Strong 6.1 magnitude earthquake hits Panama: USGS

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit Panama on Sunday near the border with Costa Rica, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Toshiba net profit up on chip business sale

Struggling Japanese engineering firm Toshiba on Monday reported improved full-year net profit thanks to the sale of its chip business, but said operating profit was sharply down. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

San Francisco may ban police, city use of facial recognition

San Francisco is on track to become the first U.S. city to ban the use of facial recognition by police and other city agencies, reflecting a growing backlash against a technology that's creeping into airports, motor vehicle departments, stores, stadiums and home security cameras. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Teachers predict pupil success just as well as exam scores

New research from King's College London finds that teacher assessments are equally as reliable as standardised exams at predicting educational success. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Space exploration exhibit for Apollo 11 opens at Ohio museum

A new permanent exhibit focusing on space exploration and the Ohio native who was the first person to walk on the moon has opened at a Cincinnati museum. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

UN chief says world 'not on track' with climate change

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres launched a brief South Pacific tour in New Zealand Sunday, warning the world was "not on track" to limiting global temperature rises. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

UN kicks off major climate change effort

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls it the defining issue of our time: climate change is moving to the center stage at the United Nations, three years after the Paris agreement went into force. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

More than a scent: Cyprus promoting its perfume past

Before Cyprus gained fame as the mythical birthplace of the goddess of love Aphrodite nearly three millennia ago, Cyprus was known around the Mediterranean for its perfumes, scents that the mighty queens of Egypt coveted. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

US, EU spar over sharing electronic evidence in investigations

In August 2016, the lifeless bodies of a young French man and woman were discovered on a beach in Madagascar, with murder suspected. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Fake meat: don't go bacon my heart, say butchers

Slicing through juicy cuts of pork belly alongside rarer delicacies of ox brain and sheep intestine, young butchers at a Frankfurt trade hall cast a suspicious eye towards the so-called fake meat products on display. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Podcasters find niche in the Arab world

Rana Nawas left the corporate world nearly two years ago to produce and host a podcast—one that is now considered the most popular in the Arab world. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

LSU works to help control invasive water weed in Puerto Rico

Louisiana State University is working with a private citizen and a university in Puerto Rico to control an invasive South American weed that can quickly form dense mats over waterways. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

The race is on to cultivate a seaweed that slashes greenhouse emission from cows, other livestock

Those concerned with climate change may soon feel less compunction about biting into a cheeseburger. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Stricken ship refloated after Solomons oil spill

The ship at the centre of an environmental disaster near World-Heritage listed waters in the Solomon Islands was refloated Saturday after being stranded on a coral reef for more than three months. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Uber, Lyft losses keep competitors at bay

A fare war between Uber and Lyft has led to billions of dollars in losses for both ride-hailing companies as they fight for passengers and drivers. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Facebook sues South Korea data analytics firm

Facebook is suing South Korean data analytics firm Rankwave to make sure it isn't breaking the leading social network's rules, the US company said Friday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Hong Kong to cull 6,000 pigs as first swine fever case found

Hong Kong will cull 6,000 pigs after African swine fever was detected in an animal at a slaughterhouse close to the border with China, the first case of the disease in the densely populated financial hub. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

37 spotted seal pups rescued from China traffickers released

Animal rights groups have cheered the release of 37 spotted seal pups rescued from traffickers into the wild in northern China. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

180 nations agree UN deal to regulate export of plastic waste

Around 180 governments on Friday agreed on a new UN accord to regulate the export of plastic waste, some eight million tonnes of which ends up in the oceans each year, organisers said. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Uber shifts into reverse in disappointing Wall Street debut

Uber shares skidded Friday in a disappointing Wall Street debut following a massive public offering from the global ride-hailing giant. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New study highlights fundamental challenges of living with wildfire

Wildfires can have dramatic impacts on Western landscapes and communities, but human values determine whether the changes caused by fire are desired or dreaded. This is the simple—but often overlooked—message from a collaborative team of 23 researchers led by University of Montan … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

A case of the chimp sniffles or major outbreak? Syndromic surveillance may hold the key

Two sniffling chimps could be one too many for a wild chimpanzee community susceptible to respiratory disease outbreaks, report Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at the University of Minnesota. The team's findings were a result of their development of a syndromic survei … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Receiving weekend food improves school attendance among children living with hunger

Children living in food-insecure households are more likely to attend school on Fridays if they're participating in a food-distribution program that provides them with backpacks of meals for the weekend, researchers at the University of Illinois found in a new study. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Lab builds autopilot software allowing UAVs to soar on thermals

A Navy scientist has re-engineered the software that allows long-endurance drones to powerlessly climb into the sky on bubbles of warm air. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Review: Motorola Moto G7 is the inexpensive Android phone you've been waiting for

I'm a tech reviewer, so I think people expect me to carry the newest iPhone—at least that's what I tell my wife. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Smallest pixels ever created could light up color-changing buildings

The smallest pixels yet created—a million times smaller than those in smartphones, made by trapping particles of light under tiny rocks of gold—could be used for new types of large-scale flexible displays, big enough to cover entire buildings. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Manipulating superconductivity using a 'mechanic' and an 'electrician'

In strongly correlated materials such as cuprate high-temperature superconductors, superconductivity can be controlled either by changing the number of electrons or by changing the kinetic energy, or transfer energy, of electrons in the system. Although a large number of strongly … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New study shows scientists who selfie garner more public trust

Many scientists today have embraced social media as tools to communicate their research and to engage broader audiences in scientific discovery and its outcomes. But the rise of the "social media scientist" has also led communicators and scholars to ask an important and often ove … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Walmart's robot zips along in tech revolution that's raising big questions for workers

When an autonomous floor scrubber was rolled out in Walmart's Bonney Lake store last month, shoppers mistook the teal blue scrubber zipping down the aisles for a runaway machine, said manager David Klein. "Some customers are a little freaked out." | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Will smoggy L.A. have 'zero bad air' in 2025? Don't hold your breath

It was one of Mayor Eric Garcetti's most dramatic pledges in his sweeping "Green New Deal" for Los Angeles: "We will have zero days of unhealthy air quality by 2025." | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Instagram to start blocking hashtags with vaccine misinformation

Instagram will start blocking any hashtags spreading misinformation about vaccines, becoming the latest internet platform to crack down on bad health information. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Elon Musk cracks a lewd joke at Jeff Bezos' new 'Blue Moon' lander

The moon lander introduced Thursday by Blue Origin, the aerospace company run by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has caught the attention of Elon Musk. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Space-tourism dream edges toward reality in New Mexico

British billionaire Richard Branson and his space-tourism company Virgin Galactic announced new steps Friday toward offering thrill rides into the low reaches of space for paying passengers, with the company immediately starting to move personnel and space vehicles from Californi … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Can recreational sports really make you a better student?

A new Michigan State University study adds to growing evidence that participating in recreational sports not only can help improve grades while attending college, but it also can help students return for another year. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Luxembourg and US agree to deepen cooperation in space

The tiny EU country of Luxembourg and the United States agreed on Friday to work more closely on projects in space, including research and exploration as well as defence and commerce. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Uber begins trading nearly 7% below its IPO price

Uber began trading as a public company at $42 per share Friday, nearly 7% below its initial public offering price. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Storm water banking could help Texas manage floods and droughts

Massive, destructive floods such as those caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 are a stark reality in Texas, but so are prolonged ground-cracking droughts. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

NASA Northern quadrant strength in Tropical Cyclone Lili

NASA's Aqua satellite used infrared light to analyze the strength of storms in Tropical Cyclone Lili as it moved through the Southern Indian Ocean. Infrared data provides temperature information, and the strongest thunderstorms that reach high into the atmosphere have the coldest … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Turkey fines Facebook for failing to protect personal data

Turkey's state-run news agency says the country's data protection agency has fined Facebook 1.650 million Turkish lira ($270,000) for contravening data laws. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

75 years later, French 'HistoPad' offers new view of D-Day

The French and the Americans are working together again on a D-Day project—this time to give museum visitors the opportunity to travel back in time and experience the milestone World War II invasion 75 years later. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study shows native plants regenerate on their own after invasive shrubs are removed

Invasive shrubs have become increasingly prevalent in the deciduous forests of eastern North America—often creating a dense understory that outcompetes native plants. Many land managers would like to remove the invaders, but worry about what happens afterwards. Will they need to … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Research spotlights the role of cover crops in slowing herbicide resistance

An article in the most recent edition of the journal Weed Science shows that cover crops can play an important role in slowing the development of herbicide resistant weeds. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

People more likely to trust machines than humans with their private information

Not everyone fears our machine overlords. In fact, according to Penn State researchers, when it comes to private information and access to financial data, people tend to trust machines more than people, which could lead to both positive and negative online behaviors. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New progress in developing an animal model of hepatitis C

Small differences in a liver cell protein have significant impacts on hepatitis C virus replication in mice and humans, findings that could facilitate the development of a mouse model of the infection. The report, led by researchers at Princeton University, was published today in … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

A surprising experiment opens the path to new particle manipulation methods

Researchers at Aalto University have discovered a surprising phenomenon that changes how we think about how sound can move particles. Their experiment is based on a famous experiment recognisable from high school science classrooms worldwide—the Chlandni Plate experiment, where p … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Peer-to-peer bonuses may have unintended negative consequences, expert warns

So-called peer-to-peer bonuses, where colleagues 'tip' or reward each other with points or money, may seem to offer short-term benefits but ultimately end up damaging performance and wellbeing, an HR expert has warned. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Replanting oil palm may be driving a second wave of biodiversity loss

The environmental impact of palm oil production has been well publicised. Found in everything from food to cosmetics, the deforestation, ecosystem decline and biodiversity loss associated with its use is a serious cause for concern. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

How Uber and other digital platforms could trick us using behavioral science—unless we act fast

Uber's business model is incredibly simple: It's a platform that facilitates exchanges between people. And Uber's been incredibly successful at it, almost eliminating the transaction costs of doing business in everything from shuttling people around town to delivering food. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago