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. Malaysian scientists have discovered a new species of parasitic fungus in Borneo's jungles that preys on "zombie fungi" known to infect insects before subjecting them to a gruesome death. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-hyperparasite-malaysia-borneo-jungle.html Ecology Fri, 19 Jun 2026 03:59:28 EDT news701060265 As an expert on personality disorders, people often ask me about psychopathy. It seems everybody has had an ex, a boss, a neighbor or a relative who they suspect has traits of it. People are curious about how to recognize psychopathy, and whether it can explain certain harmful behavior. It's easy to see why. Psychopathic people are everywhere—from books and movies to newspaper articles and academic papers. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-experts-psychopathy-doesnt-wrong.html Social Sciences Thu, 28 May 2026 12:00:11 EDT news699185761 From the revived corpse of Frankenstein's monster to the disembodied hand, "Thing," in the Addams Family, reanimated tissue is one of the most enduring images in science fiction. It turns out, that image has some basis in nature, according to the recent discovery of a mysterious creature that lives on the seafloor that scientists are calling a "real-life zombie." https://phys.org/news/2026-05-severed-piece-sea-cucumber-die.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:14 EDT news699090181 People in western Europe turned to fans and fountains as they sweltered through a record-breaking heat wave Tuesday, with temperatures set to soar even further. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-temps-europe.html Environment Wed, 27 May 2026 05:00:01 EDT news699074991 Playing a virtual reality game in which the player takes on the role of the zombie fungus Ophiocordyceps increases the players' understanding of how evolution works. Last summer, Utrecht University zombie ant researchers William Beckerson, Maite Goebbels and Charissa de Bekker invited visitors to the University Museum Utrecht to play the virtual reality game Zombie Ants VR: Definitive Edition. Comparisons between questionnaires completed before and after the game suggest that playing the game made the players more aware of how natural selection operates. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-virtual-reality-game-zombie-ants.html Education Mon, 18 May 2026 20:40:01 EDT news698315471 The relationship between science and pop culture often looks like a one-way street: scientific discoveries inspire films, television and novels, particularly in science fiction. But the relationship really goes both ways, and extends beyond sci-fi. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-jurassic-ai-doom-culture-science.html Other Sun, 12 Apr 2026 19:30:01 EDT news694777837 A recently identified tree species in Queensland has been given the name "zombie" by scientists who say ambitious assistance is needed to reverse its "living dead" status. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-desperate-resurrect-newly-zombie-tree.html Plants & Animals Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:14:20 EST news688320841 The number of wildland fires burning in the Arctic is on the rise, according to NASA researchers. Moreover, these blazes are burning larger, hotter, and longer than they did in previous decades. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ice-arctic-regime.html Earth Sciences Wed, 14 Jan 2026 09:12:40 EST news687604322 Scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and their international partners, reveal today their pick of the top 10 plants and fungi named new to science in 2025. From "camouflaged" plants to spider-infecting parasites, the annual list underscores how much of the natural world has yet to be described and highlights RBG Kew's role as a conservation charity tackling the extinction crisis globally. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-zombie-fungi-bloodstained-orchids-fungal.html Plants & Animals Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:00:09 EST news687006088 In the aftermath of the giant asteroid that crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula about 66 million years ago, approximately 75% of all species on Earth were wiped out, including the dinosaurs. Among those thought to have perished at this K-Pg (Cretaceous-Paleogene) boundary were the ammonites. These were coiled-shelled mollusks with long tentacles related to modern octopuses and squids, and they are known today for their distinctive spiral-shaped fossils. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ammonites-survived-asteroid-impact-dinosaurs.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:02:36 EST news686998939 In 1181 AD, a bright "guest star" was observed to linger in the sky for around six months. Nearly 850 years later, the likely remnants of this event were rediscovered and tentatively linked to the 1181 supernova and dubbed supernova remnant (SNR) Pa 30. Yet, this supernova remnant was unique in appearance and researchers have struggled to understand why. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-rare-firework-morphology-supernova-remnant.html Astronomy Tue, 06 Jan 2026 11:18:38 EST news686920657 Navigating the chaos of Christmas celebrations can feel a bit like fighting through the battle of Armageddon. Yet while it might be tempting to escape this with a hot chocolate and another viewing of Love Actually, Christmas films needn't be jolly. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-christmas-world-curious-allure-festive.html Social Sciences Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:25:17 EST news685110301 WeChat is best known as China's all-purpose "super-app." It is used for everything from messaging and mobile payments to shopping and government services. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-wechat-front-line-policing-tool.html Social Sciences Thu, 20 Nov 2025 10:30:04 EST news682857001 It is easy to see Halloween as an inappropriate time for children. With its mixture of bloody costumes and scary themes, it can often feel like it is luring kids into topics they are not ready to grapple with. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-halloween-scary-kids.html Social Sciences Wed, 29 Oct 2025 11:20:09 EDT news680955331 In a scary movie, creatures that can't always be seen often provide the biggest frights for characters and viewers alike. In deep-ocean research, the absence of one particular creature—the so-called zombie worm, "the bone devourer" Osedax—can also be troubling, a harbinger of species loss and ecosystem decline due to the long-term effects of climate change. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-absence-zombie-worms-submerged-whale.html Plants & Animals Tue, 28 Oct 2025 14:49:46 EDT news680881777 When it comes to treating disease, one promising avenue is addressing the presence of senescent cells. These cells—also known as "zombie cells"—stop dividing but don't die off as cells typically do. They turn up in numerous diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer's disease, and in the process of aging. While potential treatments aim to remove or repair the cells, one hurdle has been finding a way to identify them among healthy cells in living tissue. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-tool-hidden-zombie-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 27 Oct 2025 12:46:04 EDT news680787961 It's great to see old astronomical observations come to light. Not only can these confirm or refute what's known about historic astronomical events, but they can describe what early observers actually saw. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-arab-scholars-supernovae-ad.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Oct 2025 13:12:03 EDT news679666321 After a semester in a class, most students gain new knowledge, skills and maybe some new friends. For students in Assistant Professor Mitzy Porras' Biology class, several undergraduates also walked away with a peer-reviewed research paper about zombie bees in a scientific journal—a major résumé boost for any student. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-undergraduates-zombie-bees.html Plants & Animals Mon, 13 Oct 2025 07:17:05 EDT news679558622 Speculation swirls about fugitive accused double murderer Dezi Freeman's potential ties to prepper groups and possible doomsday beliefs. There are even questions over whether he's hiding in a homemade underground bunker. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-prepping-australia.html Social Sciences Sun, 07 Sep 2025 12:00:01 EDT news676284825 Global air pollution is worsening, with the United States and Canada experiencing the sharpest increases due to record-breaking, climate-supercharged wildfires that are undoing decades of progress, a study said Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-climate-driven-wildfires-reversing-pollution.html Environment Thu, 28 Aug 2025 04:50:01 EDT news675574590 A group of rabbits in Colorado with grotesque, hornlike growths may seem straight out of a low-budget horror film, but scientists say there's no reason to be spooked—the furry creatures merely have a relatively common virus. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-rabbits-horns-colorado-frankenstein-bunnies.html Plants & Animals Thu, 14 Aug 2025 03:51:12 EDT news674362261 Rich with detail, the spiral galaxy NGC 1309 shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. NGC 1309 is about 100 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-hubble-surveys-supernova-rich-spiral.html Astronomy Mon, 04 Aug 2025 12:15:02 EDT news673528501 The cordyceps species in "The Last of Us," Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, is real and does exactly what the show purports —just not in humans, according to medical experts. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-fungi-species-hijack-brains-insects.html Plants & Animals Fri, 11 Jul 2025 09:17:38 EDT news671444207 University of Cincinnati Cancer Center researchers looked billions of years into the past to learn more about the potential future of precision medicine. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-evolutionary-essential-prps-enzyme-complex.html Evolution Tue, 08 Jul 2025 05:00:04 EDT news671122382 New drugs that target "zombie" tuberculosis (TB) cells are now a step closer, thanks to a new study led by the University of Surrey, published in Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-tuberculosis-zombie-cell-weakness-genetically.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 03 Jul 2025 11:59:04 EDT news670762741 When Entomophaga grylli infects locusts or grasshoppers, they climb to the tops of plants before their death. The zombie-ant fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects ants and controls their behaviors to benefit fungal transmission. This type of parasite-manipulated host behavior is called an extended phenotype. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-fungus-caterpillars-favor-fruiting.html Ecology Tue, 01 Jul 2025 09:17:03 EDT news670580221 Around midday on June 13 last year, my colleagues and I were scanning the skies when we thought we had discovered a strange and exciting new object in space. Using a huge radio telescope, we spotted a blindingly fast flash of radio waves that appeared to be coming from somewhere inside our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-strange-bright-space-baffled-astronomers.html Astronomy Sun, 29 Jun 2025 01:30:01 EDT news670245654 Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers report that fossilized entomopathogenic fungi from mid-Cretaceous amber reveal some of the oldest direct evidence of parasitic relationships between fungi and insects, suggesting that Ophiocordyceps fungi originated approximately 133 million years ago and underwent early host shifts that shaped their evolution. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-fossil-fungi-amber-reveal-ancient.html Evolution Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:30:01 EDT news670237993 Filmgoers have long been captivated by stories about robots. We are fascinated by their utopian promise, their superhuman intelligence and, in the case of the cyborg, their often uncanny resemblance to humans. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-hal-m3gan-evil-robots-contemporary.html Social Sciences Thu, 26 Jun 2025 09:53:04 EDT news670150382 Understanding how wildfires influence our planet's climate is a daunting challenge. Although fire occurs nearly everywhere on Earth and has always been present, it is still one of the least understood components of the Earth system. Recently, unprecedented fire activity has been observed in boreal (northern) and Arctic regions, which has drawn the scientific community's attention to areas whose role in the future of our planet remains a mystery. Climate change likely has a major role in this alarming trend. However, high-latitude wildfires are not just a symptom of climate change; they are an accelerating force that could shape the future of our climate in ways that we are currently incapable of predicting. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-high-latitude-peat-forest-future.html Environment Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:10:01 EDT news670084450