Facebook content moderators call for better treatment

As Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg prepares to be grilled by a Senate committee about the handling of politically-charged posts, content moderators are insisting that properly valuing their work is key.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-facebook-content-moderators-treatment.html

NASA to launch delicate stowing of OSIRIS-REx asteroid samples

NASA's robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is set to begin on Tuesday a delicate operation to store the precious particles it scooped up from the asteroid Bennu, but which were leaking into space when a flap got wedged open.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-10-nasa-delicate-stowing-osiris-rex-asteroid.html

Second-hand site Vinted happy to scare clothing retailers

With more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in sales last year on its platform and a new acquisition under its belt, second-hand clothes innovator Vinted believes it is starting to scare fashion retailers—for the good of the planet.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-second-hand-site-vinted-happy-retailers.html

With new tools, Facebook aims to avoid election fiasco repeat

Facebook is leveraging its vast resources to help protect the 2020 election against the kind of massive manipulation and disinformation efforts that the platform failed to act on in 2016.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-tools-facebook-aims-election-fiasco.html

3-D printing the first ever biomimetic tongue surface

Scientists have created synthetic soft surfaces with tongue-like textures for the first time using 3-D printing, opening new possibilities for testing oral processing properties of food, nutritional technologies, pharmaceutics and dry mouth therapies.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-10-d-biomimetic-tongue-surface.html

Phytoplasma effector proteins devastate host plants through molecular mimicry

Phytoplasma are a type of bacteria that live within the cells and cause devastating diseases with damaging effects. For example, in many cases plants infected with phytoplasma are no longer able to develop flowers. These plants have actually been described as "zombies," since they allow the reproduction of phytoplasma but are unable to reproduce themselves anymore. A group of biologists based at Friedrich Schiller University and the Fritz Lipmann Institute in Germany are working to help better understand exactly how phytoplasma cells bring about the so-called zombification of plants.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-10-phytoplasma-effector-proteins-devastate-host.html

Vampire bats social distance when they get sick

A new paper in Behavioral Ecology, published by Oxford University Press, finds that wild vampire bats that are sick spend less time near others from their community, which slows how quickly a disease will spread. The research team had previously seen this behavior in the lab, and used a field experiment to confirm it in the wild.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-10-vampire-social-distance-sick.html