Cancer cells 'remove blindfold' to spread

Cancer cells spread by switching on and off abilities to sense their surroundings, move, hide and grow new tumors, a new study has found.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-cancer-cells-blindfold.html

Stickleback study reveals 'parallel' evolution

Animal species in different parts of the world can evolve in "parallel" in response to similar conditions, according to a new study of fish.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-stickleback-reveals-parallel-evolution.html

Newly discovered Amazon rock art show the rainforest's earliest inhabitants living with giant Ice Age animals

Amazonian rock art newly discovered by researchers provides further proof the rainforest's earliest inhabitants lived alongside now-extinct giant Ice Age animals.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-newly-amazon-art-rainforest-earliest.html

Birds able to adjust egg-laying date

Many birds are able to change their egg-laying date to cope with variable conditions, new research shows.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-birds-adjust-egg-laying-date.html

Peeking into the pods of black soybeans

Nagoya University scientists have furthered understanding of how plants make a common pigment that might have medicinal applications. They published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-peeking-pods-black-soybeans.html

How the shrew brain adapts to winter

Seasonal, energy-conserving neural adaptions could allow shrews to reduce their metabolic demands during winter, a study finds. Animals adapt to changing environmental conditions such as seasonal cycles to enhance their chances of survival. Although seasonal variation is associated with well-known behavioral patterns such as hibernation, the effects on the brain have not been clear. To address this question, Saikat Ray, Robert Naumann, and colleagues examined seasonal changes in neural structure and activity in the smallest terrestrial mammal—the Etruscan shrew—which faces extreme physiological demands and adversity during winter due to its exceptionally high metabolic rate and low energy reserves.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-shrew-brain-winter.html

ESAIL's first map of global shipping

The ESAIL microsatellite for tracking ships at sea has captured 57 000 messages in its first 24 hours of operation, using advanced on-board processing algorithms.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-esail-global-shipping.html

Desktop 3-D printing in metal or ceramics

These spur gears—seen here with a euro cent coin for scale—have been produced in stainless steel to a space standard of quality using nothing more than an off-the-shelf desktop 3-D printer.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-desktop-d-metal-ceramics.html

3-D print your own Mars rover with ExoMy

Europe's Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover has a younger 'sibling' – ExoMy. The blueprints and software for this mini-version of the full-size Mars explorer are available for free so that anyone can 3-D print, assemble and program their own ExoMy.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-d-mars-rover-exomy.html

Creative coding in design

In the recently completed project Residence X, the researchers involved wanted to investigate opportunities in clothing and fashion design to use creative coding.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-creative-coding.html

Teaching computers the meaning of sensor names in smart homes

The UPV/EHU's IXA group has use natural language processing techniques to overcome one of the major difficulties associated with smart homes, namely that the systems developed to infer activities in one environment do not work when they are applied to a different one, because both the sensors and the activities are different. The group has come up with the innovative idea of using words to represent the activation of both sensors and human activity.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-sensor-smart-homes.html

Huge Puerto Rico radio telescope collapses; many mourning

A huge radio telescope in Puerto Rico that has long played a key role in astronomical discoveries collapsed on Tuesday, officials said.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-huge-puerto-rico-radio-telescope.html

Nonlinear beam cleaning in spatiotemporally mode-locked lasers

In the last few decades, only temporal modes have been considered for mode-locked fiber lasers using single-mode fibers. Mode-locked single-mode fiber lasers offer advantages due to their high-gain doping, intrinsically single-spatial mode, and compact setups. However, in terms of power levels, mode-locked fiber lasers suffer from high nonlinearity, which is introduced by the small core size of the single-mode fibers. Researchers from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL) recently developed a new approach for generating high-energy, ultrashort pulses with single-mode beam quality: nonlinear beam cleaning in a multimode laser cavity.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-nonlinear-spatiotemporally-mode-locked-lasers.html

Two thirds of school-age kids without internet access: UN

Two thirds of school-age children worldwide have no internet at home, a UN report found Tuesday, even as pandemic-induced school closures have made online access vital to getting an education.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-thirds-school-age-kids-internet-access.html

Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon surges to 12-year high

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged again over the past year, hitting a 12-year high, according to official figures released Monday that drew a chorus of condemnation of President Jair Bolsonaro's government.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-deforestation-brazilian-amazon-surges-year.html

Study: Students falling behind in math during pandemic

A disproportionately large number of poor and minority students were not in schools for assessments this fall, complicating efforts to measure the pandemic's effects on some of the most vulnerable students, a not-for-profit company that administers standardized testing said Tuesday.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-students-falling-math-pandemic.html

Zoom reports big 3Q gains, but slowing growth sinks stock

Zoom's videoconferencing service remains a fixture in pandemic life, but its breakneck growth is showing signs of tapering off as investors debate whether the company will be able to build upon its recent success after a vaccine enables people to intermingle again.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-big-3q-gains-growth-stock.html

Florida vet school uses novel approach to save seahorse

In February, Carol Benge of Chiefland, Florida, purchased a seahorse for her home aquarium as a reward for marking five years cancer-free.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-florida-vet-school-approach-seahorse.html

Tesla to be added to benchmark S&P 500 index in one stage

Tesla will be added to the benchmark S&P 500 index on a single day next month, rather than over two days as previously contemplated.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-tesla-added-benchmark-sp-index.html

Engineers combine light and sound to see underwater

Stanford University engineers have developed an airborne method for imaging underwater objects by combining light and sound to break through the seemingly impassable barrier at the interface of air and water.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-combine-underwater.html

Researchers offer new theory on 'Venus' figurines

One of world's earliest examples of art, the enigmatic 'Venus' figurines carved some 30,000 years ago, have intrigued and puzzled scientists for nearly two centuries. Now a researcher from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus believes he's gathered enough evidence to solve the mystery behind these curious totems.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-theory-venus-figurines.html

Flashy lizards are more attractive to mates and to predators

In the lizard world, flashy colors attract the interest of females looking for mates. But they can make colorful males desirable to other eyes, too—as lunch.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-flashy-lizards-predators.html

New device offers faster way to detect antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Bacterial infections have become one of the biggest health problems worldwide, and a recent study shows that COVID-19 patients have a much greater chance of acquiring secondary bacterial infections, which significantly increases the mortality rate.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-device-faster-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria.html

Weak police, strong democracy: civic ritual and performative peace in contemporary Taiwan

It is conventional to believe that the police role in society centers on violence. A forthcoming article in the December issue of Current Anthropology explores that belief and shows how the weakness of police power can be treated as an index for the strength of democratic values institutionalized in the wider political environment.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-weak-police-strong-democracy-civic.html