Science and Technology

Thursday, 28 July 2022 06:40

After chess robot breaks boy's finger, it's clear the machines are coming for us

I take no joy in saying this, but for our own survival, we humans must immediately destroy all robots. They drew first blood. In case you missed the news story – perhaps because you were kidnapped by a self-driving robot car – a chess-playing robot at a tournament in Russia grabbed and broke a 7-year-old boy’s finger during a game last week. Video of what I’m calling “the attack” shows a robotic arm lifting a chess piece off the board, followed by the boy quickly sliding a different piece across the board. As the human child is moving the piece,…

Tuesday, 26 July 2022 06:52

Why it's so hard to defend against cruise missiles

On July 14, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC held a one-day conference premised on a specific threat: What if, in the future, war comes to the United States via cruise missile? Pointing to new developments in cruise missile technology, and the limitations of existing early warning systems that are focused on the high arcing trajectories of ballistic missiles, the CSIS conference and accompanying report suggests that to defend the continental United States from such a threat, the military should adapt and deploy the kind of cruise missile defenses presently used as regional weapons. Unlike ballistic…

Tuesday, 19 July 2022 06:53

'Ghost heart': Built from the scaffolding of a pig and the patient's cells, this cardiac breakthrough may soon be ready for transplant into humans

The first time molecular biologist Doris Taylor saw heart stem cells beat in unison in a petri dish, she was spellbound. “It actually changed my life,” said Taylor, who directed regenerative medicine research at Texas Heart Institute in Houston until 2020. “I said to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s life.’ I wanted to figure out the how and why, and re-create that to save lives.” That goal has become reality. On Wednesday at the Life Itself conference, a health and wellness event presented in partnership with CNN, Taylor showed the audience the scaffolding of a pig’s heart infused with human…

Saturday, 02 July 2022 06:53

13 hidden WhatsApp features you should know

WhatsApp contains numerous features that make the messaging app more useful, convenient, private, or just more fun. You can customize the appearance of your chats, share your location, or add formatting to your text messages. Here are 13 of the best little-known or unexpected features in WhatsApp. With about 2 billion active users, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world. An app this popular must be doing something right, and in fact the combination of cross-platform compatibility and end-to-end encryption helps make it so popular. But WhatsApp also has a wealth of features — big and small,…

Wednesday, 29 June 2022 06:20

Scientists develop security check system that uses your breath

Biometric authentication could soon be revolutionized as scientists in Japan have developed a security tool which identifies people by their breath. Being able to fully rely on identity check systems is more crucial than ever for public institutions such as airports but also a wide variety of private companies. Researchers from Kyushu University said their olfactory sensor had an accuracy of 97 percent in a first series of tests. Chaiyanut Jirayupat from Kyushu University's Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering is the first author of the study. Speaking about the potential advantages compared to security checks of fingerprints, voices or…

Monday, 20 June 2022 06:44

WhatsApp adds new privacy controls for profile photos and ‘Last Seen’ status

After previewing the feature in beta last April, WhatsApp is rolling out greater privacy controls for Profile Photo, About, Status and Last Seen settings, the company tweeted. Until now, you could only block those settings for Everyone, My Contacts or Nobody, but the new update introduces a "My Contacts Except" option that offers far more granular control. The "Last Seen" status is a particular privacy danger, as it indicates when someone last checked the app. That provides a way to find out if a contact may have potentially seen your message even if they have read receipts turned off. The…

Saturday, 18 June 2022 06:33

How many bones are in your body and why does the number change? We found the answers

Everyone has bones, no matter who you are or where you are, but not everyone understands the importance of changes in what’s going on inside their bodies. Walking, sleeping and having secure organs are all possible with the help of our skeletons. The structure that your bones grant your body, plus the mobility they enable us to have, in addition to the protection of your organs, make them invaluable in preserving and continuing human life. And if you think you can count the number of bones you have, don't even try. It's too complicated. How many bones are in the…

Monday, 13 June 2022 06:30

The world's first carbon dioxide battery is here and needs only steel and water

The island of Sardinia in Italy is known as a world-famous tourist destination. It will now also be known as the home of the world's first carbon-dioxide battery launched by a startup, Energy Dome, Electrek reported. The role of carbon dioxide in heating up the planet is well acknowledged. While countries are making efforts to curb their carbon emissions, there is also the need to trap carbon dioxide that is currently being released to ensure that the planet's temperature increases remain under control. To achieve this, many are looking to capture carbon directly from the atmosphere and store it. However,…

Friday, 03 June 2022 06:24

Vietnam develops 'world's first' African swine fever vaccine for commercial use

Vietnam said on Wednesday it had successfully developed a vaccine to administer to pigs to fight African swine fever, with the aim of becoming the first country to commercially produce and export it. African swine fever, one of the most devastating livestock diseases, was first detected in Vietnam in February 2019 and forced the country to cull around 20% of its hog herd last year. It originated in Africa before spreading to Europe and Asia and has killed hundreds of millions of pigs globally. African swine fever is harmless to humans. "This is a milestone of the veterinary industry," deputy…

Saturday, 28 May 2022 06:27

Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service gets FG’s approval to roll out in Nigeria

Elon Musk, SpaceX founder, says Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service, has been approved in Nigeria. Musk said this on Friday via his verified Twitter page. In 2021, TheCable reported that the company, which saw Nigeria as a critical market, was in talks with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to secure licences needed to launch Starlink. On Tuesday, Musk had hinted at rolling out the satellite internet service in Africa on his Twitter account after a user asked about his plans for Africa. Consequently, the billionaire, who is also the founder of Tesla Inc. announced the approval of the internet…

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Thursday, 19 May 2022 06:25

Russia launches new generation of laser weapons in Ukraine

Russia on Wednesday said it was using a new generation of powerful laser weapons in Ukraine to burn up drones, deploying some of Moscow’s secret weapons to counter a flood of Western arms supplied to its former Soviet neighbour. President Vladimir Putin in 2018 unveiled an array of new weapons including a new intercontinental ballistic missile, underwater nuclear drones, a supersonic weapon and a new laser weapon. Little is known about the specifics of the new laser weapons. Putin mentioned one called Peresvet, named after a medieval Orthodox warrior monk Alexander Peresvet who perished in mortal combat. Yury Borisov, the…

Tuesday, 17 May 2022 06:37

University drop-out builds electric mini-buses in Nigeria’s first

A 30-year old University drop-out Mustapha Gajibo has been converting petrol mini-buses into electric vehicles at his workshop, but he is now going a step further to build solar battery-powered buses from scratch in a push to promote clean energy and curb pollution. Africa's top producer and exporter of crude oil has heavily-subsidised gasoline and a patchy supply of electricity -- a combination that might discourage anyone from investing in electric vehicles. But the entrepreneur who is a resident of Maiduguri city in Nigeria's northeast, is undaunted. He says rising global oil prices and pollution make electric vehicles a worthwhile…

Tuesday, 10 May 2022 06:19

Looty seeks to digitally reclaim artworks looted from Africa by colonial powers

What if Africans somehow managed to access museums across the Western world, gather all the artwork looted from their territories during the colonial era, and take them back home? A young Nigerian man is attempting to do just that. But rather than physically breaking into museums and carting away the works of art, he wants to repatriate them digitally. "This is the first digital repatriation of stolen artwork," said 34-year-old Chidi, a Nigerian creative designer and founder of Looty, who declined to give his surname because, he said, he wants people to focus on his project and not his person.…

Sunday, 08 May 2022 05:59

He was 5'7". After surgery, he’ll be 5'10"

When I first met Scott — not his real name — in early March, he was gently pushing a walker ahead of him. I had gotten lost trying to find the door to his apartment, so he had to come find me. Leaning against the door frame in a fitted T-shirt and shorts, he waved me over and then steadied himself. On a picture-perfect Los Angeles day like this one, had the circumstances been different, we probably would have met outside and enjoyed the sunshine. But he’s still getting used to his new legs. A few weeks earlier, Scott had…

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