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. As carbon emissions continue to be pumped into the atmosphere at record levels, it will be critical to recapture and sequester as much of these warming gases as possible. While technological approaches face many barriers before they can be scaled up, efforts to capture carbon can rely on proven, natural interventions, like blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs). UConn researcher Mojtaba Fakhraee makes the argument in a Nature Sustainability paper that strategic placement of BCEs can not only sequester carbon, but have the added benefit of helping with the restoration of another vital ecosystem—coral reefs. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-pairing-mangroves-coral-reefs-boost.html Ecology Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:40:01 EST news689867295 As the climate crisis becomes a part of daily life with unprecedented heat waves and cold snaps, technology to effectively remove greenhouse gases is emerging as a critical global challenge. In particular, catalytic technology that decomposes harmful gases using oxygen is a key element of eco-friendly purification. South Korean researchers have identified the principle that catalysts—which were previously vaguely thought to simply "use oxygen well"—can selectively utilize different oxygen sources depending on the reaction environment, presenting a new standard for catalyst design. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-eco-friendly-catalyst-oxygen-source.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:14:32 EST news689872441 Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with strong heat-trapping capabilities. Although there is less methane in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, the foremost greenhouse gas, researchers attribute 30% of modern global warming to methane. Observations show that methane levels have increased over time, but the factors driving changes in the rate of accumulation remain unclear. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-satellite-stratospheric-methane-loss-higher.html Earth Sciences Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:07:43 EST news689872021 For many years, the deep ocean has been seen as a nutrient-poor environment where microbes living in the water survive on very limited resources. But new research from the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) challenges that idea. A study led by SDU-biologists at the Department of Biology shows that nutrients might not be so sparse after all in the deep and that microbes have access to a hitherto unknown source of dissolved organic food. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-deep-sea-microbes-unexpected-energy.html Ecology Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:56:30 EST news689871361 A study by researchers at King's College London and the University of Oslo found that resistance to green levies in the countryside is driven not just by the financial cost, but by a sense of unequal treatment at the hands of government. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-rural-backlash-green-levies-rooted.html Environment Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:03:44 EST news689857381 Gas giants are large planets mostly composed of helium and/or hydrogen. Although these planets have dense cores, they don't have hard surfaces. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants in our solar system, but there are many other gas giant exoplanets in our galaxy and some are many times larger than Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-big-planet-large-gas-giants.html Astronomy Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:39:51 EST news689852341 The world is warming. This fact is most often discussed for Earth's surface, where we live. But the climate is also changing from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean. And there is a clear fingerprint of humanity's role in causing these changes through greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from burning fossil fuels. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-climate-fingerprints-human-atmosphere-bottom.html Environment Sat, 07 Feb 2026 09:30:01 EST news689356091 Sometimes we humans get ahead of ourselves. We embark on grand engineering experiments without really understanding what the long-term implications of such projects are. Climate change itself is a perfect example of that—no one in the early industrial revolution realized that, more than 100 years later, the emissions from their combustion engines would increase the overall global temperature and risk millions of people's lives and livelihoods, let alone the impact it would have on the species we share the world with. According to a new release from the Salata Institute at Harvard, we seem to be going down the same blind path with a different engineering challenge in this century—satellite megaconstellations. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-dirty-afterlife-dead-satellite.html Space Exploration Fri, 06 Feb 2026 17:30:02 EST news689596152 Among the many trillions of microorganisms in the human gut is Blautia luti. Like many gut bacteria, it metabolizes indigestible dietary components, such as fiber in the form of carbohydrates. This process produces, among other things, acetic acid (acetate), an important energy source for our intestinal cells and a signaling molecule that can even influence our well-being via the gut-brain axis. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-gut-microbe-blautia-luti-formate.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 06 Feb 2026 14:06:27 EST news689609162 A UT San Antonio-led international research team has identified chitin, the primary organic component of modern crab shells and insect exoskeletons, in trilobite fossils more than 500 million years old, marking the first confirmed detection of the molecule in this extinct group. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-compound-million-year-fossils-earth.html Earth Sciences Fri, 06 Feb 2026 13:35:20 EST news689607301 A new book by a Cambridge engineer and an Oxford theologian argues that our faith in technology to solve the climate crisis is distracting us from the uncomfortable truth: that saving the planet is neither a task for future technologies nor for world leaders alone. It is something all of us—especially those with comfortable lives—can and must do now. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-earth-real-climate-action-restraint.html Environment Fri, 06 Feb 2026 09:46:34 EST news689593562 A team of ocean and climate researchers is calling for a new generation of carefully designed ocean iron fertilization (OIF) field trials to determine whether this marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) method can safely and effectively leverage a natural ocean process to pull the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere. The paper, which is published in Dialogues on Climate Change, argues that larger, longer studies with rigorous monitoring and clear "go/no-go" safeguards are needed to accurately assess OIF as a potential long-term CO2 storage solution to help mitigate human-induced climate change. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-scientists-outline-case-generation-ocean.html Environment Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:30:03 EST news689518692 Seamounts and the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) are two typical deep-sea habitats that often coexist. However, determining whether the "seamount effect" alters OMZ structure through marine stratification, thereby influencing the deep-sea hypoxic environment and carbon sink processes, remains unconfirmed. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-seamounts-expansion-oxygen-minimum-zone.html Earth Sciences Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:32:38 EST news689506322 A research team from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed an efficient, stable, atomic-scale catalyst for carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation. This advancement offers promising strategies for environmental catalysis and designing low-cost, high-performance catalysts. The study, published as a cover article in Nano-Micro Letters on January 5, addresses a long-standing challenge in catalysis. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-dual-atom-platinumruthenium-catalyst-efficient.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:47:53 EST news689438821 Picture a spacecraft returning to Earth after a long journey. The vehicle slams into the planet's atmosphere at roughly 17,000 miles per hour. A shockwave erupts. Molecules in the air are ripped apart, forming a plasma—a gas made of charged particles that can reach tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, many times hotter than the surface of the sun. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-kind-plasma-tunnel-recreates-extreme.html Space Exploration Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:10:01 EST news689342970 Chemical compounds like isocyanate are toxic and trigger allergies or asthma. However, they remain indispensable for the chemical industry. They are needed especially in the production of PUR. These plastics are highly versatile and are therefore used in many products. Although the end product no longer contains isocyanates, special safety precautions are necessary during manufacturing to keep them away from humans and to avoid health hazards. For the first time, Fraunhofer researchers have now succeeded in producing polyurethanes without using isocyanates in the CO2NIPU (nonisocyanate polyurethane, NIPU) project. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-sustainable-polyurethane-production-toxic-isocyanate.html Polymers Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:55:20 EST news689273701 Deep beneath the Earth's surface, in the pores and crevices of rock, live huge communities of microorganisms. They are invisible to the naked eye—yet they play a central role in the quality of our groundwater and in global cycles of matter. A research team led by Dr. Martin Taubert from the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse" at the University of Jena has shown that life in the subsurface follows two fundamentally different strategies—with far-reaching consequences for environmental research and practice. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-microorganisms-surfaces-groundwater.html Ecology Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:39:40 EST news689269079 By changing the physical structure of gold at the nanoscale, researchers can drastically change how the material interacts with light—and, as a result, its electronic and optical properties. This is shown by a study from Umeå University published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-reshaping-gold-electronic-optical-properties.html Nanophysics Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:46:38 EST news689265961 When water and ions move together through channels only a nanometer wide, they behave in unusual ways. In these tight spaces, water molecules line up in single file. This forces ions to shed some of the water molecules that normally surround them, leading to the unique physics of ion transport. Biological channels are especially adept at this behavior, often choreographing channel openings and closings to achieve complex behaviors such as signals in the nervous system. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-nanotubes-lids-mimic-real-biology.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:50:01 EST news689258860 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 A Sydney Ph.D. student has recreated a tiny piece of the universe inside a bottle in her laboratory, producing cosmic dust from scratch. The results shed new light on how the chemical building blocks of life may have formed long before Earth existed. Linda Losurdo, a Ph.D. candidate in materials and plasma physics in the School of Physics, used a simple mix of gases—nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene—to mimic the harsh and dynamic environments around stars and supernova remnants. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-student-cosmic-lab-life-earth.html Astronomy Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:40:02 EST news689247438 Sandstone beneath the North Sea could be used to store carbon dioxide, a study has claimed. The British Geological Survey (BGS) report shows how sandstone beneath the North Sea could assist with the U.K.'s plans for carbon capture and storage (CCS). https://phys.org/news/2026-02-north-sea-sandstone-carbon-dioxide.html Earth Sciences Mon, 02 Feb 2026 07:20:32 EST news689239140 A new study finds that Canada could remove at least five times its annual carbon emissions with strategic planting of more than six million trees along the northern edge of the boreal forest. The paper, "Substantial carbon removal capacity of Taiga reforestation and afforestation at Canada's boreal edge," appears in Communications Earth & Environment. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-strategic-tree-canada-carbon-neutral.html Environment Sun, 01 Feb 2026 10:50:03 EST news688923741 Blue carbon refers to organic carbon captured and stored by the marine and vegetated coastal ecosystems such as mangrove forests, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows. These ecosystems act as powerful carbon sinks, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere efficiently like terrestrial forests. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-conveying-concept-blue-carbon-japanese.html Environment Sat, 31 Jan 2026 19:40:01 EST news688912482 Desertification is accelerating under climate change, threatening biodiversity, food security, and human well-being across the Mediterranean Basin, southern Europe, and the Middle East. Water scarcity and land degradation reduce carbon sequestration, increase soil erosion, and undermine rural livelihoods, pushing many dryland ecosystems into long-term decline. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ecosystem-function-reverse-desertification-europe.html Ecology Sat, 31 Jan 2026 12:40:03 EST news688815629 Researchers led by Yasunori Ichihashi at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan recently examined how different kinds of pesticides and fertilizers affect mandarin oranges across Japan. Their study, published in Plant Biotechnology, involving advanced statistical analysis, showed that while reducing pesticides enhanced the diversity of microbes in the soil, it also led to an increase in fruit disease caused by leaf pathogens. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-pros-cons-pesticides-fertilizers-real.html Biotechnology Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:40:24 EST news689002787 Using a new method to track groundwater levels and greenhouse gas emissions, researchers uncover the climate impact of Southeast Asia's peatlands. In Indonesia, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia, vast areas spanning up to 300,000 square kilometers have emerged over thousands of years as plants grow and thrive in dense tropical peat swamp forests, then die and slowly decompose in waterlogged, low-oxygen conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tropical-peatlands-major-source-greenhouse.html Earth Sciences Fri, 30 Jan 2026 11:11:43 EST news688993861 New research looks at carbon dioxide removal—where carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere and stored—and finds that large-scale reliance on land-based methods, such as planting forests or bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), can protect biodiversity by avoiding climate impacts, but could also compete with biodiversity protection unless site selection criteria are refined. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-intensive-carbon-requires-siting-biodiversity.html Environment Fri, 30 Jan 2026 05:00:02 EST news688927261 A new study evaluating climate policies in 40 countries over a 32-year period finds that carbon pricing and taxation—combined with investments in renewable energy and research—are among the most effective tools governments can use to reduce CO₂ emissions. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-emissions-policy-carbon-pricing-taxation.html Environment Thu, 29 Jan 2026 18:00:04 EST news688837022 Researchers in Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Department of Chemical Engineering and at the University of Akron have published research in Chemical Engineering Journal about a new technology that seeks to solve long-standing challenges in plastic recycling that limit the overwhelming majority of plastics to a single use and contribute to the accumulation of plastic waste. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-chemi-mechanical-pigments-properties-recycled.html Polymers Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:59:53 EST news688928341