Month: April 2019
Move Over, San Andreas: There’s an Ominous New Fault in Town
April 18, 2019U.S. route 395 is a geologic master class disguised as a road. It runs north from the arid outskirts of Los Angeles, carrying travelers up to Reno along the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada. On the way, they pass the black cinder cones of Coso Volcanic Field and the eroded scars of a mighty […]
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Climate Change Threatens Ice Roads. Satellites Could Help
April 18, 2019For a few months each winter, Canada’s Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road is the world’s longest ice highway, a 300-plus-mile network of frozen lakes that connects lucrative diamond mines in Canada’s Northwest Territories to supplies from the nation’s not-quite-so-far north. But warmer winters and earlier springs have shortened the road’s open season by up to […]
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‘My boyfriend’s sperm, or a donor’s?’
April 18, 2019Women who freeze their eggs have 10 years to use them before they are destroyed, unless they have certain medical conditions. It means at the 10-year mark, many are left with the heartbreaking decision of whether to forego their chance of having a baby, or rush to find a sperm donor. “Emma” froze her eggs […]
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France to hold daylong tribute to Notre-Dame firefighters
April 18, 2019It’s a day of tribute to the Paris firefighters who saved Notre-Dame Cathedral from collapse and rescued its treasures from encroaching flames. French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting them for a special gathering on Thursday. Later, Paris City Hall will hold a ceremony in the firefighters’ honor, with a concert, two giant banners and readings […]
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A Wild Plan to Crowdsource the Fight Against Misinformation
April 18, 2019Claire Wardle fights zombies. Not the dead human kind, but rather the fake “facts” that have been debunked and disproven but refuse to die online. You know the kind. No need to reanimate them here. Wardle has taken to calling them “zombie rumors,” and it’s her life work to eradicate them in their many forms—misinformation […]
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Nearly 70% of eligible Albertans voted in provincial election
April 17, 2019The unofficial turnout shows nearly 70 per cent of Albertans voted in the provincial election, the highest voter turnout in decades. Elections Alberta said about 2,615,000 people in Alberta were registered to vote. Deputy chief electoral officer Drew Westwater said the unofficial turnout was 69.9 per cent, based on numbers crunched by mid-afternoon Wednesday. “It’s very, […]
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North Korea reportedly tests new guided tactical weapon
April 17, 2019North Korea has test-fired a “new-type tactical guided weapon,” its state media announced Thursday, a move that could be an attempt to register the country’s displeasure with deadlocked nuclear talks with the United States without causing those coveted negotiations to collapse. The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, observed the firing by the Academy of Defense Science […]
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Estimate the Pulling Force of Boston Dynamics’ Robo-Dog Army
April 17, 2019[embedded content] When Boston Dynamics shares a new robot video, my robophobia levels increase just a little bit. I don’t know why. There is something about these robots that get into the uncanny valley for me. This particular video is both fascinating and disturbing. It’s fascinating because here are a bunch of robots pulling a […]
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HIV used to cure ‘bubble boy’ disease
April 17, 2019Image copyright Courtesy of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital Image caption Gael, a patient at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital who received treatment, with his mother US scientists say they used HIV to make a gene therapy that cured eight infants of severe combined immunodeficiency, or “bubble boy” disease. Results of the research, developed at […]
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Beyoncé Is Back, Lyft Pumps the Brakes, and More News
April 17, 2019Tech news you can use, in two minutes or less: Bey is back Beyoncé has unleashed Homecoming, a doc that covers her legendary performance from Coachella last year, and we are here for it. Our writer describes the Netflix special as “a once-in-a-lifetime performance by one of the world’s greatest living artists that our hyperconnected […]
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