whales use to locate prey, but loud, low-frequency communication signals. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-male-sperm-whales-loudest-communication.html Plants & Animals Mon, 03 Aug 2026 17:20:01 EDT news704986802 Risso's dolphins around the British Isles are part of a single population—genetically distinct from those elsewhere in the Atlantic, new research shows. Scientists studied the DNA of dolphins that stranded in England, Scotland and Wales from 1992 to 2016. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-genetic-analysis-distinct-risso-dolphin.html Plants & Animals Mon, 03 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news704971621 For male humpback whales, singing is serious business. Their haunting, complex songs can last for hours and travel for miles underwater, playing a central role in reproduction during the winter breeding season. But despite decades of research into what these songs sound like, scientists have had far less insight into what the whales are physically doing while they sing. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-humpback-whales-song-themes-phases.html Plants & Animals Mon, 03 Aug 2026 11:00:06 EDT news704969103 In late June, whale watchers in southwest Western Australia sounded the alarm. They had seen far fewer humpback whales at a time when they normally migrate up from the Southern Ocean to calve and feed. Numbers were 60% below normal. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-falls-whale-sightings-rare-seabirds.html Plants & Animals Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:00:01 EDT news704698202 The Canadian government is proposing sweeping changes to accelerate industrial development and reduce environmental oversight. These proposed legislative, regulatory and policy reforms could significantly diminish the government's capacity to assess environmental impacts and weaken protections for fish habitats and species at risk. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-canada-infrastructure-pacific-salmon-habitats.html Ecology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:40:03 EDT news704549041 Evolution is a fact of life. So much so that even the theory of evolution is evolving. Lately, a centuries-old discredited idea has been making a strong comeback. It helps us explain scientific observations that, according to standard evolutionary theory, should be impossible. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-darwin-biologists-older-theory-anomalies.html Evolution Tue, 28 Jul 2026 20:40:04 EDT news704458008 On a boat off the coast of California, Sara Lesser gazes wistfully at dozens of dolphins playing in the vessel's wake. This summer, extreme heat is making such a scene increasingly rare. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-whales-hungry-pelicans-marine-california.html Ecology Mon, 27 Jul 2026 03:00:04 EDT news704339408 Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus)—the world's biggest fish—are one of the most charismatic marine species. They connect with the hearts of anyone lucky enough to encounter them, making people deeply curious about their lives and invested in their conservation. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-cameras-whale-sharks-capture-krill.html Plants & Animals Sat, 25 Jul 2026 14:00:01 EDT news703863834 New research from the University of St Andrews and Université de Neuchâtel has uncovered the mechanism that allows sperm whales to sleep in a unique vertical position just under the ocean surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sperm-whales-restful-vertical.html Plants & Animals Thu, 23 Jul 2026 18:00:04 EDT news703932062 African gray foam-nest treefrogs (Chiromantis xerampelina) are common across the savannas and dry forests of southeastern Africa. Despite their unremarkable outward appearance, these small animals display some of the most intriguing reproductive behaviors known to science. Most notably, the females are highly polyandrous, constructing elaborate foam nests and mating with many different male partners in a breeding season. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sex-life-treefrogs-females-multiple.html Plants & Animals Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:00:02 EDT news704028421 Orcas are known to be smart and ruthless hunters. They've been observed hunting a variety of prey, with some species, such as whales, larger than themselves. They use a wide range of strategies to hunt and kill prey, but now, in the Gulf of California, researchers have observed one that hasn't been described before. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-orcas-ramming-world-heaviest-fish.html Plants & Animals Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:01 EDT news703925882 In 2012, Nature revealed that humans provide a home to thousands of different species of microbes in a series of papers that opened a path to understanding the impact of the human microbiome on our health. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-great-barrier-reef-microbiome-reveals.html Ecology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 11:00:35 EDT news703850574 New video evidence has revealed whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea, are serial snackers, feeding on large amounts of small prey at all ocean depths, according to research led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and Murdoch University. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-cameras-whale-sharks-reveal-snackers.html Plants & Animals Tue, 21 Jul 2026 18:00:06 EDT news703857351 Ireland's waters continue to provide an important seasonal refuge for the endangered basking shark, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-century-sightings-reveals-ireland-haven.html Plants & Animals Sat, 18 Jul 2026 10:00:04 EDT news703420137 Australia's ocean territory is vast and covers an area more than 1.5 times the nation's landmass. Within these waters is a diversity of resources, marine species and habitats. And they're deep. Excluding Antarctic waters, 70% of Australia's ocean territory is deeper than 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), and nearly 50% is deeper than 3,000 meters (9,843 feet). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-seafloor-deep.html Earth Sciences Wed, 15 Jul 2026 10:40:05 EDT news703326167 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 Usually there's safety in numbers, but it doesn't always work that way. Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) filter-feed on immense shoals of krill, engulfing colossal mouthfuls of water containing up to 144 kg of the crustaceans. But then the mighty creatures expel the water by squeezing it out through the racks of baleen lining their mouths. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-krill-buildup-fin-whale-filter.html Plants & Animals Thu, 09 Jul 2026 18:00:01 EDT news702794203 A single monitoring network developed by McGill, Natural Resources Canada, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and Dalhousie University researchers can simultaneously track earthquakes, water behavior, human activity and whales, providing a comprehensive picture of what's happening in, under and far from the water. The research is published in the journal Seismica. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-marine-network-environmental-shipping.html Plants & Animals Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:00:08 EDT news702823697 Scientists from a handful of universities across the country have made innovative use of satellite images from NASA to determine the diet of Antarctic Adélie penguins across the continent by studying their icy feces with a fidelity and frequency that could be captured only by space technology. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-penguin-poo-satellites-reveal-global.html Ecology Thu, 09 Jul 2026 11:00:02 EDT news702807956 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 If you stand on one of Australia's southern shorelines at this time of year, you might be lucky enough to spot a southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) swimming in the shallow waters. These ocean giants have migrated from the Southern Ocean and Antarctica to breed, give birth and rest. If you're really lucky, you may even see one of them resting upside down. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-upsidedown-whales-sick-theyre-resting.html Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Jul 2026 10:20:03 EDT news702550681 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 Sightings of humpback whales off Rio de Janeiro's coast are surging as they recover from decimation due to commercial whaling, prompting an acceleration in the demand for whale-watching excursions to spot the huge marine creatures during their annual migration. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sightings-humpback-whales-surge-rio.html Ecology Thu, 02 Jul 2026 04:24:12 EDT news702185021 Microscopic plankton are among the most important organisms on Earth. Phytoplankton produce around half of the oxygen we breathe, while plankton as a whole underpin marine food webs, support fisheries, help regulate carbon and sustain life across the ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-decline-plankton-northeast-atlantic-stark.html Environment Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:20:02 EDT news701952001 Scientists have spotted two humpback whales that made separate, record-breaking crossings between Australia and Brazil. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-humpback-whales-australia-brazil.html Plants & Animals Sat, 27 Jun 2026 05:00:02 EDT news698472027 Astronomers from Germany and Turkey have analyzed available data from various space telescopes to investigate an ultraluminous X-ray source designated X-4, which is located in the nearby galaxy NGC 4631. Results of the new study, published June 22 on the preprint server arXiv, yield important insights into the spectral and timing variability of this source. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ultraluminous-ray-source-whale-galaxy.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:20:04 EDT news701690531