Life

Early detection of ‘olive tree leprosy’ with drones

  by Marlowe Hood Agence France-Presse A bacterial infection ravaging olive orchards in southern Europe can be detected from small planes or drones well before symptoms appear, offering panicky growers the prospect of an early warning system, scientists said Monday. Using high-tech cameras that detect heat and the electromagnetic spectrum from X-ray to radio waves, researchers were able to spot diseased trees that, on the ground, still seemed healthy, they reported in the journal Nature […]

Uber claims U-turn in bid to restore London license

  by Edouard GUIHAIRE Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Uber claimed Monday to have mended its ways as the ride-hailing app started its appeal against being stripped of its license to operate in London. Uber agreed that the city’s transport authority was right to block its renewal last September — but said it had since undergone “wholesale change” in response, and the decision should therefore be overturned. Transport for London (TfL) had decided […]

Air pollution, sanhi ng malnutrisyon sa mga puno

(Eagle News) — Nagiging sanhi ng malnutrisyon sa mga puno ang air pollution mula sa mga bukid, diesel engine at factory. Ayon sa researchers ng Imperial College at Kew Gardens ng Britain, ito ay dahil sa pinapatay ng air pollution ang fungi na nagbibigay sustansiya sa mga puno. Makikita sa mga puno sa Britanya at Europa ang pag-kupas ng kulay at kaunting pag-lago ng mga dahon. Nasa pagitan ng 15 hanggang 90 percent ng mga […]

Czech power group CEZ embarks on wind offensive in France

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP)–Czech state-run power group CEZ is targeting the wind energy sector in France, a country where the segment has been on the rise for the past decade, a company official told AFP. France has vowed to raise the share of green power in its energy mix to 23 percent by 2020 and to 32 percent by 2030 as part of meeting EU-wide renewable energy targets. CEZ, which is 70-percent-controlled by the Czech […]

Palm oil giant still linked to Indonesia logging: Greenpeace

SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — The world’s largest palm oil trader is still linked to deforestation in Indonesia despite committing five years ago to stop logging the archipelago’s vast tracts of jungle, Greenpeace said Monday. Singapore-listed Wilmar International has close family ties to Gama, a major Indonesian palm oil plantation company which the environmental group said has destroyed an area of rainforest twice the size of Paris. Gama was set up by Wilmar’s co-founder and his […]

Celebrations, tears as Saudi Arabia overturns ban on women driving

  by Anuj Chopra Agence France Presse RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi women celebrated taking the wheel for the first time in decades Sunday as the kingdom overturned the world’s only ban on female motorists, a historic reform expected to usher in a new era of social mobility. The much-trumpeted move is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to modernise the conservative petrostate — but it has been dented by the jailing […]

Bear necessities: cooler home for last polar bear in SoKor

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The last polar bear kept in South Korea will be sent to Britain to escape the country’s stifling, humid summers and live out his days in more appropriate surroundings, zookeepers said Thursday, June 21. Tongki — a 23-year-old male named after a Japanese cartoon character of the 1980s — lives in a 330-square-metre (3500-square-foot) concrete enclosure at the Everland theme park outside Seoul. Born in captivity at a zoo […]

Dead plankton, stunned fish: the harms of man-made ocean noise

by Ivan Couronne Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Human-caused ocean noise and its dangers to marine life are the focus of meetings at the United Nations this week, a victory for advocacy groups that have long warned of the problem. – What are the causes of ocean noise? The main human activity that causes noise is maritime shipping. Among the loudest sounds are explosions aimed at demolishing offshore oil platforms, though these events […]

Stress test: saliva swab detects workplace burnout

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — A simple saliva test can show within hours whether someone on the job is overly stressed and at risk of burnout, researchers said Friday. Measuring levels of the anti-stress hormone cortisol at different times of the day more accurately reveals stress levels than more complicated measures, including blood tests, they reported in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports. In experiments, scientists compared healthy workers with burnout patients diagnosed by psychologists. […]

Earth’s intact forests vanishing at accelerating pace: scientists

  by Marlowe Hood  Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Earth’s intact forests shrank by an area larger than Austria every year from 2014 to 2016 at a 20 percent faster rate than during the previous decade, scientists said Wednesday as the UN unveiled an initiative to harness the “untapped potential” of the land sector to fight climate change. Despite a decades-long effort to halt deforestation, nearly 10 percent of undisturbed forests have been fragmented, […]

With a billion users, Instagram takes on YouTube in video

  by Julie Charpentrat Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Instagram said Wednesday it now has more than one billion active users, as it unveiled a new long-form video feature in a bid to attract “creators” like those on YouTube. It becomes the fourth Facebook platform to hit the billion-user mark, including the namesake social network with more than two billion users, and the messaging applications WhatsApp and Messenger. Instagram, which had some […]