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Yahoo buys mobile newsreader app Summly from 17-year-old London kid for a seven-figure sum

"Yahoo! announced plans Monday to buy mobile news reader app Summly from the London teenager who invented it, likely transforming him into one of the world’s youngest self-made multimillionaires. The company did not disclose the terms of the deal it struck with 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio, but the London Evening Standard said Yahoo! would pay between £20 million and £40 million ($30 to $60 million). The Wimbledon youth, who would become one of the world’s youngest technology millionaires, claims to have created the app as a hobby. 'I didn’t realize it was possible to make money out of it,' he was quoted as saying." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYahoo buys mobile newsreader app Summly from 17-year-old London kid for a seven-figure sum

Microsoft and Oracle ask European Union to ‘protect competition’ against Google Android

"Google was in the firing line again on Tuesday after a group of major companies, including Microsoft and Oracle, complained to the European Commission over Google’s offerings for Android-powered mobile phones. 'We are asking the Commission to move quickly and decisively to protect competition and innovation in this critical market,' said Thomas Vinje, Brussels-based counsel for FairSearch, which groups 17 high-tech companies, including also Nokia, Expedia and TripAdvisor. FairSearch said it had filed a complaint with the Commission, charging that the Internet giant wanted Android operators to use its leading applications such as Maps or YouTube." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMicrosoft and Oracle ask European Union to ‘protect competition’ against Google Android

Scientists discover earthquakes can create new ‘economic-grade gold deposits’

"Solid gold can be deposited in Earth’s crust 'almost instantaneously' during earthquakes, said a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The gold is formed when a tremor splits open a fluid-filled cavity in the Earth’s crust, causing a sudden drop in pressure. This, in turn, causes the fluid to expand rapidly and evaporate, and any gold particles that had been dissolved in it to 'precipitate almost immediately', said a Nature press release. The researchers said much of the world’s known gold was derived from quarts veins that were formed during geological periods of mountain building as long as three billion years ago." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingScientists discover earthquakes can create new ‘economic-grade gold deposits’

iPhone app tracks route of cab ride so you can see if cabby took you for a ride

"It’s the oldest trick in a crooked cabby’s playbook — and it’s about to become obsolete. Taxi Turvi keeps hacks honest by tracking their route with GPS technology, then checks it at the end of the journey to see if there was a shorter, cheaper way to go. The free app — the brainchild of a former NYC resident whose Southern accent made her a frequent victim of the trick — was launched two weeks ago. To use it, riders simply press 'start' at the beginning of their trip. Then, at the end of the ride, they hit 'stop' — and the app displays the route that was taken in a red line. The shortest route on the same map is overlaid in a blue line." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingiPhone app tracks route of cab ride so you can see if cabby took you for a ride

Entrepreneurs crowdsource traffic tips to help drivers out of jams in newly car-dense cities

"If you own a mobile phone and spend sunup to sundown watching the traffic pass in Ghana’s capital, then Iddrisu Mohammed wants you to be his spy. With an iPad in his hands and two phones in his pants pockets, Mohammed crisscrosses Accra on foot, looking for people to become informants for Jamless, a recently launched traffic information service that hopes to restore a little sanity to the capital’s hectic commute. 'What Jamless will do is give you the traffic situation in any part of Accra that you are and give you alternate routes to use if the place is jammed,' said Mohammed, who is the company’s informant manager." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEntrepreneurs crowdsource traffic tips to help drivers out of jams in newly car-dense cities

Scientists use 3D printer to make tissue-like material

"British scientists have used a custom-made 3D printer to make living tissue-like material that could one day serve medical purposes, according to findings released Thursday. The material is made up of thousands of connected water droplets, encapsulated within lipid films, that can carry out some of the functions of human cells. These 'droplet networks' could be the building blocks of a new technology used to pass on drugs and, down the road, could even replace damaged tissue, said a statement from Oxford University, where the scientists are based. Their findings were published in Friday’s issue of the US journal Science." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingScientists use 3D printer to make tissue-like material

Scientists used modified T-cells to wipe out childhood leukemia in a little girl

"US researchers on Monday reported encouraging success with a new type of immune cell therapy that wiped out leukemia in a young girl by using her own modified T cells to fight the cancer. The case study of Emily 'Emma' Whitehead, age 7, offers hope for a new path against a stubborn form of leukemia, known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), maybe even replacing the need for chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants someday. An attempt at T cell reprogramming in another child who did not survive pointed to the need for more research to improve on the therapies being tested." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingScientists used modified T-cells to wipe out childhood leukemia in a little girl

Science Fiction Comes Alive as Researchers Grow Organs in Lab

"Since a laboratory in North Carolina made a bladder in 1996, scientists have built increasingly more complex organs. There have been five windpipe replacements so far. A London researcher, Alex Seifalian, has transplanted lab-grown tear ducts and an artery into patients. He has made an artificial nose he expects to transplant later this year in a man who lost his nose to skin cancer. Sir Roy Calne, an 82-year-old British surgeon, figured out in the 1950s how to use drugs to prevent the body from rejecting transplanted organs. Now, with the quest to build a heart, researchers are tackling the most complex organ yet." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingScience Fiction Comes Alive as Researchers Grow Organs in Lab

Sonic ‘lasso’ catches cells and moves them around

"Academics have demonstrated for the first time that a 'sonic lasso' can be used to grip microscopic objects, such as cells, and move them about. The researchers have shown experimentally how tiny particles, such as cells, or any small objects can be trapped by a spinning ultrasonic, or sonic, vortex. The vortex acts as a lasso that can be controlled and moved, catching the microscopic particles and enabling their careful positioning. This new technology makes possible applications such as assembly human tissue from a collection of cells and assembling nano materials." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSonic ‘lasso’ catches cells and moves them around

Scientists use iPhones to diagnose intestinal worms

"Scientists used an iPhone and a camera lens to diagnose intestinal worms in rural Tanzania, a breakthrough that could help doctors treat patients infected with the parasites, a study said on Tuesday. Research published by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showed that it is possible to fashion a low-cost field microscope using an iPhone, double-sided tape, a flashlight, ordinary laboratory slides and an $8 cameral lens. The researchers used their cobbled-together microscope to successfully determine the presence of eggs from hookworm and other parasites in the stool of infected children." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingScientists use iPhones to diagnose intestinal worms