Technology

The children’s cartoons are “rife with death and destruction”, with content akin to the “rampant horrors” of popular films for adults given restrictive age ratings, researchers have suggested in a study.

The important characters in children’s cartoons are twice as likely to die as compared to those in the films meant only for adults, the study added.

“Rather than being innocuous and gentler alternatives to typical horror or drama films, children’s animated films are, in fact, hotbeds of murder and mayhem,” said one of the lead researchers James Kirkbride from University College London.

A team of neuroscientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that one of the latest generation of computer networks – called “deep neural networks” – matches the primate brain.

“This improved understanding of how the primate brain works could lead to better artificial intelligence and, someday, lead to new ways to repair visual dysfunction,” said Charles Cadieu from MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the paper’s lead author.

NASA has recently mapped out a plan to develop a human floating city above Venus in order to explore solar system’s most inhospitable planets.

NASA has been currently floating a concept that could one day see a 30-day manned mission to Earth’s closest planetary neighbor and eventually, the mission could involve a permanent human presence suspended above the planet, the CNN reported.

Scientists have revealed that climate change is threatening the world’s mussels and the increased acidity of the oceans is making the seafood brittle.

According to a study from Glasgow University, the world’s oceans are becoming more acidic because they absorb some of the atmospheric carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change, the Daily Express reported.

Rising acidity reduces the number of bicarbonate ions in the sea, which are vital for the creation of mussels’ two-layer shells, which could make them more vulnerable to attack from predators.

A new research has demonstrated that infertile couples who cannot produce their own sex cells may finally be able to have children through IVF after scientists achieved a key breakthrough in making sperm and eggs from skin cells.

Researchers have converted human skin cells in a laboratory into the “primordial germ cells” normally found within the testes and ovaries, which develop into mature sperm and eggs, the Independent reported.

Fourteen people from six mining companies have pleaded guilty to causing arsenic pollution in central China which poisoned 49 villagers and incurred a loss of over USD 1.3 million.

The defendants, who were accused of discharging 680 tonnes of pollutants containing arsenic from 2008 to 2013 which seriously contaminated environment, yesterday appeared before the People’s Court of Xialu, Huangshi city, prosecutors said.

They confessed to causing the pollution during the trial, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.

Human cells have finger-like projections that they use to feel their surroundings, says a study, adding that these can detect the chemical environment and can “feel” their physical surroundings using ultra-sensitive sensors.

Called filopodia, these finger-like structures can extend themselves, contract and bend in dynamic movements, said the team from the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Scientists have revealed the mystery behind spreading of lung cancer. The researchers at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute discovered that the ties which lash cells together – controlled by a protein called TIAM1 – were chopped up when cell maintenance work goes wrong. Healthy cells routinely scrap old cell parts so they could be broken down and used again. But this process spiraled out of control in lung cancer cells, which scraped too many TIAM1 ties. Targeting this recycling process could stop lung cancer from spreading by keeping the cells stuck firmly together.

A rocket hit a storage tank at the eastern Libyan oil port of Es Sider as armed factions allied to competing governments fought for control of the country`s biggest export terminal, officials said on Thursday.

Clashes were also reported from Sirte, a city west of Es Sider, killing up to 19, residents said. No more details were immediately available.

Es Sider and its adjacent Ras Lanuf terminal have been closed since a force allied to a rival government in Tripoli moved east trying to take them.

A team of researchers have developed a Brain Computer Music Interface (BCMI) that uses electrodes plugged into the back of the head.

The new system, designed at UK’s Plymouth University fuses tech and music allowing people to compose melodies using their eyes.

Eduardo Miranda, head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at Plymouth University, said that their brain was producing electricity all the time.

Miranda continued that these were very faint electrical signals but they could amplify and analyze them.

Scientists have revealed that they have discovered a new species of assassin bug by accident.

Dr. J. E. McPherson, professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University, was working with colleagues on a key to the nymphs of three midwestern species of assassin bug in the genus Sinea (i.e., S. complexa, S. diadema, and S. spinipes) in 2006 and to test their key for accuracy, they asked several others to check it by comparing it with insects in their collections or laboratories.

A new research has developed the technique of creating primordial germ cells, which are the embryonic cells that give rise to sperm and ova.

The research conducted by Weizmann Institute Of Science explained the cause of fertility problems, yield insight into the earliest stages of embryonic development and potentially, and in future, it would enable the development of new kinds of reproductive technology.

Dr. Jacob Hanna, head researcher, said that researchers have been attempting to create human primordial germ cells (PGCs) in the petri dish for years.

Israeli archeologists have recently discovered an ancient synagogue, where they believe Jesus Christ taught and preached.

The discovery was made in the ancient town of Magdala, thought to be the hometown of Mary Magdalene, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, ABC News reported.

The Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic organization, bought land in the area, planning to build a hotel. An ancient temple was uncovered among the ruins in 2009.

Using human embryonic stem cells, scientists for the first time have created primordial germ cells, which go on to become egg and sperm, in the lab.

The pioneering results can help scientists provide answers to fertility problems, yield insight into the earliest stages of embryonic development and enable the development of new kinds of reproductive technology in the near future.

The creation of primordial germ cells is one of the earliest events during early mammalian development.