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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Two of the world’s most powerful microscopes suffered severe damage from a deadly earthquake that hit the western Japanese city of Osaka, causing delays in cutting-edge cell and atomic-level research, a scientist said Friday. The two damaged units, both with price tags of 2.3 billion yen ($20 million), at Osaka University may not come back online until next year. One 12-metre-high (40-feet) unit, captures 1,600 images of atomic-level substances per […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP)–California on Thursday passed a strict new law aimed at protecting people’s privacy online, a move that promised to shift the terrain on which internet firms operate in the wake of recent scandals. The bill signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown followed in the spirit of a major General Data Protection Regulation that recently took effect in Europe. The legislation cut off an initiative that is heading for the ballot […]
by Kerry Sheridan Agence France-Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) – A floating, ball-shaped, artificial intelligence robot, specially trained to follow around a German astronaut at the International Space Station, is scheduled to blast off Friday on its ground-breaking mission. The basketball-sized device called CIMON — shortened from Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN — was described as a “flying brain” by Manfred Jaumann, head of microgravity payloads at Airbus. It launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Friday […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – It has played football with former US president Barack Obama and danced for German leader Angela Merkel, but Honda’s ASIMO robot may have reached the end of the line. Launched in 2000, the humanoid machine resembling a shrunken spaceman has become arguably Japan’s most famous robot, wheeled out to impress visiting politicians over the years. But Honda said Thursday it may scrap future generations of ASIMO, now on its seventh […]
OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Facebook and Google are pushing users to share private information by offering “invasive” and limited default options despite new EU data protection laws aimed at giving users more control and choice, a government study said Wednesday. The Norwegian Consumer Council found that the US tech giants’ privacy updates clash with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which forces companies to clarify what choices people have when sharing private information. “These […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP)–Twitter on Tuesday said it will begin asking for email addresses or phone numbers to confirm new accounts as part of a battle against manipulation, particularly by automated bots. Adding a way to check that a real person is behind new accounts was described by Twitter as being among measures to fight abuse, trolls, and hateful content. “This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage […]
by Ivan Couronne © Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)–Friday morning at 5:24 am (0924 GMT), a rocket owned by the US company SpaceX will blast off from Florida carrying two and a half tons of gear from NASA, only to dock three days later and 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth at the International Space Station. The rocket itself is not new. It launched a NASA satellite into orbit two months ago, then landed […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — An inspirational new version of Barbie will encourage young girls to embark on careers in engineering and the sciences, the iconic doll’s manufacturer Mattel said on Tuesday. Barbie, who first hit the shelves in 1959, prides herself on trying out jobs where women aren’t strongly represented, to add to her more traditional skill set of dancing with Ken and looking fabulous. The company has announced a “Career of the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
