Technology

Hurricane Dorian Shows We Are Losing the Fight Against Global Warming
2019-09-01 22:29:33 UTC
As Hurricane Dorian churns its way through the Atlantic, we need to recognize that climate change can make any hurricane more intense and Category 5 hurricanes more likely. Burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, release carbon dioxide and methane into Earth’s atmosphere. These gases trap heat, which means that globally, both air temperatures as well as water temperatures have increased and are continuing to increase. Warmer air leads to more evaporation, which in turn leads to more precipitation. Then the warmer water provides more fuel for the hurricanes. Water has very high heat capacity, which means it’s ...
Scientists Find Micro Plastic in Arctic Ice
2019-08-14 23:33:28 UTC
LONDON (Reuters) - Tiny pieces of plastic have been found in ice cores drilled in the Arctic by a U.S.-led team of scientists, underscoring the threat the growing form of pollution poses to marine life in even the remotest waters on the planet. The researchers used a helicopter to land on ice floes and retrieve the samples during an 18-day icebreaker expedition through the Northwest Passage, the hazardous route linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. “We had spent weeks looking out at what looks so much like pristine white sea ice floating out on the ocean,” said Jacob Strock, a graduate student researcher at the University of Rhode...
Russia Asks Google to Stop Advertising “Illegal Mass Events”
2019-08-11 16:07:42 UTC
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s state communications watchdog said on Sunday it had asked Google to stop advertising “illegal mass events” on its YouTube video platform. Tens of thousands of Russians staged what observers called the country’s biggest political protest for eight years on Saturday, defying a crackdown to demand free elections to Moscow’s city legislature. The watchdog, Roscomnadzor, said Russia would consider it interference in its sovereign affairs and a hostile influence should Google fails to respond to the request. Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Janet Lawrence
Steve Jobs Design Chief to Start Own Firm
2019-06-28 00:58:11 UTC
(Reuters) - Jony Ive, a close creative collaborator with Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs whose iPhone and other designs fueled Apple’s rise to become a $1 trillion company, will leave later this year to form an independent design company. Apple said Ive will continue work on its products at his new venture, but shares fell as much as 1.5% to $197.44 in after-market trading, wiping about $9 billion from the firm’s value. Ive spent nearly three decades at Apple, playing a leading role in the design of the candy-colored iMacs that helped Apple re-emerge from near death in the 1990s to the iPhone, regarded by many business experts as one...
Japan Eats Whale Despite Environmental Concerns
2019-06-24 04:59:19 UTC
MINAMIBOSO, Japan (Reuters) - Whale cutlets, sliced raw whale, deep-fried whale nuggets, whale bacon and whale jerky feature on the menu at the restaurant Yoko Ichihara runs - and that's just a small sample of the ways Japan eats whale. Though Japan's government maintains that eating whale is a cherished part of its food culture, nationwide consumption didn't really take off until after World War Two and peaked in the early 1960s before falling as other protein sources became cheaply available. A 1986 global whaling moratorium made whale a pricey food that rarely appears on family tables or in ordinary supermarkets, with vendors rely...
Apple wants its login button above Google and Facebook
2019-06-05 05:23:38 UTC
(Reuters) - Apple Inc will ask developers to position a new “Sign on with Apple” button in iPhone and iPad apps above rival buttons from Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, according to design guidelines released this week. The move to give Apple prime placement is significant because users often select the default or top option on apps. And Apple will require apps to offer its button if they want to offer options to login with Facebook or Google. Apple unveiled its login button on Monday, emphasizing users’ privacy and also introducing a feature that randomly generates an email address to avoid revealing the person’s true email....
Facebook Bans White Nationalism and Separatism on Its Platforms
2019-03-27 18:01:14 UTC
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc on Wednesday announced a ban on praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism on its social media platforms, furthering its efforts to tackle hate speech. These bans will be enforced next week, the social media giant said in a blog <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/03/standing-against-hate">here</a> post. Facebook said it would also start connecting people who search for terms associated with white supremacy to organizations focused on helping people leave behind hate groups. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva
Scientists' evidence for man-made global warming hits 'gold standard'
2019-02-25 18:33:18 UTC
OSLO (Reuters) - Evidence for man-made global warming has reached a “gold standard” level of certainty, adding pressure for cuts in greenhouse gases to limit rising temperatures, scientists said on Monday. “Humanity cannot afford to ignore such clear signals,” the U.S.-led team wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change of satellite measurements of rising temperatures over the past 40 years. They said confidence that human activities were raising the heat at the Earth’s surface had reached a “five-sigma” level, a statistical gauge meaning there is only a one-in-a-million chance that the signal would appear if there was no warming. ...
China's Chang'e-4 Probe Touched Down on Far Side of Moon
2019-01-06 05:35:05 UTC
China's Chang'e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday morning. The successful "soft landing" marks a groundbreaking development in space exploration, being the first time that a spacecraft has landed on the side of the moon that faces away from Earth. Chang'e-4, which is named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, entered its planned orbit to allow the landing on Sunday. It landed in the Von Karman crater, which is in the lunar South Pole's Aitken Basin, at about 0226 UTC. Lunar surface explorer Chang'e-4 is set to release a rover to map contours and surface...
Catastrophic Effects of Climate Change
2018-11-25 02:46:14 UTC
(Reuters) - Climate change will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, hitting everything from health to infrastructure, according to a government report issued on Friday that the White House called inaccurate. The congressionally mandated report, written with the help of more than a dozen U.S. government agencies and departments, outlined the projected impact of global warming on every corner of American society in a dire warning that is at odds with the Trump administration’s pro-fossil-fuels agenda. “With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic secto...
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. 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...