Technology

Scientists show how toxoplasmosis parasite hides away in the brain
2018-11-13 17:21:30 UTC
<h3>Scientists have shown how the toxoplasmosis parasite hides away in the brain, altering synapses and potentially causing depression, schizophrenia and autism.</h3> Mice infected with toxoplasmosis parasites behave strangely: They lose their natural fear of cats. Presented with the smell of cat urine, they even seem attracted to the deadly predator, scientists have found. Toxoplasmosis is caused by the pathogen Toxoplasma gondii, a unicellular parasite that occurs worldwide. It affects birds and mammals, including humans. However, it can reproduce only in the digestive system of a cat. <strong>From cat poo to car crashes</strong...
Parkinson's may get its start not in brain but in appendix
2018-10-31 21:29:40 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have found a new clue that Parkinson’s disease may get its start not in the brain but in the gut — maybe in the appendix. People who had their appendix removed early in life had a lower risk of getting the tremor-inducing brain disease decades later, researchers reported Wednesday. Why? A peek at surgically removed appendix tissue shows this tiny organ, often considered useless, seems to be a storage depot for an abnormal protein — one that, if it somehow makes its way into the brain, becomes a hallmark of Parkinson’s. The big surprise, according to studies published in the journal Science Translationa...
Laser Trio Win Nobel Prize In Physics
2018-10-02 18:38:17 UTC
STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) - A trio of American, French and Canadian scientists won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday for breakthroughs in laser technology that have turned light beams into precision tools for everything from eye surgery to micro-machining. They include the first female physics prize winner in 55 years. Canada’s Donna Strickland, of the University of Waterloo, becomes only the third woman to win a Nobel for physics, after Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963. <blockquote><img alt="Nobel_prize_for_physics_2018_award_winners_(l-r)_arthur_ashkin_of_the_u.s.__gerard_mourou_of_france_and_donna...
Green crabs from Nova Scotia threaten coastal ecosystem
2018-09-19 05:21:29 UTC
BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Canadians are known as friendly folks, but these crabby brutes migrating from Canadian waters are better suited for the hockey rink. Green crabs from Nova Scotia are the same species as their cousins that already inhabit Maine waters, but are ornerier and angrier, threatening to accelerate harm to the coastal ecosystem by gobbling up soft-shell clams and destroying native eel grass, a researcher said. The docile green crabs shrink from a threat, while the newcomers are more apt to wave their pincers and charge. “What we’re seeing is this insane level of aggressiveness,” said Markus Frederich, a professor at...
Florence: US Facing the Challenges of Climate Change
2018-09-12 00:11:05 UTC
Hurricane Florence is moving relentlessly toward the Southeastern U.S. It's a large, powerful cyclone that will likely bring storm surge and high winds to coastal communities. But climate scientists say one of the biggest threats posed by Florence is rain. "Freshwater flooding poses the greatest risk to life," explains James Kossin, an atmospheric scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. And Florence could cause extensive freshwater flooding for two reasons. First, Florence is moving slowly and could all but stop when it reaches land. "The storm could be over No...
Germany to end its reliance on 'cyber security' from US
2018-08-30 00:21:47 UTC
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany announced a new agency on Wednesday to fund research on cyber security and to end its reliance on digital technologies from the United States, China and other countries. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters that Germany needed new tools to become a top player in cyber security and shore up European security and independence. “It is our joint goal for Germany to take a leading role in cyber security on an international level,” Seehofer told a news conference with Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen. “We have to acknowledge we’re lagging behind, and when one is lagging, one needs completely new a...
Detection of water on Mars by italian scientists
2018-07-25 22:26:02 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Using a radar instrument on an orbiting spacecraft, scientists have spotted what they said on Wednesday appears to be a sizable salt-laden lake under ice on the southern polar plain of Mars, a body of water they called a possible habitat for microbial life. The reservoir they detected — roughly 12 miles (20 km) in diameter, shaped like a rounded triangle and located about a mile (1.5 km) beneath the ice surface — represents the first stable body of liquid water ever found on Mars. <blockquote><img alt="Detection_of_water_on_mars_by_italian_scientists" src="/system/images/16480/original/Detection_of_water_on_Mar...
Mars: Earth’s neighbor may have harbored life
2018-06-07 19:30:00 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A NASA rover has detected a bonanza of organic compounds on the surface of Mars and seasonal fluctuations of atmospheric methane in findings released on Thursday that mark some of the strongest evidence ever that Earth’s neighbor may have harbored life. But National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists emphasized there could be nonbiological explanations for both discoveries made by the Curiosity rover at a site called Gale crater, leaving the issue of Martian life a tantalizing but unanswered question. Three different types of organic molecules were discovered when the rover dug just 2 inches (5 cm)...
EU privacy law: Companies to be more attentive to user data
2018-05-25 06:40:19 UTC
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New European privacy regulations that go into effect on Friday will force companies to be more attentive to how they handle customer data, while bringing consumers both new ways to control their data and tougher enforcement of existing privacy rights. The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaces the bloc’s patchwork of rules dating back to 1995 and heralds an era where breaking privacy laws can fetch fines of up to 4 percent of global revenue or 20 million euros ($23.48 million), whichever is higher, as opposed to a few hundred thousand euros. Many privacy advocates around the world have ...
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted, shoots lava into sky
2018-05-04 06:00:22 UTC
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted Thursday, sending lava shooting into the air in a residential neighborhood and prompting mandatory evacuation orders for nearby homes. Hawaii County said steam and lava poured out of a crack in Leilani Estates, which is near the town of Pahoa on the Big Island. Footage shown on local television showed lava spurting into the sky from a crack in a road. Aerial drone footage showed a line of lava snaking through a forest. Lava fountains were shooting 150 feet (46 meters) in the air, and molten lava spread out over an area about 200 yards (183 meters) wide behind one house in Leilani Es...
Facebook tracks people whether they have accounts or not
2018-04-15 17:05:17 UTC
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Concern about Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) respect for data privacy is widening to include the information it collects about non-users, after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the world’s largest social network tracks people whether they have accounts or not. Privacy concerns have swamped Facebook since it acknowledged last month that information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, a firm that has counted U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral campaign among its clients. Zuckerberg said on Wednesday under questioning by U.S. Representative Ben...
Karl Marx, author of "The Communist Manifesto" remains a celebrated figure in his hometown of Trier
2018-03-22 07:06:35 UTC
TRIER, GERMANY — While Karl Marx was exiled from Germany and died in England, the author of "The Communist Manifesto" and "Das Kapital" remains a celebrated figure in his hometown of Trier in Germany, where he now adorns pedestrian traffic lights in the city center. The Lord Mayor of Trier, Wolfram Leibe, inaugurated on March 19 a pedestrian light on which the silhouette of the city's famous socialist philosopher, Karl Marx, flashes. <blockquote><img alt="Opium_of_the_masses" src="/system/images/22027/original/Opium_of_the_masses.jpg?1521686938" /> In addition to the communist red associated with Marx, who was born in Trier n...
Stephen Hawking Biography
2018-03-14 09:29:46 UTC
Stephen William Hawking was born on 8th January 1942 (exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. His parents' house was in north London but during the second world war Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight his family moved to St. Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At the age of eleven, Stephen went to St. Albans School and then on to University College, Oxford (1952); his father's old college. Stephen wanted to study mathematics although his father would have preferred medicine. <blockquote><img alt="Stephen_hawking_biography" src="/system/images/15503/original/Stephe...
A Loss for All Humanity: Physicist Stephen Hawking Died
2018-03-14 08:27:15 UTC
British physicist Stephen Hawking has died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 76, according to a family spokesperson. Known around the globe, he worked to make complicated scientific fields accessible to the public. Stephen Hawking, a renowned mathematician and physicist has died at the age of 76. "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world," his three children said in a statement. <blockquote> Hawking died in his sle...
Valuable Public Company: Amazon appears to beat Apple
2018-03-08 20:45:23 UTC
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc, the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, is in danger of being beaten by Amazon.com Inc to the $1 trillion mark. Wall Street’s optimism about last year’s 10th anniversary iPhone had propelled Apple’s stock 24 percent higher over the past 12 months, giving it a market capitalization of $893 billion. That is $141 billion more than the $752 billion market value of Amazon, the world’s second most valuable publicly listed company, but Amazon has been closing the gap. Amazon’s stock has surged 83 percent over the past year, bolstered by scorchingly fast revenue growth as more shopping mov...
Worrying sign of climate change: Arctic warmer than Europe
2018-02-28 09:26:45 UTC
As frigid air sweeps across Europe, the Arctic itself is seeing an unprecedented warm spell. What's going on and does it relate to global warming? "Freezing cold 'Siberian Express' is roaring towards Britain," screamed the front page of the Daily Express newspaper last Friday as a cold front, the so-called "Beast from the East," battered its way west. <blockquote>By the weekend, snow and temperatures of minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) had hit Britain, while cities like Rome in southern Italy had transformed into a winter wonderland. This came soon after Moscow experienced a record whiteout during the "snowfall of the ...
Alarming research finds global warming accelerating sea level rise
2018-02-13 03:25:52 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are speeding up the already fast pace of sea level rise, new satellite research shows. At the current rate, the world’s oceans on average will be at least 2 feet (61 centimeters) higher by the end of the century compared to today, according to researchers who published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Sea level rise is caused by warming of the ocean and melting from glaciers and ice sheets. The research, based on 25 years of satellite data, shows that pace has quickened, mainly from the melting of massive ice sheets. It confirms scientists’...
Study: Dying Polar Bear Connected to Global Warming
2018-02-04 05:42:12 UTC
Millions have seen the heart-wrenching video of a polar bear clinging to life, its white hair limply covering its thin, bony frame. Shot by Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier of the nonprofit group Sea Legacy, and published on National Geographic in early December, the video ignited a firestorm of debate about what scientists know, and don’t know, about the impacts of global warming on polar bears. Without examining the bear in the video—thought to have died—it’s impossible to know for sure what ailed that individual, but now scientists have published new findings that shed more light on the risk to the species overall. <blockquo...
Russian agents created significant US election events on Facebook
2018-01-26 07:00:24 UTC
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook said Russian agents created 129 events on the social media network during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, according to testimony to Congress, shedding more light on Russia’s purported disinformation drive aimed at voters. Facebook, in a written statement to U.S. lawmakers released on Thursday and dated Jan. 8, said that 338,300 different Facebook accounts viewed the events and that 62,500 marked that they would attend. The company said it did not have data about which of the events took place. Facebook, the world’s largest social media network, said in September only that Russians had cr...
Homo sapiens trekked out of Africa far earlier than previously known
2018-01-25 21:32:55 UTC
Homo sapiens were wandering out of Africa at least 177,000 years ago — some 60,000 years earlier than previously thought. The new migration date comes after ancient stone tools and part of a fossilised Homo sapiens jaw bone with teeth were discovered in a cave in northern Israel. Until now, the oldest evidence for modern humans outside Africa were only 90,000 to 120,000 years old. Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa, with the earliest-known fossils roughly 300,000 years old. A key milestone was when our species first ventured out of Africa en route to populating the far corners of the globe. <blockquote><img alt="Homo_sapiens...
Twitter intends to notify users exposed to Russian propaganda
2018-01-17 21:49:39 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twitter may notify users whether they were exposed to content generated by a suspected Russian propaganda service, a company executive told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday. The social media company is “working to identify and inform individually” its users who saw tweets during the 2016 U.S. presidential election produced by accounts tied to the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Army, Carlos Monje, Twitter’s director of public policy, told the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. A Twitter spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about plans to notify its users. Face...
Supermassive black hole burped out material twice after colliding with nearby galaxy
2018-01-12 20:07:51 UTC
Using two telescopes, astronomers have found a black hole at the centre of a galaxy 800 million light years away that has spewed material into space not once, but twice. Most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their centres, which consumes anything that gets too close. And while we tend to think of nothing escaping a black hole's fierce grasp, when they devour material, some of it is ejected into space in the form of high-energy particles. In order to see the two events, astronomers used data from ground-based telescopes as well as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Optical data from Hubble and t...
Apple issues apology for purposely slowed down older iPhones
2017-12-29 07:48:52 UTC
The tech giant has offered a major price cut to replace out-of-warranty batteries that affect iPhone performance. Days before issuing an apology, it acknowledged it purposely slowed down older iPhones to prevent issues. In a posting on its website Thursday, Apple apologized over its handling of the battery issue and said it would make a number of changes for customers “to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple’s intentions.” Apple made the move to address concerns about the quality and durability of its products at a time when it is charging $999 for its newest flagship model, the iPhone ...
The end of US net neutrality is a license to print money
2017-12-18 06:59:52 UTC
<blockquote><strong>So far, all data on the internet has had to be transported on an equal footing, above all at the same speed. In the US, that will change. Joerg Brunsmann asks why politicians are making it so cheap for providers.</strong> I can understand internet providers. For the last quarter of a century or so, they have been building and maintaining data highways and have created an overarching infrastructure. And why watch enviously while your customers use it to earn money hand over fist, when at the same time you yourself could quickly and easily earn a lot of money with an internet that worked at different speeds? It i...
Germany vows to back an "open and free internet" despite end of net neutrality in US
2017-12-15 21:32:27 UTC
Berlin has vowed to back an "open and free internet" following a US decision to repeal net neutrality rules. After US telecoms regulator FCC on Thursday moved to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules, the German Economics Ministry said Friday it would continue to support EU internet rules that forbid discriminatory access to the web. "An open and free internet is indispensable for the successful development of a digital society that everyone wants to take part in," the ministry's spokeswoman, Beate Baron, told reporters. She declined to comment directly on the FCC's decision, but said that the German government had "taken note" of th...