AI-controlled vertical farms promise revolution in food production

When you think about it, early civilizations had a rough time when it came to dinnertime. With no supermarkets, McDonald's, or Cheesecake Factories, you pretty much had to find and prepare your own meal every day. And since Uber would not be invented for another 14,000 years, primitive peoples around 12,000 BC had to walk, sometimes for miles, and learn to hunt, fish, gather and cook for their daily meals. In the rain. Even on Sundays.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-ai-controlled-vertical-farms-revolution-food.html

Pandemic has revealed our dependence on migrant workers

The coronavirus has taught us an important lesson.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-pandemic-revealed-migrant-workers.html

Anti-transpirant products unnecessary in cycad propagation

In a first-of-its-kind study within cycad horticulture literature, University of Guam researchers have found that the use of anti-transpirants neither help nor hinder successful propagation of cycad stem cuttings.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-anti-transpirant-products-unnecessary-cycad-propagation.html

Largest study of Asia's rivers unearths 800 years of paleoclimate patterns

813 years of annual river discharge at 62 stations, 41 rivers in 16 countries, from 1200 to 2012. That is what researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) produced after two years of research in order to better understand past climate patterns of the Asian Monsoon region.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-largest-asia-rivers-unearths-years.html

Novel public-private partnership facilitates development of fusion energy

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is collaborating with private industry on cutting-edge fusion research aimed at achieving commercial fusion energy. This work, enabled through a public-private DOE grant program, supports efforts to develop high-performance fusion grade plasmas. In one such project PPPL is working in coordination with MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a start-up spun out of MIT that is developing a tokamak fusion device called "SPARC."

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-public-private-partnership-fusion-energy.html

Diddy providing some COVID-19 relief for Miami neighborhood

Rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs provided some coronavirus relief in a Miami neighborhood on Tuesday, handing out $50 bills amid a crowd of hundreds.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-diddy-covid-relief-miami-neighborhood.html

The map of nuclear deformation takes the form of a mountain landscape

Until recently, scientists believed that only very massive nuclei could have excited zero-spin states of increased stability with a significantly deformed shape. Meanwhile, an international team of researchers from Romania, France, Italy, the USA and Poland showed in their latest article that such states also exist in much lighter nickel nuclei. Positive verification of the theoretical model used in these experiments allows describing the properties of nuclei unavailable in Earth laboratories.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-nuclear-deformation-mountain-landscape.html

Why Amazon, Apple, Peloton and Zoom won 2020, while others like Quibi lost big

When a pandemic hits, stay-at-home orders are issued and people are spending even less time at retail stores, e-commerce giant Amazon was there to serve.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-amazon-apple-peloton-won-quibi.html

Scientists further improve accuracy of directional polarimetric camera

Recently, researchers from the Optical Remote Sensing Center of the Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (AIOFM), Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) have successfully improved the accuracy of directional polarimetric camera (DPC) laboratory polarization calibration via new methods.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-scientists-accuracy-polarimetric-camera.html

Researchers prepare tailored and wearable sensor via 3-D printed UV-curable sacrificial mold

Three-dimensional (3-D) printing techniques have the ability to fabricate wearable sensors with customized and complex designs compared with conventional processes. The vat photopolymerization 3-D printing technique exhibits better printing resolution, faster printing speed, and is capable of fabricating a refined structure. Due to the lack of highly conductive photocurable resins, it is difficult to prepare sensors through vat photopolymerization 3-D printing technique.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-tailored-wearable-sensor-d-uv-curable.html

ATLAS project finds 12 new species of sea creatures

Researchers working with the ATLAS project have reported to the press that they have found 12 new species of sea creatures new to science. The EU funded undersea project has been ongoing for five years and has carried out 45 research expeditions that involved the work of over 80 scientists and student volunteers.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-atlas-species-sea-creatures.html

Fish sex organs boosted under high CO2

Research from the University of Adelaide has found that some species of fish will have higher reproductive capacity because of larger sex organs, under the more acidic oceans of the future.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-fish-sex-boosted-high-co2.html

Observations shed more light on the atmosphere of white dwarf GD 424

Astronomers have performed spectroscopic observations of a newly detected white dwarf star known as GD 424. Results of the observational campaign provide more insights into the atmosphere of this object. The study was presented in a paper published December 23 on arXiv.org.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-atmosphere-white-dwarf-gd.html

Organic meats found to have approximately the same greenhouse impact as regular meats

A trio of researchers from the Technical University of Munich, the University of Greifswald and the University of Augsburg have found that the meat production process for organic meats produces approximately the same amounts of greenhouse gases as does the conventional meat production process. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, Maximilian Pieper, Amelie Michalke and Tobias Gaugler describe their study of the impact of global food production on climate change and what they found.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-meats-approximately-greenhouse-impact-regular.html

Grid or solar: looking for the best energy solution for the rural poor

South Asia has made tremendous progress in connecting rural areas to the electricity grid but the number of people in Africa without access has scarcely changed since 2010. More than a half-billion people in Africa don't have access to electricity, meaning the continent hosts 72% of the world's non-electrified population. The UN Sustainable Development Goals have set a universal goal of ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. To achieve this, the continent will require a big electrification push.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-grid-solar-energy-solution-rural.html

The Sunburst hack was massive and devastating – 5 observations from a cybersecurity expert

So much remains unknown about what is now being called the Sunburst hack, the cyberattack against U.S. government agencies and corporations. U.S. officials widely believe that Russian state-sponsored hackers are responsible.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-sunburst-hack-massive-devastating-cybersecurity.html

Torpor: a neat survival trick once thought rare in Australian animals is actually widespread

Life is hard for small animals in the wild, but they have many solutions to the challenges of their environment. One of the most fascinating of these strategies is torpor. Not, to be confused with sleep or Sunday afternoon lethargy, torpor is a complex response to the costs of living.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-torpor-neat-survival-thought-rare.html

Designing Dirac vortex topological photonic crystal fibres

Optical fibres made of topological photonic crystals allow improved versatility and control across the modes and polarization of light they transmit. Compositionally, photonic crystals contain bandgaps to prevent the passage of light relative to specific wave energies and momenta much like an on/off switch. In a new report now published on Nature Light: Science & Applications, Hao Lin, and Ling Lu at the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences transmitted pure "single mode" light across a large frequency range via a topological feature known as a "Dirac vortex." The concept can lead to applications that transmit light signals more stably across long distances. While the work is theoretical at present, the researchers suggest the use of fibers made from silica based on stack-and-draw methods or three-dimensional (3-D) printing technologies to fabricate and test these theoretical concepts.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-dirac-vortex-topological-photonic-crystal.html

Major rail safety technology installed before deadline

The railroad industry has installed an automatic braking system on nearly 58,000 miles of track where it is required ahead of a yearend deadline, federal regulators said Tuesday.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-major-rail-safety-technology-deadline.html

COVID cluckers: Pandemic feeds demand for backyard chickens

The coronavirus pandemic is coming home to roost in America's backyards.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-covid-cluckers-pandemic-demand-backyard.html

Apple loses copyright suit against security startup

A federal judge Tuesday dismissed Apple's copyright infringement lawsuit against cybersecurity startup Corellium in a case which could have implications for researchers who find software bugs and vulnerabilities.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-12-apple-copyright-startup.html

Restoring longleaf pines, keystone of once vast ecosystems

When European settlers came to North America, fire-dependent savannas anchored by lofty pines with footlong needles covered much of what became the southern United States.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-12-longleaf-keystone-vast-ecosystems.html