Sci-Tech

Personal computer market continues to slump

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) – Worldwide shipments of personal computers continued to slump in the recently ended quarter but showed signs of stabilizing, according to figures released Wednesday by market trackers. Preliminary estimates released by Gartner indicated that 61.1 million PCs were shipped in the second quarter of this year in a 4.3 percent decline from the same period a year earlier. An IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computer Device Tracker report put the figure […]

California doctors hope to ‘rewire’ the brains of people with depression

LOS ANGELES, United States (Reuters) — Doctors in California say transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can help ‘rewire’ the brains of people with depression, offering hope for patients whose condition is not helped by medication or therapy. Depression is one of the most common forms of mental illness, affecting more than 350 million people worldwide. It is ranked by the World Health Organization as the leading cause of disability globally. Treatment usually involves either medication, some […]

Vision algorithms teaching drones to ‘see’

ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) — With demand for drones booming, both for hobby and commercial use, the race is on to develop ever-more intelligent and autonomous systems. Getting drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to effectively understand and interact with their environment has proved challenging. Researchers from the Vision for Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich are teaching drones how to ‘see’. They’ve created algorithms to give low-cost, off-the-shelf, drones the power to explore their environment and […]

NASA spacecraft to fly over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — An unmanned National Aeronautics Space Administration spacecraft is about to fly over a massive storm raging on Jupiter, in a long-awaited a journey that could shed new light on the forces driving the planet’s Great Red Spot. The flyby of the Juno spacecraft, surveiling the 10,000-mile-wide (16,000-kilometer-wide) storm, is scheduled for 9:55 pm Monday (0155 GMT Tuesday). “Jupiter’s mysterious Great Red Spot is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter,” said […]

France’s first hydrogen-powered boat to tour the world, with zero emissions

FRANCE (Reuters) — France’s environment minister Nicolas Hulot unveiled on Thursday (July 6) the “Energy Observer” vessel, as it prepared to embark on an intercontinental odyssey. It is the world’s first boat to be powered solely by renewable energy and hydrogen, designed to spark an exchange about innovative ideas to address climate change. The vessel departed from the French port town of Saint-Malo on June 26, and took a week and a half to dock […]

AI tech checks your ID the same way humans do

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) — A groundbreaking technology is promising to revolutionize electronic identification and authentication, according to its South African developers. aiThenticate Computervision Labs, working with the University of Johannesburg, say aiDX represents a quantum leap over conventional facial recognition systems. Nearly seven years in development, the system uses artificial intelligence (AI) to simulate human cognition, going beyond the biometrics of passwords, fingerprints and eye scans, and can be used in larger populations with […]

SpaceX rocket launches Intelsat communications satellite

FLORIDA, United States (Reuters) – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched an Intelsat communications satellite from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on Wednesday evening (July 5). The rocket delivered Intelsat 35e to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), according to SpaceX. SpaceX said due to mission requirements, it would not try to land Falcon 9’s first stage after the launch. Two launches were scrubbed this week. On Monday, the […]

Mysterious Planet 10 may have warped the Kuiper Belt

(REUTERS) — United States scientists have found evidence to support the existence of the unseen Planet 10, which is much closer than the previously reported Planet Nine, a planet that has not yet been fully proven to exist. The Kuiper Belt is a disc-shaped region that contains icy bodies, space rocks and dwarf planets such as Pluto. It is understood that Kuiper Belt objects orbit the sun with an orbital tilt, while those at least […]

Scientists test robots on Etna moonscape ahead of next lunar mission

MOUNT ETNA, Italy (Reuters) — A robot scuttles across a dry and arid moonscape but it is not in outer space, it is on Europe’s most active volcano, Mount Etna, which is being used for research by the German Aerospace Center, testing robots ahead of the next mission to the moon. A variety of experts from Germany, England, the United States and Italy are involved in Robotic Exploration of Extreme Environments, which aims not only […]

Motorized surfboard rises above water as it travels

AGUADILLA, Puerto Rico (Reuters) — A company in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, is preparing to launch an electric motorized surfboard which can rise up above water and reach top speeds of 25 miles per hour. Nick Leason, the co-founder of the company Lift Foils which creates the boards named eFoil, told Reuters he envisages their use to be on inland waterways where there are no waves to surf. The 13.6-kilogram (30 pounds) boards run on batteries […]

Researchers in Ecuador breed frogs thought to be extinct

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) — Scientists from Ecuador have bred the Jambato frog, or Quito stubfoot toad, which was rediscovered in April 2016, after 28 years of being thought extinct. In 2016, scientists recovered 43 Jambato (Atelopus ignescens) frogs. A couple of the species recently managed to reproduce, laying 500 eggs at the Jambatu Center for Amphibian Conservation, pioneers in amphibian research for more than 20 years. Ecuador’s Environment Minister Tarsicio Granizo said protecting amphibians would […]

Storm drones could improve tornado early warning

EL RENO, Oklahoma (Reuters) — Scientists based in America’s infamous “tornado alley” are using drone technology to better understand how tornadoes and other severe weather phenomena develop. They hope new data could lead to better early warning systems that would increase the current advanced warning time of about 14 minutes to more than an hour. Speaking to Reuters at the Paris Air Show, Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier, Oklahoma’s secretary of science and technology, said this new […]