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Tech jobs: These are the highest-paying roles, and here’s where to find them
2020 saw the salaries of some tech professionals grow more quickly than others. Image: Getty IT managers, system architects, cloud engineers and cybersecurity engineers took home the biggest salaries last year, according to the latest Tech Salary Report from jobs website Dice, with Texas and other emerging hubs taking big leaps forward. Overall, the salaries of US tech professionals grew 3.6% between 2019 and 2020, reaching an average of $97,859. This was despite many businesses tightening budgets in response to the financial pressures caused by the pandemic. The biggest salary increases between 2019 and 2020 were experienced by occupations that helped organisations process and interpret data, digitise their products and…
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Best freelance websites 2021: Find jobs & remote work
As the shadowy cover of COVID-19 slowly lifts, America is getting back to work. For many, however, the workplace looks a little different than you remember from before, and many Americans do not have the option to just return to their pre-pandemic jobs. Enormous nationwide layoffs and business closures prompted federal stimulus support just to make it through, but as vaccinations work to help make the world safe again, it has also come time to return to work so we can rebuild and prepare for our futures. Today, there are many job websites that claim to help you find immediate employment, but the freelance gig industry is a world of…
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Families find ‘depth, beauty’ as they incorporate faith into homeschooling
Faith has always been a foundational part of the Johnson family’s day. Before the pandemic, they got ready for work and school while listening to spiritual music that was upbeat and provided a strong message to get them in the right headspace for the day. After COVID-19 swept across Louisiana, Furnell and Monica Johnson decided to keep their youngest children home rather than send them to a busy school building. With Monica working from home, too, she could serve as “learning coach” for her two elementary-age daughters as they took classes through Lafayette Online Academy. “It’s work,” Monica admits. “I appreciate it, because we’re able to get school done. But…
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Scientists Find Holy Grail of EV Batteries
Dougal WatersGetty Images A new paper presents a stable lithium-metal battery design for the first time. Lithium-ion batteries have flaws that lithium-metal batteries could fix. This new battery adds a self-healing technology that will close cracks where dendrites form. Lithium-ion batteries are the backbone of most of today’s electronic devices, including electric vehicles. But for all of their game-changing benefits, the batteries still have an inherent flaw: dendrites. These thin, snaking, tree-like pieces of lithium form sharp points and end up piercing the battery, causing short circuits and other problems. This ultimately shortens the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries, and leaves major room for improvement. ➡ You think science is badass.…
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Scientists Find a Fossilized Ancestor of ‘Dinosaur Food’
Before the first mammals, before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a plant grew in Gondwana, a huge continent in the Southern Hemisphere. Almost 280 million years later, in what is now Brazil, scientists have identified the fossil remains of that plant as an early member of a lineage called cycads, or cycadales, that continues to this day. The discovery expands scientific understanding of the resilience of these plants, which persisted through two mass extinctions. “The vegetative anatomy of this plant is remarkably similar to the ones that live today,” said Rafael Spiekermann, a graduate student at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Germany and the lead author of…
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Scientists find way to remove polluting microplastics with bacteria | Microbiology
Microbiologists have devised a sustainable way to remove polluting microplastics from the environment – and they want to use bacteria to do the job. Bacteria naturally tend to group together and stick to surfaces, and this creates an adhesive substance called “biofilm” – we see it every morning when brushing our teeth and getting rid of dental plaque, for example. Researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) want to use this sticky bacteria property and create tape-like microbe nets that can capture microplastics in polluted water to form an easily disposable and recyclable blob. Although these findings, presented on Wednesday at the Microbiology Society’s annual conference, are still preliminary,…
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NYC’s Restaurants Are Hiring But Struggling to Find Workers
A “Help Wanted” sign outside a Brooklyn restaurant. Photo: DeSean McClinton-Holland It’s spring in New York, fresh streeteries are sprouting up along the city’s sidewalks, and “Help Wanted” ads — soliciting “experienced” line cooks, dishwashers, and bartenders “for immediate start” — are visible in an ever-growing number of restaurant windows and on social-media accounts. After a yearlong employment crisis, the city’s hospitality industry is slowly coming back. In February, according to the latest data available from the state, there were 59 percent fewer jobs than the year before. That seems to be changing, but now the people in charge of hiring face a new problem: There aren’t enough workers eager to fill…
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