Sci-Tech

Surfers in Australia reach for electronic devices to keep sharks at bay

A spate of shark attacks in Australia has left those riding the waves at some of world’s top surfing beaches reaching for technology to try to keep the Great Whites at bay. Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere typically draws tens of thousands of surfers and other beach lovers to the warm Pacific waters of eastern Australia’s New South Wales state. But there have been 12 shark attacks in the state this year, compared with only […]

Children dream up the future of cars

AUGUST 27 (Reuters) — Children from all over the world gathered at Toyota Motor Corp’s annual Dream Car Art Contest at Tokyo’s bay side on Wednesday (Aug 26) to share ideas and drawings on the future of cars. Families were invited to watch their children receive prizes for some of their unique ideas, such as cars that allow people to share ideas without language barriers, cars that could plant seeds, or cars that could unite […]

Chilean university student discovers new planet some 300 light years away

A 25-year-old doctorate student in Chile has discovered a new planet which orbits a red star twice the size of the Sun, located 293 light years from Earth. Maritza Soto Vasquez, an Astronomy student at the University of Chile, said that she had happened upon the planet by coincidence, whilst studying the red star, known as “HD 110014”, which she knew already had one planet in its orbit known as “HD110014 b”. It was then […]

NASA found ‘Star Wars’ spaceship on Mars

MOSCOW, Aug. 26 (PNA/Sputnik) — Star Wars fans couldn’t believe their eyes. NASA’s Curiosity Rover took a photo which appears to have captured an object which looks strikingly similar to a Star Destroyer from the blockbuster series. Freshly unveiled photos taken by NASA’s Curiosity Rover caused media hype, as one of them depicts something that looks like the wreckage of a craft from the Star Wars movies. Many franchise fans thought they recognized an Imperial […]

Hackers dump data online from cheating website Ashley Madison -reports

Hackers dumped online personal details of more than a million users of infidelity website AshleyMadison.com, tech websites reported on Tuesday (August 19), the latest high-profile cyber attack that threatens to wreak strife in relationships across the globe. After threatening to release salacious details on as many as 37 million customers of the website, which uses the slogan “Life is short. Have an affair,” hackers claimed to publish a huge cache of email addresses and credit […]

Research aims to develop eco-friendly nanoparticles for pesticides

A new study published in the journal ‘Nature Nanotechnology’ has found that lignin-based, environmentally-benign nanoparticles (EbNPs) could replace the better known and less eco-friendly silver-based nanoparticles in pesticides. Nanoparticles are microscopic particles that exist in the environment and the silver-based nanoparticles are considered the most widely used in pesticides. While the silver-based nanoparticles exhibit broad anti-microbial properties that can kill bacteria, fungi and other microbes, they are also considered hazardous to the environment. For that […]

Computer animation shows how Mars could look

AUGUST 17 (Reuters) — A German university has created a computer-animated video showing a simulated flight over a regions of Mars. Using data gathered from a High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express aircraft which is operated by the German Aerospae Center (DLR), scientists at the Freie Universitaet in Berlin were able to piece together and create a computer-animated video showing how the ground could look in a […]

Samsung Electronics unveils high-end phones in search of sales boost

Aug.14 (Reuters) Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled a new Galaxy Note phablet and a larger version of its curved-screen S6 Edge smartphone on Thursday (August 13), marking a fresh bid by the South Korean company to revive momentum in its handset business. Samsung is the world’s top smartphone maker but its market share fell in the second quarter when the company released its critically acclaimed S6 models, squeezed by Apple Inc’s upscale iPhones and cheaper […]

Electronic skin sensors to control mobile gadgets

Aug.10  (Reuters) Imagine controlling your smart phone with one of these skin-worn silicone patches. The makers of iSkin say its thin, soft and flexible design presents new possibilities for on-body mobilecomputing. Martin Weigel, PHD student in the Embodied Interaction Group at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, saying: “Current electronics are mostly using rigid components which are very uncomfortable to wear on the body and are limiting the locations to, for example, the wrist or […]

Japanese engineer develops world’s first ‘car in a bag’

Aug. 7 (Reuters) Pocket-sized personal transporters could soon be seen on the streets of Tokyo. A Japanese engineer has developed a portable transporter small enough to be carried in a backpack that he says is the world’s first ‘car in a bag’. Twenty-six-year-old Kuniako Saito and his team at Cocoa Motors recently unveiled the lithium battery-powered “WalkCar” transporter, which is the size of a laptop and resembles a skateboard more than a car. The slender […]

Eco-friendly 3D printed supercar

Aug.5 (Reuters) This is the Blade, a supercar that its makers hope will re-define car manufacturing. It didn’t come off an assembly line – but out of a 3D printer. Kevin Czinger of Divergent Microfactories has spent most of his adult life tied in one way or another to the automotive industry. One day he realized that no matter how fuel efficient or how few tailpipe emissions the modern car has, the business of car […]

Organizers of largest tech conference in Europe hold first event in Asia

JULY 31 (Reuters) – Over 500 start-up companies congregated in Hong Kong on Friday (July 31) to attend RISE, the first conference in Asia organised by Web Summit, one of the largest tech summits in Europe. Organisers estimated the event attracted over 5,000 people from 72 countries, including 300 investors. One of the companies attending the summit is the world’s biggest drone maker, China-based DJI. DJI, whose best-selling Phantom 2 Vision+ drone retails for around $1,200 […]