Miscellaneous

Beijing, Dec 30: A 64-year-old woman in China is believed to have become the oldest mother in the country to give birth to a baby. The mother, who has not been identified, delivered a boy weighing 3.7 kgs through cesarean section at a hospital in Jilin province, official media here reported. She conceived the baby after receiving in vitro fertilisation abroad. Photos uploaded to social media

Los Angeles, Dec 27: Scientists have developed a transparent, self-healing, highly stretchable conductive material that can be electrically activated to power artificial muscles and used to improve batteries, electronic devices and robots. The low-cost, easy to produce soft rubber-like material can stretch 50 times its original length, researchers said. After being cut, it can completely re-attach

London, Dec 25: Scientists have identified materials that can withstand temperatures of nearly 4,000 degrees Celsius, an advance that may pave the way for improved heat resistant shielding for the faster-than-ever hypersonic space vehicles. Researchers from Imperial College London in the UK discovered that the melting point of hafnium carbide is the highest ever recorded for a material. Tantalum

New Delhi, Dec 24: Social networking giant Facebook received 6,324 requests from Indian government agencies for 8,290 users/accounts in the first half of 2016. This is the second highest after the US, which made 23,854 requests for 38,951 users/accounts during January-June 2016, according to Facebook's Government Requests Report. Requests from India have increased, a trend seen globally as well

Washington, Dec 22: Scientists have launched a powerful new tool in the fight against the spread of fake news through social networking sites. The tool, called Hoaxy, visualises how claims made in fake news spread online. "In the past year, the influence of fake news in the US has grown from a niche concern to a phenomenon with the power to sway public opinion," said Filippo Menczer, a professor

Dec 21: Mark Zuckerberg has a new housemate: Jarvis, an artificial intelligence assistant he created this year that can control appliances, play music, recognize faces and, perhaps most impressively, entertain his toddler. The Facebook founder spent 100 hours putting together the virtual assistant - named after the artificial intelligence system in "Iron Man" - which understands spoken commands as

Toronto, Dec 18: Scientists have discovered the oldest water samples on Earth that date back to about two billion years and may hold clues to life forms living far beneath the surface of Mars or other alien planets. Researchers have known that water exists far below the ground-water that has been isolated from the water table - unseen and untouched for billions of years. To learn more about such

Toronto, Dec 18: Scientists have discovered the oldest water samples on Earth that date back to about two billion years and may hold clues to life forms living far beneath the surface of Mars or other alien planets. Researchers have known that water exists far below the ground-water that has been isolated from the water table - unseen and untouched for billions of years. To learn more about such

Dec 17: A team of US researchers has developed a diagnostic test for anti-microbial resistance using a smartphone that can help people in remote areas with limited resources conduct routine testing for antimicrobial susceptibility. Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria are responsible for high-mortality diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea and sepsis. The team from the University of California - Los

Dec 15: Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) warned on Wednesday that it had uncovered yet another massive cyber attack, saying data from more than 1 billion user accounts was compromised in August 2013, making it the largest breach in history. The number of affected accounts was double the number implicated in a 2014 breach that the internet company disclosed in September and blamed on hackers working on behalf of