First ever peek inside Mars reveals a crust with three cake-like layers
NASA’s InSight mission has finally peered inside Mars – and discovered that the planet’s crust might be made of three layers. This is the first time scientists have directly probed the inside of a planet other than Earth and will help researchers to unravel how Mars formed and evolved over...
FDA scientists endorse Moderna coronavirus vaccine
Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration endorsed the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Moderna as safe and efficacious a day after the first doses of a competing vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech were delivered across the United States. The FDA reviewers said that the two-dose vaccine “was highly effective” in...
Technology experts foresee utility-like criticality for data centres in 2021
As the world moved online seemingly overnight in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the criticality of data centres and the unrelenting reliance on them across all walks of life became an enduring storyline of the crisis. This reality will manifest in new ways in 2021 as the data centre...
Scientist: It will be a while before engineers identify source of noise in owl aviation
Forget about the superstition about bad omens associated owls. Science is gradually changing the perception and now beyond the ugly looks of owls, the birds are attracting the interest of researchers keen on identifying the most important source of noise in owl aviation. Research suggests that owl wings have three...
How stealthy owls inspired the design of silent flights
Every owl fancier has a story of the first time they heard an owl – or, rather, did not hear one. It is unforgettable to see an enormous bird, whose wingspan can reach more than six feet, slipping through the air without even a whisper. Justin Jaworski’s first close encounter...
Australia terminates coronavirus vaccine trails after ‘false positives’
A billion-dollar deal for the Morrison government to buy more than 50 million doses of the University of Queensland’s potential coronavirus vaccine has been abruptly terminated after several trial participants returned false positive HIV test results. UQ, working in partnership with Australian global biotech company CSL will abandon its current...
Children’s immune systems can repulse coronavirus
Young children account for only a small percentage of Covid-19 infections – a trend that has puzzled scientists. Now, a growing body of evidence suggests why – kids’ immune systems seem better equipped to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 than are adults’. “Children are very much adapted to respond – and very well...
Dark side of Big Tech’s funding for Artificial Intelligence research
Last week, prominent Google artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru said she was fired by the company after managers asked her to retract or withdraw her name from a research paper, and she objected. Google maintains that she resigned, and Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a company memo on...
Cybersecurity: Notorious Russian hacker outdone by a creepier malware
FireEye has built its reputation on defending high-stakes clients from hackers. Early this week, the cybersecurity firm acknowledged that it had itself been the victim of a breach – and that the attackers made off with some of its offensive tools. It is a startling admission but almost certainly not...
US fair trade agency sues Facebook for ‘illegal monopolisation’
United States fair competition agency, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) moved to a federal court on Wednesday to seek a permanent injunction that, if granted, will among other things require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp. The agency also wants Facebook prohibited from imposing anti-competitive conditions on software developers besides...
