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A Pancreas in a Capsule

Stem-cell advocates pin their hopes on a method of treating diabetes.Fourteen years ago, during the darkest moments of the “stem-cell wars” pitting American scientists against the White House of George W. Bush, one group of advocates could be counted on to urge research using cells from human embryos: parents of children with type 1 diabetes. Motivated by scientists who told them these cells...


WEDNESDAY 11. FEBRUARY 2015


Microsoft Starts Slashing African Internet Prices with White-Space Networks

A college is the first place in Africa to benefit from a wireless technology that takes advantage of unused radio frequencies – an approach Microsoft is pushing across the continent.The cost of getting online for students at Koforidua Polytechnic, a college in Ghana, was cut by 80 percent two weeks ago thanks to a technology that could be used around the world to slash the price of Internet...

Encryption Wouldn’t Have Stopped Anthem’s Data Breach

To prevent breaches companies must strictly control which employees can access sensitive data.The recent data breach at health insurer Anthem saw criminals access the personal details and Social Security numbers of more than 80 million people—the biggest health-care data theft to date. Medical and payment data was not compromised, but the names, addresses, birthdays, and Social Security numbers...


TUESDAY 10. FEBRUARY 2015


Data Mining Reveals a Global Link Between Corruption and Wealth

Social scientists have never understood why some countries are more corrupt than others. But the first study that links corruption with wealth could help change that.One question that social scientists and economists have long puzzled over is how corruption arises in different cultures and why it is more prevalent in some countries than others. But it has always been difficult to find correlations...

The Internet and Business

Early in the 1990’s, the Internet became the predominant mode of data transfer and business harbored a seemingly insatiable appetite for Internet systems and services. As services and applications proliferated, finance, manufacturing and communication sectors made ever-increasing use of the Internet, so that information processing and communications outlays by U.S. companies comprised the...

Scientists Suggest Testing Climate Engineering

A report from the National Academy of Sciences says inaction on greenhouse-gas emissions makes resorting to geoengineering more likely.A study by the National Academy of Sciences calls for experiments that would test technologies designed to counteract the global warming caused by greenhouse-gas emissions—a remarkable development for a field that even a decade ago was on the extreme fringes of...

Experiments Start on a Meltdown-Proof Nuclear Reactor

Transatomic Power has begun tests on a very cheap and compact molten-salt reactor.Transatomic Power, a startup that’s developing a novel type of nuclear reactor, has begun a series of experiments that will either verify its design or send it back to the drawing board. The experiments were made possible by $2.5 million in new investments from Founders Fund, the venture capital firm cofounded by...

Why We Don’t Have Battery Breakthroughs

A promising advance that came to nothing suggests what it will take to make cheap batteries for electric cars.Electric cars are quick and quiet, with a range more than long enough for most commutes. If you want a car with extremely fast acceleration, the Tesla Model S is hard to beat. And, of course, electric vehicles avoid the pollution associated with conventional cars, including emissions of...


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THURSDAY 5. FEBRUARY 2015


IBM Says Watson Can Help Declutter Your In-Box

IBM’s new messaging software uses algorithms to learn how to organize your e-mail better .Over 100 billion work e-mails are exchanged each day, but research suggests that only around a quarter of those are actually essential. IBM hopes to lighten that load. Later this month the company will open up a trial of a new online e-mail service called Verse, which uses algorithms to work out which...

HIV and Syphilis Smartphone Test That Costs Pennies

A smartphone attachment costing $34 performs rapid testing for HIV and syphilis in a Rwanda trial.In a small trial in Rwanda, a $34 smartphone attachment rapidly and accurately detected the presence of HIV and syphilis antibodies in drops of blood taken from pregnant women. The work, described in a paper published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, demonstrates that...

Smartphone Test for HIV and Syphilis Costs Pennies

A phone attachment using cheap disposable cartridges rapidly tests for HIV and syphilis in a Rwandan trial.In a small trial in Rwanda, a $34 smartphone attachment rapidly and accurately detected the presence of HIV and syphilis antibodies in drops of blood taken from pregnant women. The work, described in a paper published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, demonstrates that...


WEDNESDAY 4. FEBRUARY 2015


FCC Chief Proposes Broader Net Neutrality Rules

Planned regulations would govern the openness of the Internet, no matter if you’re surfing the Web on a laptop or a smartphone.The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, has outlined a proposal for so-called net neutrality rules that would prohibit Internet service providers from blocking access to websites, throttling Internet service speeds, or offering companies...

Net Neutrality Plan Focuses on Mobile

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposed strict rules governing the openness of the Internet, no matter if you’re surfing the Web on a laptop or a smartphone.The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, has outlined a proposal for so-called net neutrality rules that would prohibit Internet service providers from blocking access to websites, throttling Internet service...

Holding Data Hostage: The Perfect Internet Crime?

Thousands of people will have their personal files held hostage this year, by software that uses virtually unbreakable encryption.Every so often someone invents a new way of making money on the Internet that earns wild profits, attracts countless imitators, and reshapes what it means to be online. Unfortunately, such a shift took place last year in the world of online crime, with the establishment...