Technology

Spleen cells key to design vaccines against deadly bacteria

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A new, promising technique has cleared the path to develop more efficient vaccines against meningitis and pneumonia, responsible for the death of millions of children every year worldwide.

Innate lymphoid cells represent the first line of immunological defence on our body surfaces, which are constantly exposed to bacteria, such as intestine or skin.

Researchers have now discovered the presence of a novel subtype of innate lymphoid cells in human spleen essential for the production of antibodies.

Lenovo unveils Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ with improved display, faster processor

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Lenovo has announced updates to its Yoga range of tablets, including improved speeds and displays.

The company’s earlier Yoga 8 and Yoga 10 Android tablets have been a miss due to their slow performance and poor displays.

However, the updated Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ version offers a greatly improved screen and a faster processor, The Verge reports.

According to the report, the Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ comprises of a full 1920 x 1200 HD panel, with greatly improved viewing angles and better pixel density.

Volcanic eruptions credited for ‘global warming pause’

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Researchers have claimed that volcanoes have offered “temporary respite” from rising temperatures in recent years.

The impact of volcanic eruptions on global warming could provide a new explanation for the so-called “pause” used by sceptics to deny climate change is happening, scientists have said.

According to a study in the US, models for predicting the rate at which temperatures around the world would rise from 1998 onwards did not take into consideration the measurable impact volcanoes can have.

New solar-induced hybrid fuel cell directly converts biomass to electricity

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A team of researchers has developed a new type of low-temperature fuel cell that directly converts biomass to electricity with assistance from a catalyst activated by solar or thermal energy.

Although low temperature fuel cells powered by methanol or hydrogen have been well studied, existing low temperature fuel cell technologies cannot directly use biomass as a fuel because of the lack of an effective catalyst system for polymeric materials.

Beanstalk-like ‘space elevator’ could soon be a reality

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Researchers suggest that a space elevator consisting of an Earth-anchored tether that extends 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) into space could eventually provide routine, safe, inexpensive and quiet access to orbit.

A new assessment of the concept has been pulled together titled “Space Elevators: An Assessment of the Technological Feasibility and the Way Forward.” The study was conducted by a diverse collection of experts from around the world under the auspices of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

Apple, Samsung fail to reach settlement in US patent infringement case

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Apple and Samsung have reportedly failed to agree on a US patent dispute settlement and will be facing each other again in court on March 31. In a joint filing, the companies said that Samsung mobile chief Shin Jong-Kyun and other executives from the company met with Apple CEO Tim Cook along with a mediator in February to broker talks. The filing read that notwithstanding these efforts, however, the mediator”s settlement proposal to the parties was unsuccessful, Cnet reported. However, the filing also mentioned that the companies were willing to work through the mediator. (ANI)

YouTube comment exchanges become comical YouTube movie

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A few jovial souls at Dead Parrot have reportedly turned comment exchanges on YouTube site into a hilarious movie. YouTube users often post troll-type comments with the intent to insult each other and the movie shows the same. According to Cnet, in choosing actors with expressive English voices, true gravitas is lent to what might at first seem like banal words. One of the best videos created so far features an exchange beneath a video entitled “Soccer Player Accidentally Slaps a Referee”s Boob”. (ANI)

Google working on private Wi-Fi app for Android, iOS

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Google is reportedly said to be working on a specialty Wi-Fi authentication app for Android and iOS devices.

Sources have said that in its attempt to blanket cities and parks with free Wi-Fi, the search giant is also aiming to launch tech at how people log in to private networks at retail and business locations too.

According to The Verge, the specialty Wi-Fi authentication app for Android, iOS would automatically greenlight that device to work on the connection.

Immune cell therapy may revolutionize leukemia treatment

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A team of researchers, who conducted largest ever study of patients with advanced leukemia, have found that 88 percent achieved complete remissions after being treated with genetically modified versions of their own immune cells, thus demonstrating that cell therapy is a powerful treatment for patients who have exhausted all conventional therapies.

Now dead will come alive on Facebook

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Social networking site Facebook has decided to retain the profiles of deceased people with the same settings as when they were alive.

Previously, the ‘memorialised’ pages were only visible to the deceased’s friends.

The Facebook team said it decided to make a dramatic change to their policy to reflect a user’s privacy settings in life.

“Some of the people who reach out to us grieving the death of a friend or family member, they usually ask for their loved one’s timeline to be memorialised,” the company said in a press release.

Scientists develop method to predict epidemics

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A risk map using environmental and health data can predict epidemics, scientists say.

The environment has an impact on our health. Preventing epidemics relies on activating the right counter-measures, and scientists are now trying to find out how better use of forecasting can help.

The EU’s EO2HEAVEN project developed a risk map for correlating environmental and health data in order to identify where a disease may break out next. The concept will be on show at Booth E40 in Hall nine of the CeBIT trade fair in Hannover, Germany.

Vibration energy to charge your smart phone!

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Vibration energy from a surface like the passenger seat of a moving vehicle to power your smart phone?

Yes. It’s possible as engineers have developed a way by which your smart phones battery would recharge itself without the need for an electrical cord.

Incorporated directly into a cell phone housing, the team’s nano-generator could harvest and convert vibration energy from a surface into power for the phone.

NASA spots largest ever solar flare

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NASA’s newly-launched Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer, or IRIS, has spotted its strongest solar flare to date.

Solar flares are bursts of x-rays and light that stream out into space, but scientists don’t yet know the fine details of what sets them off.

IRIS peers into a layer of the sun’s lower atmosphere just above the surface, called the chromosphere, with unprecedented resolution. However, IRIS can’t look at the entire sun at the same time, so the team must always make decisions about what region might provide useful observations.

Cheap hydrogen fuel to run your cars a possibility

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A novel technology holds promise for producing cheap hydrogen fuel that can power cars, trucks and trains.

The trouble with solar fuel production so far is the cost of producing the sun-capturing semiconductors and the catalysts to generate fuel.

The most efficient materials are far too expensive to produce fuel at a price that can compete with gasoline.

NASA suspends recovery testing of next generation spacecraft

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The US space agency — NASA — said Friday it has suspended the recovery testing of a test version of its next generation spacecraft — Orion — off the coast of California.

Orion is America’s new spacecraft that will take astronauts to an asteroid and Mars in the future. Its first uncrewed test flight is planned for September this year.

The recovery team experienced issues with handling lines securing the Orion capsule inside the well deck of the USS San Diego during Thursday’s exercise, Xinhua quoted NASA saying in a statement .

Now, record friends” reactions to your message with new video messaging app

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A new video messaging app by Samba reportedly allows users to record the reaction of their friends when they receive their messages.

The Samba mobile video-messaging app lets users record a video as a message and record reactions to that video, which is shared back with the sender. According to Tech Crunch, the idea behind the app is to offer the convenience of asynchronous communication, with the power of face-to-face communication. Apart from offering users the option to record, send, save and share, Samba”s look and feel is most interesting.

`Black widow` pulsars kill and devour spinning neutron stars

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Just like black widow spiders and their Australian cousins, known as redbacks, kill and devour their male partners, astronomers have noted similar behavior among two rare breeds of binary system that contain rapidly spinning neutron stars, also known as pulsars.

Sound night`s sleep sans drugs comes closer to reality

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Scientists may have found the cure to sleeplessness in the old age, as they said that mending the circuitry of a cellular stress response pathway might help in altering sleep patterns of the aged.

The researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, who have been studying the molecular mechanisms underpinning sleep in fruit flies, used a video monitoring system to compare the sleep habits of “young” and “aged” fruit flies.

‘Solar storms behave like supernovae

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Researchers have explained for the first time the details of how solar storms behave as they fall back onto the Sun’s surface.

David Williams, one of the study’s authors, said that they’ve known for a long time that the Sun has a magnetic field, like the Earth does but in places it’s far too weak to be measured, unless they have something falling through it, asserting that the blobs of plasma that rained down from this beautiful explosion were the gift that they’d been waiting for.

‘Black widow’ pulsars kill and devour spinning neutron stars

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Washington, Feb 21 (ANI): Just like black widow spiders and their Australian cousins, known as redbacks, kill and devour their male partners, astronomers have noted similar behavior among two rare breeds of binary system that contain rapidly spinning neutron stars, also known as pulsars.

Microsoft needs to reinvent itself, says CEO Nadella

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Microsoft’s new India-born CEO Satya Nadella has said that instead of resting on its laurels the software giant needs to focus more on reinventing itself and become a company “where people find deep meaning at work”.

The 46-year-old Nadella said in his new role he would work on reinvention and innovation in the company in the new technology environment instead of harping about Microsoft’s past successes.

Hyderabad-born Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as only the third CEO in Microsoft’s 39-year history earlier this month.

11 new genes affecting blood pressure identified

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Suffer from high blood pressure? Probably your worries would wane with a new, more effective treatment.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have discovered 11 new DNA sequence variants in genes influencing high blood pressure and heart disease.

The researchers believe the findings would eventually influence the development of new treatments.

Discovering these new genetic variants provides vital insight into how the body regulates blood pressure.

How brain suppresses fear

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Researchers have found neurons that prevent mice from forming fearful memories in an area of the brain called the hippocampus.

Attila Losonczy , from Columbia University in New York and colleagues, who were interested to find how the hippocampus stores memories of a particular context and then separates this memory from a fearful event, found that these inhibitory neurons ensure that a neutral memory of a context or location is not contaminated by an unpleasant event occurring at the same time, the BBC reported.

Now, save your Windows PC from critical vulnerability with a simple tweak

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Did you know that it takes only a simple tweak to guard your Windows PC from critical vulnerability.

According to PC World, 147 vulnerabilities were published by Microsoft in 2013 as Critical. During its 2013 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Study, Avecto, a U.K. based Software Company; found that by simply removing administrator rights, exactly 92 percent of critical vulnerability can be mitigated, bringing down the number of series threats from 147 to around 12.