Life

Take your pick: Aye-aye joins ranks of snot-eaters

by Daniel Lawler Agence France Presse Paris, France (AFP) — When scientists caught the aye-aye on video using its strangely thin, eight-centimetre-long middle finger to deeply pick its nose, it pointed towards a larger mystery: why exactly do some animals eat their own snot? The footage resulted in research which names the aye-aye, a peculiar nocturnal lemur with big ears found only in Madagascar, as the 12th primate who picks their nose. It joins an […]

Microsoft co-founder’s art may reap $1 bn at auction

by Andréa BAMBINO Agence France Presse New York, United States (AFP) — An art collection is tipped to break the $1 billion barrier at auction for the first time when Christie’s sells works belonging to late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen this week. The two-day sale in New York comes as experts say the super wealthy are viewing art as a safe investment this year amid a tumultuous global economy and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Allen […]

World risks ‘collective suicide’, UN chief warns climate summit

by Laurent Thomet and Kelly Macnamara Agence France-Presse SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) — The UN’s chief warned Monday that nations must cooperate or face “collective suicide” in the fight against climate change, at a summit where developing countries reeling from global warming demanded more action from rich polluters. Nearly 100 heads of state and government are meeting for two days in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, facing calls to deepen emissions cuts […]

Defectors seek alternatives to Musk-owned Twitter

by Daniel HOFFMAN Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, users irked by the platform’s new regime have vowed to move their online presence elsewhere, with German-owned Mastodon attracting the most attention. Musk’s first moves have been a shock to some. Just a week after taking over the reins of Twitter, the owner of SpaceX and Tesla launched radical changes by firing thousands of staff, promising the return of banned […]

Climate change is speeding up, warns major UN report

  Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt | AFP | by Marlowe HOOD Each of the last eight years, if projections for 2022 hold, will be hotter than any year prior to 2015, the UN said Sunday, detailing a dramatic increase in the rate of global warming. Sea level rise, glacier melt, torrential rains, heat waves — and the deadly disasters they cause — have all accelerated, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report as the […]

Europe temperature rise more than twice global average: UN

  Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | by Nina LARSON Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past three decades, showing the fastest rise of any continent on earth, the UN said Wednesday. The European region has on average seen temperatures rise 0.5 degrees Celsius each decade since 1991, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found in a joint report. As a […]

Google wants AI in one thousand languages

New York, United States | AFP | Google on Wednesday said it wanted to develop artificial intelligence using the world’s one thousand most spoken languages as tech giants compete to dominate the internet’s next battleground. Data is crucial to advances in AI, and Google and its big tech rivals want to tap information to help make products perform better and be more available to the widest possible audience. “Imagine a new internet user in Africa […]

Plea from Ukraine first lady kicks off annual tech summit in Portugal

  Lisbon, Portugal | AFP | One of the world’s biggest tech conferences will get going in Lisbon on Wednesday, after Ukraine’s first lady formally opened the event by urging participants to use their skills to save lives rather than end them. Olena Zelenska told an audience of several thousand at the Web Summit’s opening ceremony late on Tuesday not to put “technology at the service of terror” — unlike some in Russia. “Some IT […]

Musk announces $8 monthly charge for verified Twitter accounts

by Julie JAMMOT Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — New Twitter head Elon Musk said Tuesday the site will charge $8 per month to verify users’ accounts, arguing the plan would solve the platform’s issues with bots and trolls while creating a new revenue stream for the company. The announcement comes only days after the world’s wealthiest man took sole control of the social media giant in a contentious $44 billion deal. “Power […]

Meteorite that smashed into Mars shook planet, NASA says

Washington, United States | AFP | by Lucie AUBOURG Scientists who study Mars on Thursday revealed the remarkable gift they received from the planet last year. On December 24, 2021, a meteorite hit Mars’ surface, triggering magnitude 4 tremors, which were detected by NASA’s InSight spacecraft  — which landed on the planet four years ago — some 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) away. The true origin of this so-called marsquake was only confirmed when the Mars […]

Video games could improve kids’ brains: study

by Issam AHMED Agence France Presse Washington, United States (AFP) — Parents often worry about the harmful impacts of video games on their children, from mental health and social problems to missing out on exercise. But a large new US study published in JAMA Network Open on Monday indicates there may also be cognitive benefits associated with the popular pastime. Lead author Bader Chaarani, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont, told […]

YouTube to certify health care providers’ accounts

Washington, United States (AFP) — Doctors, nurses and other health care professionals can apply to have their YouTube channels certified, the video sharing platform said Thursday, in a push to limit misinformation on the site. The change will allow viewers to more easily access videos containing “high-quality health information,” YouTube said. “This is a big step towards helping people more easily find and connect with content that comes from the extraordinary community of healthcare professionals […]