Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts: USGS

The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island erupted late Sunday, authorities said, warning of a possible "significant emission" of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-hawaii-kilauea-volcano-erupts-usgs.html

Egypt reports bird flu outbreaks in rural area

Local authorities in rural Egypt have declared a state of emergency after detecting two outbreaks of bird flu.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-egypt-bird-flu-outbreaks-rural.html

Tube fishway technology will get fish up and over those dam walls

Engineers and scientists at UNSW Sydney have come up with an ingenious way to get fish past dam walls, weirs and other barriers blocking their migration in Australian rivers.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-10-tube-fishway-technology-fish-walls.html

High-flying Tesla joins S&P 500; skeptics say buyer beware

In the middle of last year, Tesla's losses were piling up, sales weren't enough to cover expenses and big debt payments loomed. The situation was so bad that one influential Wall Street analyst raised the possibility that Tesla wouldn't be able to pay its bills and would have to be restructured financially.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-high-flying-tesla-sp-skeptics-buyer.html

Stampede2, Bridges simulations show weak spots in Ebola virus nucleocapsid

In the midst of a global pandemic with COVID-19, it's hard to appreciate how lucky those outside of Africa have been to avoid the deadly Ebola virus disease. It incapacitates its victims soon after infection with massive vomiting or diarrhea, leading to death from fluid loss in about 50 percent of the afflicted. The Ebola virus transmits only through bodily fluids, marking a key difference from the COVID-19 virus and one that has helped contain Ebola's spread.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-stampede2-bridges-simulations-weak-ebola.html

Climate warming linked to tree leaf unfolding and flowering growing apart

An international team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang A & F University and the University of Eastern Finland have found that regardless of whether flowering or leaf unfolding occurred first in a species, the first event advanced more than the second over the last seven decades.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-climate-linked-tree-leaf-unfolding.html

Study resolves the position of fleas on the tree of life

A study of more than 1,400 protein-coding genes of fleas has resolved one of the longest standing mysteries in the evolution of insects, reordering their placement in the tree of life and pinpointing who their closest relatives are.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-position-fleas-tree-life.html

Ivory Coast creates first marine protected area

Ivory Coast has announced the creation of its first Marine Protected Area (MPA).

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-ivory-coast-marine-area.html