Hurricane Eta lashes Nicaragua with rains, deadly mudslides

Hurricane Eta continues to spin across northern Nicaragua after lashing the country's Caribbean coast for much of Tuesday, isolating already remote communities and setting off deadly landslides in two countries that killed at least three people.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-hurricane-eta-lashes-nicaragua-deadly.html

Ant Group's shock IPO suspension hammers Alibaba shares

China's shock, last–minute decision to suspend the record-breaking IPO of fintech giant Ant Group hammered shares of founder Jack Ma's e-commerce titan Alibaba on Wednesday and left investors reeling.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-ant-group-ipo-suspension-alibaba.html

Jack Ma: ebullient billionaire and totem of China's rise

Jack Ma, the ebullient and unconventional billionaire founder of tech giant Alibaba, now finds himself battling the ignominy of having the world's biggest-ever IPO halted days before its launch by Chinese regulators.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-jack-ma-ebullient-billionaire-totem.html

Uber-backed gig worker initiative wins in California: US media

California voters put the brakes Tuesday on a state law forcing ride share firms like Uber and Lyft to treat their drivers as employees, instead of independent contractors.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-uber-backed-gig-worker-california-media.html

How asymmetrical alliances impact firm performance and risk

Researchers from University of Georgia, University of South Carolina, and University of Arkansas published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that analyzes how asymmetries in pre-alliance network ties between a firm and its alliance partner affect the focal firm's financial performance and financial performance uncertainty.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-asymmetrical-alliances-impact-firm.html

Do small gifts to donors increase charity appeal ROI?

Researchers from John Carroll University and University of Kansas published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that investigates how recipients respond to charities' pre-giving incentives to determine if they are worth the investment.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-small-gifts-donors-charity-appeal.html

Lion genetics study uncovers major consequences of habitat fragmentation

Over the course of only a century, humanity has made an observable impact on the genetic diversity of the lion population. That's the conclusion of a recently published study by Drs. Caitlin Curry and James Derr from the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-lion-genetics-uncovers-major-consequences.html

Tel Aviv University builds and plans to launch a small satellite into orbit

The TAU-SAT1 nanosatellite, approximately the size of a shoebox, is currently undergoing pre-flight testing at the Japanese space agency JAXA prior to a planned launch by NASA in the first quarter of 2021. TAU-SAT1 was entirely devised, developed, assembled, and tested at Tel Aviv University's Nanosatellite Center, an interdisciplinary endeavor of the University's Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Raymond & Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, and Porter School of Environmental Studies.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-tel-aviv-university-small-satellite.html

Leaf-cutter bees as plastic recyclers? Not a good idea, say scientists

Plastic has become ubiquitous in modern life and its accumulation as waste in the environment is sounding warning bells for the health of humans and wildlife. In a recent study, Utah State University scientist Janice Brahney cited alarming amounts of microplastics in the nation's national parks and wilderness areas.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-leaf-cutter-bees-plastic-recyclers-good.html

3-D print experts discover how to make tomorrow's technology using ink-jet printed graphene

The University of Nottingham has cracked the conundrum of how to use inks to 3-D-print novel electronic devices with useful properties, such as an ability to convert light into electricity.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-d-experts-tomorrow-technology-ink-jet.html

'Helper' ambrosia beetles share reproduction with their mother

Fungus farming is a fascinating symbiosis that has evolved multiple times in social insects: once in ants, once in termites, and several times in weevils (beetles) from the subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae. The behavior of these "ambrosia beetles"—over 3,000 species—is poorly known, because they live inside galleries in wood, making observation hard. Here, a study focuses for the first time on the division of labor within colonies of ambrosia beetles. The author shows that in Xyleborus affinis, unlike in ants and termites, social behavior such as brood and fungus care is mostly by fertile "helper" females who reproduce alongside their mother, the colony foundress. He also shows that a specialized fungus in the genus Raffaelea is probably the only food source for the larvae.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-helper-ambrosia-beetles-reproduction-mother.html

Death from below: the first video of a parasitic wasp attacking caterpillar underwater

A very few species of parasitoid wasps can be considered aquatic. Less than 0.1% of the species we know today have been found to enter the water, while searching for potential hosts or living as endoparasitoids inside of aquatic hosts during their larval stage.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-death-video-parasitic-wasp-caterpillar.html

Intensive lab experiences and online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

For students studying ecology and evolution, it's important to experience the processes and concepts they are learning about nature in nature. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, field-based courses rapidly transitioned to online only delivery. An article published in Ecology and Evolution discusses the potential advantages of pairing an intensive lab experience with an otherwise online delivery.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-intensive-lab-online-covid-pandemic.html

Goby fins have fingertip touch sensitivity

Groping around in your bag for your keys can be a daily ordeal. I'm not going to list the catalogue of junk in my bag, but I can distinguish every article by touch. Our fingertips are exquisitely engineered, deftly detecting the differences between surfaces and shapes, but we are not the only animals that touch objects. 'A whole host of fishes contact the bottom of bodies of water, plants or other animals using their fins', says Adam Hardy from The University of Chicago, U.S., leading Hardy and his graduate advisor, Melina Hale, to wonder whether fish may also be able to feel surface differences with their fins. The duo publish their discovery that goby fins are as touch sensitive as primate finger tips in Journal of Experimental Biology.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-goby-fins-fingertip-sensitivity.html

Dutch government backs KLM bailout after pilots agree to pay cut

The Dutch government on Tuesday approved a multi-billion-euro coronavirus bailout for struggling airline KLM after pilots agreed a five-year pay cut deal.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-dutch-klm-bailout.html