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WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Technology won’t always save us. A man blindly following his GPS app has driven an SUV with two passengers on board into an icy lake in the northeastern state of Vermont, local police said. The trio — friends from out of state driving a borrowed car — escaped unharmed, local media and police in the city of Burlington said in their report of the January 12 incident. The unnamed driver […]
by Etienne Lamy-Smith with Kerry Sheridan in Miami Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — Scientists in China have created the first monkeys cloned by the same process that produced Dolly the sheep more than 20 years ago, a breakthrough that could boost medical research into human diseases. The two long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) named Hua Hua and Zhong Zhong were born at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, and are […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Wednesday test-fired its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in a launch pad experiment aimed at giving its main engines a trial workout before blasting off in the coming days. Touted as the “world’s most powerful rocket,” the Falcon Heavy is designed to one day carry crew and supplies to deep space destinations such as the Moon and Mars. “Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good. […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Two US astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Tuesday for a seven-hour, 24-minute spacewalk to repair the orbiting outpost’s aging robotic arm, NASA said. During what NASA commentator Rob Navias described as a “textbook” spacewalk, NASA flight engineers Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle replaced a faulty latching end on the 57-foot (17-meter) Canadian-made robotic arm, called Canadarm2. The arm is used to grasp incoming cargo ships and […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Facebook acknowledged Monday that widespread use of social media can be harmful to democracy, while pledging to work to minimize these risks. The world’s biggest social network’s comments were the latest response to persistent criticism for its role in allowing the spread of misinformation, reinforcing “filter bubbles” and facilitating harassment of dissidents and activists. “Now, we’re as determined as ever to fight the negative influences and ensure that our platform is unquestionably a source […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Aerospace company Rocket Lab said Sunday it had successfully fired a rocket into orbit for the first time from its New Zealand launch base. “Electron is orbital. Successful payload deployment,” the company tweeted. The Electron rocket, named “Still Testing,” took off from Mahia, on the east coast of the North Island, at 2.45 pm (0145 GMT) on Sunday and reached orbit eight minutes later. The 17-meter-long (55ft 7in) carbon-fiber rocket […]
https://youtu.be/1difufl1h9s The growing popularity of smartphones and tablets has created a mini-industry of app-enabled products, while consumer interest in health has led to a boom in the development of “wearable technology”. STÉPHANE KOGUC, KATHERINE LEVY SPENCER / AFP VIDEOGRAPHICS / AFP
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Jeanette Epps, 46, a former CIA agent turned astronaut, was about to become the first African-American to embark on a mission lasting several months at the International Space Station. It’s still unclear why, but plans for her June liftoff suddenly changed, and another astronaut was chosen in her place, NASA has announced. “A number of factors are considered when making flight assignments; these decisions are personnel matters, for which NASA […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A new blood test for cancer has shown promise toward detecting eight different kinds of tumors before they have spread elsewhere in the body, offering hope of early detection, researchers said Thursday. Further study is needed before the test — called CancerSEEK — can be made widely available for its projected cost of about $500, said the report in the journal Science. The study, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Experiments in lab animals have shown signs of success for a newly engineered flu virus that may lead one day to a more effective vaccine, researchers said Thursday. Trials in humans are still a long way off, but the report in the US journal Science earned praise from experts who described it as a promising first step toward better prevention of the flu. The World Health Organization considers the flu […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A pair of Australian swimmers on Thursday became the first people to be rescued in the ocean by a drone when the aerial lifesaver dropped an safety device to distressed teens caught in rough seas. Australia is leading the use of the technology in surf lifesaving, with dozens of drones being trialled on beaches around the country. In what is believed to be a world-first drone surf rescue, two boys on […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A new project harnessing data from a Japanese satellite could improve weather forecasting and allow officials to issue life-saving warnings before natural disasters, researchers say. The project is the first time that “infrared radiation luminance data” has been used to model weather patterns in areas under heavy cloud cover that would usually stymie such modelling. The breakthrough is the result of pairing data collected by Japan’s Himawari-8 weather satellite with a […]
