en-us Science X internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. For decades, environmental debates have been framed around a stark trade-off: economic growth lifts people out of poverty but comes at the expense of forests, wildlife, and climate stability. More people and richer diets mean more farmland and less nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-economic-growth-income-countries-biodiversity.html Wed, 20 May 2026 17:20:01 EDT news698507521 Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Earth's continents are continuously reworked deep beneath the surface, offering fresh insight into how continents have evolved over billions of years. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-earth-recycles-continents-deep-underground.html Wed, 20 May 2026 17:00:07 EDT news698507281 Cities don't just change the landscape, they change the weather. According to a new study analyzing tens of thousands of rain events in Texas, whether urban areas make rain worse, lighter or simply different depends strongly on the type of storm. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-cities-storms-impacts-storm.html Wed, 20 May 2026 16:40:05 EDT news698506981 Severe droughts, intense floods, and heat waves are pushing river ecosystems beyond their natural limits of resilience. A review of data on river systems across several continents published in the journal Nature Reviews Biodiversity shows that, in most cases, nature is unable to return to its previous state after successive extreme weather events. The consequences range from local extinctions and food chain collapses to permanent changes in the services that rivers provide to human societies. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-extreme-weather-events-rivers-unable.html Wed, 20 May 2026 17:00:08 EDT news698507221 New research shows, for the first time, an unprecedented and significant warming of equatorial Atlantic upper intermediate waters during the mid- to late Holocene. The paper is published in the journal Geology. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-atlantic-oceans-centuries.html Wed, 20 May 2026 16:40:01 EDT news698506201 Neptune's far-flung moon Nereid may be the last of the planet's original companions that managed to survive a cosmic crash, scientists reported Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neptune-mysterious-moon-nereid-survivor.html Wed, 20 May 2026 15:55:54 EDT news698511286 Fish who display dominant traits are more at risk of consuming microplastic pollution than others in their social group, according to new research. The study, led by the University of Glasgow and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, details the different levels of risk microplastic pollution poses to aquatic life, with some fish in hierarchical social groups affected more than others. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dominant-fish-higher-microplastic-subordinates.html Wed, 20 May 2026 16:20:06 EDT news698501763 Aerosols and clouds play a key role in Earth's climate budget. However, the extent to which they reflect solar energy depends heavily on how much water the particles can absorb. This so-called hygroscopicity has so far been represented in a simplified manner in climate models. An international research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) has now demonstrated through a global study that the models are not precise enough, particularly in urban regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-urban-aerosols-faster-polluted-air.html Wed, 20 May 2026 16:00:10 EDT news698501755 In a silent war that has raged for millions of years, plants have evolved a sophisticated chemical arsenal to fight back against invading pathogens. Now, a team of researchers from Peking University and Tsinghua University has finally mapped out the blueprints for one of nature's most effective deterrents, solving a biological puzzle that has baffled scientists for nearly half a century. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scientists-year-mystery-immunity-debneyol.html Wed, 20 May 2026 15:40:07 EDT news698500987 Sea level rise is a direct consequence of human-induced climate change: global warming. It is relentless and very hard to stop. It arises from human-induced warming and the consequential expansion of the ocean, plus the addition of more and more water from melting glaciers and ice sheets. It will continue long into the future. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scientists-knowledge-sea.html Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:07 EDT news698493661 The human hand is an evolutionary marvel. While other primates rely on their hands for locomotion and basic grasping, ours can shape tools, manipulate objects, and perform detailed tasks requiring great dexterity and precision. The evolutionary basis of this unique ability has long been debated, but a new anatomical clue to its origin has just been revealed in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-insights-human-evolved-ape-ancestors.html Wed, 20 May 2026 13:10:01 EDT news698499522 The vulnerability of a shark population to losing even small numbers to fishing has been highlighted by researchers from the University of Chester and partners in the Philippines using a remote stereo camera system. The team has found that pelagic thresher sharks in the Central Visayan Sea would be vulnerable to a fishing mortality rate of 5.3% each year, and that the removal of 15 to 18 females would result in a potentially catastrophic decline in the population. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-fragility-high-shark-population.html Wed, 20 May 2026 15:20:01 EDT news698500045 A new paper calls for ecologists and evolutionary biologists to consider how organisms experience climate rather than how weather stations record it when doing climate–biology research. The paper, "Matching climate to biological scales," is published in the April 2026 edition of Trends in Ecology & Evolution. Postdoctoral associate David Klinges, an incoming assistant professor at Rutgers University, was the lead author, and Yale Peabody Museum curators David Skelly and Martha Muñoz were among the co-authors. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-paper-biologists-rethink-impact-climate.html Wed, 20 May 2026 15:00:08 EDT news698499649 The sight of a saltwater crocodile basking on a mudbank is one of the most iconic and intimidating images of northern Australia. Yet the crocodiles that inhabit the region today are just the survivors of a much richer and stranger lost world. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-years-crocodiles-australasia-ancient-apex.html Wed, 20 May 2026 14:40:07 EDT news698499640 When College of Natural Resources and Environment geospatial data scientist Junghwan Kim asked an artificial intelligence (AI) image generator to create a picture of Blacksburg, the result wasn't quite right. "The image looked generic," Kim said. "It didn't capture what makes Blacksburg unique." https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-cities-smaller-communities.html Wed, 20 May 2026 16:00:04 EDT news698491932 Researchers have uncovered a remarkable fossil site in a remote part of Canada's Northwest Territories, offering unprecedented insight into the earliest evolution of complex animal life on Earth. Findings from the site represent life from the Ediacaran biota—soft-bodied organisms that lived on the seafloor more than 500 million years ago—and push back the origins of animal movement and sexual reproduction by 5–10 million years. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-discovery-fossils-northwest-canada-view.html Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:15 EDT news698486161 Two artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can assist throughout multiple processes involved in scientific research—such as generating hypotheses, designing experiments, and analyzing data—are presented in Nature. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-scientific-discoveries.html Wed, 20 May 2026 12:00:03 EDT news698496303 Cows show a visual preference for new human faces over a familiar one and can match a known handler's voice to their face, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Océane Amichaud of INRAE in Nouzilly, France, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-cows-familiar-human-voices.html Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:09 EDT news698488922 Tropical coral reefs support the highest levels of biodiversity in the ocean. This vital ecosystem depends on reef-building corals, which form colonies of thousands of tiny coral animals that secrete calcium carbonate skeletons, creating the reef's complex structure. While corals are visually striking, they are also highly sensitive to environmental changes driven by global warming and other consequences of climate change. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-seawater-collapse-coral-oxygen.html Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:01 EDT news698501581 Azara's owl monkeys, a small primate species found in South America, are heavier today than those that lived a quarter-century ago, and evidence suggests that rising temperatures might have driven the weight gain, according to a Yale-led study of a wild population. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-climate-spurs-weight-gain-owl.html Wed, 20 May 2026 14:03:45 EDT news698504595 By combining demand-driven life cycle assessment with a multi-objective optimization framework, researchers identified potential optimal solutions for reusable bubble tea packaging systems under actual market demand conditions. The results show that material selection and low reuse frequency dominate both economic costs and environmental impacts, while durability and logistics become increasingly important as reuse frequency increases. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-reusable-tea-cups-hidden-thresholds.html Wed, 20 May 2026 15:20:09 EDT news698500012 In a new discovery, researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science have found that something in the direction of a magnetic field can influence how molecules of life behave at the most fundamental level and how early chemical processes linked to life may have unfolded. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-magnet-blocks-life.html Wed, 20 May 2026 09:40:03 EDT news698485141 What renders a city garden attractive to insects such as solitary bees, bumblebees and hoverflies? And how well do they pollinate plants in urban areas? A study by the Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape shows that insects can pollinate plants in the entire city. However, they still require more insect-friendly green spaces. The findings are published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-insects-city-sustain.html Wed, 20 May 2026 13:40:04 EDT news698497802 LSU researchers helped uncover what may be the first clear detection of gamma rays from a superluminous supernova, using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope—a breakthrough that offers new insight into the powerful magnetars believed to drive some of the universe's brightest stellar explosions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nasa-fermi-glimpses-power-source.html Wed, 20 May 2026 13:00:07 EDT news698496602 A team of scientists has recorded one of the most detailed views ever of a failed solar eruption, a powerful blast from the sun that never broke free. Their work is published in the journal Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-uncover-solar-eruptions-die.html Wed, 20 May 2026 13:26:36 EDT news698502364 NIMS discovered a phenomenon in which droplets on a single solid surface exhibit both a "sticky" and "repellent" state simultaneously. Namely, the wetting behavior branches into two states. This is a discovery that overturns interface chemistry scientists' belief held for over 200 years that, on a non-textured surface, the wetting state is uniquely determined by solid/liquid combinations. Furthermore, the research team also clarified a universal surface design principle that causes this phenomenon. This research result was published in Advanced Materials Interfaces on April 2, 2026. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-overturning-year-belief-surface-enables.html Wed, 20 May 2026 13:20:03 EDT news698496901 Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., has questions. When the professor and interim chair of the University of Florida Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering saw reports in the media positing that scientific literature is increasingly being generated by artificial intelligence, he wondered, "How do they know?" https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-detectors-probe-efficacy-danger-ai.html Wed, 20 May 2026 13:20:07 EDT news698500982 A research team at Google co-led by Michael Brenner, Catalyst Professor of Applied Mathematics and Physics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Google research scientist, has produced a new artificial intelligence system that can automatically write scientific software programs that surpass the performance of human-written programs. The paper is published in the journal Nature. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-automates-scientific-software-outperforming.html Wed, 20 May 2026 13:00:05 EDT news698500058 As ammonia gains attention as a next-generation energy source capable of overcoming the limits of hydrogen storage and transport, KAIST and a joint research team have developed fuel cell technology that directly uses ammonia as fuel while achieving world-class performance and stability. This achievement is regarded as a core technology that will accelerate the commercialization of the next-generation hydrogen economy and carbon-free power generation. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-high-entropy-catalyst-ammonia-fuel.html Wed, 20 May 2026 12:20:01 EDT news698495161 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 alone reveal. A study led by researchers at The Lyell Centre, Heriot-Watt University, examined persistent methane leakage from a legacy petroleum well in British Columbia, Canada. The team found that while methane emissions at the ground surface were concentrated in a relatively small area and varied through time, the leakage also left a wider detectable signature in the shallow subsurface and surrounding soils. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-field-evidence-canada-wells-hidden.html Wed, 20 May 2026 12:44:20 EDT news698499741 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, and survival. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-city-life-bird-song-species.html Wed, 20 May 2026 12:40:05 EDT news698495281 A sheet of twisted carbon nanotubes has revealed a hidden talent scientists suspected for decades but had never managed to measure. Researchers at Rice University have created large, highly ordered films of chiral carbon nanotubes (CNTs), hollow cylinders of carbon atoms with either a left- or a right-handed twist. Measurements showed the crystalline films can convert the color of light at a rate two to three orders of magnitude greater than conventional materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-chiral-carbon-nanotube-giant-conversion.html Wed, 20 May 2026 12:00:05 EDT news698494921 New research from Singapore University of Technology and Design and the Singapore-ETH Centre finds that private cooling may protect people from heat while reducing the perceived urgency of broader urban climate solutions—a pattern the researchers call "behavioral insulation." https://phys.org/news/2026-05-air-conditioning-cools-homes-weaken.html Wed, 20 May 2026 14:20:05 EDT news698499061 On a special night, if you are lucky, you might catch a faint red glow quietly lighting up Japan's sky, stretching low along the horizon and easy to miss if you are not looking carefully. Subtle and diffuse, it probably appears as a soft crimson haze. But behind this glowing beauty are countless charged particles traveling from the sun toward Earth's magnetic field, which then collide with oxygen atoms high above our planet. At these great heights, where the air is extremely thin, the excited oxygen atoms then release their energy as dim red light, creating the auroras we see from the ground. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-space-storms-japan-sky-red.html Wed, 20 May 2026 11:40:07 EDT news698494681 From the highest mountains to the deepest ocean, the driest desert to the lushest jungle, Earth displays a dazzling array of life-forms. And eukaryotes account for many of these life-forms, including nearly all of the multicellular life we can see in the landscape. But scientists are still piecing together exactly how this domain of life evolved from simpler predecessors. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-early-complex-life-clung-oxygenated.html Wed, 20 May 2026 11:00:10 EDT news698493481 Scientists have long known that the DNA code in genes is not the only way to pass genetic traits from parents to offspring. "Epigenetic" marks—chemical modifications to DNA that don't change the DNA code itself—can also be passed down. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mendel-dont-mouse-reveals-hidden.html Wed, 20 May 2026 11:20:06 EDT news698492093 Beekeepers and their honeybees can be invaluable participants in environmental surveys, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Jennifer Shelton of the UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-thousands-uk-beekeepers-submit-honey.html Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:05 EDT news698488441 The world's forests form a vast network of carbon reservoirs, keeping carbon sequestered from the atmosphere where its presence is disrupting Earth's climate systems. Many corporate, national and state climate policies rely on forests' ability to store carbon—often tracked and funded through a system of "carbon credits" issued to polluting industries in exchange for protecting and restoring forests. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-carbon-underestimate-forests-climate.html Wed, 20 May 2026 11:00:13 EDT news698407681 A discovery by a South Korean research team suggests that impact-generated lakes may have fostered early oxygen-producing life. A team of South Korean scientists has uncovered new evidence that could help explain how Earth's atmosphere became rich in oxygen, one of the most transformative events in the planet's history. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-asteroid-impact-site-reveals-early.html Wed, 20 May 2026 10:20:05 EDT news698490421 Plastic food packaging, caps and lids, and plastic bottles are the planet's predominant items of marine litter, according to the world's first overview of marine litter by usage type. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-food-plastics-dominate-marine-litter.html Wed, 20 May 2026 11:00:06 EDT news698420042 New research published in NeoBiota has found that the Western honey bee—an introduced species to Australia—and the devastating, invasive plant fungus known as myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) may have formed a mutually beneficial relationship known as "invasional mutualism." https://phys.org/news/2026-05-bees-food-source-reshape-destructive.html Wed, 20 May 2026 09:20:05 EDT news698484781 The Haystack 37m Telescope has been a landmark in radio astronomy and radar studies of the solar system since its first light in 1964. Over the following four decades, it supported NASA's Apollo landings on the moon, made planetary radar maps of the surface of Venus, contributed to experimental tests of Einstein's general relativity, supported the development of VLBI, and conducted foundational studies of quasars and star-forming regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-years-legendary-telescope-black-holes.html Wed, 20 May 2026 10:00:01 EDT news698489714 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-genes-borders-coral-babies-vast.html Wed, 20 May 2026 11:00:11 EDT news698491755 Even if you haven't heard of Botrytis cinerea, you've likely seen it—slowly growing in your store-bought blueberries, tomatoes or even on your beautiful orchids. Commonly known as gray mold, the fungus attacks hundreds of plants. For years, scientists have unsuccessfully tried to breed crops that could resist the fungus. New research from the University of California, Davis, suggests decades of crop breeding strategies may have overlooked a crucial piece of the puzzle: the pathogen itself. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-fungus-gray-mold-secret-revealed.html Wed, 20 May 2026 10:20:03 EDT news698488562 The evolution of tiny arms in several groups of meat-eating dinosaurs was likely driven by the development of strong, powerful heads, which were used to attack prey, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL (University College London) and Cambridge University. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-meat-dinosaurs-rex-evolved-tiny.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:00:05 EDT news698403984 Even advanced technology can struggle when the real world becomes unpredictable. In April 2026, a Waymo robotaxi in San Antonio, Texas, drove into a flooded lane during severe weather, prompting the company to recall about 3,800 vehicles for a software fix. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-taxis-robots-bees.html Wed, 20 May 2026 13:40:01 EDT news698500157 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 natural reproductive timing. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-lab-fish-hours-sync-natural.html Wed, 20 May 2026 09:00:01 EDT news698484661 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tiny-sea-creature-porpita-adrift.html Wed, 20 May 2026 08:40:03 EDT news698484541 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 graduate of the U of A, would be 3D printing items on the Red Planet. His new research, completed while he was an honors undergraduate in mechanical engineering at the U of A, suggests it may be possible. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-future-mars-settlers-tools.html Wed, 20 May 2026 07:20:03 EDT news698479794 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 switch on in the right cells at the right time. But many of the DNA switches that control those genes sit far away on the genome, and scientists still know little about how genes find and communicate with these distant switches during development. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-genes-ready-early-genome-prime.html Wed, 20 May 2026 07:40:10 EDT news698479924 As part-night lighting (i.e., turning off streetlights in the middle of the night) becomes more widespread among local authorities, three studies focusing, respectively, on robins, toads and bats show that, often, turning off the lights for a few hours is not enough to restore natural night. In terms of biodiversity, the challenge is not just about switching off the lights, but knowing when and where to do so. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-street-impact-wildlife.html Wed, 20 May 2026 11:20:03 EDT news698494201 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 agriculture. The research focuses on human and animal remains dating from approximately 20,000 to 3,000 years ago and uses zinc isotope analysis of tooth enamel to reconstruct an organism's position in the food web—known as a trophic position—and dietary composition. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-sri-lanka-teeth-reveal-diets.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:00:02 EDT news698398201 One of the most puzzling findings from the JWST's observations of the early universe is the size of black holes. According to our understanding of black hole growth, these early black holes are far more massive than expected. Astronomers expected the unexpected from JWST, and it has delivered. Now the challenge is to update models of the universe to include these new observations. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-explanation-massive-black-holes-jwst.html Wed, 20 May 2026 09:20:11 EDT news698486701 India's weather agency warned on Wednesday of the risk of upcoming "extreme" heat made worse by the potentially powerful El Niño weather pattern, issuing heat wave preparedness guidelines as temperatures soared. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-india-issues-el-nino-looms.html Wed, 20 May 2026 10:00:05 EDT news698487862 Google will soon unleash a wealth of new artificial intelligence-powered tools and systems, including an AI assistant that will help users by proactively performing tasks on their behalf. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-google-slew-ai-advances-personal.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:07:26 EDT news698472400 Tech giant Alibaba released on Wednesday a new artificial intelligence chip it said performed three times as well as its predecessor, showcasing growing domestic chipmaker prowess as US titan Nvidia struggles for access to China. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-alibaba-unveils-ai-chip-nvidia.html Wed, 20 May 2026 09:40:04 EDT news698487831 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 light-producing enzymes in the fungal bioluminescence pathway (FBP) to visually track processes like tumor progression and inflammatory responses. New research published in The FEBS Journal provides insights that may help improve and expand such bioluminescence-based tools and applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-fungi-expose-enzyme-bioluminescent-tools.html Wed, 20 May 2026 03:10:01 EDT news698399101 Captured by the multispectral imager instrument on NASA's Psyche mission, this is an enhanced-color view of the large double-ring crater Huygens (upper right; about 290 miles, or 470 kilometers, in diameter) and the surrounding heavily cratered southern highlands near 15 degrees south latitude. The various colors in this dramatic scene are likely due to differences in the compositional properties of dust, sand, and bedrock in this ancient terrain. The image scale is around 2,200 feet (670 meters) per pixel. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-image-nasa-psyche-mission-captures.html Wed, 20 May 2026 09:00:05 EDT news698482682 Imagine navigating a city street during rush hour—cars and bikes zipping by, pedestrians hustling down a crowded sidewalk, your eyes adjusting to the shop windows' glare in one moment and a dark underpass the next. Our brain, of course, does all this without us being aware of the complex processes going on in that moment. In real time, our eyes and brain create a three-dimensional, accurate representation of a dynamic scene, constantly calculating distances between objects with myriad shapes, sizes, and surfaces. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-virtual-screen-machines-3d.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:00:04 EDT news698398261 SpaceX seems to have mistaken shooting for the moon with shooting at the moon. Forecast to occur on Aug. 5, a five-story-long piece of a rocket from one of the private space exploration company's recent lunar missions is expected to hit the moon at around 5,400 miles per hour, around 24 times the speed of a Formula 1 racecar. As it currently stands, projections put the rocket's crash course with the moon at 2:44 a.m. Eastern Time. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacex-rocket-moon-space-private.html Wed, 20 May 2026 08:40:01 EDT news698479668 Decarbonization of the buildings and construction sector has slowed, leaving it both a major emissions source and increasingly vulnerable to climate impacts and energy price shocks, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC). https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-houses-greener.html Wed, 20 May 2026 10:20:01 EDT news698491081 This view of a crescent Mars was captured on May 15, 2026, at about 5:03 a.m. PDT by NASA's Psyche mission as it approached the planet for a gravity assist. Captured by the spacecraft's multispectral imager instrument, this was the last view of the whole planet before it began to overfill the field of view of the camera. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-image-nasa-psyche-mission-images.html Wed, 20 May 2026 08:20:03 EDT news698479382 This view of the Martian surface, captured by NASA's Psyche spacecraft on May 15, 2026, shows streaks that have formed due to wind blowing over impact craters in the Syrtis Major region. The image scale is nearly 1,200 feet (360 meters) per pixel. The wind streaks extend to about 30 miles (50 kilometers) long, and the large craters near the center-bottom of the scene average about 30 miles in diameter. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-image-nasa-psyche-mission-spies.html Wed, 20 May 2026 08:00:03 EDT news698479321 Argentine scientists on Tuesday began collecting rodents in the woods around Ushuaia to search for carriers of hantavirus in the area from which the virus-stricken MV Hondius set sail. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-argentine-rodents-hantavirus.html Wed, 20 May 2026 07:20:01 EDT news698473030 Elon Musk wants to take SpaceX public—and he's asking investors to believe the rocket and AI company is worth almost $1.75 trillion. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacex-ipo-moonshot-doubters-wall.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:40:01 EDT news698472923 Behind the scenes at Brookfield Zoo Chicago, a record-breaking conservation milestone is helping secure the future of one of the world's most imperiled amphibians. Months of meticulous care and coordination enabled Brookfield Zoo Chicago to successfully breed and raise 12,244 Puerto Rican crested toad tadpoles to be released in the wild, supporting species recovery efforts. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-zoo-historic-milestone-puerto-rican.html Wed, 20 May 2026 07:15:54 EDT news698479971 Researchers at Bar-Ilan University have successfully restored youthful patterns of DNA organization in the livers of old mice, reversing key molecular features associated with aging. The study, published in Nature Communications, identifies the protein SIRT6 as a powerful protector against age-related breakdown in chromatin, the complex system that packages DNA and controls how genes are switched on and off. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-sirt6-protein-age-breakdown-chromatin.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:20:06 EDT news698426761 A graceful black monkey edges across a swaying red rope bridge strung over a busy residential road in Malaysia's Penang, watched by local conservationists who carefully record her movements. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-sky-bridges-citizen-science-endangered.html Wed, 20 May 2026 06:20:01 EDT news698472822 The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday considers a resolution reinforcing states' obligations to combat climate change, a long-awaited move toned down under pressure from major greenhouse gas emitters. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-pressure-mounts-nations-climate-lifeline.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:20:01 EDT news698472171 Witches' broom disease, caused by the fungus Moniliophthora perniciosa, decimated cocoa crops in southern Bahia state, Brazil, in the 1990s. It was even the subject of a local soap opera and continues to plague the chocolate industry in the Amazon region. However, a recent study published in Scientific Reports offers hope that increased cocoa production in the Amazon region will not rely so heavily on fungicides and fertilizers. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-amazonian-cocoa-edge-standout-cultivars.html Tue, 19 May 2026 18:40:03 EDT news698426641 The mighty Congo River feeds millions of people along its course through the vast Democratic Republic of Congo but fishermen near the capital now find more plastic than fish in their nets. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dr-congo-fishermen-resort-trawling.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:12:24 EDT news698472676 An international team of scientists have documented, for the first time, humpback whales traveling between breeding grounds in eastern Australia and Brazil, crossing more than 14,000 kilometers of open ocean. The findings set new records for the greatest distances ever confirmed between sightings of individual humpback whales anywhere in the world. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-intrepid-tails-fluke-photos-humpback.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:10:01 EDT news698419561 Some birds sing to attract a mate. Others dance or display colorful feathers. But in the moonlit forests and shrublands of northern Argentina, one bird courts romance by snapping its wrists together, producing a sharp clapping sound scientists have puzzled over for decades. Now, researchers have captured the behavior in detail for the first time, revealing how scissor-tailed nightjars create one of the most curious sounds in the avian world. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-birds-dark-flirt-nightjars-reveal.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:40:03 EDT news698426881 Norwegian authorities on Tuesday announced that avian influenza has been documented in a polar bear for the first time in Europe, in the Svalbard region in the Arctic. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-norway-europe-case-bird-flu.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:19:08 EDT news698473012 Eels bred in captivity will be sold in Japanese shops for the first time, in a move that could ease eventually pressure on the endangered fish, officials said Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-japan-eels-bred-captivity-world.html Wed, 20 May 2026 04:59:23 EDT news698471925 Ferries, cargo ships and tankers cut through choppy waters in the San Francisco Bay Tuesday as a whale surfaced nearby, its spout barely visible against the white caps. Until now, whales could easily go unnoticed by mariners, but an AI-powered detection network launched this week is designed to track them day and night. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-whale-network-san-francisco-bay.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:30:01 EDT news698472550 An Australian animal welfare group is seeking a heroic dog with an appetite for adventure for a full-time position as a koala rescuer. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-australian-group-koala-dog.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:15:01 EDT news698472880 A new study led by Dr. Lin Su of Queen Mary University of London, published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, describes a new integrated solar reactor in which engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli) are grown directly inside the same liquid that converts CO₂ into a usable energy source using sunlight. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-solar-reactor-paves-chemicals-plastics.html Tue, 19 May 2026 18:00:08 EDT news698426101 A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific region of southern Peru late Tuesday, injuring 27 people and damaging buildings, officials said. No deaths were reported. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-magnitude-earthquake-peru.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:08:46 EDT news698472503 The United States on Tuesday began enforcing a law requiring tech platforms to remove sexual deepfakes and other non-consensual intimate imagery, but experts warned of shortcomings and raised online censorship concerns. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-law-sexual-deepfakes.html Wed, 20 May 2026 06:20:03 EDT news698472961 Governments around the world conserve plants and animals in part by setting aside land. Whether as wilderness reserves or as resource management zones that allow industrial activities such as logging, 17.4% of the planet's land offers some measure of protection. These protected areas overlap with one-fifth, on average, of the range of Earth's terrestrial mammals. But beneath these parched deserts, dark forests, and rolling grasslands is an invisible world that keeps these aboveground places healthy. And we're not protecting that world much at all. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-areas-wildlife-soil-fungi.html Tue, 19 May 2026 17:40:03 EDT news698424721 Researchers at Clarkson University are advancing the use of artificial intelligence and computational physics to accelerate discovery of next-generation materials for quantum technologies, optoelectronics, and renewable energy applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-quantum-scale-simulations-ai-uncover.html Tue, 19 May 2026 18:20:01 EDT news698426281 A new University of California San Diego study unveils the first empirical evidence that a modern artificial intelligence system can pass the Turing test—a major scientific benchmark that asks whether a machine can imitate human conversation so convincingly that people can't reliably tell it apart from a real person. In a series of experiments, people were often unable to tell the difference between humans and advanced large language models (LLMs). https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-human-real-humans-classic.html Tue, 19 May 2026 17:40:06 EDT news698430421 Speakers promoting AI are getting booed at universities, voters are rebelling against data centers, and even AI-friendly Trump administration officials are starting to retreat as an artificial intelligence backlash gathers pace across the United States. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-boos-voter-unease-ai-anxiety.html Wed, 20 May 2026 06:00:01 EDT news698472943 Elon Musk defines himself as an engineer trying to save humanity, while his critics call him a far-right showman who overpromises and underdelivers. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-musk-empire-spacex-wall-street.html Wed, 20 May 2026 05:15:55 EDT news698472906 The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1, and while a developing El Niño might result in a tamer season than in the past few years, all it takes is one big storm hitting a populated area to make it a bad hurricane season. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hurricane-federal-noaa.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:40:05 EDT news698413538 RNA is the means of translating the genetic code embedded in DNA into proteins, which serve as enzymes, transporters, signaling molecules, receptors, structural components, regulators, and gene-expression controllers, among many other roles. Yet one gene is not limited to producing one RNA variant. The process of RNA splicing—in which different coding RNA segments (exons) are joined together after noncoding regions (introns) are removed—allows for the generation of a large array of RNA transcript isoforms with distinct sequences, and consequently, distinct functions in tissue- and cell-type-specific patterns. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ai-driven-framework-enables-precise.html Tue, 19 May 2026 20:20:01 EDT news698405811 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has adjusted the eligibility criteria for films vying for Oscars from 2027 onward. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-mainstream-ai-oscars-wont.html Tue, 19 May 2026 21:20:01 EDT news698413553 A recent study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences has uncovered a detailed mechanism through which intense storms over the Himalayas contribute to increasing moisture in the lower stratosphere—a layer of the atmosphere crucial to global climate regulation. The research, led by Ph.D. student Li Ming and Dr. Wu Xue from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, highlights the important role of gravity waves generated by deep convection. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-himalayan-storms-humidify-upper-atmosphere.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:20:05 EDT news698428501 As primary producers at the base of marine food webs, diatoms are key indicators of environmental change, providing critical insight into the health and resilience of the Salish Sea bioregion. A team of Canadian scientists has recently compiled a new, consolidated checklist of diatoms—a major group of photosynthetic microalgae—for the Salish Sea, northeast Pacific. Integrating historical records with new reports, this first comprehensive baseline establishes a foundation for assessing diatom diversity in the region. The checklist appears in the Biodiversity Data Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-revealing-invisible-baseline-salish-sea.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:00:10 EDT news698428081 On April 24, the Architectural Robotic Construction Lab ( ARC Lab) in The University of Texas at Arlington's College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs demonstrated its new large-scale 3D printing technology. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-future-robotic.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:40:02 EDT news698413596 The loss of dense kelp forests along the Maine coast—and the northward proliferation of small, carpet-like turf algae in its place—is accelerating as the ocean warms, according to new research by scientists at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ecological-state-shift-loss-kelp.html Tue, 19 May 2026 18:20:03 EDT news698424361 Astronomers may have found an explanation for one of the biggest mysteries revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): why so many galaxies in the early universe appear unexpectedly bright in ultraviolet light. The new study, posted to the arXiv preprint server on May 11, suggests that galaxies more than 13 billion years ago were filled with an unusual kind of dust produced directly by supernova explosions, which could help explain why galaxies appeared so bright. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-supernova-jwst-biggest-puzzles.html Mon, 18 May 2026 09:40:02 EDT news698315005 As artificial intelligence continues to transform recruitment and workplace practices, questions around transparency, fairness, and trust are becoming increasingly urgent. A new article sheds light on how workers and job applicants across Europe experience and perceive AI-driven data practices, offering fresh empirical insights into one of the most pressing challenges in today's datafied workplace. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-transparent-ai-workplace.html Tue, 19 May 2026 18:00:03 EDT news698413730 It is one of the strangest puzzles in human evolution. About 90% of people across every human culture favor their right hand—with no other primate species showing a population-level preference on this scale. Despite decades of research into the brains, genes and development behind handedness, why humans ended up so overwhelmingly right-handed has remained an evolutionary enigma. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-why-is-almost-everyone-right.html Fri, 15 May 2026 13:00:06 EDT news698068021 We may be more in the dark about dark matter than previously thought, according to a new analysis of distant galaxy clusters. Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan, a leading theorist on the nature of black holes and dark matter, says new observational data conflicts with certain assumptions about cold dark matter (CDM)—unseen, slow-moving particles that are inferred by their effect on gravity—and may prompt a fundamental rethinking of dark matter by scientists. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-qa-dark.html Thu, 14 May 2026 16:55:12 EDT news697996441 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 most threatened seal species. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-rare-underwater-caves-tourists.html Tue, 19 May 2026 11:20:03 EDT news698401949 Scientists have discovered a galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago, 800 million years after the Big Bang. It contains possible evidence of the universe's first stars and is one of the most chemically primitive galaxies observed to date. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-webb-universe-galaxies.html Thu, 14 May 2026 14:20:02 EDT news697984547 Asteroid mining seems simple in theory. A spacecraft flies up to a giant rock in space, scoops out some material, and either processes it on site or returns it back to a huge central processing facility. But in practice, it is certainly not that simple, and a new paper from some Spanish researchers, published in the journal Icarus, showcases one of the reasons why—many small asteroids are spinning ridiculously fast. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-asteroid-ob5-fast-current-prospectors.html Tue, 19 May 2026 07:20:01 EDT news698391482 According to NOAA, the global average sea level has risen 8–9 inches (21–24 centimeters) since 1880. The rate at which the sea level is rising is increasing, threatening coastal cities and ecosystems around the world. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-cloud-sun-centuries-sea.html Tue, 19 May 2026 12:45:13 EDT news698413433 New research led by the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL) has revealed that pollution from coal-fired power plants is significantly reducing the energy output of solar photovoltaic (solar PV) installations, particularly where these are expanding side by side. The findings have been published in Nature Sustainability. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-coal-pollution-solar-power-output.html Fri, 15 May 2026 05:00:03 EDT news697966561 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 in Physical Review D, Samsuzzaman Afroz and Suvodip Mukherjee at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, have identified a subtle impact on the inference of the nature of dark energy, due to a tiny mismatch between a fundamental cosmological distance relation and two key datasets used to measure the properties of dark energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-evolving-dark-energy.html Tue, 19 May 2026 07:30:01 EDT news698316441 Last fall, a Chinese spacecraft orbiting Mars captured images of a comet from another star system, offering scientists a fresh vantage on a rare visitor. https://sciencex.com/news/2026-05-mars-interstellar-visitor-astronomers-thought.html Tue, 19 May 2026 09:20:01 EDT news698339602 It may sound counterintuitive, but new research suggests that cleaning up air pollution could contribute to a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This is the ocean current system that acts like a giant conveyor belt, moving warm surface water northward and cool deep water southward. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-climate-air-pollution-key-atlantic.html Tue, 19 May 2026 12:40:02 EDT news698411936 A new study has revealed that a core idea taught in chemistry classrooms around the world may be wrong. Dr. Edwin Johnson, Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, co-authored the paper published in the Journal of Chemical Education with academics from University of Cardiff and University of New England. "Our Australian–U.K. study has revisited how chemistry textbooks explain the behavior of electrons inside molecules, a concept used to understand why chemicals react the way they do," Dr. Edwin said. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-debunking-core-chemistry-concept-taught.html Mon, 18 May 2026 13:40:09 EDT news698322099 A biotech company that aims to resurrect lost creatures said Tuesday it has hatched live chicks in an artificial environment—a development that was met with mixed reviews from scientists and critics of its de-extinction mission. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-de-extinction-company-hatched-chicks.html Tue, 19 May 2026 09:25:18 EDT news698401446 Using the MeerKAT radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered 15 new millisecond pulsars in 47 Tucanae—one of the closest and best studied globular clusters. The finding is reported in the latest issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-meerkat-millisecond-pulsars-globular-cluster.html Tue, 19 May 2026 09:40:04 EDT news698381494 Florida State University chemists have synthesized new molecules derived from bacteria found in a Pacific Ocean sea sponge, a breakthrough for the future of drug development, particularly for rare forms of cancer. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-chemists-sea-sponge-bacteria-molecules.html Tue, 19 May 2026 16:20:05 EDT news698420435 Cows eat grass...everyone knows that. But climate change is forcing producers and scientists to rethink some of our long-held assumptions about livestock nutrition. Crop costs are climbing. Traditional pastures are under pressure. And researchers are casting a wider net for unconventional feed sources that might help the industry adapt. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-seaweed-solution-cattle-nutrition-sustainable.html Tue, 19 May 2026 17:00:04 EDT news698422669 A new European-led telescope could map the dusty, hidden half of the universe, all without using fossil fuels. If you have ever seen the Milky Way in the night sky, you probably noticed that it looks cloudy. That is because towards the center of our galaxy, and of most galaxies, there are vast amounts of dust that make it hard to see what is going on. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-atlast-telescope-reveal-universe.html Tue, 19 May 2026 13:40:03 EDT news698411764 Vibrant, tiny, and sporting a bright red grin on its back, the Happy-Face spider is one of the most famous and recognizable arachnids in the world. For over a century, this cheerful-looking creature was thought to be a unique resident of the Hawaiian Islands, a biological curiosity found nowhere else on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-happy-spider-species-indian-himalayas.html Tue, 19 May 2026 09:20:06 EDT news698400543 Scientists at Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have discovered that large pieces of DNA can transfer directly between human cells, and the DNA can persist and change how the recipient cell functions. The findings, published in Cell, challenge a long-standing view that the genomes of individual human cells evolve independently from one another. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-human-cells-exchange-genomic-dna.html Tue, 19 May 2026 15:20:08 EDT news698415721 Parasitic nematodes (commonly known as roundworms) are a large, diverse and poorly studied group of disease-causing organisms that severely impact the health of humans and animals. They infect almost one-quarter of the global population and significantly impair child growth and development. Diagnosing these parasites is challenging as many species look identical, meaning common identification techniques typically miss species. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-field-ready-tool-rare-zoonotic.html Tue, 19 May 2026 16:40:03 EDT news698422201 A team at the University of Vienna, led by chemist Nuno Maulide, has developed a new method for controlling chemical reactions in a more targeted and efficient manner. At the heart of this is the concept of "cation sampling": specially selected groups (ketones), in a sense, function as molecular signposts for randomly migrating positive charges, enabling reactions to take place at sites on a molecule that were previously difficult to access. The method allows carbon-hydrogen bonds (C–H bonds) to be specifically modified. The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-migrating-hard-bond-molecules.html Tue, 19 May 2026 16:50:02 EDT news698427061 Removing carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the air, a process called direct air capture (or DAC), is one of several approaches being developed to help reduce the concentration of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Among the methods being scaled up, one of the more established involves exposing air to a strongly alkaline liquid, typically a solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH), commonly known as lye. The liquid chemically binds the CO2, converting it into dissolved salts called carbonates and bicarbonates. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-custom-device-carbon-capture-reactions.html Tue, 19 May 2026 17:20:01 EDT news698429101 In a new study, researchers show how so‑called TriPcides can target the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, including antibiotic‑resistant strains such as MRSA. The compounds disrupt the bacteria's ability to cause infection and can also kill dormant bacterial cells, which are often difficult to treat with existing antibiotics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tripcides-mrsa-suppress-infection-dormant.html Tue, 19 May 2026 16:00:09 EDT news698419141 In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs) could fly through a collapsed building to map the scene, giving rescuers information they need to quickly reach survivors. But this remains an extremely challenging problem for an autonomous robot, which would need to swiftly adjust its trajectory to avoid sudden obstacles while staying on course. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-source-framework-drones-dodge-obstacles.html Tue, 19 May 2026 15:20:04 EDT news698422499 Within the Canadian Shield, hydrogen gas is steadily building up naturally among some of the oldest rocks on Earth. Now, for the first time, geochemists at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa have measured its presence, mapped its concentration and tracked its long-term accumulation, shedding new light on this source of natural, or white, hydrogen. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-white-hydrogen-billion-year-canadian.html Mon, 18 May 2026 15:00:10 EDT news698317793 Gold nanoparticles, which are about one-thousandth the width of a human hair, can convert light they receive from a laser into heat. This capacity, known in medicine as photothermal therapy, is effective at destroying cancer cells without harming the surrounding healthy tissue. It's one of the techniques the scientific community is exploring in depth as an alternative chemotherapy, as it is less aggressive. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-shell-gold-nanoparticles-laser-longer.html Tue, 19 May 2026 15:00:08 EDT news698415541 Scientists are jettisoning their worst and best case scenarios for a warming world as no longer plausible. That shows how modest gains in the fight to curb climate change have dialed back the most catastrophic of future heating but also confirmed that there's no chance to limit warming to the international goal set in 2015. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-climate-world-wont-hot-limit.html Tue, 19 May 2026 09:24:41 EDT news698401408 As space missions travel farther from Earth, spacecraft must increasingly be able to process and store their own data. Soon, artificial intelligence (AI) could be the primary tool for handling this growing volume of information. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nand-storage-deep-space-missions.html Tue, 19 May 2026 12:20:01 EDT news698408281 What happens when a scientific problem seems too complex to solve precisely, yet understanding it could reshape how researchers design new materials and medicines? For decades, much of the polymer science community has relied on a "good enough" approach to a stubborn problem: binding a polymer to a protein in a precise way that reliably controls how the protein behaves. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-imperfect-polymer-sequences-protein-function.html Tue, 19 May 2026 14:40:04 EDT news698415361 Solar energy is a cornerstone of the energy transition. Tandem solar cells made of perovskite and silicon can achieve higher efficiencies than conventional silicon cells, but their industrial manufacturing remains a challenge. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Valencia have now jointly further developed a fast, solvent-free vacuum process that uniformly deposits perovskite layers at high throughput, even on textured silicon surfaces. The results are published in Nature Energy. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-scalable-perovskite-photovoltaics-fast-solvent.html Tue, 19 May 2026 14:40:07 EDT news698419501 What plant do cats love most? In Europe and North America, many people would probably answer "catnip." In Japan, the answer would more likely be silver vine (matatabi in Japanese). Both plants are famous for triggering the well-known feline response: cats rub their faces and bodies against them, roll on the ground, and sometimes lick or chew the leaves. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-silver-vine-catnip-cats.html Tue, 19 May 2026 10:00:04 EDT news698400570 The asteroid that smacked into our planet about 66 million years ago at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary may have been bad news for dinosaurs, but it was good news for fungi. According to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, after this mass extinction event, one of the most significant in Earth's history, fungi may have proliferated across the globe. https://sciencex.com/news/2026-05-asteroid-dinosaurs-triggered-global-fungal.html Mon, 18 May 2026 09:24:34 EDT news698314860 A newly developed organic semiconductor device can both generate electricity from light and emit bright visible light, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. By carefully designing a material where energy losses are suppressed, the team achieved efficient power conversion and electroluminescence simultaneously, demonstrating a multifunctional platform with potential applications in displays, sensors, and energy-harvesting technologies. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-power-generating-displays-device-harvests.html Tue, 19 May 2026 13:00:08 EDT news698413441 Scientists at VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that helps a widely used biological pesticide become more effective. The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals how bacteria produce ultra-strong protein fibers that form a molecular net, trapping infectious spores and toxins into a sticky film that enhances their ability to kill insect pests. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-molecular-net-boosts-power-natural.html Tue, 19 May 2026 14:00:14 EDT news698412768 In every organism, the regulation of cell populations is a constant process. This balance relies on a continuous interplay between "guardian" proteins that promote cell survival and "killer" proteins that trigger programmed cell death, known as apoptosis. Any disruption of this balance can lead to diseases such as cancer. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-decoding-life-death-proteins.html Tue, 19 May 2026 13:00:02 EDT news698408941 Bacteria from the Middle East have caused precipitation all the way out in California. The same bacteria, which are known to attack plants, have also been found embedded within lumps of hail in West Africa. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-proteins-ice-cool-applications-cryomedicine.html Tue, 19 May 2026 11:00:09 EDT news698321282 It was the hardest field trip they had ever been on, but the result was both surprising and exciting. After hiking 9 kilometers with a 400-meter elevation gain and carrying heavy backpacks through very rocky terrain, the researchers spent more than 24 hours in the field and returned with sediment samples from the lake Stuptjørna. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-brutal-field-insights-arctic-winter.html Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:04 EDT news698408102 Ghost forests, the cemetery-like groupings of dead trees killed by saltwater intrusion, have become haunting symbols of sea level rise overtaking land along the Mid-Atlantic coast. But a new study published in Nature Sustainability, led by William & Mary's Batten School & VIMS, points to even more dramatic land losses in the region's coastal farmlands, where the rate of marsh encroachment is happening nearly twice as fast. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-sea-swallowing-mid-atlantic-farmland.html Mon, 18 May 2026 18:10:01 EDT news698343001 Tropical forests, often described as the lungs of the planet, may be edging closer to a dangerous threshold as droughts become more frequent and widespread across the world's humid tropics. New research suggests these ecosystems are increasingly struggling to recover from prolonged dry conditions, raising concerns that some forests could eventually shift from absorbing carbon dioxide to releasing it back into the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-droughts-tropical-forests-dangerous-threshold.html Mon, 18 May 2026 08:40:01 EDT news698071491 Scientists have uncovered how tobacco plants naturally make nicotine, solving a mystery that has puzzled researchers for nearly two centuries. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, could lead to safer production of medicines and vaccines using tobacco plants, without the unwanted nicotine. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scientists-year-puzzle-tobacco-nicotine.html Tue, 19 May 2026 10:20:01 EDT news698404003 Naphtha, an essential feedstock for the petrochemical industry, has faced sharp price increases and supply instability in recent years, driving demand for sustainable alternatives. The KAIST-Hanwha Solutions Future Technology Research Institute, has secured bio-technology capable of mass-producing eco-friendly raw materials for plastics and textiles using waste resources, offering an alternative to petroleum-derived naphtha. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-microbes-biodiesel-plastic-ingredient-liter.html Tue, 19 May 2026 11:40:03 EDT news698408824 A common fungus can break down hard-to-recycle construction waste and turn it into sustainable insulation that rivals traditional and petrochemical-based options, according to researchers at the University of Bath. The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-fungi-unrecyclable-carbon-insulation.html Tue, 19 May 2026 10:40:01 EDT news698405341 Today's Arctic may feel remote and desolate, but more than 70 million years ago, it was a surprisingly lively place for some of Earth's ancient mammals. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-arctic-fossils-uncover-mammal.html Mon, 18 May 2026 15:00:03 EDT news698324694 A joint European-Chinese spacecraft blasted into orbit Tuesday to investigate what happens when extreme winds and giant explosions of plasma shot out from the sun slam into Earth's magnetic shield. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacecraft-capture-ray-views-earth.html Tue, 19 May 2026 03:56:10 EDT news698381725 Proteins are critical to life—and to industry. There are countless proteins that could be engineered to treat and even cure serious diseases and cellular dysfunctions. Industrial applications are similarly promising, with proteins increasingly used as enzymes in food manufacturing and in consumer detergents. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-bioengineers-condense-protein-day.html Mon, 18 May 2026 19:40:02 EDT news698341021 Tidal wetlands are critical, yet vulnerable ecosystems. Tidal marshes, mangrove forests, and tidal flats support biodiversity, protect against flooding and storm surges, sequester carbon, and improve water quality. Due to human development and climate change, tidal wetland areas have been shrinking globally. A new study using 40 years of satellite data shows that this loss has been accelerating in the U.S. and that this acceleration is being increasingly driven by extreme weather events. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-extreme-weather-events-tidal-wetland.html Tue, 19 May 2026 05:00:06 EDT news698325841 Seabirds such as albatrosses and petrels are retreating into smaller areas of ocean and traveling further to find new places to live as the climate warms. Scientists from the University of Reading studied more than 120 species of Procellariiformes (the group that includes albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters and storm petrels) using evolutionary family trees, ancient climate records and ocean temperature data to track how their ranges and movements have changed throughout history. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-seabird-world-oceans-longer-flights.html Tue, 19 May 2026 05:00:12 EDT news698320982 Despite being so elusive, neutrinos are produced in abundance in some of the most violent events in the universe. One of their strangest properties is that they can spontaneously switch between three types, or "flavors": a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation that remains poorly understood in extreme astrophysical environments. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neutrino-flavor-flips-key-triggering.html Sun, 17 May 2026 08:40:03 EDT news697886203 A global analysis has found that urban animals are bolder and more aggressive, exploratory and active than their rural counterparts. The findings are published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-urban-life-animals-bolder-aggressive.html Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:07 EDT news698315153 Astronomers have tracked a dramatic "changing-look" active galactic nucleus (AGN) whose central supermassive black hole appeared to switch off and then rapidly reignite. The galaxy, HE 1237−2252, dimmed in X-rays by a factor of 17 within just 18 months before recovering again. The paper outlining its analysis was uploaded to the arXiv preprint server on May 8. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-erosita-seyfert-galaxy.html Sun, 17 May 2026 16:00:01 EDT news698064510 Across the western United States, wildfires are increasing in size and intensity. As the climate continues to warm, more extreme wildfires will reshape landscapes and pose a growing risk to human health and natural ecosystems throughout the West. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-worse-western-wildfires.html Mon, 18 May 2026 22:00:03 EDT news698318208 Densely populated coastal regions in many parts of the world are particularly vulnerable to flooding. The sinking of land masses exacerbates the impacts of rising sea levels in these areas, according to a study by researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Tulane University. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-sea-areas-due-subsidence.html Mon, 18 May 2026 12:20:01 EDT news698321821 Kenyan ant expert Dino Martins gushes over the red and black insects that have become the center of an international smuggling trade. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-kenya-poaching-problem-smuggling-giant.html Mon, 18 May 2026 04:51:32 EDT news698298661 Sound plays an important role for many animals, helping them navigate and hunt. Echolocation is the ability of animals like bats and dolphins to locate objects by emitting sound waves and interpreting the returning echoes. But detecting meaningful information in a noisy environment poses a major challenge for them. Bats operate by identifying weak prey echoes among complex background sounds generated by surrounding objects and their own movement during flight. To overcome this issue, these bats have evolved a highly sophisticated echo detection system that uses ultrasonic voices to perceive their surroundings with remarkable precision. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-silent-frequency-zones-prey-noisy.html Tue, 19 May 2026 05:00:04 EDT news698344021 DNA is everywhere in the world's oceans—not only packaged inside cells from skin, scales, mucus, feces, and blood, but also floating freely. Sequencing such "environmental DNA" (eDNA) from open water has long been used as a cost-effective way of gauging the number and identity of species in a region, especially when they are rare and elusive or living at great depths. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dna-seawater-scientists-health-america.html Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:04 EDT news698326022 In December 2023, scientists looking at Mars data stumbled across something completely unexpected—observations of an atmospheric effect never before seen in the Red Planet's atmosphere. Using instruments aboard NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission, scientists identified a phenomenon known to occur in Earth's magnetosphere, where charged particles are squeezed like toothpaste coming out of a tube along magnetic structures called flux tubes. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mars-reveals-zwan-wolf-effect.html Mon, 18 May 2026 18:20:01 EDT news698339461 Looking back at 14 years of Hubble telescope data for Jupiter's moon Europa has given Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists a better understanding of its tenuous atmosphere. The findings have cast doubt on previous evidence suggesting that the icy moon intermittently discharges faint water plumes from a presumed subsurface ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-reconsider-europa-vapor-plumes.html Mon, 18 May 2026 17:00:05 EDT news698337061