Technology News
Technology has changed the world in more ways than one, we cover all of that here.
Virtual reality for educating prisoners
Virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, already hot areas of interest in the gaming industry, are slowly percolating into other areas of life like school and college classrooms, museums and the like.
Stephen Hawking puts a deadline for founding space colonies
While delivering a lecture at the Oxford Union debate society, celebrated physicist and author Professor Stephen Hawking also issued a dire warning to humankind.
412 million Friend Finder Networks accounts hacked
Friend Finder Networks, an adult pornography, and dating site was hacked, revealing the private details of almost 412 million accounts.
World's first commercial Hyperloop System is announced
Hyperloop One announced that it would build the world's first commercial Hyperloop system between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
London set to host conference on sex robots
The second annual "International Conference on Love and Sex with Robots" is scheduled to be held on 19th and 20th December in London.
City Union Bank deploys India's first banking robot in Chennai
India's first banking robot Lakshmi has made her debut in Chennai.
IISC Bengaluru develops 'salt' to combat microbial infections
A team from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru has designed a solid in the form of a salt - a combination of two known drugs - to combat microbial infections.
Germany to start using the world's first zero emission train
The world's first zero emission, hydrogen powered train is set to go into service in Germany in 2017.
IIT Kharagpur scientists create tool to prevent train collision
A team of scientists from IIT Kharagpur successfully tested a tool which can prevent trains from colliding into each other.
Study finds Uber and Lyft guilty of racial discrimination
A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed that ride-hailing start-ups Lyft and Uber have problems of racial discrimination.
Vine is dead; Twitter to shut down the service
Exactly four years after acquiring Vine, Twitter decided to shut down the six-second looping video platform.
Woman sexually assaulted in virtual reality
A woman named Jordan Belamire was sexually assaulted while playing a game called QuiVR on her brother's HTC Vive VR system.
AIIMS opens special psychiatric OPD for cyber addicts
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has opened a special psychiatric Out Patient Department (OPD) for those hooked on social media, online gaming, or the internet in general.
Uber's autonomous truck delivers nearly 50,000 beer cans
American cab company Uber scripted history when around 50,000 Budweiser beer cans were delivered to a warehouse by its self-driving truck.
Elon Musk's "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, took to Reddit today for a question & answer session titled, "I am Elon Musk, ask me anything about becoming a spacefaring civ!"
Twitter, Spotify, Reddit, others caught in cyber attack web
Cyber hackers gained access on websites such as Twitter, Spotify, Paypal, and a host of other websites which are customers of the internet infrastructure company Dyn.
'Wearable' tattoo that could detect alcohol levels
Scientists have developed a wearable patch resembling a tattoo which can be worn on the skin to detect alcohol-levels.
Fate of European space lander to Mars unknown
A European Space lander destined for Mars has reached the red planet according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
Autophagy - the vital cellular self-cannibalism act
The '2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine' winner and Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi's studies shed light on the autophagy process.
Scientists lay down plans for "Asgardia"
A group of scientists have laid down plans for what they say will be a nation-state in space with its own citizenry.
The White House lays down guidelines for AI research
With research on artificial intelligence, both government and private, progressing at breakneck speed, the White House has released two papers offering a framework limiting such research.
BMW presents latest concept AI bike
The BMW Group unveiled a 'motorcycle concept' with such advanced AI that the rider needs no protective-gear!
Boeing enters race to colonize Mars
Around a week after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced his plans to get humans to Mars, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg announced Boeing's plans to join in the race.
Resolving the problem of taking selfies with pets
With the thriving selfie culture present, there is no doubt that selfies have become the preferred method of capturing moments.
Alphabet announces expansion plans
At the Google Hardware 2016 event held on 4th October, Google's parent company Alphabet announced its ambitions to permeate almost every sphere of life.
Samsung acquires next generation artificial assistant, Viv
Samsung has made a splash in the artificial intelligence (AI) world by acquiring the next generation AI 'Viv'.
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to molecular machines
On 5th October, 2016, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir. James Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa received the 2016 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Google launches its smartphone Pixel
Google unveiled two smartphones - the Pixel and the Pixel-XL which will be pitted against iPhone 7.
Nobel Prize in Physics received by 3 British scientists
Three British scientists, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on exotic states of matter and will share the 8m Swedish kronor prize.
Nobel prize in medicine awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi
Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cell biologist was honored with the Nobel prize in medicine for his discoveries in the field of autophagy.
Customer data collection's implications on privacy
With most companies becoming digital, the life of consumers, consequently, is becoming digital.
London Sperm Bank creates Tinder-like app
The London Sperm Bank released a mobile app quite akin to Tinder that lets women search for potential sperm donors.
$100 million project to find extraterrestrial life on Proxima b
Mark Zuckerberg joined physicist Stephen Hawking, and Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner to team up to find signs of life on a planet which is four light-years away from our Earth.
World's largest radio telescope begins operations
China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) began searching for space signals and extraterrestrial life as hundreds of astronomers and enthusiasts eagerly watched its launch.
Sony artificial intelligence writes its first pop song
While artificial intelligence systems have been tested in diverse fields from playing Go to working in law firms, Sony CSL Research Laboratory just used its FlowMachines AI to write two complete pop songs for the first time.
Amsterdam to launch self-driving Roboats in 2017
Amsterdam's canals are set to witness 'Roboats' - the world's first driverless boats - that will be launched in 2017.
Imperial college professor creates hangover-free alcohol
David Nutt, a former government drugs advisor and professor of the Imperial College, London, created a synthetic version of alcohol called "alcosynth".
Apple acquires Indian machine learning startup
In June 2016, Apple acquired Hyderabad based start-up Tuplejump, to expand its expertise in artificial intelligence.
Chan Zuckerberg Foundation pledges $3 billion
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will invest $3 billion over ten years to "help cure, prevent, or manage all disease" via a program called Chan Zuckerberg Science (CZS).
Robots being taught to hunt and kill
In an attempt to make machines behave more like humans, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed an Artificial Intelligence that can hunt and kill humans - virtually.