Life

Old dog, new tricks: Sony unleashes ‘intelligent’ robot pet

by Miwa Suzuki Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — As Japan celebrates the year of the dog, electronics giant Sony on Thursday unleashed its new robot canine companion, packed with artificial intelligence and internet connectivity. The sleek ivory-white puppy-sized “aibo” robot shook its head and wagged its tail as if waking from a nap when it was taken out of a cocoon-shaped case at a “birthday ceremony” held in Tokyo. Seven-year-old boy Naohiro Sugimoto from […]

Don’t feed your dog raw meat, study says

PARIS, France (AFP) — Raw meat, touted by some as an easily-digestible, nutrient-filled superfood for domestic dogs and cats, may put not only your pet at risk, but your own health too, researchers warned Friday. A survey of frozen, raw meat products sold at pet stores and supermarkets in the Netherlands, where more than half of dog owners buy such items, revealed worrying levels of bacteria and parasites, a Dutch team reported in the journal […]

Einstein archives, letters to lovers set for Asian exhibits

JERUSALEM, Israel (AFP) — Handwritten pages from Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, letters to his lovers and other parts of his archive stored in Jerusalem are to be exhibited for the first time in Taiwan, China and Japan. Some 75 artifacts will go on display in Taipei beginning Friday as part of the exhibit “Albert Einstein: Life in Four Dimensions,” Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said Thursday. They will remain on display at the National Chiang Kai-shek […]

Deep, buried glaciers spotted on Mars

by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Buried glaciers have been spotted on Mars, offering new hints about how much water may be accessible on the Red Planet and where it is located, researchers said Thursday. Although ice has long been known to exist on Mars, a better understanding of its depth and location could be vital to future human explorers, said the report in the US journal Science. “Astronauts could […]

Sony unleashes ‘intelligent’ robot pet

by Miwa Suzuki Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — As Japan celebrates the year of the dog, electronics giant Sony on Thursday unleashed its new robot canine companion, packed with artificial intelligence and internet connectivity. The sleek ivory-white puppy-sized “aibo” robot shook its head and wagged its tail as if waking from a nap when it was taken out of a cocoon-shaped case at a “birthday ceremony” held in Tokyo. Seven-year-old boy Naohiro Sugimoto […]

New ’emotional’ robots aim to read human feelings

by Rob Lever and Julie Charpentrat Agence France Presse LAS VEGAS, United States (AFP) — The robot called Forpheus does more than play a mean game of table tennis. It can read body language to gauge its opponent’s ability, and offer advice and encouragement. “It will try to understand your mood and your playing ability and predict a bit about your next shot,” said Keith Kersten of Japan-based Omron Automation, which developed Forpheus to showcase […]

When humans wage war, animals suffer too: study

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France Presse PARIS , France (AFP) — When humans wage war, they harm more than just one another. Wild animals suffer too, and some have verged on annihilation in Africa’s many anti-colonial and civil conflicts, researchers said Wednesday. More than 70 percent of the continent’s protected natural areas has been touched by war between 1946 and 2010, triggering a “downward spiral” for many populations of big plant-eating mammals, according to […]

New insights into mysterious, cosmic ‘fast radio bursts’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Astronomers have edged closer to solving the mystery of distant cosmic radio bursts according to a study Wednesday that offers insights into the blasts which emit more energy in a single millisecond than our sun does all day. International astronomers have spotted a few dozen fast radio bursts (FRBs) — and as many as 10,000 may occur daily — but only one has repeated sporadically, known as FRB 121102, allowing […]

Global warming will expose millions more to floods

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Global warming is expected to unleash more rain, exposing millions more people to river flooding particularly in the United States and parts of Asia, Africa and central Europe, researchers said Wednesday. The study in the journal Science Advances calculates how much more flood protection will be needed to keep the risks of high-end floods constant in the next 25 years. Unless actions are taken — such as enhancing dikes, boosting […]

Forget the self-driving car, meet the self-driving suitcase

LAS VEGAS, United States (AFP) — Self-driving cars may take a while to arrive, but the self-driving suitcase is here now. Some of the technologies used in autonomous cars have been adopted in products unveiled at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, to help travelers with the weighty problem of dealing with baggage. The “robot suitcase” from California-based startup Travelmate can be controlled with a smartphone app and can roll alongside its owner […]

Huawei setback in US market amid national security concerns

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Chinese tech giant Huawei faces a major setback in efforts to expand in the US smartphone market following renewed national security concerns, documents showed. Huawei, which appeared to lose a deal with AT&T that would have given it an improved foothold in the handset market, faced criticism from US lawmakers over its intellectual property protection and its ties to Chinese intelligence, according to a letter seen by AFP this week. […]