NASA tests mixed reality, scientific know-how and mission operations for exploration

Mixed reality technologies, like virtual reality headsets or augmented reality apps, aren't just for entertainment—they can also help make discoveries on other worlds like the Moon and Mars. By traveling on Earth to extreme environments—from Mars-like lava fields in Hawaii to underwater hydrothermal vents—similar to destinations on other worlds, NASA scientists have tested out technologies and tools to gain insight into how they can be used to make valuable contributions to science.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-nasa-reality-scientific-know-how-mission.html

LED light pollution is a major turnoff to some North American bats

Light pollution, or artificial light at night (ALAN), is a rapidly spreading form of environmental degradation that currently covers about 50% of the United States and 90% of Europe. It can have wide-ranging impacts to nocturnal wildlife by causing changes in foraging behavior, space use, predator-prey interactions, communication and reproduction. New research published this week in the journal Ecology and Evolution demonstrates how disruptive ALAN can be to some bat species of the northeastern U.S.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-pollution-major-turnoff-north-american.html

Building a culture of high-quality data

The era of big data has inundated nearly all scientific fields with torrents of newly available data with the power to stimulate new research and enable inquiry at scales not previously possible. This is particularly true for ecology, where rapid growth in remote sensing, monitoring, and community science initiatives has contributed to a massive surge in the quantity and kinds of environmental data that are available to researchers.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-culture-high-quality.html

Development of a broadband mid-infrared source for remote sensing

A research team of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences, National Institute for Fusion Science and Akita Prefectural University has successfully demonstrated a broadband mid-infrared (MIR) source with a simple configuration. This light source generates highly-stable broadband MIR beam at 2.5-3.7 μm wavelength range maintaining the brightness owing to its high-beam quality. Such a broadband MIR source facilitates a simplified environmental monitoring system by constructing a MIR fiber-optic sensor, which has the potential for industrial and medical applications.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-broadband-mid-infrared-source-remote.html

Tilapia farming: Dwarfism is a response to overcrowding stress

Tilapia living in crowded aquaculture ponds or small freshwater reservoirs adapt so well to these stressful environments that they stop growing and reproduce at a smaller size than their stress-free counterparts.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-tilapia-farming-dwarfism-response-overcrowding.html

Impacts of sunscreen on coral reefs needs urgent attention, say scientists

More research is needed on the environmental impact of sunscreen on the world's coral reefs, scientists at the University of York say.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-impacts-sunscreen-coral-reefs-urgent.html

Huawei posts record profit but revenue growth sags

Chinese telecom giant Huawei said Wednesday it achieved a record profit last year, but revenue growth slowed sharply amid the pandemic and tightening US pressure that has pushed the company into new business lines to survive.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-huawei-profit-revenue-growth-sags.html

Counting begins in vote on first Amazon labor union

Counting of votes cast by Amazon employees at an Alabama warehouse began Tuesday to determine whether it would become the first union shop at the e-commerce colossus.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-vote-amazon-labor-union.html

Deliveroo shares dive on London stock market launch

Deliveroo shares slumped 23 percent as it launched on the London stock market Wednesday, with the app-driven meals delivery group facing criticism over its treatment of riders.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-deliveroo-london-stock.html

The global race to develop 'green' hydrogen

It's seen as the missing link in the race for carbon-neutrality: "green" hydrogen produced without fossil fuel energy is a popular buzzword in competing press releases and investment plans across the globe.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-global-green-hydrogen.html

Pandemic delays gender parity by a generation: WEF

The pandemic has rolled back years of progress towards equality between men and women, according to a report released Wednesday showing the crisis had added decades to the trajectory towards closing the gender gap.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-pandemic-gender-parity-wef.html

A hydrogen future for planes, trains and factories

Hydrogen could potentially power trains, planes, trucks and factories in the future, helping the world rid itself of harmful emissions.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-hydrogen-future-planes-factories.html

Sharp increase in destruction of virgin forest in 2020

An area of pristine rainforest the size of the Netherlands was burned or hacked down last year, as the destruction of the planet's tropical forests accelerated despite a global economic slowdown, according to research Wednesday.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-sharp-destruction-virgin-forest.html

Volkswagen hoaxes media with fake news release as a joke

Volkswagen of America issued false statements this week saying it would change its brand name to "Voltswagen," as a way to stress its commitment to electric vehicles, only to reverse course Tuesday and admit that the supposed name change was just a joke.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-volkswagen-hoaxes-media-fake-news.html

Automakers BMW, Volvo back moratorium on deep seabed mining

Automakers BMW and Volvo announced Wednesday that they support a moratorium on deep seabed mining for minerals used in electric vehicle batteries and other products.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-automakers-bmw-volvo-moratorium-deep.html

US, China consulted on safety as their crafts headed to Mars

As their respective spacecrafts headed to Mars, China and the U.S. held consultations earlier this year in a somewhat unusual series of exchanges between the rivals.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-china-safety-crafts-mars.html

Japan's Hitachi acquires GlobalLogic for $9.6 billion

Hitachi Ltd. is buying U.S. digital engineering services company GlobalLogic Inc. for $9.6 billion, the Japanese industrial, electronic and construction conglomerate said Wednesday.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-japan-hitachi-globallogic-billion.html

Architecture of Eolian successions under icehouse and greenhouse conditions

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the foremost scientific and societal challenges. In part, our response to this global challenge requires an enhanced understanding of how the Earth's surface responds to episodes of climatic heating and cooling. As historical records extend back only a few hundred years, we must look back into the ancient rock record to see how the surface of the Earth has responded to shifts between icehouse (presence of ice at the Earth's poles) and greenhouse (no substantial ice at Earth's poles) climates in the past.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-architecture-eolian-successions-icehouse-greenhouse.html

Lab-made hexagonal diamonds stiffer than natural diamonds

Nature's strongest material now has some stiff competition. For the first time, researchers have hard evidence that human-made hexagonal diamonds are stiffer than the common cubic diamonds found in nature and often used in jewelry.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-lab-made-hexagonal-diamonds-stiffer-natural.html

Floating gardens as a way to keep farming despite climate change

Bangladesh's floating gardens, built to grow food during flood seasons, could offer a sustainable solution for parts of the world prone to flooding because of climate change, a new study has found.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-gardens-farming-climate.html

Sounds like home: Murrelets choose breeding locations by eavesdropping on other murrelets

Oregon State University researchers broadcast marbled murrelet calls in mature forests and found that the threatened seabirds' choice of breeding locations is strongly influenced by whether they hear other murrelets in the area.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-home-murrelets-eavesdropping.html

Decellularized spinach serves as an edible platform for laboratory-grown meat

Spinach, a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly scaffold, provided an edible platform upon which a team of researchers led by a Boston College engineer has grown meat cells, an advance that may accelerate the development of cultured meat, according to a new report in the advance online edition of the journal Food BioScience.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-decellularized-spinach-edible-platform-laboratory-grown.html

Human hiking trails custom built for sauntering grizzlies

In the run up to hibernation, grizzly bears go on a colossal binge, consuming as many calories as possible to get them through the long winter. Yet, little was known about how much energy the massive mammals use as they shamble around their rugged territories. "Moving across the landscape in search of food can be a huge energetic expense for some animals," Carnahan says. Fortunately, the Washington State University Bear Research, Education and Conservation Center (WSU BREC), where Carnahan is based, is home to 11 bears, including four that formerly lived in Yellowstone National Park, so he and Charles Robbins (also at WSU BREC) decided to measure the animals' metabolic rates as they sauntered on the flat, and up and down gradients to find out how much energy they use on a daily basis. The team publishes their discovery that grizzly bears prefer to walk on shallow paths to save energy in Journal of Experimental Biology, explaining why the animals often appear on human hiking trails.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-03-human-hiking-trails-custom-built.html