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. Earth's ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to temper the impact of climate change but increasing ocean acidity. However, calcium carbonate minerals found in the seabed act as a natural antacid: Higher acidity causes calcium carbonate to dissolve and generate carbonate molecules that can neutralize the acid. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ocean-natural-antacids-faster-thought.html Earth Sciences Mon, 02 Feb 2026 11:10:06 EST news689252702 Even with regular brushing, teeth can become stained from genetic factors or consuming foods and drinks like tomatoes and coffee. Chemical whiteners can help, but they can also damage teeth in the process. So, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have designed a prototype teeth-whitening powder that is activated by the vibrations from an electric toothbrush. The system both brightened and protected teeth in lab demonstrations. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-toothbrush-powder-whitens-teeth.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 26 Jan 2026 16:00:16 EST news688665601 Winter has its fans, but even those who enjoy playing in the snow probably dislike the chore of clearing up after a big storm that dumps several inches or even feet of snow and ice. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-big-ice-people-salt-ways.html Environment Fri, 23 Jan 2026 04:20:01 EST news688363999 A 66 million-year-old mystery behind how our planet transformed from a tropical greenhouse to the ice-capped world of today has been unraveled by scientists. Their new study has revealed that Earth's massive drop in temperature after the dinosaurs went extinct could have been caused by a large decrease in calcium levels in the ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-scientists-million-year-mystery-earth.html Earth Sciences Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:54:09 EST news688297982 The climate warmed up almost as quickly 56 million years ago as it is doing now. When a huge amount of CO2 entered the atmosphere in a short period of time, it led to large-scale forest fires and erosion. Mei Nelissen, Ph.D. candidate at NIOZ and UU, and her colleagues were able to see this very clearly in the layers of sediment drilled off the Norwegian coast. The research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 19. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ancient-surge-triggered-widespread-forest.html Earth Sciences Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:00:05 EST news687788889 Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on October 28, 2025, as a category 5 storm, bringing sustained winds of 295 kilometers (185 miles) per hour and leaving a broad path of destruction on the island. The storm displaced tens of thousands of people, damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 structures, inflicted costly damage on farmland, and left the nation's forests brown and battered. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-plume-bright-blue-hurricane-melissa.html Earth Sciences Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:03:21 EST news687517381 Calcium (Ca2+) drives many cellular functions, though the way it controls quality of proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a cellular organelle that synthesizes and transports proteins, has not been elucidated. This control system of protein quality, known as proteostasis, was put under a microscope by researchers to find a more thorough understanding of the process, potentially revealing clues about how to prevent Type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). https://phys.org/news/2025-12-uncovers-calcium-insulin-quality-endoplasmic.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 29 Dec 2025 08:50:01 EST news686216532 Scientists have made leaps and bounds in bending atoms to their will, making them into everything from ultraprecise clocks to bits of quantum data. Translating these quantum technologies from obedient atoms to unruly molecules could offer greater possibilities. Molecules can rotate and vibrate. That makes molecules more sensitive to certain changes in the environment, like temperature. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-physicists-unruly-molecules-quantum-party.html General Physics Thu, 18 Dec 2025 14:10:03 EST news685288929 Using a dual-cation substitution approach, researchers at Science Tokyo introduced ferromagnetism into bismuth ferrite, a well-known and promising multiferroic material for next-generation memory technologies. By replacing ions at both the bismuth and iron sites with calcium ions and heavier elements, they modified the spin structure and achieved ferromagnetism at room temperature. Additionally, negative thermal expansion was observed. This ability to engineer magnetism and thermal expansion in a multiferroic material aids in realizing future memory devices. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-dual-substitution-room-temperature-ferromagnetism.html Condensed Matter Thu, 11 Dec 2025 19:50:01 EST news684690170 Quantum technologies from ultrasensitive sensors to next-generation information processors depend on the ability of quantum bits, or qubits, to maintain their delicate quantum states for a sufficiently long time to be useful. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-quantum-ready-2d-materials.html Condensed Matter Mon, 08 Dec 2025 17:12:21 EST news684436321 Purdue University researchers found that a subset of epidermal cells in plant leaves serves as early responders to chemical cues from bacterial pathogens and communicate this information to neighbors through a local traveling wave of calcium ions. The properties of this local wave differ from those generated when epidermal cells are wounded, suggesting that distinct mechanisms are used by plants to communicate specific types of pathogen attack, the team reported Dec. 2 in Science Signaling. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-cells-neighbors-bacterial-pathogens.html Plants & Animals Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:17:28 EST news683918222 Since humanity's first steps on the moon, the aspiration to extend human civilization beyond Earth has been a central objective of international space agencies, targeting long-term extraterrestrial habitation. Among the celestial bodies within reach, Mars is considered our next home. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-dynamic-duo-bacteria-mars-versatile.html Space Exploration Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:01 EST news683806321 An international team of researchers have found a better way to separate two rare and important gases—xenon and krypton—that are often combined in chemical, petrochemical, metallurgical, and environmental processes. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-silver-infused-zeolite-efficiently-xenon.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 01 Dec 2025 12:51:22 EST news683815861 Researchers at the University of Innsbruck have shown that quantum sensors can remain highly accurate even in extremely noisy conditions. It's the first experimental realization of a powerful quantum sensing protocol, outperforming all comparable classical strategies—even under overwhelming noise. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-noise-proof-quantum-sensor-calcium.html Quantum Physics Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:53:41 EST news683805181 When three bright minds from different disciplines come together, something exceptional can happen. This is exactly what Prof. Patricia Hidalgo, Dr. Beatrix Santiago-Schübel, and Dr. Mercedes Alfonso-Prieto achieved at Forschungszentrum Jülich. In an interdisciplinary project, they investigated how cells recognize and remove defective calcium channels—work that could prove significant not only for basic science, but also for future therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-qa-calcium-channel-mechanism-insights.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 28 Nov 2025 18:40:02 EST news683555862 Researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have conducted an ecosystem-wide assessment of enhanced rock weathering (ERW) in forest plantations. Led by Dr. Kang Ronghua, the team revealed how the application of finely ground silicate minerals influences soil carbon fluxes and tree growth in a larch plantation in northeastern China. Their findings were published in Forest Ecology and Management on Sept. 5. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-weathering-carbon-sequestration-temperate-forests.html Ecology Thu, 13 Nov 2025 22:00:01 EST news682250025 Drugs that act on NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptors, which are essential for learning, memory and moment-by-moment consciousness, are key for treating neuropsychiatric disorders. These drugs were developed based on the assumption that the proportion of calcium in the current produced by these receptors remains constant. That assumption turns out to be false, according to University at Buffalo research published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-textbook-view-nmda-receptor-calcium.html Biochemistry Thu, 06 Nov 2025 15:41:20 EST news681666077 We've gone to the bottom of the ocean to study how its chemistry shapes our planet's climate, even chasing lava-spewing underwater volcanoes to do it. But it turns out we may have missed something far closer to home: the water beneath our feet. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-coastal-groundwater-rivals-rivers-volcanoes.html Earth Sciences Wed, 05 Nov 2025 12:02:04 EST news681566521 The design of new calcium channels, built bottom-up from scratch, was reported last week in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-proteins-critical-cell-electrical-built.html Biotechnology Wed, 29 Oct 2025 14:14:04 EDT news680966041 Touch the branches of Leptogorgia chilensis, a soft coral found along the Pacific coast from California to Chile, and its flexible arms stiffen. Penn Engineers have discovered the mechanism underlying this astonishing ability, one that could advance fields as varied as medicine, robotics and manufacturing. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-discovery-coral-stiffens-skeleton-demand.html Plants & Animals Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:00:07 EDT news680781833 In vertebrates, calcium is stored in bones, and its release is tightly regulated. Now, using fruit flies as a model organism, researchers at University of Tsukuba have shown that even animals without bones possess specialized organs for calcium storage, along with an endocrine system that releases calcium via hormonal signals in response to deficiency. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-boneless-insects-endocrine-calcium-fruit.html Plants & Animals Fri, 24 Oct 2025 09:45:03 EDT news680517901 The ocean's smallest engineers, calcifying plankton, quietly regulate Earth's thermostat by capturing and cycling carbon. However, a new review published in Science by an international team led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) (Spain) finds that these organisms, coccolithophores, foraminifers, and pteropods, are oversimplified in the climate models used to predict our planet's future. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-tiny-ocean-climate-key-earth.html Earth Sciences Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:00:12 EDT news680429669 Once considered a fringe idea, the prospect of offsetting global warming by releasing massive quantities of sunlight-reflecting particles into Earth's atmosphere is now a matter of serious scientific consideration. Hundreds of studies have modeled how this form of solar geoengineering, known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), might work. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-solar-gaining-traction-climate-intervention.html Earth Sciences Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:12:54 EDT news680253169 A common soil fungus (Purpureocillium lilacinum BA1S), when combined with calcium and mild alkalinity, speeds up the breakdown of biodegradable plastic (PBAT), offering a greener path for managing agricultural and packaging waste. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-soil-fungus-calcium-team-bioplastics.html Biotechnology Mon, 20 Oct 2025 11:17:04 EDT news680177822 A research team led by Prof. Ben Ko Chi-bun, Associate Professor of the PolyU Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, has discovered the critical mechanism of action of tetrandrine, a compound derived from Chinese medicine Stephania tetrandra. Their work opens the door to innovative treatments for viral infections and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-chinese-medicine-tetrandrine-precise-mechanism.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:20:02 EDT news679155286 Rice University researchers, in collaboration with international partners, have developed the first eco-friendly technology to rapidly capture and destroy toxic "forever chemicals" (PFAS) in water. The findings, recently published in Advanced Materials, mark a major step toward addressing one of the world's most persistent environmental threats. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-eco-friendly-technology-toxic-pfas.html Environment Tue, 07 Oct 2025 14:19:04 EDT news679065541 Corals, the foundation of ocean biodiversity, are threatened by climate change. But new research suggests that these organisms might be more resilient than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-corals-climate.html Plants & Animals Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:10:05 EDT news678549714 A large proportion of the carbon dioxide emissions that are currently being released into the atmosphere by human activities are absorbed by the surface ocean, making it more acidic. As a result, the tiny organisms (plankton), which lie at the base of the marine food web and make the surface ocean their home, are at risk. The fossil record can tell us how these plankton responded during ancient intervals of climatic change that were similarly associated with increased carbon dioxide emissions. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-deep-sea-sediment-cores-reveal.html Earth Sciences Wed, 01 Oct 2025 14:50:04 EDT news678549002 The existing bottleneck in efficiently miniaturizing components for quantum computers could be eased with the help of 3D printing. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-3d-micro-ion-quantum-tech.html Quantum Physics Fri, 05 Sep 2025 08:47:38 EDT news676280851 Imagine a child with eczema who scratches a patch of irritated skin. A tiny opening forms, invisible to the eye. Into that breach slips a common bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-doom-staph-bacteria-latch-human.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 03 Sep 2025 14:00:05 EDT news676106881