Tuesday 10 September 2019

Do we tend to centre our Instagram selfies on our left eye?

Do we tend to centre our Instagram selfies on our left eye?

Bulgaria, Romania struggle with swine fever outbreaks

When Vanya Dimitrova received the Bulgarian veterinary services' notice to kill her pigs because of African swine fever, she was shocked.

New era at Alibaba as Jack Ma rides into the sunset

Jack Ma steps aside on Tuesday as chairman of Alibaba, ending a spectacularly successful 20-year run during which the charismatic former English teacher's e-commerce company left a profound impact on China's economy.

Scientists spot six near-extinct vaquita marinas

Scientists said Monday they have spotted six vaquita marinas, one of the most endangered animals on Earth, off the coast of Mexico, reviving hopes for the survival of the world's smallest porpoise.

A prosthetic leg with 'feeling' improves mobility

A breakthrough device unveiled Monday makes it possible for someone amputated above the knee to "feel" a prosthetic leg, resulting is greater stamina, stability and mobility.

The diet-microbiome connection in inflammatory bowel disease

Much remains mysterious about the factors influencing human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but one aspect that has emerged as a key contributor is the gut microbiome, the collection of microorganisms dwelling in the intestines.

Israeli high-tech looks to future—whoever wins vote

Inside a sleek, gleaming building with views over the Mediterranean, the co-founder of the navigation app Waze appears on a life-sized screen with words of advice on his red T-shirt.

Big Tech backlash kicks into gear with antitrust moves

The backlash against Big Tech moved into a new phase Monday as officials from nearly all US states announced an antitrust investigation into the dominance of internet giant Google.

World must adapt to 'inevitable' climate change, warns report

Nations rich and poor must invest now to protect against the effects of climate change or pay an even heavier price later, a global commission warned Tuesday.

VW launches mammoth bet on electric at IAA car show

With a new car and range sporting a spruced-up logo, German car giant Volkswagen enters the Frankfurt IAA car show hoping bets worth tens of billions of euros will pay off.

Mosquito trials raise hopes of defeating dengue

Hundreds dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam; hospitals overrun in Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia—dengue is ravaging Southeast Asia this year due in part to rising temperatures and low immunity to new strains.

NASA pioneers malaria-predicting tech in Myanmar

NASA is developing a new technique to forecast malaria outbreaks in Myanmar from space, as the emergence of new drug-resistant strains in Southeast Asia threatens efforts to wipe out the deadly disease globally.

What is dengue, and why is it so widespread this year?

Dubbed "breakbone fever", dengue is one of the world's leading mosquito-borne illnesses and infects tens of millions across the globe annually.

Following Neanderthals' footsteps to learn how they lived

Like modern humans and primates, Neanderthals—our closest evolutionary cousins—are thought to have lived in groups, but their size and composition have been difficult to infer from archeological and fossil remains.

Climate change, trade woes reshape Frankfurt auto show

The headwinds buffeting the auto industry are making themselves felt at the Frankfurt Motor Show, with companies confronting a slowdown in sales due to global trade uncertainty and pressure from governments to lower emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

Experts say adapting to climate change can pay off manifold

A group of leaders from business, politics and science called Monday for a massive investment in adapting to climate change over the next decade, arguing it would reap significant returns as countries avoid catastrophic losses and boost their economies.

Five scientists honored for cancer therapy, immune system work

Five scientists have won prestigious medical awards for creating an innovative breast cancer treatment and discovering key players of the disease-fighting immune system.

New iPhones to share limelight as Apple revs up services

Along with its new iPhones, Apple is stepping up on content and services for its devices for its big media event Tuesday.

Genetic mutation linked to flu-related heart complications

People with severe flu sometimes develop life-threatening heart problems, even when their hearts have been previously healthy, but the reason for that has been poorly understood.

How we make decisions depends on how uncertain we are

A new Dartmouth study on how we use reward information for making choices shows how humans and monkeys adopt their decision-making strategies depending on the uncertainty of information present. The results of this study illustrated that for a simple gamble to obtain a reward, when the magnitude or amount of the reward is known but the probability of the reward is unknown and must be learned, both species will switch their strategy from combining reward information in a multiplicative way (in which functions of reward probability and magnitude are multiplied to obtain the so-called subjective value) to comparing the attributes in an additive way to make a decision.