Deepfake technology concerns trigger urgent search for answers among journalists, crime investigators
Deepfake video methods can digitally alter a person’s lip movements to match words that they never said. As part of an effort to grow awareness about such technologies through art, the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality created a fake video showing former US President Richard Nixon giving a speech about...
Scientists probe immune systems of bats to fathom how they host lethal viruses
For several weeks in March, Arinjay Banerjee would eat breakfast at 6am and then drive the empty roads of Toronto to a restricted-access lab. Then he’d ready himself for work, donning three layers of gloves, a helmeted mask kitted with an air-purifying respirator, and a surgical-style gown. The interlocked doors...
Massive tree projects must address scientific, political, social and economic concerns – experts
Trees are symbols of hope, life and transformation. They’re also increasingly touted as a straightforward, relatively inexpensive, ready-for-prime-time solution to climate change. When it comes to removing human-caused emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere, trees are a big help. Through photosynthesis, trees pull the gas out...
Kashmir women Covid vaccine rejection: To live with stigma of not having a child is to die every day
Rashida Jan, a nurse who works in the Covid-19 ward at a hospital in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, treats people suffering from the deadly virus every day. But when it was her turn to be vaccinated, she refused. “I am getting married in the next few months,” Jan said. “My...
After ‘pregnant’ male rat experiments, Chinese scientists plan to try pregnancy in men
An experiment to impregnate male rats stitched to female rats, by researchers at the Naval Medical University in Shanghai, has stirred debate in China and beyond about the ethics of the work. Researchers say the experiment was highly contrived and unnecessarily distressing to the animals, and that it offers few...
In-person learning: Schools don’t seem to be environments where Covid transmission is rampant
On a bright, crisp morning in March, Salah Goyut said goodbye to his stuffed tiger, Stripes and his cat, Meowington and started walking the two short blocks to Herbert Schenk Elementary School in Madison, Wisconsin. He had started kindergarten there months ago, but he had only seen his teacher on...
Tigray crisis: ‘I have never seen a humanitarian response with such little human dignity’
Tens of thousands of refugees who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region are facing security risks and assistance shortfalls in camps in Sudan, according to a group of Western embassies and donors who have criticised the UN-led relief operation in a letter in or possession. Addressed to the...
Covid and the brain: Coronavirus can cause memory loss, strokes and other effects on the brain
How Covid-19 damages the brain is becoming clearer. New evidence suggests that the coronavirus’s assault on the brain could be multipronged: it might attack certain brain cells directly, reduce blood flow to brain tissue or trigger production of immune molecules that can harm brain cells. Infection with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2...
Transition: How fallen Kenya media giant Hillary Ng’weno goaded a young ‘hoof-eater’ into journalism
For those who do not my journalism journey, I will take you take you through it. The passing on of my hero – allow me to say ‘remote mentor’ – Hillary Ng’weno, compels me to make public what is buried in my heart: the worship of a professional I looked...
While Somali warlords brutally slaughter each other, foreigners catch their fish for a song
While the world is fixated on Somalia political dogfight, the relative decline in interclan quest for power and pressure from international maritime agencies has reduced piracy in the Indian Ocean off the East African nation’s coast. The positive development is feeding uncontrolled greed for its marine resources. An Investigative report...
