Facebook fights global outage and whistleblower revelations

Facebook battled dueling crises on Monday as it tried to fix a large-scale outage of its dominant social network and fought against a whistleblower's damning revelations.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-10-facebook-global-outage-whistleblower-revelations.html

Team measures the breakup of a single chemical bond

The team used a high-resolution atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in a controlled environment at Princeton's Imaging and Analysis Center. The AFM probe, whose tip ends in a single copper atom, was moved gradually closer to the iron-carbon bond until it was ruptured. The researchers measured the mechanical forces applied at the moment of breakage, which was visible in an image captured by the microscope. A team from Princeton University, the University of Texas-Austin and ExxonMobil reported the results in a paper published Sept. 24 in Nature Communications.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-team-breakup-chemical-bond.html

Domesticated salmon have smaller eyes in the farm but not in the wild

The domestication of Atlantic salmon through years of fish farming has led to farmed Atlantic salmon developing smaller eyes according to a new piece of research published in the journal Evolutionary Applications.

Cool oasis for Cretaceous feathered dinosaurs

The Jehol Biota, an ancient ecosystem in Liaoning province in northeastern China, includes a dense and diverse array of Cretaceous flora and fauna and is a hot spot of feathered dinosaur fossils. A new study reconstructs a cool climate and high elevation at the site, providing critical environmental context for the wide array of dinosaurs preserved there.

New research reveals need for flexible, tailored support for domestic abuse survivors

A four-year evaluation led by academics at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), in partnership with Bangor University, the University of East London and Manchester Metropolitan University, has revealed the need for flexible domestic violence and abuse services that are more tailored and responsive to survivors' changing needs.

Image: Hubble views galaxy NGC 5728

Meet NGC 5728, a spiral galaxy around 130 million light-years from Earth. This image was acquired using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which is extremely sensitive to visible and infrared light. Therefore, it beautifully captures the regions of NGC 5728 that are emitting light at those wavelengths. However, there are many other types of light that galaxies such as NGC 5728 emit, which WFC3 can't see.

US duo win Nobel Medicine Prize for heat and touch work

US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian on Monday won the Nobel Medicine Prize for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch, the jury said.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-duo-nobel-medicine-prize.html

New plant in Germany aims to cut flying's carbon footprint

German officials on Monday unveiled what they said is the world's first commercial plant for making synthetic kerosene, touted as a climate-friendly fuel of the future.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-10-germany-aims-carbon-footprint.html

US duo win Nobel Medicine Prize for heat and touch work

US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian on Monday won the Nobel Medicine Prize for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch, the jury said.

Half a degree makes a big difference in a warming world

Half a degree Celsius may not seem like much, but climate experts say a world that has warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius above 19th-century levels compared to 2C could be the difference between life and death.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-degree-big-difference-world.html

Senegal's old capital on the frontline against rising sea

In the northern Senegalese city of Saint-Louis, excavators are ripping up the beach to lay giant blocks of basalt, in an eleventh-hour effort to keep the sea at bay.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-senegal-capital-frontline-sea.html

California authorities rush to mitigate impact of major oil spill

Authorities in California's beachfront Orange County cities scrambled Sunday to mitigate the fallout from a major oil spill off the coast that caused "substantial ecological impacts."

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-california-authorities-mitigate-impact-major.html

Half a degree makes a big difference in a warming world

Half a degree Celsius may not seem like much, but climate experts say a world that has warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius above 19th-century levels compared to 2C could be the difference between life and death.

Senegal's old capital on the frontline against rising sea

In the northern Senegalese city of Saint-Louis, excavators are ripping up the beach to lay giant blocks of basalt, in an eleventh-hour effort to keep the sea at bay.

California authorities rush to mitigate impact of major oil spill

Authorities in California's beachfront Orange County cities scrambled Sunday to mitigate the fallout from a major oil spill off the coast that caused "substantial ecological impacts."

1.5C is the climate goal, but how do we get there?

The science is painfully clear: to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius—given that we're already at 1.1C—means slashing carbon pollution in half by 2030, and to zero by mid-century.

1.5C is the climate goal, but how do we get there?

The science is painfully clear: to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius—given that we're already at 1.1C—means slashing carbon pollution in half by 2030, and to zero by mid-century.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-15c-climate-goal.html

Fires, floods, flying insects: 10 recent climate-fuelled disasters

From a summer of fire and record floods, to freak frosts and locusts invasions, experts say man-made climate change is wreaking havoc on the world's weather.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-insects-climate-fuelled-disasters.html

Facebook chooses 'profit over safety,' says whistleblower

The whistleblower who shared a trove of Facebook documents alleging the social media giant knew its products were fueling hate and harming children's mental health revealed her identity Sunday in a televised interview, and accused the company of choosing "profit over safety."

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-10-facebook-profit-safety-whistleblower.html

Research reveals how much plastic debris is currently floating in the Mediterranean Sea

A team of researchers have developed a model to track the pathways and fate of plastic debris from land-based sources in the Mediterranean Sea. They show that plastic debris can be observed across the Mediterranean, from beaches and surface waters to seafloors, and estimate that around 3,760 metric tons of plastics are currently floating in the Mediterranean.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-reveals-plastic-debris-mediterranean-sea.html

Artificial intelligence makes it faster, easier to analyze hockey video

Researchers have made a key advancement in the development of technology to automatically analyze video of hockey games using artificial intelligence.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-10-artificial-intelligence-faster-easier-hockey.html

Fires, floods, flying insects: 10 recent climate-fuelled disasters

From a summer of fire and record floods, to freak frosts and locusts invasions, experts say man-made climate change is wreaking havoc on the world's weather.

Research reveals how much plastic debris is currently floating in the Mediterranean Sea

A team of researchers have developed a model to track the pathways and fate of plastic debris from land-based sources in the Mediterranean Sea. They show that plastic debris can be observed across the Mediterranean, from beaches and surface waters to seafloors, and estimate that around 3,760 metric tons of plastics are currently floating in the Mediterranean.

Artificial intelligence makes it faster, easier to analyze hockey video

Researchers have made a key advancement in the development of technology to automatically analyze video of hockey games using artificial intelligence.