Science and Technology

Thursday, 09 December 2021 05:47

Pfizer says its booster shot neutralizes Omicron

BioNTech and Pfizer said on Wednesday a three-shot course of their Covid-19 vaccine was able to neutralise the new Omicron variant in a laboratory test, an early signal that booster shots could be key to protection against infection from the newly identified variant. The German and U.S. companies said two doses of their vaccine resulted in significantly lower neutralising antibodies but could still be protective against severe disease. "The first line of defence, with two doses of vaccination, might be compromised and three doses of vaccination are required to restore protection," BioNTech Chief Medical Officer Ozlem Tuereci said at a…

Wednesday, 08 December 2021 05:56

Major outage hits Amazon Web Services; many sites affected

Amazon’s cloud-service network suffered a major outage Tuesday, the company said, disrupting access to many popular sites. The service provides remote computing services to many governments, universities and companies, including The Associated Press. Roughly five hours after numerous companies and other organizations began reporting issues with Amazon Web Services, the company said in a post on the AWS status page that it had “mitigated” the underlying problem responsible for the outage. Shortly thereafter, it reported that “many services have already recovered” but noted that others were still working toward full recovery. The issue primarily affected Amazon web services in the…

Tuesday, 07 December 2021 05:54

10 Google search tricks to help you find what you’re looking for

How often do you turn to Google? Every day? Multiple times a day? If you’re focused on privacy, there are better options. When it comes to finding what you want, some tricks make the job easy. Here are 10 Google tips to try: 1. Filter search results by date Let’s say you’re researching, and you only want to find results from the past five years. If you filter by date, you can make sure old links aren’t clogging your search results. Here’s what to do. First, type in your phrase. Then, tap on Tools, click on Any Timeand click on…

Monday, 06 December 2021 06:01

US govt, other state actors can access your messages on WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, others despite encryption. This is how

Having end-to-end encryption may not be enough cover for privacy when using popular encrypted messaging applications, because law enforcement can access your data when they want to. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) document prepared on January 7 has provided the kinds of user data various secure messaging apps can share at the request of law enforcement agencies. Titled “Lawful Access,” the one-page document detailed the “FBl’s ability to legally access secure messaging app content and metadata.” The “unclassified” document designated as “for official use only” and “law enforcement sensitive” was prepared by the FBI’s science and technology branch and…

Monday, 06 December 2021 05:58

'Potentially hazardous' asteroid worth nearly $5bn will enter Earth’s orbit this week - NASA

A gigantic, "potentially hazardous" space rock bigger than the Eiffel Tower will enter Earth’s orbit next week, according to NASA. The egg-shaped asteroid, named 4660 Nereus, is 1,082 feet (330 meters) long and will break into Earth’s orbit traveling at 14,700 mph (23,700 km/h) on Saturday, Dec. 11. Thankfully for all of our weekend plans, the asteroid is expected to skim past Earth at some distance without making impact, but it will still be closer to us than it has been in 20 years. Nereus will be roughly 2.4 million miles away (3.86 million km), around 10 times the distance…

Saturday, 04 December 2021 06:17

Eating just 1 hot dog takes 35 minutes off life - Study

Researchers released a nutritional index this week aiming to inform guidelines and help Americans achieve healthier and more environmentally stable diets. The index ranked foods by minutes gained or lost off healthy life per serving, with processed meats and sugary drinks among the biggest offenders. Findings included over 5,000 foods in the U.S. diet classified by health burden and environmental impacts. “We use the results to inform marginal dietary substitutions, which are realistic and feasible,” authors wrote. “We find that small, targeted, food-level substitutions can achieve compelling nutritional benefits and environmental impact reductions.” The foods studied ranged from 74 minutes…

Friday, 03 December 2021 06:08

Three telecom firms get NCC’s nod to bid for 5G spectrum auction

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced three telcos as approved bidders of the forthcoming 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum auction for the deployment of the fifth generation (5G) networks. The qualified bidders include MTN Nigeria Plc, Mafab Communications Limited, and Airtel Networks Limited. Ikechukwu Adinde, NCC’s director of public affairs, said this in a statement issued on Thursday. The commission said that the qualified bidders met the criteria for participation in the licensing process of the 3.5Ghz spectrum, including payment of the stipulated Intention to Bid Deposit (IBD) as outlined in the Information Memorandum (IM). NCC said that the three telcos…

Wednesday, 01 December 2021 05:56

Jack Dorsey: What's next for Twitter's co-founder?

Jack Dorsey is one of Silicon Valley's eccentrics. If he was a character in a movie, you'd think he was too cliche. Acutely earnest and idealistic, he passionately believes that tech can bring about global peace and prosperity. He's a kind of hippie libertarian, a philosophy that seems somewhat baffling at times. He also happens to be a genuine tech visionary. His resignation from Twitter is the second time he's left. After leaving the social media giant that he co-founded the first time, he setup the digital payments company Square in 2009 - which has become wildly successful. He came…

Tuesday, 30 November 2021 05:57

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey resigns, names replacement

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down as chief of the social media company. Dorsey, 45, was serving as both the CEO of Twitter and Square, his digital payments company. Parag Agrawal, the company's chief technology officer, is taking over as CEO effective immediately. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down as chief of the social media company, effective immediately. Parag Agrawal, Twitter's chief technology officer, will take over the helm, the company said Monday. Shares of Twitter were down about half a percent before noon on Monday. Dorsey, 45, was serving as both the CEO of Twitter and Square,…

Sunday, 28 November 2021 06:16

New technology tracks facial muscle movements to expose liars

When it comes to telling when someone is lying, we currently have very few options, but a team of Israeli researchers claims to have come up with something better than anything we’ve seen before. Using stickers printed on soft surfaces containing electrodes that monitor and measure the activity of muscles and nerves, a team of researchers led by Dino Levy from Tel Aviv University, discovered that some people involuntarily activate muscles in their cheeks and eyebrows when they lie. No sensors had been able to measure these subtle muscle contractions before, but the innovative ones invented by Yael Hanein and…

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Thursday, 18 November 2021 06:18

Apple to begin do-it-yourself repair program for iPhones, Macs next year

If you ever broke the screen on your iPhone , you had few options to fix it. You could go to Apple and pay the company to replace the part, which costs hundreds of dollars. You could also choose to go to one of the more than 5,000 authorized repair providers or more than 2,800 independent repair providers who have access to Apple's parts, tools and manuals. Your only other option would be to go to your local mall or alternative repair store. Repair advocates have long asked Apple to publish repair manuals and offer access to replacement parts. Starting…

Tuesday, 16 November 2021 05:57

One of the world’s poorest countries found a better way to do stimulus

Atani Bamaze was working his small plot of land, scything weeds down to the rust-colored soil, when he received a lifeline in the form of a text message. It was late 2020, and though Bamaze still didn’t know anyone sickened by Covid-19, the pandemic had disrupted his life all the same. The village in Togo where he lives with his wife and infant daughter relied on trade and travelers from nearby Benin. When the border closed after the first recorded infection that spring, prices of basic foodstuffs began climbing precipitously. The 31-year-old typically earned money tutoring, but then local schools…

Saturday, 13 November 2021 06:02

Scientists identify 46 harmful effects of social media use

There are almost 50 harmful effects linked to the use of social media, a new study reveals – and they're not just mental health-related. Academics at the University of Technology Sydney report a hefty 46 harmful effects linked to the use of sites like , and Instagram. Among them are anxiety, , being harassed, incitement to suicide, cyberstalking, delinquency, jealously, information overload and lack of online safety, they reveal in a new paper. Overall, issues of social media range from physical and mental health problems to negative impacts on job and academic performance, as well as security and privacy issues,…

Wednesday, 10 November 2021 05:56

Harvesting energy with space solar panels could power the Earth 24/7

Solar power has been a key part of humanity's clean energy repertoire. We spread masses of sunlight-harvesting panels on solar fields, and many people power their homes by decorating their roofs with the rectangles. But there's a caveat to this wonderful power source. Solar panels can't collect energy at night. To work at peak efficiency, they need as much sunlight as possible. So to maximize these sun catchers' performance, researchers are toying with a plan to send them to a place where the sun never sets: outer space. Theoretically, if a bunch of solar panels were blasted into orbit, they'd…

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