Thursday 20 June 2019

Poverty, not lychees, the real culprit in Indian 'brain fever' outbreak

From lychees to heat, the factors behind almost 120 children dying in eastern India this month are many, but there are two underlying and preventable root causes: poverty and bad governance.

* This article was originally published here

Squeezing of blood vessels may contribute to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's

Reduced blood flow to the brain associated with early Alzheimer's may be caused by the contraction of cells wrapped around blood vessels, according to a UCL-led study that opens up a new way to potentially treat the disease.

* This article was originally published here

Multi-mobile (M2) computing system makes Android, iOS apps sharable on multiple devices

Computer scientists at Columbia Engineering have developed a new computing system that enables current, unmodified mobile apps to combine and share multiple devices, including cameras, displays, speakers, microphones, sensors, and GPS, across multiple smartphones and tablets. Called M2, the new system operates across heterogeneous systems, including Android and iOS, combining the functionality of multiple mobile systems into a more powerful one that gives users a seamless experience across the various systems.

* This article was originally published here

People globally return 'lost' wallets more as money increases

The setup of a research study was a bit like the popular ABC television program "What Would You Do?"—minus the television cameras and big reveal in the end.

* This article was originally published here

A miniature robot that could check colons for early signs of disease

Engineers have shown it is technically possible to guide a tiny robotic capsule inside the colon to take micro-ultrasound images.

* This article was originally published here

Russia to release 100 illegally captured whales

Russian officials have launched an operation to release nearly 100 illegally captured whales whose confinement in Russia's far east has become a rallying cry for environmentalists.

* This article was originally published here

Facebook takes on the world of cryptocurrency with 'Libra' coin

Facebook unveiled plans Tuesday for a new global cryptocurrency called Libra, pledging to deliver a stable virtual money that lives on smartphones and could bring over a billion "unbanked" people into the financial system.

* This article was originally published here

Google workers, labor advocates confront parent Alphabet over practices

Google workers, labor advocates, and local community members rallied outside parent company Alphabet Inc.'s annual meeting of company shareholders here on Wednesday, calling on the technology company to change its labor practices.

* This article was originally published here

Video: Why does the moon smell like gunpowder?

After walking on the moon, astronauts hopped back into their lunar lander, bringing the heavenly body's dust along with them on their spacesuits.

* This article was originally published here

Waymo teams up with Renault, Nissan on robotaxis outside US

Self-driving car pioneer Waymo is teaming up with automakers Renault and Nissan to make its first journey outside the U.S. with a ride-hailing service that will dispatch a fleet of robotaxis in France and Japan.

* This article was originally published here

God doesn't play dice, does cancer?

The saying "God doesn't play dice" is meant to suggest that nothing happens by chance. On the other hand, cancer seems like the ultimate happenstance: Don't we all have a 43-year-old, vegan, triathlete friend fighting cancer? Does this mean that cancer plays dice? According to the traditional model of how cancer develops, yes: Every time a cell divides, you roll a die, and the more years you roll, the greater your chance of rolling an unfortunate mutation that causes cancer. Some young people get very unlucky and some older people get very lucky, but overall, the longer you live, the more times you roll the die, the greater your risk of developing cancer. It makes perfect sense.

* This article was originally published here

New study maps how ocean currents connect the world's fisheries

A new study published in the journal Science finds that the world's marine fisheries form a single network, with over $10 billion worth of fish each year being caught in a country other than the one in which it spawned.

* This article was originally published here

Research details response of sagebrush to 2017 solar eclipse

The total solar eclipse's swath across Wyoming and the United States in August 2017 provided an opportunity for scientists to study a variety of celestial and earthly phenomena, from learning more about the sun's corona to the behavior of animals and plants.

* This article was originally published here

Supplements for brain health show no benefit – a neurologist explains a new study

Americans and others around the world have turned increasingly to dietary supplements in order to maintain or preserve their brain health.

* This article was originally published here

Massive brown dwarf detected by astronomers

An international team of astronomers has found a new brown dwarf, one of the most massive objects of this type discovered to date. The newly detected brown dwarf, designated EPIC 212036875 b, turns out to be about 50 times more massive than Jupiter. The finding is detailed in a paper published June 13 on arXiv.org.

* This article was originally published here

Oceanographers investigate the ocean's carbon-absorbing processes over time

It's a well-known fact that the ocean is one of the biggest absorbers of the carbon dioxide emitted by way of human activity. What's less well known is how the ocean's processes for absorbing that carbon change over time, and how they might affect its ability to buffer climate change.

* This article was originally published here

In Sudan, internet users find ways to beat blackout

In a lush garden cafe in Sudan's capital, a group of youngsters sit eyes glued to mobile phone screens, seeking ways to bypass an internet blackout imposed by army rulers.

* This article was originally published here

Even people with well-controlled epilepsy may be at risk for sudden death

People with epilepsy have a rare risk of sudden death. A new study shows that risk may apply even to people whose epilepsy is well-controlled, which is contrary to previous, smaller studies that showed the risk was highest among those with severe, difficult-to-treat epilepsy. The new study is published in the June 19, 2019, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

* This article was originally published here

Now your phone can become a robot that does the boring work

If any factory worker could program low-cost robots, then more factories could actually use robotics to increase worker productivity.

* This article was originally published here

Stabilizing nations' food production through crop diversity

With increasing demand for food from the planet's growing population and climate change threatening the stability of food systems across the world, University of Minnesota research examined how the diversity of crops at the national level could increase the harvest stability of all crops in a nation.

* This article was originally published here