New tech a curtain raiser for cheap clean solar energy

Technology that stores clean energy by heating particles with captured sunlight is cost-effective and reliable, modeling from The Australian National University (ANU) shows.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-tech-curtain-raiser-cheap-solar.html

How to hunt fossils responsibly: 5 tips from a professional paleontologist

Many of us, at some point or another, dreamed of hunting for dinosaur fossils when we grew up. Paleontology—the study of natural history through fossils—is the scientific reality of this. It encompasses all ancient lifeforms that left their trace in the earth, from stromatolites (microbial reefs up to 3.5 billion years old) to megafauna.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-fossils-responsibly-professional-paleontologist.html

High-performance potassium ion micro-supercapacitors developed for wearable pressure sensor system

The development of flexible, wearable and implantable microelectronics has accelerated the need for miniaturized and integrated energy storage devices with mechanically robust properties, high voltage, and highly compatible integration.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-high-performance-potassium-ion-micro-supercapacitors-wearable.html

Police attitudes about body cameras suggest cops may see benefits to being monitored

The majority of U.S. law enforcement agencies have either committed to or already implemented body cameras for their police officers. But officers' concerns about a loss of on-the-job autonomy are balanced out when they can access their own body camera footage, according to research from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-police-attitudes-body-cameras-cops.html

LiDAR acquires ranging signals with micron accuracy

Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) has been well known as it offers high ranging accuracy, and shows promising prospects in autonomous vehicles and various field. Traditional frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) LiDAR ranging is based on heterodyne detection, calculating unknown distance by extracting the frequency of the interference signal. However, such technique suffers from frequency modulation (FM) nonlinearity, which leads to inaccurate ranging results.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-lidar-ranging-micron-accuracy.html

Scientists propose highly reliable thermal power generator

Chinese scientists have proposed a highly reliable thermal power generator by combining thermoacoustic effect and triboelectric effect.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-scientists-highly-reliable-thermal-power.html

Light show over US sky likely SpaceX debris re-entering atmosphere

A spectacular display of lights that streamed across the night sky over the US Pacific Northwest was probably debris from a SpaceX mission re-entering the atmosphere, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-sky-spacex-debris-re-entering-atmosphere.html

Russia hails rare sighting of Amur leopard mum with cubs

Russian conservationists hailed Friday a rare sighting of an Amur leopard mother with three cubs in the Far East as proof of the efficiency of the country's efforts to boost the population of the endangered species.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-russia-hails-rare-sighting-amur.html

What is an NFT? Non-fungible tokens explained

Have you seen the word "NFT" spinning around the internet lately, and found yourself completely confused as to what everyone's talking about?

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-nft-non-fungible-tokens.html

Endangered songbird challenging assumptions about evolution

Not all species may travel the same path to existence, at least according to new findings from the University of Colorado Boulder and collaborators.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-endangered-songbird-assumptions-evolution.html

How microorganisms can help us get to net negative emissions

Many of the common items we use in our everyday lives—from building materials to plastics to pharmaceuticals—are manufactured from fossil fuels. To reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, society has increasingly tried turning to plants to make the everyday products we need. For example, corn can be turned into corn ethanol and plastics, lignocellulosic sugars can be turned into sustainable aviation fuels, and paints can be made from soy oil.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-microorganisms-net-negative-emissions.html

Direct observations confirm that humans are throwing Earth's energy budget off balance

Earth is on a budget—an energy budget. Our planet is constantly trying to balance the flow of energy in and out of Earth's system. But human activities are throwing that off balance, causing our planet to warm in response.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-humans-earth-energy.html

School students discover four new species of wasp

Four primary schools in regional South Australia have been involved in the discovery and naming of new species of wasp as part of a trial of a new citizen science project led by the University of Adelaide.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-school-students-species-wasp.html

How tiny machines become capable of learning

Living organisms, from bacteria to animals and humans, can perceive their environment and process, store and retrieve this information. They learn how to react to later situations using appropriate actions. A team of physicists at Leipzig University led by Professor Frank Cichos, in collaboration with colleagues at Charles University Prague, have developed a method for giving tiny artificial microswimmers a certain ability to learn using machine learning algorithms. They recently published a paper on this topic in the journal Science Robotics.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-tiny-machines-capable.html

Chemists achieve breakthrough in the production of three-dimensional molecular structures

A major goal of organic and medicinal chemistry in recent decades has been the rapid synthesis of three-dimensional molecules for the development of new drugs. These drug candidates exhibit a variety of improved properties compared to predominantly flat molecular structures, which are reflected in clinical trials by higher efficacy and success rates. However, they could only be produced at great expense or not at all using previous methods. Chemists led by Prof. Frank Glorius (University of Münster, Germany) and his colleagues Prof. M. Kevin Brown (Indiana University Bloomington) and Prof. Kendall N. Houk (University of California, Los Angeles) have now succeeded in converting several classes of flat nitrogen-containing molecules into the desired three-dimensional structures. Using more than 100 novel examples, they were able to demonstrate the broad applicability of the process. This study will be published by Science on Friday, 26 March 2021.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-chemists-breakthrough-production-three-dimensional-molecular.html

School closures disproportionately hit disadvantaged students in the US

The uneven distribution of school closures in the U.S. since September 2020 threatens to exacerbate regional, racial and class-based divides in educational performance, according to research by Zachary Parolin of Bocconi University's Department of Social and Political Science, recently published in Nature Human Behavior. For example, in October, only 35% of white students were on distance learning, compared with 52% of Black students, 60% of Hispanic students and 65% of Asian students. And schools recording the lowest math scores were 15% more likely to be closed.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-school-closures-disproportionately-disadvantaged-students.html

Eat me: The cell signal of death

Scientists at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and colleagues in Japan have revealed molecular mechanisms involved in eliminating unwanted cells in the body. A nuclear protein fragment released into the cytoplasm activates a plasma membrane protein to display a lipid on the cell surface, signaling other cells to get rid of it. The findings were published in the journal Molecular Cell.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-cell-death.html

Study exposes global ripple effects of regional water scarcity

Water scarcity is often understood as a problem for regions experiencing drought, but a new study led by Tufts University researchers finds that not only can localized water shortages impact the global economy, but changes in global demand can have positive and negative ripple effects in river basins across the globe.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-exposes-global-ripple-effects-regional.html

Amazon delivery drivers scoff at company's claim that its workers don't pee in bottles

Amazon sparked a firestorm of derision when it pushed back on social media against claims that workers urinate in bottles because they are pressured to skip restroom breaks to keep up with the company's productivity goals.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-amazon-delivery-drivers-scoff-company.html

Q&A: Artist Beeple on selling NFT collage for a record $70M

When digital artist Beeple put an NFT digital artwork up for auction this month, he became instantly famous when it sold for almost $70 million. The record sale also sparked huge interest in digital certificates of authenticity based on cryptocurrency technology that are called "non-fungible tokens."

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-qa-artist-beeple-nft-collage.html

How two friends made art history buying a $70M digital work

It took a few minutes for Vignesh Sundaresan and Anand Venkateswaran to realize that they'd parted with $69.3 million for a digital artwork stored in a JPEG file, coincidentally securing their place in art history.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-friends-art-history-70m-digital.html

New problems arise for crop storage as planet gets warmer

For generations, Brian Sackett's family has farmed potatoes that are made into chips found on grocery shelves in much of the eastern U.S.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-problems-crop-storage-planet-warmer.html

Intensity of tropical cyclones is probably increasing due to climate change

Many tropical cyclone-prone regions of the world are expected to experience storm systems of greater intensity over the coming century, according to a review of research published today in ScienceBrief Review.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-intensity-tropical-cyclones-due-climate.html