Science X Newsletter Week 47

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Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for week 47:

	Theory that challenges Einstein's physics could soon be put to the test Scientists behind a theory that the speed of light is variable - and not constant as Einstein suggested - have made a prediction that could be tested.
	Thermoelectric paint enables walls to convert heat into electricity (Phys.org)—Paint these days is becoming much more than it used to be. Already researchers have developed photovoltaic paint, which can be used to make "paint-on solar cells" that capture the sun's energy and turn it into electricity. Now in a new study, researchers have created thermoelectric paint, which captures the waste heat from hot painted surfaces and converts it into electrical energy.
	New atlas depicts first two months of human development in 3-D (Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands has created an updated interactive 3-D atlas that depicts the various stages of human development from conception to two months. In their paper published in the journal Science, the researchers outline the reasons for medical texts being outdated, how they got around the problem, the features of the new atlas and what it might mean for future medical research efforts.
	Solar cells can be made with tin instead of lead, scientists find A breakthrough in solar power could make it cheaper and more commercially viable, thanks to research at the University of Warwick.
	A phone that charges in seconds? Scientists bring it closer to reality A team of UCF scientists has developed a new process for creating flexible supercapacitors that can store more energy and be recharged more than 30,000 times without degrading.
	Mars ice deposit holds as much water as Lake Superior Frozen beneath a region of cracked and pitted plains on Mars lies about as much water as what's in Lake Superior, largest of the Great Lakes, a team of scientists led by The University of Texas at Austin has determined using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
	Satellites confirm sinking of San Francisco tower The Sentinel-1 satellites have shown that the Millennium Tower skyscraper in the centre of San Francisco is sinking by a few centimetres a year. Studying the city is helping scientists to improve the monitoring of urban ground movements, particularly for subsidence hotspots in Europe.
	Israeli firm can steal phone data in seconds It only takes a few seconds for an employee of one of the world's leading hacking companies to take a locked smartphone and pull the data from it.
	New ultra-thin semiconductor could extend life of Moore's Law Following a decade of intensive research into graphene and two-dimensional materials a new semiconductor material shows potential for the future of super-fast electronics.
	Captain Cook's detailed 1778 records confirm global warming today in the Arctic Passengers simmered in Jacuzzis and feasted on gourmet cuisine this summer as the 850-foot cruise ship Crystal Serenity moved through the Northwest Passage.
	Overheated Arctic sign of climate change 'vicious circle' Freakishly high temperatures in the Arctic driven by heat-packed oceans and northward winds have been reinforced by a "vicious circle" of climate change, scientists said Thursday.
	Changes in the diet affect epigenetics via the microbiota You are what you eat, the old saying goes, but why is that so? Researchers have known for some time that diet affects the balance of microbes in our bodies, but how that translates into an effect on the host has not been understood. Now, research in mice is showing that microbes communicate with their hosts by sending out metabolites that act on histones—thus influencing gene transcription not only in the colon but also in tissues in other parts of the body. The findings publish November 23 in Molecular Cell.
	New clues emerge in 30-year-old superconductor mystery One of the greatest mysteries of experimental physics is how so-called high-temperature superconducting materials work. Despite their name, high-temperature superconductors—materials that carry electrical current with no resistance—operate at chilly temperatures less than minus 135 degrees Celsius. They can be used to make superefficient power cables, medical MRIs, particle accelerators, and other devices. Cracking the mystery of how these materials actually work could lead to superconducting devices that operate at room temperatures—and could revolutionize electrical devices, including laptops and phones.
	New 3-D structure shows optimal way to divide space (Phys.org)—Researchers have discovered a new 3D structure that divides space into 24 regions, and have shown that it is the best solution yet to a modified version of a geometrical space-partitioning problem that has challenged researchers for more than a century.
	Cancer cells 'talk' to their environment, and it talks back Interactions between an animal cell and its environment, a fibrous network called the extracellular matrix, play a critical role in cell function, including growth and migration. But less understood is the mechanical force that governs those interactions.
	Researchers propose an explanation for the mysterious onset of a universal process Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University have proposed a groundbreaking solution to a mystery that has puzzled physicists for decades. At issue is how magnetic reconnection, a universal process that sets off solar flares, northern lights and cosmic gamma-ray bursts, occurs so much faster than theory says should be possible. The answer could aid forecasts of space storms, explain several high-energy astrophysical phenomena, and improve plasma confinement in doughnut-shaped magnetic devices called tokamaks designed to obtain energy from nuclear fusion.
	NA64 hunts the mysterious dark photon One of the biggest puzzles in physics is that eighty-five percent of the matter in our universe is "dark": it does not interact with the photons of the conventional electromagnetic force and is therefore invisible to our eyes and telescopes. Although the composition and origin of dark matter are a mystery, we know it exists because astronomers observe its gravitational pull on ordinary visible matter such as stars and galaxies.
	Brain activity predicts the force of your actions Researchers have found a link between the activity in nerve clusters in the brain and the amount of force generated in a physical action, opening the way for the development of better devices to assist paralysed patients.
	Keratin and melanosomes preserved in 130-million-year-old bird fossil New research from North Carolina State University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Linyi University has found evidence of original keratin and melanosome preservation in a 130-million-year-old Eoconfuciusornis specimen. The work extends the timeframe in which original molecules may preserve, and demonstrates the ability to distinguish between ancient microstructures in fossils.
	Scientists persuade nature to make silicon-carbon bonds A new study is the first to show that living organisms can be persuaded to make silicon-carbon bonds—something only chemists had done before. Scientists at Caltech "bred" a bacterial protein to make the man-made bonds—a finding that has applications in several industries.

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