Welcome to a weekend edition of “Hawaii Science Digest”–a look at the top science, technology, environmental, and cyber security news impacting our world. Views expressed in this post are those of the reporters and correspondents unless otherwise stated.
Accessed on 23 December 2018, 0504 UTC.
Source: https://phys.org
“Spotlight Science News”, 22 December 2018.
Please click link or scroll down to read your selections.
Comment: Here are today’s top science news headlines from https://phys.org:
Spotlight Science News
Connected cars accelerate down data-collection highway
That holiday trip over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house could turn into nice little gift for automakers as they increasingly collect oodles and oodles of data about the driver.
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Howler monkey study examines mechanisms of new species formation
A new University of Michigan study of interbreeding between two species of howler monkeys in Mexico is yielding insights into the forces that drive the evolution of new species.
#MeToo sparked surge in awareness about sexual harassment: study
(HealthDay)—Hundreds of thousands of women have used the #MeToo hashtag to speak out about sexual harassment and assault during the past year.
Electronically programmable photonic molecule
Physical systems with discrete energy levels are ubiquitous in nature and form fundamental building blocks of quantum technology. Artificial atom-like and molecule-like systems were previously demonstrated to regulate light …
Ancient Antarctic ice sheet collapse could happen again, triggering a new global flood
It’s happened before, and it could happen again.
Seeds of giant galaxies formed in the early universe
Modern galaxies show a wide diversity, including dwarf galaxies, irregular galaxies, spiral galaxies, and massive elliptical galaxies. This final type, massive elliptical galaxies, provides astronomers with a puzzle. Although …
Study projects a dramatic increase in annual high-heat days in the U.S. Northeast by the century’s end
Long-term assessment of likely regional and local climate impacts is critical to enabling municipalities, businesses, and regional economies to prepare for potentially damaging and costly effects of climate change—from …
Best of Last Year—The top Phys.org articles of 2018
A new robot capable of learning ownership relations and norms
A team of researchers at Yale University has recently developed a robotic system capable of representing, learning and inferring ownership relations and norms. Their study, pre-published on arXiv, addresses some of the complex …
Baby star’s fiery tantrum could create the building blocks of planets
A massive stellar flare on a baby star has been spotted by University of Warwick astronomers, shedding light on the origins of potentially habitable exoplanets.
Strong interactions produce a dance between light and sound
Light and high-frequency acoustic sound waves in a tiny glass structure can strongly couple to one another and perform a dance in step.
Stellar corpse reveals clues to missing stardust
Everything around you – your desk, your laptop, your coffee cup – in fact, even you – is made of stardust, the stuff forged in the fiery furnaces of stars that died before our sun was born. Probing the space surrounding …
Forecasters may be looking in wrong place when predicting tornadoes, research shows
Weather forecasters may be looking in the wrong place when working to issue tornado warnings, new research led by Ohio University has demonstrated.
A big space crash likely made Uranus lopsided
Uranus is a lopsided oddity, the only planet to spin on its side. Scientists now think they know how it got that way: It was pushed over by a rock at least twice as big as Earth.
Lean electrolyte design is a game-changer for magnesium batteries
Researchers from the University of Houston and the Toyota Research Institute of America have discovered a promising new version of high-energy magnesium batteries, with potential applications ranging from electric vehicles …
Mars Express gets festive: A winter wonderland on Mars
This image shows what appears to be a large patch of fresh, untrodden snow – a dream for any lover of the holiday season. However, it’s a little too distant for a last-minute winter getaway: this feature, known as Korolev …
Bees can count with just four nerve cells in their brains
Bees can solve seemingly clever counting tasks with very small numbers of nerve cells in their brains, according to researchers at Queen Mary University of London.
NASA’s Webb Telescope wrapped in a mobile clean room
Before moving NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and to assure that it’s kept clean and safe, Webb got a very special wrapping treatment. The wrapping acts as a “mobile clean room,” safeguarding the technological marvel from …
The coolest experiment in the universe
What’s the coldest place you can think of? Temperatures on a winter day in Antarctica dip as low as -120ºF (-85ºC). On the dark side of the Moon, they hit -280ºF (-173ºC). But inside NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory on the …
New findings reveal the behavior of turbulence in the exceptionally hot solar corona
The sun defies conventional scientific understanding. Its upper atmosphere, known as the corona, is many millions of degrees hotter than its surface. Astrophysicists are keen to learn why the corona is so hot, and scientists …
Best of Last Year—The top Medical Xpress articles of 2018
Windows Sandbox offers safe zone if app looks suspicious
Cold atoms offer a glimpse of flat physics
These days, movies and video games render increasingly realistic 3-D images on 2-D screens, giving viewers the illusion of gazing into another world. For many physicists, though, keeping things flat is far more interesting.
‘Kondo metamagnet’ is first in a family of eccentric quantum crystals
There’s an oddball in most families, but Rice University physicist Emilia Morosan has discovered an entire clan of eccentric compounds that could help explain the mysterious electronic and magnetic workings of other quantum …
Teen pot-smoking drops in Washington state after legalization
(HealthDay)—Contrary to predictions, teen marijuana use declined in Washington state after recreational pot was legalized in 2012, a new study finds.
How different types of knowledge impact the growth of new firms
Diversifying into new industries is vital to an economy’s ability to grow and generate wealth. But to branch out into new industrial activities, a city, region or country must first have a pool of people with the right mix …
Holiday asteroid imaged with NASA radar
The December 2018 close approach by the large, near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 has provided astronomers an outstanding opportunity to obtain detailed radar images of the surface and shape of the object and to improve the understanding …
People with schizophrenia experience emotion differently from others, ‘body maps’ show
Colorful figures of the human body are helping Vanderbilt University researchers understand how people experience emotion through their bodies and how this process is radically altered in people with schizophrenia.
Surfer’s ear points to ancient pearl divers in Panama
While examining a skull from an ancient burial ground in a pre-Columbian village in Panama, Nicole Smith-Guzmán, bioarchaeologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), was surprised to discover an example …
Does alcohol on greeting cards undermine public health messages about harmful drinking?
Birthday and Christmas cards featuring alcohol or harmful drinking “reflect and reinforce a social attitude that excess alcohol consumption is acceptable and associated with celebration,” warn experts in The BMJ today.
Dec 21, 2018 in Health