Manila (AFP) Dec 14, 2016 -
China has pledged funds for a new detention facility in the Philippines as part of its support for President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, the Philippine jail chief said Wednesday.
Duterte's unprecedented crackdown has worsened severe congestion in Philippine jails, with AFP photographs of Quezon City Jail in July exposing how inmates in one of the nation's most overcrowded detention facilitie ...
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Beijing (AFP) Dec 14, 2016 -
China warned Taiwan that declaring independence would be a "dead end", state media said Wednesday, after the island's democratically elected president phoned Donald Trump in a precedent-breaking move.
Beijing's stance of opposing and blocking "Taiwan independence splittism" is "firm and unmovable", Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman An Fengshan said at a briefing Wednesday, according to state-o ...
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Washington (AFP) Dec 14, 2016 -
New satellite imagery shows China has apparently installed "significant" defensive weapons on a series of artificial islands it built in the South China Sea, a US-based think tank said Wednesday.
Beijing has created seven islets in the Spratly Islands in recent years, built up from much smaller land protuberances and reefs.
Although Beijing has said it does not intend to militarize the c ...
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Paris, France (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
During REM sleep, the brain inhibits the motor system, which makes the sleeper completely immobile. CNRS researchers working in the Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (CNRS/Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1/INSERM/Universite Jean Monnet) have identified a population of neurons that is responsible for this transient muscle paralysis.
The animal model created will shed light on the ...
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Mainz, Germany (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
We all know that water melts at 0C. However, already 150 years ago the famous physicist Michael Faraday discovered that at the surface of frozen ice, well below 0C, a thin film of liquid-like water is present. This thin film makes ice slippery and is crucial for the motion of glaciers.
Since Faraday's discovery, the properties of this water-like layer have been the research topic of scient ...
moreHow does water melt? Layer by layer
Mainz, Germany (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
We all know that water melts at 0C. However, already 150 years ago the famous physicist Michael Faraday discovered that at the surface of frozen ice, well below 0C, a thin film of liquid-like water is present. This thin film makes ice slippery and is crucial for the motion of glaciers.
Since Faraday's discovery, the properties of this water-like layer have been the research topic of scient ...
more | |
Neurons paralyze us during REM sleep
Paris, France (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
During REM sleep, the brain inhibits the motor system, which makes the sleeper completely immobile. CNRS researchers working in the Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (CNRS/Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1/INSERM/Universite Jean Monnet) have identified a population of neurons that is responsible for this transient muscle paralysis.
The animal model created will shed light on the ...
more | |
Tallahassee FL (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
Deep stores of carbon in northern peatlands may be safe from rising temperatures, according to a team of researchers from several U.S.-based institutions. And that is good news for now, the researchers said.
Florida State University research scientist Rachel Wilson and University of Oregon graduate student Anya Hopple are the first authors on a new study published in Nature Communications. ...
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Chicago IL (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
Biodiversity on earth is greatest in the tropics with the number and variety of species gradually diminishing toward the poles. Understanding exactly what shapes this pattern, known as the latitudinal diversity gradient, is not just key to knowing the nature of life on Earth, but it also could help scientists slow biodiversity loss and protect areas of the globe that generate a disproportionate ...
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Columbia MO (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
The loss of fertile topsoil from agricultural fields is an economic problem for modern farmers. When runoff water washes topsoil from agricultural fields in areas with claypan soils under the topsoil, including parts of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas, farmers are often left with an exposed subsoil clay layer that creates difficult conditions for growing crops.
Now, a ...
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Houston TX (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
As the Mexican government oversees the implementation of the country's energy reform, it must consider how best to prioritize water use in accordance with the law and allocate supplies thoughtfully, according to a new paper from the Mexico Center at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
"Looming Conflicts? Energy Reform Priorities and the Human Right of Access to Water in Me ...
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Saint Helier, Jersey (UPI) Dec 14, 2016 -
Neanderthals may have taken vacations, or at least they liked the view from the granite cliffs of Jersey. New evidence suggests Neanderthals visited La Cotte de St Brelade, a prehistoric site on the island of Jersey, for at least 180,000 years.
Previous surveys of La Cotte de St Brelade have been limited in scope, focused mostly on concentrations of mammoth remains within the cave. The ...
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Bielefeld, Germany (UPI) Dec 13, 2016 -
Studying bacterial cells and other cell cultures at high resolutions is now much easier thanks to a team of researchers from Germany.
Scientists at Bielefeld University have found a way to trap bacteria with a laser beam, simplifying the process of imaging cells with powerful microscopes.
Typically, scientists affix cells to a substrate before placing them under the lens of a mic ...
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Corvallis, Ore. (UPI) Dec 14, 2016 -
Scientists believe a new, complex call recorded in the Mariana Trench was produced by a baleen whale. The call, dubbed the "Western Pacific Biotwang," was recorded and analyzed by researchers at the University of Oregon's Hatfield Marine Science Center.
The lengthy and varied call features a range of frequencies. It include five parts. The initial sections feature deep moans, as low as ...
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Miami (AFP) Dec 15, 2016 -
Climate scientists tend to be a hardy bunch, accustomed to hate mail, vicious online attacks, lawmakers who deny that global warming is real, and for some, even death threats.
But their mood darkened in recent days as President-elect Donald Trump tapped a series of climate change deniers and fossil fuel supporters for key posts in his administration.
That gloom turned to panic when Trum ...
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San Francisco (AFP) Dec 15, 2016 -
California shut down Uber's testing of self-driving cars shortly after the ride-sharing service launched its pilot in San Francisco, citing a lack of permit and threatening to sue.
Uber Technologies Inc. launched the test without a permit as required by the US state. Twenty companies have been approved to test a total of 130 vehicles, the California Department of Motor Vehicles pointed out. ...
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East Lansing, MI (SPX) Dec 13, 2016 -
The day of charging cellphones with finger swipes and powering Bluetooth headsets simply by walking is now much closer. Michigan State University engineering researchers have created a new way to harvest energy from human motion, using a film-like device that actually can be folded to create more power. With the low-cost device, known as a nanogenerator, the scientists successfully operated an L ...
moreFinger swipe-powered phone? We're 1 step closer
East Lansing, MI (SPX) Dec 13, 2016 -
The day of charging cellphones with finger swipes and powering Bluetooth headsets simply by walking is now much closer. Michigan State University engineering researchers have created a new way to harvest energy from human motion, using a film-like device that actually can be folded to create more power. With the low-cost device, known as a nanogenerator, the scientists successfully operated an L ...
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California shuts down Uber's self-driving cars
San Francisco (AFP) Dec 15, 2016 -
California shut down Uber's testing of self-driving cars shortly after the ride-sharing service launched its pilot in San Francisco, citing a lack of permit and threatening to sue.
Uber Technologies Inc. launched the test without a permit as required by the US state. Twenty companies have been approved to test a total of 130 vehicles, the California Department of Motor Vehicles pointed out. ...
more | |
Osaka, Japan (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
A group of Japanese researchers developed a prototype construction robot for disaster relief situations. This prototype has drastically improved operability and mobility compared to conventional construction machines.
As part of the Impulsing Paradigm Challenge through Disruptive Technologies Program (ImPACT)'s Tough Robotics Challenge Program, a group of research leaders at Osaka Universi ...
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Sendai, Japan (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
Scientists in Japan have revealed that if a glassy solid possesses a planar (sheet-like) structure, it can exhibit enhanced thermal vibration motion due to the same mechanism known for the planar crystals (two-dimensional crystals), by using large-scale simulations on supercomputers.
"Imagine if we could make a sheet of glass, which has a two-dimensional (2D) planate shape," says Dr. Hayat ...
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Munich, Germany (SPX) Dec 14, 2016 -
For years, small rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have reliably supplied billions of portable devices with energy. But manufacturers of high-energy applications such as electric cars and power storage systems seek for new electrode materials and electrolytes. Michael Metzger, researcher at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has now developed a new battery test cell allowing to investiga ...
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Hamburg, Germany (UPI) Dec 14, 2016 -
Thanks to a team of scientists from Germany and the United States, the use of ultra-short electron beams for bioimaging no longer requires a device the size of a car.
Researchers from the German Electron Synchrotron and MIT developed a small, energy efficient laser gun for the study of chemical, physical and biological processes.
Currently, ultrafast laser spectroscopy is the pre ...
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Washington (AFP) Dec 14, 2016 -
Amazon said Wednesday it completed its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes will become a trend in automated shipments by air.
The delivery to a customer near Cambridge, England, was announced in a tweet by Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos.
"First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. 13 min - click to delivery," he wrote of the D ...
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Yiwu, China (AFP) Dec 15, 2016 -
With Christmas looming, it's crunch time in the Chinese manufacturing hub of Yiwu, which has earned a reputation as Santa's "real" workshop.
In Sun Xudan's artificial Christmas tree factory, workers cut and twist long ropes of fake "branches" into simulated pines destined for homes and public holiday displays.
It's a nearly year-round operation in Yiwu, which has been estimated as the so ...
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