Phys.org news

If humans one day settle Mars, they will need tools and parts to build structures on the planet. Carrying heavy, bulky supplies 34 million miles from Earth would be impractical. A better plan, says Zane Mebruer, a recent ...

Urbanization is rapidly transforming natural habitats and poses growing challenges for wildlife. One lesser-known consequence is its potential impact on bird song, which plays a crucial role in communication, reproduction, ...

A new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution examining human populations in Sri Lankan tropical rainforests shows that people's consumption of plants began increasing thousands of years before the introduction of ...

The offspring of a common coral branching species set up a new home up to 100 kilometers or more from their parents in one of the longest dispersal distances ever measured, according to new international research.

Old oil and gas wells may continue to affect the environment long after they have stopped producing, with new field evidence showing that their leakage footprint can be broader and more persistent than surface methane measurements ...

A new study of the blue button (Porpita porpita), a small and elusive sea creature which lives on the surface of the ocean, has found that it may live for several years adrift at sea, much longer than previously estimated.

Like fireflies and many deep-sea creatures, certain fungi can naturally emit light through bioluminescence pathways in which specialized enzymes convert chemical energy into visible light. Medical researchers have used fungal ...

When researchers moved medaka—a fish commonly used in experiments—out of the lab and into more natural conditions, their reproductive clock shifted by hours, suggesting that laboratory findings may not fully capture their ...

Early in development, a group of migrating cells called cranial neural crest cells go on to form many different parts of the face, including the nose, jaw, ears, and throat. To build these structures correctly, genes must ...

The uninhabited islet of Formicula in Greece's Inner Ionian archipelago is a popular tourist draw for its clear waters, swimming spots, and marine diversity. A major attraction is the Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world's ...

For decades, historians have generally agreed that the progress of small villages as they evolved into cities came at the price of widening inequality. A small group of leaders, kings and priests, would inevitably seize control ...

Cosmologists have long struggled to determine whether the universe's accelerating expansion is being driven by a simple cosmological constant, or whether dark energy's influence is evolving over time. In a new analysis published ...