Sci-Tech

Smartphone-obsessed Finns rank tops in screen time

by Anne KAURANEN Agence France-Presse HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — On the crowded morning metro in Helsinki, silence prevails. Everyone is hunched over their smartphone screens, reading the news, checking emails or watching videos. A loud “yeah!” breaks the quiet, along with delighted screech from a toddler whose mother has just handed him her smartphone to calm him down with a video. Finland, once a world leader in mobile telephony with Nokia, is in a class of […]

Poland carries out first limb transplant to an adult patient born without hand

WROCLAW, Poland (Reuters) — Polish doctors have succeeded in transplanting a hand from a dead man to a 32-year-old man who was born without a hand, proving that transplants in cases of congenital deficiencies are also possible. Hand transplants have been improving since 1999, but surgeries have normally been performed in situations in which the patient had lost the limb in an accident. Doctors have always feared that the brain of a person born without […]

In first, road paved with solar panels powers French town

by Chloé COUPEAU Agence France-Presse 69576, France (AFP) – France on Thursday inaugurated the world’s first “solar highway”, a road paved with solar panels providing enough energy to power the street lights of the small Normandy town of Tourouvre. The one-kilometre (half-mile) “Wattway” covered with 2,800 square metres (30,000 square feet) of resin-coated solar panels was hooked up to the local power grid as Environment Minister Segolene Royal looked on. “This new use of solar […]

Japan’s TDK buys U.S. chip maker InvenSense for $1.3 bln

(REUTERS) – Japanese electronic parts maker TDK is shelling out $1.33 billion to buy InvenSense, a U.S. chip maker that produces motion sensors for Apple and Samsung. The deal comes at $13 per share, which is almost a twenty percent premium to the U.S. company’s closing price on Tuesday. It will help TDK boost its sensor technology offerings. InvenSense designs parts which help smartphones calculate motion, enabling augmented reality games, such as Pokemon Go. This […]

Czech firm releases 3D printer with innovative printing head

Ondrej Prusa, a 26-year old former DJ, has an enviable problem: his firm making three-dimensional printers is growing so fast he had to install a car-sized diesel generator to his downtown Prague plant to ease burden on the power network. Prusa became interested in printing in his DJ era when he needed to create sound controllers. He made adjustments to freely-available designs, and eventually set up his business. Prusa’s office is packed with colourful print […]

Researchers find neuron protein triggers release of insulin

BALTIMORE, Maryland (Reuters) — A team at Johns Hopkins’ Department of Biology has discovered that a protein which helps neurons grow, known as ‘nerve growth factor’ (NGF), also triggers the release of insulin in the pancreas. Associate professor of biology Rejji Kuruvilla says the study may one day lead to early intervention in cases of Type 2 Diabetes. Kuruvilla began studying NGF as a post-doctoral fellow. When setting up her laboratory at Johns Hopkins in […]

Japan launches satellite to study geomagnetic storms

KAGOSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) — Japan launched an Epsilon-2 rocket on Tuesday (December 20) carrying the Exploration of Energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) mission satellite. The satellite will study the creation and disappearance of highly charged electrons in the region of outer space near the Earth along with space storms and the effects of solar winds. The rocket was successfully launched from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, south-western Japan, at 8 p.m. local […]

Zuckerberg builds software butler for his home

by Glenn CHAPMAN Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) -Mark Zuckerberg’s artificial intelligence-imbued software “butler” — named Jarvis — is now in service, and even plays with his family, the Facebook chief said Monday. Zuckerberg took on the personal project this year, devoting about 100 hours to making a system inspired by the “Iron Man” film character Jarvis as a virtual assistant to help manage his household. “In some ways, this challenge was easier than […]

Science shines a light on anti-matter

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Physicists on Monday announced an important step towards unravelling one of the Universe’s great mysteries: What happened to all the anti-matter created in the Big Bang? A new technique has allowed them to study the behaviour of a single atom of anti-matter under ultraviolet light, a team wrote in the journal Nature. “Imagine you are the first one to look at something about the Universe […]

Scientists discover evidence of ice on planet Ceres

Reuters — Scientists have discovered evidence of ice on the dwarf planet Ceres. Researchers presented the findings at the American Geophysical union meeting in San Francisco on Thursday (December 15). The presence of ice is important because water is an essential ingredient for life. Scientists believe Ceres’ upper surface is rich in hydrogen with higher concentrations at mid-to-high latitudes which is consistent with the theory of the existence of plentiful water. Rather than a solid […]