ANKARA: Turkey’s threat to close its strategic southern Incirlik Air Base to US-led international coalition flights seem to have paid off, according to analysts.The US recently announced its decision to provide regular aerial intelligence to support Turkey in its military operation against Daesh around the Syrian town of Al-Bab.Incirlik does not belong to NATO, but is a Turkish base that remains open to the operations of NATO […]
Researchers suggest developments in 3-D printing techniques could open the door to the advancement of membrane capabilities. (via WSJ)
A newly recognized primate that lives in eastern Myanmar and southwestern China has been named after Star Wars‘ Luke Skywalker. Jedi Name The scientists who discovered the animal decided to choose the name Skywalker hoolock gibbon not just because of their love for Jedis and the make-believe world created by George Lucas. The scientific name of the Skywalker hoolock is hoolock tianxing. In Chinese, tianxing translates to “Heaven’s […]
Can your smart watch detect when you are becoming sick? A new study indicates that this is possible. By following 60 people through their everyday lives, researchers found that smart watches and other personal biosensor devices can help flag when people have colds and even signal the onset of complex conditions like Lyme disease and diabetes. (via WSJ)
The Pew Research Center survey found 77 percent of American adults owning a smartphone in late 2016, more than double the level of 2011, when 35 percent said they used such devices More than three-fourths of American adults now use a smartphone, helping to boost internet adoption to a record level, a survey showed Thursday. The Pew Research Center survey found 77 percent owning a smartphone in […]
The complexity of neural networks makes them difficult to analyze, but humanmade computing systems should be simpler to understand. Researchers have now applied widely used neuroscience approaches to analyze the classic games console Atari 2600 — which runs the video game ‘Donkey Kong’ — and found that such approaches do not meaningfully describe how the console’s microprocessor really works. (via WSJ)
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Wearable sensors that monitor heart rate, activity, skin temperature and other variables can reveal a lot about what is going on inside a person, including the onset of infection, inflammation and even insulin resistance, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. An important component of the ongoing study is to establish a range of normal, or baseline, […]
Dubai, UAE, 12 January 2017 10x Genomics, Inc., a company focused on expanding genomics applications including single-cell research, has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Alliance Global FZ LLC to bring the Chromium™ System and solutions for genome, exome and single cell analysis to the Middle East and African (MEA) markets. 10x Genomics recently launched the Chromium Single Cell Controller which is a massively scalable tool for […]
The moon is much older than some scientists believe, a research team now reports. Their precise analysis of zircons bought to Earth by Apollo 14 astronauts reveals the moon is at least 4.51 billion years old and probably formed only about 60 million years after the birth of the solar system — 40 to 140 million years earlier than recently thought. (via WSJ)
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD A Pakistani Senate committee is set to debate how to prevent the country’s blasphemy laws being applied unfairly, despite opposition from religious conservatives who support legislation that carries a mandatory death penalty for insulting Islam. Senator Farhatullah Babar told Reuters that the Senate Committee on Human Rights, of which he is a member, will start discussions on blasphemy laws as early […]
Wikimedia Commons IBM has announced a new partnership with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a study designed to determine whether blockchain technology can be used to keep medical data transfers safe from theft or exploit. The tech giant announced the collaboration between IBM Watson Health and the FDA on January 11. The research initiative is a two-year agreement between the FDA and IBM which […]
The evolution of human language has been unscripted in our history. With time, we have taken our spoken words which have great significance for granted. Although the construction of language was undocumented, the evolution of human speech can be easily traced through our related and living non-human primates. A recent study conducted by Louis-Jean Boë of Grenoble Alpes University, France, and colleagues, published on Jan.11, 2017 concluded […]
Global investors sold the dollar and sought government bonds and gold on Thursday in the wake of Donald Trump’s pre-inauguration press conference, revealing the first sign of buyers remorse for a reflation rally that has dominated global markets since early November. Mr Trump’s press conference, his first as president-elect, was held in New York’s Trump Tower on Wednesday and was dominated by his ties to Russia, his […]
Google’s RAISR technology uses machine learning to produce high-quality versions of low-resolution images, which allows it avoid hogging bandwidth and enable faster downloads. Image: Google Google has started applying a new technology called RAISR to images on Google+, so that they can be displayed in high resolution without using loads of bandwidth. The hi-res images are rolling out to Google’s Google+ social network on some Android devices […]
Researchers have directly shown that electrons generated when light strikes a well-oriented perovskite film are unrestricted by grain boundaries and travel long distances without deteriorating. Identification of this property, which is key to efficiently convert sunlight into electricity, could lead to more efficient solar panels. (via WSJ)
Thursday 08:40 GMT Overview The dollar, Treasury yields and equities are lower — with pharmaceutical groups in the firing line — as traders question the “Trumpflation trade” following the US president-elect’s fractious press conference on Wednesday. The yen is stronger, signalling waning risk appetite among traders, while gold is back above $1,200, a seven-week high. Hot topic Investors are reassessing the implications of a Trump presidency. Markets […]
Cheery robots may give people the creeps and serious robots may actually ease anxiety depending on how users perceive the robot’s role in their lives, according to an international team of researchers. (via WSJ)
In a proof-of-concept study, researchers drew magnetic squares in a nonmagnetic material with an electrified pen and then “read” this magnetic doodle with X-rays. (via WSJ)
Periosteum is a tissue fabric layer on the outside of bone, as seen in the upper diagonal segment of the tissue image volume. The natural weave of elastin (green) and collagen (yellow) are evident when viewed under the microscope. Elastin gives periosteum its stretchy properties and collagen imparts toughness. Muscle is organized into fiber bundles, observed as round structures in the lower diagonal segment of the tissue […]
11 January 2017 A new report from the Arab Advisors Group analyzes the cellular tariffs for 42 cellular operators in 16 Arab countries. The analysis revealed that the average prepaid package rate was US$ 70.82, while the average postpaid package rate was US$ 47.77. Lebanon had the highest prepaid and postpaid average package rates, while Sudan and Morocco had the lowest postpaid average package rates. The analysis […]
Researchers have demonstrated the world’s first laser based on an unconventional wave physics phenomenon called bound states in the continuum. The technology could revolutionize the development of surface lasers, making them more compact and energy-efficient for communications and computing applications. The new BIC lasers could also be developed as high-power lasers for industrial and defense applications. (via WSJ)
By Ayesha Rascoe | NEW YORK NEW YORK President-elect Donald Trump escalated a fight with U.S. spy agencies on Wednesday, just nine days before he takes over their command as president, and accused them of practices reminiscent of Nazi Germany. The Republican said leaks from the intelligence community led to some U.S. media outlets reporting unsubstantiated claims that he was caught in a compromising position in Russia. […]
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s attempt to take control of all levers of power and a mounting terrorist threat has begun to alarm investors, sending the Turkish lira down 4 per cent to an all-time low on Wednesday. The lira traded at 3.93 to the dollar, down 12 per cent since the beginning of January, clocking its worst performance since a failed coup in July which prompted […]
|ARABIAN POST SPECIAL| Abu Dhabi’s much-fancied plan to set up the first SeaWorld marine life park outside the US on the Yas Island has run into a controversy, with the animal cause organisation PETA shooting off a letter of appeal to Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority to scrap the project. The theme park is set to be run by Miral Asset Management, which is the development […]
