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2019 Week 14 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

Sydney Brenner Pioneer Molecular Biologist Has Died

Sydney Brenner was one of the giants of science.Born in 1927 immigrated to South Africa. He taught himself to read from the newspapers,used as tablecloths at dinner time.

He made big contributions to the understanding of DNA.His work help others to understand role played by the molecule RNA. Which carry the “code of life”. He also worked with Francis Crick, François Jacob, Linus Pauling and James Watson.This great mind passed away 5th of April, 2019.

Sydney Brenner received Nobel Prize in 2002 for his contribution in the field of molecular and developmental biology.

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2019 Week 13 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

Nasa’s First All-female Spacewalk Scrapped for Spacesuit Issue

Two astronaut Christina Koch and Anne McClain ware about to making history. But unfortunately it was not their day. Astronauts had been scheduled to step outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday to install batteries.

Then they realize they both needed a medium-size spacesuit and only one was ready for use. Astronaut Anne McClain who trained in both medium- and large-size spacesuits. But after actual spacewalk, she realize medium-size suit fitted best for her.

So with new plan Christina Koch will use the mid size suite and go for the spacewalk another male astronaut Nick Hague instead. Anne McClain used that same suite last week for another spacewalk. Nasa has two medium-size hard upper torsos on the ISS but only one of them has been properly configured for a spacewalk.

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2019 Week 12 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

Norwegian Aluminum Plants Hit by Cyber-Attack

19 March 2019 one Norwegian aluminum firm name Hydro became the latest victim of cyber attack. As a safety measure digital systems at the firm’s smelting plants has been turned off. Firm inform in a press briefing –  that the IT systems in most business areas are impacted and they are still running their investigation about the attack.

A local source reported that the cyber-attack was caused by a relatively new form of ransomware known as LockerGoga, but the plant’s official did not comment on this.

For now the plant had to switched to manual operations. Hydro is also getting help from Norway’s state cyber-security agency to resolve this issue.

Osaka Metro Websites Offline After Translation Errors

Osaka metro’s network had to temporarily put their foreign language site offline – after an unusual problem on 19 March 2019. The website’s user notice the English translation was not correct. As a result “Sakai Muscle” and “Osaka Metro” became the Japanese hashtags trend.

Some of the errors are-
“Sakaisuji” translated as “Sakai muscle”.
“Dobutsuen-mae” translated as “Before the Zoo”.
“Daikokucho” translated as “Powerhouse Town”.
“Taishibashi-Imaichi” translated as “Prince Bridge Now City”.
“Tengachaya” translated as “World Teahouse”.
Microsoft translation program is use to translate metro’s all non-Japanese pages.

To be on the safe side the Chinese, Korean and Thai language website also has been taken offline to avoid confusion.In the mean time as a temporary solution visitors to the English language page are automatically redirected to the main Japanese site.

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2019 Week 11 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

Facebook, Instagram Down for 14 Hours

Facebook, Instagram were down for almost 14 Hours starting on late March 13 and ended 14 March. According to Facebook’s status page – the outage started on Wednesday (Eastern Time) 11am. The outage impact it’s user from posting or login in to Facebook. But Facebook confirmed – that it was not a DDoS attack.It was actually a server configuration change that started the problem.

The whole time Facebook and Instagram ware updating their users with latest information through Twitter.

What is DDoS Attack ?

DDoS OR Distributed Denial of Service is a cyber-attack. It targets websites and online services.The attacker overwhelm the target (websites OR online services) with more traffic than the server or network can accommodate. As a result the intended users of the website/online-services cannot access them properly.

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2019 Week 10 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

Uganda and Social Media Tax

July 2018 Uganda’s finance minister David Bahati imposed tax on daily internet uses.  His action take affects more than 60 online platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. To use those sites, peoples or Uganda are expected to pay a tax of 200 Ugandan shillings a day. His original reason was to tackle the online “idle talk” and raise revenue for the government.

Now the latest data shows – the internet subscriptions to such sites and services fell by more than 2.5 million and internet based business are suffering.

Stem Cell Transplant Cures a Man From AIDS Virus

Stem cell transplant cures a man from AIDS virus. The report was published online by the “Nature”. The patient was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 and he was taking HIV control drugs. Then he developed Hodgkin lymphoma (type of cancer). in 2016 he had a stem cell transplant to cure his cancer.

He was lucky – as his doctor found donor who has a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to HIV (only 1 per cent of people descended from northern Europe have inherited this mutation from both parents. And they are immune to most HIV). After that he stop taking the HIV control drug and after 18 months of transfer there is no trace of the virus.

This is a  dangerous procedure and have failed in other patients. Timothy Ray Brown of USA was the first successful patients who was treated with this therapy. He also known as the “Berlin patient,”

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2019 Week 5 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

US Polar Vortex

United States has been crippled under extreme cold weather – phenomenon known as polar vortex. School, office and many other services has been closed. Moren than 20 people died. People has been instructed – not to stay outside, not to take deep breath and even not to talk, as the extreme cold air can cause serious damage.

What is Polar Vortex
Polar vortex, is a circulation of strong, upper-level winds.These winds tend to keep the bitter cold air locked in the Arctic regions. The wind normally surround the northern pole, moving in a counterclockwise direction – a polar low-pressure system.  Some times this vortex can move down farther south. Which makes that region cold.

 

Singapore HIV Health Record Exposed

Personal health information of 14,200 Singaporean citizens has been exposed. This is the second time it happen.Singapore’s Ministry of Health confirmed that these  people are all  HIV-positive.

The records were exposed by Mikhy K Farrera Brochez. Mikhy has been living in Singapore for eight years and last year he was deported for fraud and drug-related offenses. He said he gained unauthorized access to the ministry’s HIV Registry, his partner Ler Teck Siang. Ler Teck Siang used to a top the level management of the Ministry of Health’s National Public Health Unit.

It was not sure where Mikhy K Farrera Brochez posted the records. But Ministry was able to stop the process.

 

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2019 Week 4 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

A Protein in The Blood Identified That Could Predict Alzheimer

Researchers developed a simple blood test that shows evidence of brain damage due to Alzheimer’s almost seven years before any kind of cognitive changes occur. Research was conducted at German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Tübingen and Washington University at St. Louis.

Samples of blood collected from 243 people all in their in their 40s or 50s. A protein called “neurofilament light chain”, was the main target. It provide structural support to neurons. High levels of this protein in the blood typically indicates brain damage. People of took parts in the research – had some amount of neurofilament light chain in their blood.

But people who has Alzheimer’s gene in their systems started getting more of this protein in their blood. At a faster rate than those who dont have the Alzheimer’s gene. If all goes ok, this test could be used to identify patients who will develop dementia in future. So these people can start taking anti Alzheimer drug even before things go bad.

 

Google Hit With $57M Fine by European Union

Jan 21, 2019 Monday France’s The National Data Protection Commission fined Google 50 million euros ($57 million). According to the commission for ad personalization for users, Google shows “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent”. This is one of the biggest regulatory enforcement action.

Commission mention in their report that – Google donor properly informed their
users why they collect data for advertisement. And user need to spend time to find – how and why Google use their data. In response to this fine. Google said they are studying the decision and planning their next step.

Learn more  –  How Google Collect and Use Our Personal Information

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2019 Week 2 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

Scientists Can Hack Photosynthesis to Grow Bigger Plant

Photosynthesis, the process by which green plants turn water and carbon dioxide into the food we eat and the air we breathe. Scientists at the University of Illinois found a way to genetically modify this process. Modification was done on tobacco plants.

And now the genetically modified tobacco plants grew up to 40 percent bigger than ordinary tobacco plants. Plants uses an enzyme called RuBisCO, that capture carbon dioxide from the air and then convert it into plant matter or energy. But sometimes this process does not work properly. Instead of carbon dioxide, it uses oxygen.

To correct this – the plant must “detoxify”. it by producing toxic compound. As a result, the plants spend lots of energy on this and nothing left for grow. To rectify – without modifying the enzyme, scientists insert genes that simplify and speed up the detoxification process. So plants have more energy to grow bigger. If this technology works in food crops, then it will certainly help the farmers all over the world to grow more food.

 

Mysterious Signals Have been Picked up From Distant Galaxies

A Canadian telescope picked repeating radio waves. The signals are coming from a galaxy located 1.5 billion light years away.Origin of the waves is unknown. The signals are known as “fast radio bursts” or in short “FRB”.The observatory known as CHIME, located in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. It scan the entire northern sky each day, has four 100-metre-long, semi-cylindrical antennas. scientists have detected about 60 of these waves. There are numerous theories about what could be causing these waves. Here are few –

Spinning Neutron Star
Dead stars become fast spinning neutron stars. They can create fast radio bursts or FRB. But why – scientist don’t know that yet.

Merging Stars
Two dead stars or neutron stars are merging and that can create fast radio bursts.

Blackhole
When neutron star breaks, they become black hole. Another neutron star may fall in to that black hole or other dark matter
hit another can create fast radio bursts or FRB.

Alien
Fast radio bursts or FRB Signals are coming from an alien spaceship or from a distant planet populated with little green man.

Consumer Electronics Show 2019

2019’s Consumer Electronics Show or CES took place in Las Vegas (Nevada) USA from January 8 to 11.It’s the biggest gathering where one can see the latest consumer technologies. This year it was no different. From health care to smart home technology – companies proudly shows their latest and greatest. Here are some of them.

Hyundai has shown off a small model of a car called “Elevate” it can activate robotic legs to walk at 3mph (5km/h) over rough terrain.While Mercedes-Benz’s shows their autonomous Vision Urbanetic concept car.

Philips Hue has new weatherproof motion sensor for front porch and three new lighting fixtures and Elecpro US:E will help to get in to your house by facescan if you left your house inside the house.

A treadmill developed by Verde, where you run and generates electricity for your smart home at the same time. And a boxing robot called BotBoxer teach you how to box.

IBM’s new global weather forecasting system called “Atmospheric Forecasting System”.It updates every hour and provides more accurate forecasts even for a smaller area. LG brings a new impressive ceiling to wall curve tv.

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2019 Week 1 Tech and Science Update

Weekly Tech News Update

Germany Victim of Massive Political Hacking

Contacts, private chats and financial details of Hundreds of German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel,were put out on Twitter.Leak include every political party except the far-right AfD. Celebrities and journalists information were also leaked. According to Justice Minister Katarina Barley -“serious attack…The people behind this want to damage confidence in our democracy and institutions…” It was not immediately clear who was behind the leaks. Some reports suggested a lone leaker might have had access to sensitive data through their work.Twitter shut down an account on Friday.

Blood Pressure Medication Recalled Over Cancer Concerns

80 lots of Blood pressure medication has been recalled over concerns it could contain elements that can cause cancer. They contain a trace amount of N-nitrosodiethylamine OR NDEA. Here is the list – Amlodipine Valsartan Tablets USP, Valsartan HCTZ Tablets, USP and Valsartan Tablets USP. Medicine was developed by Aurobino Pharma USA, Inc. If you are taking any one of these drugs, then contact your physician soon as possible. Aurobino Pharma has not received any reports of adverse effects related to the drugs at this time. Last November 2018, 6 other blood pressure medications also have been recalled.

 

Breath Test to Detect Multiple Cancers Early Begins Large Trial

Researcher are using exhaled airborne molecules to detect cancer. For the last two years “Cancer Research UK” has been researching on this filed. Their research has created a device called “Breath Biopsy”. Patients need to breath into the device for 10 minutes. This way the device will collect sample. The collected sample will be later analyzed in Owlstone Medical’s laboratory in Cambridge. At lab the collected sample will be compared with samples collected from people who has no cancer. If the patients samples are different the good sample, then that will be an indication that the patients have OR may have cancer. Almost half of cancers are diagnosed at a late stage. Early detection will save life.

 

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2018 Year End Review

2018 Year end review

We are waving goodbye to 2018. It was an eventful year. Here are some of the most memorable events.

Facebook
Through the year Facebook was (still is) in hot water for its data sharing policy. Mark Zackerberg was grilled by American Congress members in an open hearing on April 2018.

Apple
It was a good year for Microsoft and bad for Apple. At one point Apple’s stock was dropped to 6.6%.

Microsoft
Microsoft made several changes in their product, while Apple’s iPad Pro received a mixed emotion from consumers.

Google
Google decided to shut down the Google+ in 2019 after a huge security flaw that exposed their user data.

Security and AI
Talking about security,  Ransomware was still a powerful menace throughout the year.
Ransomware was one of the biggest disaster of 2018. But AI kept made significant improvement.

Tesla
SpaceX launches a huge Falcon rocket to outer space with a Tesla Roadster electric car as a payload In Feb 6, 2018.

Finance
Bitcoin had a bad year. Price keeps falling throughout the year. Analysts are hoping for a recovery in 2019.

Notable Deaths

Paul Allen
Co-founder of Microsoft dies on October 15 in Seattle of complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 65.

Stephen Hawking
March 14, 2018 Professor Stephen Hawking died peacefully at his home in Cambridge at the age of 76.

Nancy Grace Roman
Also known as ‘mother’ of Hubble Space Telescope. She was also NASA’s first woman executive. Nancy died December 25, 2018.

Larry Robert
He led the team that created ARPAnet and was also the program manager. He made plan on computer to computer network should work. Larry Robert died 26 December 2018.