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Typhoons forming closer to coast due to Climate Change: Study Typhoons in Southeast Asia are forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change, according to a joint scientific study released on Wednesday. Coastal communities and cities like Hai Phong in Vietnam and the Thai capital Bangkok are "facing unprecedented threats from longer lasting and more intense storms", a statement about the study said. Researchers from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and Rowan University and the University of Pennsylvania in the United States analysed "more than 64,000 modelled historic and future storms from the 19th century through the end of the 21st century" to come up with the findings, the statement said. Published in the peer-reviewed Nature partner journal Climate and Atmospheric Science, the study "highlights significant changes in tropical cyclone behaviours in Southeast Asia". The ...

Boeing appoints aerospace veteran Kelly Ortberg as CEO to lead turnaround Boeing on Wednesday named aerospace industry veteran Kelly Ortberg as its CEO to turn around the struggling planemaker after a quarter where it lost more than $1 billion. Ortberg will start on Aug. 8 with the monumental task of rebuilding trust with regulators, the industry and the public during a quality crisis, and as its finance chief warned it would continue to burn cash. Boeing has been mired in a reputational and safety crisis after a Jan. 5 mid-air cabin panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines-operated MAX 9 jet carrying 171 passengers. The planemaker posted a loss of $1.4 billion on revenue of $16.9 billion, short of the consensus among analysts for $17.2 billion, according to LSEG data. It lost $2.90 a share, short of expectations for a loss of $1.97 a share. Boeing CFO Brian West told an analyst call on Wednesday he expects cash usage in 2024 to be larger than previously thought and expects cash burn duri...

Apple expected to boost revenue with increased iPhone demand in China Apple  will likely report on Thursday that it returned to revenue growth in its fiscal third quarter as it won back some customers in China with big iPhone discounts and sold more high-margin iPads thanks to a refreshed design. Sales of the iPhone, which account for nearly half of Apple's revenue, are expected to have decreased by 2.2% in the three months ended June, a big improvement from the 10.5% decline in the second quarter, according to LSEG data. Analysts said the worst may be over for the iPhone. They expect a strong upgrade cycle for the iPhone 16 series likely to come in September after Apple said in June it was gearing up to introduce AI features across its devices. Under pressure from a resurgent Huawei in China, Apple had in May offered discounts of up to 2,300 yuan ($317) on select iPhone models. This helped narrow iPhone sales declines in the country to 3.1% in the April-June quarter, according t...

NASA image reveals complex evolution of two near-Earth asteroids In the moments before NASA's DART spacecraft slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos in a landmark planetary defense test in 2022, it took high-resolution images of this small celestial object and its larger companion Didymos. These images have enabled scientists to unravel the complicated history of these two rocky bodies located in the vicinity of Earth and gain insight into the formation of what are called binary asteroid systems - a primary asteroid with a secondary moonlet orbiting it. An analysis of the craters and surface strength on Didymos indicated it formed about 12.5 million years ago. A similar analysis indicated Dimorphos formed about 300,000 years ago. Didymos probably formed in our solar system's main asteroid belt, between the planets Mars and Jupiter, and then was knocked into the inner solar system, the researchers said. An examination of the largest boulders on Didymos and Dimorphos gave clues ab...

Internet services reportedly disrupted nationwide Internet services are reportedly currently down across the country, with the exact cause of the disruption yet to be identified. According to media reports, authorities are actively assessing the situation to determine the source of the issue. Preliminary reports suggest that the disruption is likely linked to international traffic rather than the local network. Interestingly, Meta platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, continue to function seamlessly despite the widespread disruption. Nayatel reported that its services remain unaffected. Some minor issues were noted in southern cities but have since been resolved. Read also: PTA downplays Whatsapp disruptions, attributes it to ‘technical glitch’ The northern network, covering Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, and Faisalabad, has not experienced any disruptions. However, the inconsistency in service disruption across various ISPs suggests that the issue may be isolated...

Key scientific discoveries of July: Space, health, ecology Advances in science and technology are revealing the universe's hidden mysteries and offering new insights and solutions to human problems. Anadolu highlights the key scientific developments and discoveries of July. Developments in space technology On July 9, Türkiye's first domestic communications satellite, Türksat 6A, was launched from Cape Canaveral in the US using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. This achievement makes Türkiye one of 11 countries with this capability. The launch increased Türkiye's active satellites to nine and positions the country to become a satellite exporter. Additionally, the James Webb Space Telescope captured images of two interacting galaxies, Penguin (NGC 2936) and Egg (NGC 2937), which are expected to eventually merge into one galaxy. Developments in health Amputees regained their natural walking speeds with a new bionic leg featuring nerve-centered technology, moving 41% faster than ...

CheerDots2: A versatile all-in-one device with ChatGPT CheerDots2 is a multifunctional device that serves as an air mouse, wireless touchpad, presentation pen, and recording pen. It also supports advanced features like voice recording, transcription, and summary generation powered by ChatGPT. Multifunctional air mouse with detachable design The CheerDots2 Air Mouse features a stylish magnetic detachable design. It functions as an air mouse, wireless touchpad, presentation pen, and recording pen. Its ergonomic shape fits comfortably in the hand and responds to natural movements. Weighing only 70g, it's lightweight and portable for on-the-go use. Presentation pen with laser pointer Ideal for meetings and classrooms, the CheerDots2 offers two operational modes: Desktop Mode and Air Mode. In Desktop Mode, it functions as a regular air mouse with touchpad features. In Air Mode, it acts as a smart device controller and professional presentation remote clicker, allowing users to highlig...

China leads in AI innovation with 378,000 patents, outpacing global growth rate The number of effective artificial intelligence (AI) invention patents in China reached 378,000 by the end of 2023, representing a year-on-year growth rate of over 40 percent, the country's top intellectual property regulator released the data on Monday. "The growth rate in China is 1.4 times higher than the global average," the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) said at a press conference in Beijing. The AI industry exemplifies China's digital economy's robust innovation vitality. Last year, the digital economy's core industries contributed 10 percent of the GDP. In 2023, the number of invention patents approved in China's core digital economy industries reached 406,000, accounting for 45 percent of the total number of granted invention patents in the country. Moreover, the average annual growth rate over the past five years stood at 21 percent, said...

WHO spearheads new initiative for mRNA bird flu vaccine advancement The World Health Organization announced Monday a new project to accelerate the development in poorer countries of vaccines for human bird flu infections using cutting-edge messenger RNA technology. The WHO said Argentinian manufacturer Sinergium Biotech would lead the effort and had already begun developing candidate H5N1 vaccines. The bird flu H5N1 first emerged in 1996, but since 2020 an exponential growth in outbreaks in birds has occurred in parallel with the virus increasingly jumping to mammals, including cattle in US farms and a few humans. This has prompted fears the virus could spark a future pandemic. Sinergium is aiming to establish proof-of-concept in preclinical models for its candidate vaccines, the WHO said. Once the preclinical data is ready, the technology, materials, and expertise will be shared with a network of manufacturers in poorer countries, allowing them to accelerate their own development an...

AI-powered diabetes diagnosis, treatment developed by Chinese, Singaporean researchers A collaborative team of Chinese and Singaporean scientists has pioneered an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for primary diabetes care, which is the world's first multimodal large language model (LLM) tailored for managing this prevalent chronic disease. It was estimated that over 500 million individuals globally were living with diabetes in 2021, predominantly in low and middle-income countries. These regions often face a shortage of trained primary care physicians and limited access to proper screening for diabetic retinopathy, a serious eye condition associated with diabetes. Researchers from Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the National University of Singapore developed a GPT-4-like system that can provide personalized diabetes management guidance for primary care physicians. The image-plus-language platform, known as DeepDR-LLM, is designed to harness the power of LL...

World's largest quake early warning network launched by China China has successfully completed its National Earthquake Early Warning Project, unveiling the world's largest earthquake early warning network, the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) said on Friday. The project, through the deployment of 15,899 monitoring stations across the country, will provide the public with earthquake early warning service and rapid earthquake intensity reporting service, Yin Chaomin, vice head of the administration, said at a press conference. Earlier warnings issued by the project can reach the public through TV, IPTV, mobile APPs such as WeChat and Alipay, as well as loudspeakers in villages, according to Yin. Earthquake early warning relies on a dense network of seismic monitoring stations to issue alerts before destructive seismic waves arrive. It takes advantage of the fact that seismic waves travel significantly slower than electromagnetic waves. The public can take precautionary mea...

Turning turf into power: US researchers explore the potential of grass-based energy production A team led by Iowa State University's Lisa Schulte Moore has spent six years researching the conversion of harvested grass into renewable natural gas. “We’re looking at existing markets where there is already a demand, use existing infrastructure to reduce costs of the energy transition and create wins in multiple categories. We want wins for farmers, wins for businesses, wins for municipalities and wins for society,” said Schulte Moore. The team, funded by federal grants and the Walton Family Foundation, focuses on optimizing anaerobic digesters. Their recent studies modeled the economic feasibility of grass-to-gas production, showing potential benefits for sustainable agriculture. “To replace natural gas with resources that revitalize sustainable agriculture, we have to be able to quantify how much energy we can produce and show it can be cost-effective and environmentally friendly,” ...

Chinese scientists discover new tyrannosaur species A Chinese paleontological research team has identified a new species of tyrannosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 72 to 66 million years ago. Researchers from the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History named the dinosaur "Asiatyrannus xui" in honor of Xu Xing, a Chinese scientist dedicated to dinosaur research. The fossil specimen includes a nearly complete skull, along with tail vertebrae and hind limb bones, marking the first deep-snouted tyrannosaur discovered in southeastern China, according to Zheng Wenjie, a researcher from the museum. Histological analysis revealed that the holotype of Asiatyrannus xui was not a fully mature adult but had passed through its most rapid growth stages. Zheng added that the skull measures 47.5 centimeters in length, and the body length was approximately half that of Qianzhousaurus, which is estimated to reach around nine meters at similar growth stages. The ear...

Lilium to start assessing US sites for air-taxi production this year  Germany-based Lilium plans to begin studying possible air-taxi assembly sites in the US later this year with a goal of having a plant up and running by early 2029 to get a foothold in the one of the world's largest markets, its CEO said. Lilium plans to finalise the site next year and expects to invest "250 million to 300 million plus" euros ($271-$325 million) in the final assembly line and improving production, Klaus Roewe told Reuters. But the company "needs financial support for sure" to get the assembly line up and running, added Roewe, a former Airbus veteran. As of the end of March, Lilium had 102 million euros of liquidity, but that was before it raised $114 million in capital that is needed to achieve its first manned flight. Lilium is also in talks to raise money via loans with the help of German and French governments, with the latter tied to Lilium developing and expanding its in...

China braces for intense rainfall, flooding as Typhoon Gaemi makes landfall Typhoon Gaemi roared into southeastern China on Thursday after churning across the Taiwan Strait, prompting warnings of swelling rivers, flash floods and waterlogging in cities and provinces that were hit by extreme rains just several weeks ago. Gaemi, the third and most powerful typhoon to hit China's eastern seaboard this year, made landfall in Fujian province at 7:50 pm after whipping Taiwan with gusts of up to 227 kph, some of the strongest winds recorded in the Western Pacific Ocean. Ahead of its arrival, 240,800 people in Fujian were evacuated. Despite slightly weakening since its landfall in Fujian's Putian, a city of over 3 million, Gaemi and its giant cloud-bands are forecast to unleash intense rainfall in at least 10 Chinese provinces in the coming days. The arrival of Gaemi has drawn comparisons with Typhoon Doksuri last year, which triggered historic flooding as far north as Beijing and ca...

Chinese scientists detect universe's highest energy gamma-ray line Chinese scientists have discovered the highest-energy gamma-ray line ever observed, with an energy of up to 37 million electron volts, from an exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst (GRB), state-run media reported on Thursday. The discovery was made by researchers from the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), according to the Global Times. This gamma-ray line represents the highest energy spectral line feature ever emitted by celestial objects, the report said. Scientists also observed that the gamma-ray line evolves over time according to a power-law function, providing essential insights into its origin. GRBs are among the most energetic explosion phenomena in the universe, typically resulting from the core collapse of massive stars or the collision of two compact stars, such as neutron stars and black holes.

Water-rich mineral discovered in Chang'e-5 lunar sample A team of Chinese scientists has identified in a lunar sample retrieved by Chang'e-5 a kind of mineral enriched with water in its molecular structure. An increasing body of evidence has pointed to the existence of water or water ice on the moon's surface, but it is more likely to be in the form of hydroxyl groups. Now, scientists led by those from the Institute of Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have discovered a hydrated mineral that contains up to six molecules of crystalline water. According to a study published recently in the journal Nature Astronomy, water molecules weigh as much as about 41 percent of the total mass. The researchers said this discovery signifies the first direct detection of molecular water within the lunar regolith, shedding light on an actual form of water molecules and ammonium on the moon's surface. The mineral's structure and composition bear a striking resemblance t...

Nvidia approves samsung's HBM3 chips for Chinese market processors Samsung Electronics' fourth-generation high bandwidth memory or HBM3 chips have been cleared by Nvidia tab for use in its processors for the first time, three people briefed on the matter said. But it is somewhat of a muted greenlight as Samsung's HBM3 chips will, for now, only be used in a less sophisticated Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU), the H20, which has been developed for the Chinese market in compliance with US export controls, the people said. It was not immediately clear if Nvidia would use Samsung's HBM3 chips in its other AI processors or if the chips would have to pass additional tests before that could happen, they added. Samsung has also yet to meet Nvidia's standards for fifth-generation HBM3E chips and testing of those chips is continuing, the people added, declining to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to media. Nvidia and Samsung declined to comment. HBM is...

US users more concerned about AI privacy than job loss Though the rapidly developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies seemingly make our lives easier, the users of AI tools are more concerned about data privacy than the new technology replacing them in workplaces.  The use of AI tools shape our work and social life, and bring with them privacy concerns. While other concerns regarding job losses due to AI replacing human workers are on the rise, the effect of AI tools on personal privacy has become a hot topic. A survey by the consulting firm KPMG showed that some 1,000 college-educated US consumers believe the benefits of AI technology outweigh the risks attached to using them. Some 42% of the customers questioned said that generative AI tools have significantly impacted their personal lives, while the remaining 58% stated such applications shaped their professional lives, and 51% of the respondents expressed significant excitement over generative AI. More than half of t...

US, EU regulators pledge to ensure effective AI competition Regulators in the United States, European Union and Britain have signed a joint statement to ensure effective competition in the artificial intelligence space, setting out principles to protect consumers. Generative AI has rapidly evolved in recent years and the "technological inflection points" could introduce new means of competing, catalyzing opportunity, innovation and growth, the statement said. The watchdogs, which include the European Commission, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, the US Department of Justice and the US Federal Trade Commission, said they plan to safeguard against tactics that could undermine fair competition. "Guided by our respective laws, we will work to ensure effective competition and the fair and honest treatment of consumers and businesses," they said. The common principles set out include fair dealing and prevention of exclusionary tactics as well as closer scr...

Meta launches largest Llama 3 AI model with enhanced language, math capabilities Meta Platforms released the biggest version of its mostly free Llama 3 artificial intelligence models on Tuesday, boasting multilingual skills and general performance metrics that nip at the heels of paid models from rivals like OpenAI. The new Llama 3 model can converse in eight languages, write higher-quality computer code and solve more complex math problems than previous versions, the Facebook parent company said in blog posts and a research paper announcing the release. Its 405 billion parameters, or variables that the algorithm takes into account to generate responses to user queries, dwarfs the previous version released last year though is still smaller than leading models offered by competitors. OpenAI's GPT-4 model, by contrast, is reported to have one trillion parameters and Amazon is investing in a model with 2 trillion parameters. The release comes as tech companies are racing to show tha...

Apple may release foldable iPhone by 2026 Apple is likely to introduce its foldable iPhone as early as 2026, the Information reported on Tuesday, that could mark the biggest hardware design revamp for the company's most popular product. The Cupertino, California-based company's plan to release a foldable iPhone could mimic a similar move by Samsung Electronics, which pioneered the foldable segment in 2019 in a bid to attract new customers with a major hardware design refresh. Apple's foldable iPhone has progressed from the ideation stage, the report said, citing two people with knowledge of the matter. The company has reached out to suppliers in Asia to make components for the device, the Information reported, adding that iPhone maker has created an internal code name V68 for the product. Foldable smartphones, powered with artificial intelligence features, are expected to trigger demand for the iPhone maker, which faces stiff competition from Honor and Huawei in China and...

Google scraps plan to remove cookies from Chrome Google is planning to keep third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, it said on Monday, after years of pledging to phase out the tiny packets of code meant to track users on the internet. The major reversal follows concerns from advertisers - the company's biggest source of income - saying the loss of cookies in the world's most popular browser will limit their ability to collect information for personalizing ads, making them dependent on Google's user databases. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority had also scrutinized Google's plan over concerns it would impede competition in digital advertising. "Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they'd be able to adjust that choice at any time," Anthony Chavez, vice president of the Google-backed Privacy Sandbox initiat...

Summer travel surge fails to boost airline profits Record summer travel demand was tipped to translate into bumper earnings for airlines - but quarterly reports are looking less than stellar. While plenty of customers are flocking to travel destinations worldwide, airlines are finding an excess supply of seats in the price-sensitive end of the market has forced them to discount fares to fill their planes. This week, earnings from American (AAL.O), and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N), are expected to deliver more bad news following downbeat outlooks for the quarter from United (UAL.O), Delta (DAL.N), Alaska Airlines (ALK.N), and Ryanair (RYA.I). Airline executives attributed the overcapacity to an overoptimistic view of travel demand, which by most standards has been robust. Passenger traffic in the US is hitting records levels this year. In the first six months, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened an average of about 2.46 million airline passeng...

UN calls on Gilead Pharma to 'make history' with groundbreaking HIV medication Gilead could bring the AIDS pandemic towards an end if the US pharmaceutical giant opens up access to its game-changing new HIV drug, the head of UNAIDS told AFP. Winnie Byanyima urged Gilead to "make history" by allowing generic manufacturing of Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable antiretroviral medication used to treat HIV patients. She urged Gilead to open up Lenacapavir to the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool international organisation, whereby cheaper generic versions could be sold under licence in low- and middle-income nations. Read: 29 children test HIV positive in Mirpurkhas Whatever the financial rewards of creating Lenacapavir, the renown of being the company that conquered the AIDS pandemic would be greater, Byanyima said. "Gilead has an opportunity to take us closer to ending AIDS as a public health threat," Byanyima told AFP in an interview at UNAIDS' headqua...