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. On his fishing boat moored in the Greek port of Ierapetra in southwestern Crete, Alexis Charlambakis pries open the mouth of a freshly caught pufferfish to reveal two massive teeth on each jaw. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-greek-fishermen-struggle-pufferfish-invaders.html Ecology Mon, 15 Jun 2026 03:51:18 EDT news700714223 Just a few hours before the Orion spacecraft crossed the sky en route to the moon on April 1, mechatronics engineer Rodrigo Trevisan Okamoto received confirmation he had been waiting for since the Artemis 2 mission was announced in 2023. The email from NASA stated that the crew of the first crewed mission to orbit the moon in half a century would carry a device developed by Okamoto and his team at Condor Instruments, a São Paulo-based startup. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-wristwatch-device-enables-health-astronauts.html Space Exploration Wed, 13 May 2026 23:40:01 EDT news697904627 When pollution gets bad enough in the rivers supplying Iowa's largest city with drinking water, it costs Des Moines around $16,000 a day to run a special system to filter out dangerous nitrates. It's a fact of life in the agriculture-dependent state—and climate change is making the water quality problem even worse. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-winters-nitrate-pollution-farms.html Environment Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:40:05 EDT news694258211 This image, taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), seems to have captured a cosmic hawk as it spans its wings. While the dark clouds in the middle of the image make up the head and body of the bird of prey, the filaments extending away from the body to the left and right compose its wings. Below it is a mesmerizing blue nebula with massive newly born stars, whose intense radiation make the gas around them glow brightly. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-rcw-nebula-cosmic-hawk-baby.html Astronomy Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:40:07 EST news691773559 The desert tortoise, a once-resilient reptile, is a keystone species in the Mojave Desert, where other animals depend for their survival on the burrows it digs. But it is imperiled in California thanks in part to an unusual predator: off-road vehicles that race through thousands of miles of trails—official and unofficial—that crisscross millions of acres of tortoise habitat. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-mojave-hot-roading-miles-trails.html Ecology Thu, 26 Feb 2026 07:40:03 EST news691313150 It hadn't been a successful morning for the Great Lakes Eagle Health team. Traveling by boat, truck, and foot, the team was searching for active eagle nests along the Wisconsin River in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. Tree one was a dud, and tree two, a heartbreaker. Dan Goltz, one of the team's climbers and a wildlife biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, scaled a 70-foot tree only to be met with a gentle breeze blowing through an empty nest. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-blood-young-bald-eagles-track.html Plants & Animals Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:40:02 EST news689607654 Babies and very young sauropods—the long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters that in adulthood were the largest animals to have ever walked on land—were a key food sustaining predators in the Late Jurassic, according to a new study led by a UCL (University College London) researcher. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-baby-dinosaurs-common-prey-late.html Ecology Fri, 30 Jan 2026 06:00:01 EST news688923726 Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have characterized a hidden intermediate state at the center of Src kinase function. This hidden state allows the kinase to repeatedly modify its target, without needing to release and reattach to the target each time. The researchers have shown that this state is vital to T-cell activation and cell migration, emphasizing the importance of short-lived protein states to major biological processes and opening new avenues for targeting kinases therapeutically. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-short-kinase-state-essential-cell.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:20:05 EST news685296791 Water is a vital resource. Life on Earth, as we know it, is impossible without access to safe drinking water. Concerns over declining quality and consistency of municipal drinking water supplied to consumers have been increasing over a long time. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-safe.html Environment Wed, 17 Dec 2025 21:20:01 EST news685197214 When the most massive stars reach the ends of their lives, they blow up in spectacular supernova explosions, which seed the universe with heavy elements such as carbon and iron. Another type of explosion—the kilonova—occurs when a pair of dense dead stars, called neutron stars, smash together, forging even heavier elements such as gold and uranium. Such heavy elements are among the basic building blocks of stars and planets. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-superkilonova.html Astronomy Tue, 16 Dec 2025 13:09:31 EST news685112942 If you've seen any of the "Ice Age" animated Disney movies, we have some bad news: You don't know the real ice age. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-foot-tall-elephant-prehistoric-planet.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 26 Nov 2025 19:40:01 EST news683386494 Another rare lobster is making a splash at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center in Nahant. The brilliantly colored orange and black lobster is called a calico, and the odds of catching one are believed to be only one in 30 million, says Sierra Munoz, outreach program coordinator at the Marine Science Center. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-rare-calico-lobster-splash.html Plants & Animals Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:19:55 EDT news679573187 New UNSW research confirms that in the battle for survival, some animals win not with brawn, but with bling, putting to bed a debate that has puzzled generations of scientists. The study is published in the journal Ecology Letters. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-bling-brawn-animals-edge-game.html Evolution Fri, 19 Sep 2025 11:12:04 EDT news677499122 When Andrew Baker looks out at the vacant lot next to his office on Virginia Key, he doesn't see the trees or grass that are there now. He sees a factory of the future. One story tall, roughly the size of half a football field. A high-efficiency production line designed not for electronics or auto parts—but for coral. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-shot-florida-reefs-industrial-factory.html Ecology Thu, 04 Sep 2025 06:35:37 EDT news676186527 It's mating season for most of the 29 species of tarantulas in the United States, 10 of which can be found in California, according to Los Padres National Forest. Around this time, tarantulas tend to leave their burrows to hunt for a mate—and they will travel up to 20 miles on their eight fuzzy legs to make a love connection. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-tarantula-season-spider-bit.html Plants & Animals Tue, 05 Aug 2025 07:10:12 EDT news673596602 For nearly a month, hundreds of thousands of Iowans have not been allowed to water their lawns—even though there's no drought. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-fertilizer-runoff-restrictions-experts.html Environment Fri, 11 Jul 2025 06:40:01 EDT news671433650 In far Northern California, beneath a towering mountain ridge still covered in April snow, one of the state's last cowboys stood in the tall green grass of a pasture he tends, describing what he sees as the one blight on this otherwise perfect landscape: wolves. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-california-wolves-comeback-cattle-ranchers.html Plants & Animals Tue, 22 Apr 2025 06:50:07 EDT news664523400 If there were a contest for the biggest female bullies in the animal world, lemurs would be near the top of the list. In these distant primate cousins, it's the ladies who call the shots, relying on physical aggression to get their way and keep males in line. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-lemur-brains-girls-nice.html Plants & Animals Mon, 21 Apr 2025 16:15:03 EDT news664470901 Caring for a new puppy can be wonderful, but it can also bring feelings of depression, extreme stress and exhaustion. This is sometimes referred to as "the puppy blues," and can begin anytime after the puppy arrives in the household. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-puppy-blues-cope-exhaustion-stress.html Veterinary medicine Mon, 21 Apr 2025 09:24:03 EDT news664446241 Pop star Katy Perry is set to "shoot across the sky" this spring when she lifts off as part of a six-member, all-female crew on Blue Origin's next space flight, the company announced Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-baby-youre-firework-katy-perry.html Space Exploration Thu, 27 Feb 2025 13:52:01 EST news659886715 Plant factories are failing, with multiple companies closing or going bankrupt in recent months. This includes the largest vertical farm on the planet, in Compton, Los Angeles. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-vertical-farming-future-business-failures.html Agriculture Wed, 29 Jan 2025 12:27:14 EST news657376022 Nearly a third of people in the U.S. have been exposed to unregulated contaminants in their drinking water that could impact their health, according to a new analysis by scientists at Silent Spring Institute. What's more, Hispanic and Black residents are more likely than other groups to have unsafe levels of contaminants in their drinking water and are more likely to live near pollution sources. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-million-residents-exposed-unregulated-contaminants.html Environment Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:10:01 EST news656066521 Staying home to dance the night away may soon be the next big thing. The festive season can be a lonely time for many, and too much time spent online can add to the feeling of isolation. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-ai-virtual-reality-online-dancefloor.html Social Sciences Tue, 31 Dec 2024 04:57:22 EST news654843425 Researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) are working with parrot free-flight experts and partners in Brazil in an effort to increase the success rate of releasing captive parrots into the wild. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-captive-parrots-life-wild.html Ecology Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:53:04 EST news651858781 Summer is a wonderful time for families to go the beach and for small children to get to know the water and the sand. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-beach-amazing-kids-science-summer.html Education Tue, 26 Nov 2024 11:30:01 EST news651841988 American lobsters along Maine's coast have relocated to new habitats, while the population simultaneously shrunk in abundance and grew older, according to a new study by University of Maine researchers. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-american-lobster-population-habitat-shifting.html Plants & Animals Fri, 18 Oct 2024 13:02:09 EDT news648475324 About 23 million U.S. households depend on private wells as their primary drinking water source. These homeowners are entirely responsible for ensuring that the water from their wells is safe for human consumption. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-millions-people-safe.html Environment Sun, 13 Oct 2024 16:00:02 EDT news647863182 Charred trees punctuated the Eldorado National Forest like blackened skeletons of their former selves, victims of the Mosquito Fire. Two years earlier, in 2022, the Mosquito Fire started in Tahoe National Forest, moved north to the Eldorado and torched a total of 76,788 acres, making it California's largest wildfire in 2022. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-field-life-eldorado-national-forest.html Ecology Sat, 05 Oct 2024 05:45:36 EDT news647325927 Orange, blue, calico, two-toned and ... cotton-candy colored? https://phys.org/news/2024-09-rare-lobster-scientists-shell.html Plants & Animals Sat, 07 Sep 2024 05:19:10 EDT news644905135 Anyone who has ever lost track of some bread, produce or leftovers, and later returned to observe that nature has run its course, has experience using the five senses (eyes, nose, [hopefully less often] taste buds and even ears—container lid "popping"), to evaluate food spoilage. But have you ever wondered what microorganisms you might be able to grow in the lab from the decomposing dishes in your refrigerator? https://phys.org/news/2024-09-microbiology-food-spoilage-refrigerator.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:41:05 EDT news644672461