Science and Technology

Sunday, 27 October 2019 05:35

If you have any of these 17 dangerous apps on your phone, delete them right now

Mobile security company Wandera issued a report Thursday afternoon identifying 17 apps in Apple’s App Store infected with clicker Trojan malware, all of which are tied to the same India-based developer. By Friday morning, Apple confirmed they’d been booted from the App Store. Apple told at least one news outlet that 18 apps were removed following the report, but Wandera appears to believe that double-counts one of the apps, with the firm noting in its findings that its “initial list of infected apps included two instances of cricket score app ‘CrickOne’ that were hosted on different regional App Stores and…

Saturday, 26 October 2019 05:37

How a social network could save democracy from deadlock

There is one thing that practically everyone can agree on: politics has become bitterly divided. Whether it is the daily Brexit face-offs, the endless scandals on Capitol Hill or the yellow vests of France, the space for meaningful compromise has dramatically shrunk. Instead, it's a time of digging in, fighting your corner, staying the course. No surrender. It signals a deeper malaise - as electorates become more polarised, democracies become more paralysed. Yet what if it doesn't need to be this way? What if new ways can be found to break deadlocks and bring electorates back together? Thousands of miles…

Thursday, 24 October 2019 05:35

Google develops processor that completes in 3mins calculations the best computer today will take 10,000 years to do

Google announced Wednesday it has achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing, saying it has developed an experimental processor that took just minutes to complete a calculation that would take the world’s best supercomputer thousands of years. The feat could open the door someday to machines so blazingly fast that they could revolutionize such tasks as finding new medicines, developing vastly smarter artificial intelligence systems and, most ominously, cracking the encryption that protects some of the world’s most closely guarded secrets. Such practical uses are still probably decades away, scientists said. But the latest findings, published in the scientific journal Nature,…

Thursday, 24 October 2019 05:33

Facebook 'big' project on journalism set for this week

Facebook is set to make a "big announcement" this week aimed at supporting news and journalism, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday. Zuckerberg, appearing at a congressional hearing on its digital coin Libra, said during questioning that the leading social network is moving forward on a project "supporting high-quality journalism." The comments appeared to refer to Facebook's planned "News Tab" which will be a separate section that includes articles from professional news organizations. "Later in this week we have a big announcement coming up on news and journalism," he told lawmakers, describing this as "a new product that is supporting…

Tuesday, 22 October 2019 05:53

Two women joined GM more than a decade ago. Their futures couldn't be more different

Tentative labor deal aside, the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles is leaving a generation of workers behind. Amanda Kalhous and Rebecca Keetch joined General Motors Canada within a year of each other. Over the past 15 years, they’ve survived layoffs, a government bailout, and the company’s bankruptcy. Today, they’re living through something more fundamental: the biggest shift the auto industry has seen since the invention of the assembly line. This time, only one of them has a future in it. In any other generation, the thousands of employees being laid off by GM in Oshawa, Ontario, could easily be…

Saturday, 19 October 2019 05:52

Neighbourhoods where poor people live have bigger mosquitoes that transmit more diseases - Report

As if life wasn't already challenging enough for residents in low-income urban neighborhoods, new research suggests such communities are more at risk from particularly harmful, aggressive mosquitoes. Not only are there more mosquitos in such areas, but they may also be larger-bodied and more efficient at transmitting diseases, according to a study published by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Scientists at Cary Institute have been researching how environmental and social conditions affected mosquito numbers as part of a study on the ecosystem of Baltimore. Disease ecologist Shannon LaDeau led the study investigating how socioeconomics influences mosquito-borne disease risk. The…

Thursday, 17 October 2019 06:28

Twitter outlines new rules for world leaders using platform

The post from Twitter doesn't discuss the actions of any specific world leader, but the company said it wanted to better explain why it makes moderation decisions when reviewing controversial posts from political figures. "The actions we take and policies we develop will set precedent around online speech and we owe it to the people we serve to be deliberate and considered in what we do," Twitter said. Twitter has revealed its moderation policies for world leaders in a new blog post. The post from Twitter doesn't discuss the actions of any specific world leader, but the company said it…

Thursday, 17 October 2019 06:23

A new apple that can stay fresh for one year has been created. How far will it go?

When you hear that a new variety of apple is being launched with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, you might wonder if you weren't listening properly, and that the product is actually an Apple iPhone. But now starting to hit grocery shelves in the US, and then overseas early in 2020, is a new American-born apple that its backers are convinced will be become the new global bestseller - the Cosmic Crisp. "The stars are aligning for this apple," says Kathryn Grandy, marketing director of US fruit firm Proprietary Variety Management (PVM), the company handling the $10m (£7.9m) launch of…

Wednesday, 16 October 2019 05:45

And 'Lo!' - How the internet was born

In the 1960s, Bob Taylor worked at the heart of the Pentagon in Washington DC. He was on the third floor, near the US defence secretary and the boss of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (Arpa). Arpa had been founded early in 1958 but was quickly eclipsed by Nasa, leading Aviation Week magazine to dismiss it as "a dead cat hanging in the fruit closet". Nevertheless, Arpa muddled on - and in 1966, Taylor and Arpa were about to plant the seed of something big. Next to his office was the terminal room, a pokey little space where three remote-access…

Saturday, 12 October 2019 05:55

This is how sleep affects brain performance, according to science

Researchers from the Bar-Ilan University of Israel learned that sleep deprivation has a negative impact on aging and leads to the development of brain disorders. In reference to animal behavior observation, sleep also signicantly affects brain performance among humans. In a study published in the Nature Communications journal, the researchers used 3D time-lapse imaging techniques to measure the effects of sleep deprivation. The results of the study showed that neurons require sleep for them to function properly and coherently. The results also showed that sleep deprivation results in DNA damage, such as oxidative stress, and adversely affects the brain’s ability…

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Wednesday, 09 October 2019 05:48

There’s a new cellular tech that could lower call/data rates. Here’s it

Your wireless carrier is usually beholden to using proprietary cellular network tech from the likes of Ericsson or Nokia, but there may soon be a more universal technology that could benefit your bank account. Vodafone has started the first European tests (specifically, the UK) for OpenRAN, an Intel co-developed open access radio system that harmonizes hardware and software in cellular infrastructure. It doesn't sound exciting, but it effectively opens the door to lower-cost cell networks -- and that, in turn, could lower the costs of your calls and data. Vodafone has so far only deployed OpenRAN in Turkey, where it…

Tuesday, 08 October 2019 05:47

How we spy on each other every day - Thorin Klosowski

A couple of years ago, my garage was broken into while I was in the house. I heard footsteps and ran out to find someone trying to steal a bike. Cue some yelling, and the would-be thief was quickly gone, but I was so anxious I ordered a security camera within an hour. Since then, the camera has picked up nothing more than my comings and goings, mail delivery and the occasional rat. I recently decided to take it down. I briefly spoke about this over email with Elizabeth Joh, a University of California, Davis, School of Law professor, who…

Sunday, 06 October 2019 05:44

Why you need to update your WhatsApp right NOW

You better update WhatsApp right now. A researcher has discovered a nasty vulnerability in the Facebook-owned privacy-oriented messenger that made it possible to for attackers to gain access to your files and messages ⁠— by sending you a malicious GIF. The danger stems from a double-free bug in WhatsApp, according to a researcher going by the nickname Awakened. For those unfamiliar with the term, a double-free vulnerability refers to a memory corruption anomaly that could crash an app, or worse ⁠— open up an exploit vector that attackers can abuse to obtain access to your device. All it takes to…

Thursday, 03 October 2019 05:51

AI working against you? How artificial intelligence bias can block you

Businesses across almost every industry deploy artificial intelligence to make jobs simpler for staff and tasks easier for consumers. Computer software teaches customer service agents how to be more compassionate, schools use machine learning to scan for weapons and mass shooters on campus, and doctors use AI to map the root cause of diseases. Sectors such as cybersecurity, online entertainment and retail use the tech in combination with wide swaths of customer data in revolutionary ways to streamline services. Though these applications may seem harmless, perhaps even helpful, the AI is only as good as the information fed into it,…

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