For personal computers and tablets, Chromebook's share of the U.S. education market was 49 percent last year, up from 40 percent in 2015 and 9 percent in 2013, according to IDC figures released this week. But education accounts for just 14 percent of the 110 million devices shipped in the U.S. last year — and Chromebooks make up just 9 percent of that broader total. Their numbers are also low abroad, even in schools. more...
In research released on Thursday in Cell, scientists from Yale University report they managed to trigger instinctive hunting behavior in mice using optogenetics, a manner of priming cells within an organism's brain to switch on when exposed to a laser. more...
"[In] Existing work [...] emotions aren't a response to what our brain takes in from our observations, but, rather, are intrinsic to our makeup. However, [...] LeDoux and Brown see a quite different architecture for emotions—one more centered on process than on composition. They conclude that emotions are "higher-order states" embedded in cortical circuits. Therefore, unlike present theories, they see emotional states as similar to other states of consciousness." (more...)
A UK, Canadian and Italian study has provided what researchers believe is the first observational evidence that our universe could be a vast and complex hologram. A holographic universe, an idea first suggested in the 1990s, is one where all the information that makes up our 3-D 'reality' (plus time) is contained in a 2-D surface on its boundaries. more...
"The authors of the six publications and all other persons involved, did not realise the error because they violated the fundamental scientific duty, which is the need to work “lege artis”, i.e. in accordance with internationally defined rules and best practice of science. They did not carry out any control experiments. Because of this error, during decades of consensus building process, normal cell constituents were mentally assembled into a model of a measles virus. With the results of the genetic tests, all thesis of existence of measles virus has been scientifically disproved." more... (in German)
The World Meteorological Organisation, which uses data from NASA, the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, said temperatures in 2016 were about 1.1 degrees higher than the pre-industrial period, or about 0.83 degrees above the 1961-1990 reference period. That beat the 2015 record by 0.07 degrees. As expected, all but one of the 16 hottest years on record have occurred this century. 1998 is the other year, and came at the end of the biggest El Nino on record. more...
On 3 Jan 2017, Millionaire Wotif founder Graeme Wood has confirmed he is supporting a Facebook advertising campaign that attacks plans for salmon farming near his proposed tourism development on Tasmania's east coast. more...
"Nokia will re-launch the 3310, perhaps the best-loved and most resilient phone in history, at Mobile World Congress later this month, according to leaker Evan Blass who first revealed the details." more...
Reports yesterday indicated a 63-year-old man has been charged in connection with the collapse of a pedestrian bridge onto the M20 motorway in Kent, England last year. more...