The surprising strength of liquid crystals

Dendrites are the destructive by-products of the cycle of charging and discharging lithium ion batteries. These tiny deposits form between the battery's anode and cathode, building up over time. Inevitably, they diminish battery life. More problematic is their risk of causing the battery to burst into flames. In the quest for safer and longer lasting batteries—especially for electric cars, trucks, and planes—researchers continue to explore methods to suppress the formation of dendrites.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-strength-liquid-crystals.html

Twitter board backs chief Jack Dorsey after ouster bid

Twitter's board on Monday said Jack Dorsey will remain chief after a management review prompted by an activist investor's effort to push him out of the job.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-twitter-board-chief-jack-dorsey.html

Sri Lanka rescues 120 whales after mass stranding

Sri Lanka's navy and volunteers rescued 120 pilot whales stranded in the country's biggest mass beaching, but at least two injured animals were found dead, officials said.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-sri-lanka-whales-mass-stranding.html

China's Ant Group facing regulatory pressure ahead of record IPO

Fintech giant Ant Group is facing growing Chinese pressure over potential risks in its online lending business, with co-founder Jack Ma and other executives summoned to an unusual meeting with regulators just ahead of its record-breaking IPO this week.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-china-ant-group-regulatory-pressure.html

Tunisian startup 3-D prints solar-powered bionic hands

A Tunisian startup is developing a 3-D-printed bionic hand, hoping the affordable and solar-powered prosthetic will help amputees and other disabled people across Africa.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-tunisian-startup-d-solar-powered-bionic.html

Not forever: world's biggest pink diamond mine closes

The world's largest pink diamond mine has shut its doors after exhausting its reserves of the expensive gems, global mining giant Rio Tinto said Tuesday.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-world-biggest-pink-diamond.html

Cat 4 Hurricane Eta threatens flooding in Central America

Hurricane Eta erupted quickly into a potentially catastrophic major hurricane Monday as it headed for Central America, where forecasters warned of massive flooding and landslides across a vulnerable region.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-cat-hurricane-eta-threatens-central.html

Walmart abandons shelf-scanning robots, lets humans do work

Walmart is laying off the robots it had deployed in about 500 stores to keep tabs on what's on and not on the shelves.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-walmart-abandons-shelf-scanning-robots-humans.html

Lizard skull fossil is new and 'perplexing' extinct species

In 2017, while browsing the fossil collections of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History, University of Texas at Austin graduate student Simon Scarpetta came across a small lizard skull, just under an inch long.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-lizard-skull-fossil-perplexing-extinct.html

Two centuries of Monarch butterflies show evolution of wing length

North America's beloved Monarch butterflies are known for their annual, multi-generation migrations in which individual insects can fly for thousands of miles. But Monarchs have also settled in some locations where their favorite food plants grow year round, so they no longer need to migrate.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-centuries-monarch-butterflies-evolution-wing.html

Self-watering soil could transform farming

A new type of soil created by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin can pull water from the air and distribute it to plants, potentially expanding the map of farmable land around the globe to previously inhospitable places and reducing water use in agriculture at a time of growing droughts.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-self-watering-soil-farming.html

Biologists shed light on mystery of how microbes evolve and affect hosts

The era of COVID-19 and the need to constantly wash one's hands and sanitize things have brought microbes to new levels of scrutiny, particularly for their impact on an individual's health.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-biologists-mystery-microbes-evolve-affect.html

New protein nanobioreactor designed to improve sustainable bioenergy production

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have unlocked new possibilities for the future development of sustainable, clean bioenergy. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows how bacterial protein 'cages' can be reprogrammed as nanoscale bioreactors for hydrogen production.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-protein-nanobioreactor-sustainable-bioenergy-production.html

Short-term moisture removal can eliminate downy mildew of spinach

Downy mildew is the biggest threat to spinach production around the world. While the pathogen has a short life cycle (approximately a week), it can produce millions of spores during the spinach growing season. Overhead sprinkler irrigation systems and dew formation on cool nights leads to more moisture, which enables these spores to infect the spinach.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-short-term-moisture-downy-mildew-spinach.html

Warming of 2 C would release billions of tons of soil carbon

Global warming of 2°C would lead to about 230 billion tons of carbon being released from the world's soil, new research suggests.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-billions-tons-soil-carbon.html

Japan carbon pledge boosts hopes of ammonia backers

Japan's pledge to become carbon-neutral by 2050 is offering hope to industry heavyweights pushing ammonia as the fuel of the future—but critics say the corrosive gas is still far from a clear-cut clean energy.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-japan-carbon-pledge-boosts-ammonia.html

Ambitious but controversial: Japan's new hydrogen project

Japan's new 2050 deadline for carbon neutrality has thrown a spotlight on its efforts to find new, greener fuel options, including an ambitious but controversial liquid hydrogen venture.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-ambitious-controversial-japan-hydrogen.html

16 dead after Typhoon Goni batters Philippines

The most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines this year destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed at least 16 people, officials said Monday, as communications to the worst-hit areas remained cut off.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-dead-typhoon-goni-batters-philippines.html

Record fires ravage Brazil's Amazon and Pantanal regions

A record high number of fires scorched Brazil's Amazon and Pantanal wetlands last month, official data showed on Sunday, as deforestation and climate change wreaked havoc on some of the planet's most valuable ecosystems.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-ravage-brazil-amazon-pantanal-regions.html

New research reports discovery of 5-million-year-old honey badger-like animal

Five million years ago, dangerous carnivores—such as giant wolverines and otters, bears, sabertooth cats, and large hyaenids—prowled the West Coast of South Africa. Today we can confirm that, among them, fearlessly roamed a smaller relative of the living honey badger.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-discovery-million-year-old-honey-badger-like-animal.html

Starting kindergarten on the right foot

Everything you ever really needed to know you learned back in kindergarten—that old saying gets some scientific support in a new study by researchers at Canada's Université de Montréal and Université Sainte-Anne.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-kindergarten-foot.html

More Republicans follow COVID guidelines when they're told it will protect themselves

For decades, scientists have predicted that a deadly pandemic would sweep the globe—but what they didn't expect was that basic public health measures such as mask wearing and social distancing would become political flashpoints, especially in the United States.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-republicans-covid-guidelines-theyre-told.html

Ransomware surge imperils hospitals as pandemic intensifies

Hackers are stepping up attacks on health care systems with ransomware in the United States and other countries, creating new risks for medical care as the global coronavirus pandemic accelerates.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-ransomware-surge-imperils-hospitals-pandemic.html

Super typhoon batters Philippines; 1 million in shelters

A super typhoon slammed into the eastern Philippines with ferocious winds early Sunday, knocking down power in several towns and prompting the evacuation of about a million people in its likely path, including in the capital, Manila, where the main airport was shut down.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-super-typhoon-batters-philippines-million.html

Millions online, 6,000 live see Koreans win top eSports title

More than 6,000 mostly young spectators watched at a Shanghai stadium and millions tuned in online to see Damwon Gaming win the League of Legends world championship on Saturday.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-millions-online-koreans-esports-title.html

Real-world politics invade video games ahead of US election

Fans of US President Donald Trump can insert his character in some video games, even protect him from assassination in notoriously lawless Grand Theft Auto.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-real-world-politics-invade-video-games.html

Space station marking 20 years of people living in orbit

The International Space Station was a cramped, humid, puny three rooms when the first crew moved in. Twenty years and 241 visitors later, the complex has a lookout tower, three toilets, six sleeping compartments and 12 rooms, depending on how you count.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-space-station-years-people-orbit.html

KLM 3.4bn bailout in crisis as unions refuse paycut plan

The Dutch government on Saturday suspended plans to help beleaguered national carrier KLM with a multi-billion-euro bailout package after unions declined to sign a deal involving a five-year pay-cut plan.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-klm-34bn-bailout-crisis-unions.html

KLM 3.4bn bailout in crisis as unions refuse paycut plan

The Dutch government on Saturday suspended plans to help beleaguered national carrier KLM with a multi-billion-euro bailout package after unions declined to sign a deal involving a five-year pay-cut plan.