USPS selects Oshkosh Defense to build greener mail truck

The United States Post Office said Tuesday that it has chosen Oshkosh Defense to build its next-generation mail-delivery vehicle, part of an effort to make the USPS more environmentally friendly by switching a portion of its huge fleet to electric vehicles.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-usps-oshkosh-defense-greener-mail.html

Canada and Australia to coordinate on tech regulation: Ottawa

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison plan to coordinate their efforts to make tech giants pay media outlets for their content, Ottawa said Tuesday after a conversation between the two leaders.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-canada-australia-tech-ottawa.html

Joy as whales refloated at notorious New Zealand stranding spot

A group of 28 pilot whales were successfully refloated at a notorious New Zealand beach where more than a dozen of the marine mammals died this week, jubilant rescuers said Wednesday.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-joy-whales-refloated-notorious-zealand.html

Victory for 'net neutrality' law in California

A federal judge late Tuesday cleared the way for California to begin enforcing a net neutrality law opposed by US telecom titans.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-victory-net-neutrality-law-california.html

US orders deeper testing after engine scare on Boeing plane

The US aviation regulator on Tuesday ordered a deeper inspection of the engines similar to the ones on a Boeing 777 aircraft that suffered a spectacular failure over Denver days earlier.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-deeper-boeing-plane.html

Chair of Japan automaker Suzuki to step down

Suzuki's chairman Osamu Suzuki will retire after more than four decades at the helm of the Japanese carmaker, the company said Wednesday.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-chair-japan-automaker-suzuki.html

Jumping frost crystals: Lab works toward electrostatic de-icing

If you have ever gotten up on a winter morning and thrown yourself into the arduous task of scraping frost from a windshield, a Virginia Tech lab is engaging science [IS1] that could make your life much easier. In research funded by the National Science Foundation, Associate Professor Jonathan Borekyo has led a team in developing a potential solution for frost removal by way of electrostatics.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-frost-crystals-lab-electrostatic-de-icing.html

China's Mars craft enters parking orbit before landing rover

China says its Tianwen-1 spacecraft has entered a temporary parking orbit around Mars in anticipation of landing a rover on the red planet in the coming months.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-china-mars-craft-orbit-rover.html

Mars rover's giant parachute carried secret message

The huge parachute used by NASA's Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message, thanks to a puzzle lover on the spacecraft team.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-mars-rover-giant-parachute-secret.html

Machine learning aids in simulating dynamics of interacting atoms

A revolutionary machine-learning (ML) approach to simulate the motions of atoms in materials such as aluminum is described in this week's Nature Communications journal. This automated approach to "interatomic potential development" could transform the field of computational materials discovery.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-machine-aids-simulating-dynamics-interacting.html

Mangrove forests store more carbon when they're more diverse

Mangrove forests with greater species diversity can store more carbon, according to new research published in the British Ecological Society journal Functional Ecology.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-mangrove-forests-carbon-theyre-diverse.html

How "ugly" labels can increase purchase of unattractive produce

Researchers from University of British Columbia published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines whether and how the use of 'ugly' labeling for unattractive produce increases sales and profit margins.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-ugly-unattractive.html

Oktoberfest memories increase life-satisfaction, customer loyalty

No one went to Oktoberfest in 2020, but chances are those who attended in the past are still thinking about it.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-oktoberfest-memories-life-satisfaction-customer-loyalty.html

Fighting fit cockroaches have 'hidden strength'

A new study has discovered that not all cockroaches are equal and "super athletes", with larger respiratory systems, are more likely to win physical mating battles.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-cockroaches-hidden-strength.html

Measuring carbon nanotubes taken up by plants

Carbon nanotubes are tiny. They can be a hundred thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. But they have huge potential.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-carbon-nanotubes.html

Ancestry estimation perpetuates racism, white supremacy

Ancestry estimation—a method used by forensic anthropologists to determine ancestral origin by analyzing bone structures—is rooted in "race science" and perpetuates white supremacy, according to a new paper by a forensic anthropologist at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-ancestry-perpetuates-racism-white-supremacy.html

Changes in writing style provide clues to group identity

Small changes to people's writing style can reveal which social group they "belong to" at a given moment, new research shows.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-style-clues-group-identity.html

Recycle anaesthetics to reduce carbon emission of healthcare, study concludes

New research has highlighted the value of recycling general anesthetic used in routine operations.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-recycle-anaesthetics-carbon-emission-healthcare.html