Science and Technology

Monday, 26 July 2021 05:33

What do Covid breakthrough infections mean for the fully vaccinated? We'll explain

Coronavirus infections are rising throughout the US again (nearly 69,000 new cases in one day) due to the highly contagious delta variant, and the virus is particularly impacting areas with low vaccination rates. More cases have started to be reported of fully vaccinated people contracting the virus. So, if you're fully vaccinated, should you be worried about getting Covid-19? Not necessarily, but don't throw away your face masks yet. Currently, 162 million people in the US have been fully vaccinated, nearly half of the country's total population. But across the globe only 13.3% of people have been fully vaccinated. That…

Sunday, 25 July 2021 05:48

Large study finds Covid-19 is linked to a substantial drop in intelligence

People who have recovered from Covid-19 tend to score significantly lower on an intelligence test compared to those who have not contracted the virus, according to new research published in The Lancet journal EClinicalMedicine. The findings suggest that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 can produce substantial reductions in cognitive ability, especially among those with more severe illness. “By coincidence, the pandemic escalated in the United Kingdom in the middle of when I was collecting cognitive and mental health data at very large scale as part of the BBC2 Horizon collaboration the Great British Intelligence Test,” said lead researcher Adam…

Friday, 23 July 2021 05:55

Major websites down in global internet outage

Many popular websites fell offline on Thursday in a widespread global outage of service. Visitors attempting to reach some sites received DNS errors, meaning their requests could not reach the websites. Affected services included Airbnb, UPS, HSBC bank, British Airways and the PlayStation network used for online games. One popular DNS provider, Akamai, reported "an emerging issue" with its Edge DNS service. It has now tweeted that the issue has been fixed and "the service is resuming normal operations". Internet outage monitoring platform DownDetector had reported thousands of problems from its users across dozens o platforms. Previously it said the…

Tuesday, 20 July 2021 06:07

WhatsApp will let you join group calls after they start

WhatsApp is rolling out a new joinable calls feature which will let you hop onto group calls after they’ve started, the Facebook-owned company announced Monday. The new feature means you’ll be able to join a call with your friends and family when you’re ready, kind of like what you can do with a group Zoom or Google Meet call right now. Given the massive popularity of WhatsApp, this could be a useful feature for many people who communicate over the messaging service. You can get an idea of how the interface for hopping onto calls works in the image below…

Friday, 16 July 2021 05:50

WhatsApp will let you send and receive messages without your phone. Here’s how it’ll work

WhatsApp is testing a new feature that will let people message without using their phone for the first time. At present, WhatsApp is linked to a user's phone. Its desktop and web apps need that device to be connected and receiving messages. But the new feature will let users send and receive messages "even if your phone battery is dead". Up to four other devices - like PCs and tablets - can be used together, WhatsApp said. To begin with, the new feature will be rolled out as a beta test for a "small group of users", and the team…

Monday, 12 July 2021 05:39

Richard Branson completes successful Virgin Galactic space flight

Richard Branson reached the edge of space and safely returned to Earth, an hourlong trip that marks a turning point in the billionaire entrepreneur’s multidecade effort to help create a space-tourism industry. The space trip that Mr. Branson and five other crew members completed Sunday on a Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. vessel lends credence to the company’s ability to safely take passengers to and from space. Virgin Galactic, the company Mr. Branson founded, plans to initiate commercial service next year, charging hundreds of thousands of dollars for such flights. The test flight was aimed at evaluating systems and showing the…

Saturday, 03 July 2021 05:39

US companies hit by massive cyber attacks

About 200 US businesses have been hit by a "colossal" ransomware attack, according to a cyber-security firm. Huntress Labs said the hack targeted Florida-based IT company Kaseya before spreading through corporate networks that use its software. Kaseya said in a statement on its own website that it was investigating a "potential attack". Huntress Labs said it believed the Russia-linked REvil ransomware gang was responsible. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, a federal agency, said in a statement that it was taking action to address the attack. The cyber-breach emerged on Friday afternoon as companies across the US were clocking off…

Saturday, 03 July 2021 05:37

8 apps that put your cell phone at risk and that you should uninstall immediately

These are the applications that could steal the information that is on your Android cell phone. Google has an analysis system to check that there are no harmful viruses in the applications before they are available on Google Play, but there are times that, among the millions that they review, some with harmful programs go unnoticed. So far 8 applications have been identified that contain the Joker malware. This works to steal information from the devices and there are users who have alerted that they received messages requesting a payment. To know more: The cybersecurity site Phone Arena discovered 8…

Friday, 18 June 2021 05:48

Aging process is irreversible, finds unprecedented study

Immortality and everlasting youth are the stuff of myths, according to new research which may finally end the eternal debate about whether we can live for ever. Backed by governments, business, academics and investors in an industry worth $110bn (£82.5bn) – and estimated to be worth $610bn by 2025 – scientists have spent decades attempting to harness the power of genomics and artificial intelligence to find a way to prevent or even reverse ageing. But an unprecedented study has now confirmed that we probably cannot slow the rate at which we get older because of biological constraints. The study, by…

Friday, 11 June 2021 05:31

Hydroxychloroquine and zinc could increase some Covid survival by 200 percent - Study

A study on 255 patients was done by St Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey The resulting report, out May 31, found hydroxychloroquine to be effective The drug, when used in a high dose and with zinc, increased survival rates The authors found it was only helpful in severe cases of COVID-19 Patients given the drug as part of the trial were on ventilators Trump's allies have seized on the report to declare that he was correct As president, Trump touted hydroxychloroquine as a preventative treatment He even took it himself, despite doctors then warning it could be dangerous A…

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Thursday, 10 June 2021 05:44

Ivory Coast finds new use for its cocoa wastes

If you've indulged in a chocolate dessert lately, there is a good chance that its cocoa came from Ivory Coast. This West African country is the largest producer of cocoa in the world, where more than 40% of all cocoa beans originate. With more than six million people working in cocoa in the country, it is Ivory Coast's largest export by far. The country's cocoa beans have been fuelling people worldwide for decades, but now another part of the cocoa plant will soon be powering Ivory Coast. The coveted cocoa bean is just one small part of the cocoa plant.…

Tuesday, 08 June 2021 05:40

How this startup aims to disrupt copywriting forever

How AI can help change the world of copywriting Writer's block is too often a big impediment to effective copy, which means it lowers a scribe's performance in the eyes of a client or employer. Every writer may go through it but there's more demands placed on storytellers given today's breakneck speed of digital marketing and social media. Copy.ai taps into the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to give professional wordsmiths, editors, marketers and even students the ability to review several written versions of what they'd like to write about to overcome the psychological barrier of writer's block. This tool…

Monday, 07 June 2021 05:16

New weight-loss drug heralded as 'game changer' in obesity crisis

A new weight-loss treatment is being heralded by some health experts as "groundbreaking," and a potential "game changer" in the growing epidemic of obesity. Semaglutide, an injectable drug made by the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, was approved Friday by the Food and Drug Administration, for patients struggling with chronic obesity. "We don't use those terms lightly," Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine professor Dr. Robert F. Kushner, an obesity medicine specialist and trial investigator for the drug, told ABC News. "I've been involved in the field for 40 years. The reason we think that way, it results in amount of…

Sunday, 06 June 2021 05:57

Twitter suspension: Five ‘dangers’ of using VPNs

Federal government on Friday announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter operations in the country. This action by the government has left many Nigerians with no other choice but to engage the services VPN providers as an alternative option to access Twitter and other social media networks. A virtual private network — better known as a VPN — is a key path for digital anonymity. Checks show that using a VPN understandably makes one feel invincible, but there are still a few important risks involved that should one keep in mind. VPNs provide two of the most important services which are…

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