While bigger nanowires can improve light confinement and performance, it increases both energy consumption and device footprint — both of which are considered ‘fatal’ when it comes to integration. Addressing this problem, researchers came up with an approach that involves combining a sub-wavelength nanowire with a photonic crystal platform. (via WSJ)
Pegasus spyware is used to monitor activities of individual targets. Image: iStock A new version of one of the most sophisticated forms of mobile spyware has been discovered, and this time it’s being used to spy on Android users. Made public last summer, the Pegasus mobile spyware was used by a nation state to monitor iPhones belonging to activists in the Middle East. Dubbed Trident, three separate […]
Head and neck scans are one of the areas where Google’s DeepMind will be finetuning its health skills. Image: AKO Kung, Getty Images/iStockphoto Healthcare has always been seen as rich pickings for artificial intelligence: when IBM first decided to kit out Watson for use in the enterprise, its earliest commercial test was in cancer care. There are a number of reasons why health and artificial intelligence might […]
New nanowire-coated, stretchy, multifunction fibers can be used to stimulate and monitor the spinal cord while subjects are in motion, researchers report. (via WSJ)
LONDON A common antibiotic called doxycycline can disrupt the formation of negative thoughts and fears in the brain and may prove useful in treating or preventing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to research by British and Swiss scientists. In a specially designed trial involving 76 healthy volunteers who were given either the drug or a placebo dummy pill, those who were on doxycycline had a 60 […]
Researchers have created a new ‘spray-on’ digital memory using only an aerosol jet printer and nanoparticle ink. The device, which is analogous to a 4-bit flash drive, is the first fully-printed digital memory suitable for practical use in simple electronics such as environmental sensors or RFID tags. Because it is jet-printed, it could be used to build programmable electronic devices on flexible materials like paper, plastic or […]
Mental health isn’t exactly one of the things that come to mind when the topic of climate change is discussed – more often, the environmental, health, economic, and sometimes even political impacts of climate change are in the spotlight, whereas mental health is pushed aside or not discussed at all. A collaborative study is now revealing that not even mental health is safe from the global effects of […]
Imagination Technologies lost more than half its market value in a single day this week when the chip designer revealed that Apple, its largest customer, was developing its own version of the graphical processing units in which the UK-based group has specialised. Apple’s initiative to make a GPU, however, should not have come as such as surprise to investors. It follows several months of intensive recruitment by […]
M1 has introduced two mobile plans tailored for business users as it looks to increase its service offerings for the local enterprise market. The Singapore telco announced the M1 Enterprise Mobile 6 and 12 plans, offering unlimited local messaging and voice calls, and 6GB or 12GB data allowance that could be used locally as well as in 56 global markets. These countries were selected based on their […]
Researchers have created an artificial synapse capable of learning autonomously. They were also able to model the device, which is essential for developing more complex circuits. (via WSJ)
People who use or trade personal information obtained illegally can now be charged with an offence even if they did not perform the hacking to retrieve the data, after changes to cyber security laws were passed yesterday. In amending the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, the Government is moving to keep pace with the evolving nature of cybercrime and criminal acts that target computer systems. Besides criminalising […]
Mobile phones have increasingly become the repository for the details that drive our everyday lives. But researchers have recently discovered that the same apps we regularly use on our phones to organize lunch dates, make convenient online purchases, and communicate the most intimate details of our existence have secretly been colluding to mine our information. (via WSJ)
Journalism has a trust problem. In the run-up to the 2016 election, a Gallup poll revealed Americans’ trust in the press had sunk to an all-time low, with just 32 percent surveyed they felt “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust in the mainstream media. Whether it’s criticism from the Trump administration, the failure of the media to correctly forecast the outcome of the 2016 […]
ZDNet ST. MAARTEN: The cybercriminals allegedly responsible for an attack on Bangladesh’s central bank which left the country’s wallet millions of dollars lighter is showing “no signs of stopping,” according to security experts. The group, dubbed Lazarus, managed to dupe banking staff into transferring $80 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh’s New York Federal Reserve account after spending several months studying how the financial institutions communicated […]
Investors face a test of nerve as the second quarter beckons. The rally in US stocks and the dollar sparked by the election of Donald Trump is looking stretched, amid doubts about the president’s ability to deliver fiscal stimulus for the economy that can justify lofty equity valuations. The shifting mood has spurred money into emerging markets and European stocks, with EM currencies enjoying a stellar March […]
ZDNet ST. MAARTEN: Researchers have discovered an ancient APT used to target the Pentagon decades ago is now being utilized by modern cyberattackers. On Monday, at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit in St. Maarten, researchers from Kaspersky and Kings College London said that Moonlight Maze, which sent fear shooting through the hearts of US agencies over two decades ago, is still finding relevance in modern-day attacks. The […]
Combining computer science and chemistry, researchers show how an advanced form of machine learning that works off small amounts of data can be used to solve problems in drug discovery. (via WSJ)
Most are familiar with the idea of “Sell in May and go away.” Should one take this advice and sell a month earlier this year? The chart below is from good friend Ryan Detrick, looking at monthly returns of the S&P 500’s performance, over four different time frames. CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE The above chart reflects a couple of things; April has historically been a month that it has […]
One can count on smart and witty astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to throw someone a playful challenge every time. Take, for instance, his message for SpaceX founder Elon Musk during an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit Sunday. When asked about the recent Falcon 9 mission (its historic blastoff into space carrying a SES-9 satellite) and whether he would ever consider going to Mars via the Musk-owned company, […]
When Nicole Dahmen opened her Sunday paper early last month, she found something she wasn’t expecting. On Feb. 12, The (Eugene, Oregon) Register-Guard announced the start of an ongoing editorial project on homelessness. “Living in the Northwest, living in the West Coast, living in Eugene, homelessness is the problem,” said Dahmen, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. The […]
The Tasmanian tiger, a carnivorous marsupial that looks like a species of dog, is supposedly extinct. The last known member of this species was captured in 1933 and eventually died in a zoo. Benjamin The Last Captive Tasmanian Tiger The death of Benjamin, the last captive thylacine, in Tasmania’s Hobart Zoo in 1936 has been thought to be the end of the species’s lineage but not everyone […]
Australia’s house prices are rising at their fastest pace in seven years, igniting fears of an emerging property bubble and prompting regulators to crack down on risky bank lending. New figures on Monday show residential property prices have increased 12.9 per cent in the past 12 months, with prices in Sydney surging 18.9 per cent — the fastest rate of growth in almost 15 years. “Four of […]
A team of researchers has found a new species of tyrannosaur dinosaur — the most popular of the prehistoric creatures. After the fossils were pulled out of the muddy banks of a Montana river, the team was able to analyze the texture of the facial bones of the new species. The findings suggest that the face of tyrannosaurs was covered in a scaly protective layer with a […]
The number of data breaches in the Middle East has risen 16.67 percent since 2015 as hackers become increasingly sophisticated, according to research. New data from global cybersecurity firm Gemalto found that approximately 45.2 million data records in the Middle East were compromised in 2016, compared to 38.5 million in the previous year. Globally, 1.4 billion data records were compromised in 2016 as hackers targeted large-scale databases […]
