Science

Facebook is homing in on Facebook groups to help crack down on harmful content on the platform. In a tandem of blog posts this week, Facebook detailed two major changes to its user-created groups feature — one of which will simplify privacy settings across the platform. According to the company, groups will now have just two privacy settings, public or ... Read More »

Faruq Faisel, Regional Director, ARTICLE 19, Bangladesh and South Asia, has stated: “ARTICLE 19 is deeply concerned about this blanket restriction on communication imposed by the Indian Government in Jammu and Kashmir. The shutdown is a clear violation of international freedom of expression standards in the country. “It is deeply alarming that in a period that sees us entering what ... Read More »

To prepare for the next mission to Mars in 2020, NASA has taken to the lava fields of Iceland to get its new robotic space explorer ready for the job. With its black basalt sand, wind-swept dunes and craggy peaks, the Lambahraun lava field at the foot of Iceland’s second biggest glacier, Langjokull, was chosen as a stand-in for the ... Read More »

Washington, Aug 13 (Xinhua/UNB) — The US scientists have mapped a part of the molecular machinery that helps the brain maintain long-term memories, providing new targets against Alzheimer’s disease characterized by memory loss. The study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, outlined how a protein called CPEB3 primes neurons to store memories that stand ... Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 13 – Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Tuesday imposed ban on flying of unauthorised drone in the c capital city to maintain public safety. A DMP press release said, flying drone without permission from the authority is a punishable offense as it may hamper public safety and create panic among the people. So, everybody concerned is requested not to ... Read More »

Apple lost more ground in the shrinking smartphone market last quarter, with a sales tracker saying the tech giant was pushed off the top-three seller list by a Chinese rival. Apple fell to fourth place in global smartphone sales, shipping 35.3 million iPhones in the second quarter compared to the 36.2 million units shipped by Oppo, according to a report ... Read More »

Washington, Aug 9 (Xinhua/UNB) — Chinese scientists discovered the oldest fossil forest in Asia, lending more clues to how those ancient plants evolved to become coal finally. The study published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology reported the largest example of a patch of forest that grew in the Devonian period, which was 419 million to 359 million years ... Read More »

San Francisco, Aug 9 (AP/UNB) — Facebook is reportedly in talks with news publishers to offer “millions of dollars” for the rights to publish their material on its site. The move follows years of criticism over its growing monopolization of online advertising to the detriment of the struggling news industry. Read More »

Samsung  unveiled a new-generation Galaxy Note large-screen handset yesterday  starting at $950 and said it will work closer with Microsoft so that services function better across its array of devices. The Note 10 “phablet” which is set for release on August 23, comes in two sizes, with the larger beginning at $1,100. The price puts the model at the premium ... Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 7 – The government Wednesday approved a proposal to purchase a Vehicle Mounted Data Interceptor for the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) through Direct Purchase Method (DPM) for the sake of national security, official news agency BSS reported on Wednesday. Read More »

Washington, Aug 7 (Xinhua/UNB) — — Scientists in the United States for the first time grew genetically modified miniature human livers to test therapeutics for human liver diseases. The study published Tuesday in the journal Cell Metabolism showed how they transformed human stem cells into functional, 3D liver tissue that mimics non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The human livers in ... Read More »

Global privacy regulators joined forces Tuesday to demand guarantees from Facebook on how it will protect users’ financial data when it launches its planned cryptocurrency, Libra. The watchdogs from Australia, the US, EU, Britain, Canada and other countries issued an open letter calling on Facebook to respond to more than a dozen concerns over how it will handle sensitive personal ... Read More »

Japan, Aug 5 (AP/UNB) — Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. on Monday showed a “flying car,” a large drone-like machine with four propellers that hovered steadily for about a minute. The test flight reaching 3 meters (10 feet) high was held in a gigantic cage, as a safety precaution, at an NEC facility in a Tokyo suburb. The preparations such ... Read More »

A series of privacy missteps in recent months has raised fresh concerns over the future of voice-controlled digital assistants, a growing market seen by some as the next frontier in computing. Recent incidents involving Google, Apple and Amazon devices underscore that despite strong growth in the market for smart speakers and devices, more work is needed to reassure consumers that ... Read More »

The digital financial service of Bangladesh Post Office, Nagad today announced it’s available on IOS platform, which would enable the iPhone and iPad users to have the app. The IOS version of the app, which previously was available only on the android platform, will have similar features of the other version, said a Nagad release. Through the app, customers can ... Read More »

by Sahana Ghosh on 1 August 2019 Dreaming of a perfect blue-sky and rain-free wedding day? A luxury travel company promises to do just that for a price with the help of cloud seeding, a commonly used technique in weather modification. By artificially popping up clouds a day before the D-day and making it rain, the company guarantees a flawless ... Read More »

State Minister for Information and Communication technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak yesterday said the government has taken a project to construct a software technology park in Sherpur. The software technology park, named after Sheikh Kamal, Bangabandhu’s eldest son, would be constructed at a cost of Taka 40 crore, he said. Palak said this in a views exchange meeting of Info ... Read More »

Beijing, July 29 (Xinhua/UNB) — Chinese scientists have developed a new method to control the population of mosquitoes, the Science and Technology Daily reported Monday. Scientists from the Sun Yat-Sen University have conducted a four-year field test in controlling the population of the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), one of the world’s most invasive mosquito species that carries dengue, the ... Read More »

President Donald Trump warned  yesterday that he would snub Apple’s requests for tariff exemptions on device components imported from China, as he put pressure on the tech company to shift production to the United States. “Apple will not be given Tariff wavers, or relief, for Mac Pro parts that are made in China. Make them in the USA, no Tariffs!” ... Read More »

Faridpur, July 26 (UNB) – Police in a drive arrested a person for making a post on Facebook demeaning Islam and Kaaba Sharif from Kamar village in Boalmari upazila on Thursday night. The arrestee was identified as Dilip Roy, 42, of the village. Locals said Dilip made the post recently which hurt religious sentiment of Muslims. Following a complaint lodged ... Read More »

Beijing, July 25 (AP/UNB) — Chinese state media says a Beijing-based rocket developer has become the country’s first private company to successfully complete an orbital launch. The Xinhua state news agency reported that a carrier rocket sent two satellites into orbit from a satellite center in northwest China on Thursday afternoon. Xinhua said the SQX-1 Y1, a four-stage small commercial ... Read More »

Dhaka, July 24 (UNB) – US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller on Tuesday attended a daylong series of programes at the American Center to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 Moon landing. In his opening remarks, he referenced Neil Armstrong’s famous quote – “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind” – to highlight ... Read More »

US regulators are expected to unveil Wednesday a settlement with Facebook — a reported $5 billion fine that might be the least painful part of the agreement for the social network. The deal, which follows a lengthy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), allows Facebook to avoid prosecution for its data protection lapses. The real question, however, remains what ... Read More »

Tokyo (AP/UNB) — A cart-like robot scuttles across the field to bring back javelins and discuses. A towering screen-on-wheels is designed for “virtual” attendance. The cute ones are, naturally, the likeness of the Olympic and Paralympic mascots. Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp., a major Olympic sponsor, is readying various robots for next year’s Tokyo Olympics. The robots were shown to ... Read More »

Cape Canaveral, Jul 21 (AP/UNB) — A moonstruck nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s “giant leap” by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin at parties, races, ball games and concerts Saturday, toasting with Tang and gobbling MoonPies. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Aldrin showed Vice President Mike Pence the launch pad where he flew to the moon in 1969. ... Read More »

Americans were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing on Saturday, a generation-defining event watched by half a billion people globally, as the US seeks to pivot to a new era of crewed space exploration. At 4:18pm ET (2018 GMT) on July 20, 1969, the lunar module carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the ... Read More »

Space engineer Pablo de Leon has designed two spacesuit prototypes for the Moon and for Mars, and knows how long development takes. If NASA wants to meet its own deadline of returning to the Moon by 2024, it needs to get a move on. “NASA still doesn’t have a suit because the decision was taken suddenly,” explained the Argentine engineer, ... Read More »

Scientists seeking to avoid catastrophic sea-level rises from the melting West Antarctic ice sheet have come up with a “terrible” solution: use snow cannons to pump trillions of tonnes of ice back on top. The gargantuan ice sheet contains enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by six metres (20 feet). Just one metre of sea-level rise would be ... Read More »

New York, Jul 17 (AP/UNB) — Scientists say they nearly eliminated disease-carrying mosquitoes on two islands in China using a new technique. But it’s not clear whether this will be practical for larger areas or how expensive it’ll be. In the experiment, researchers targeted Asian tiger mosquitoes, invasive white-striped bugs that can spread dengue fever, Zika and other diseases. They ... Read More »

Facebook’s planned global digital coin Libra has run into a wall of opposition in Washington that could prevent its launch as envisioned, but analysts say cryptocurrencies are likely to make gains around the world nonetheless. The plan by Facebook and its partners has generated skepticism from US lawmakers and G7 finance ministers as well as from central banks and regulators ... Read More »