Bath, UK (SPX) Jan 27, 2017 -
Improving cocoa yields for the chocolate industry, estimating the quality of meat in pigs and refining the design of a hydroponics system, were three farming challenges tackled by academics at a recent workshop hosted by the University of Bath's Institute for Mathematical Innovation (IMI).
The Agri-Food Study Group brought together over 40 mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists ...
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Montreal (AFP) Jan 27, 2017 -
Canadian pipeline builder TransCanada announced Thursday it had submitted an application to build the Keystone XL pipeline, a controversial project that has been given the green light by US President Donald Trump.
Trump on Tuesday gave a conditional go-ahead for the project, which was put on hold by former president Barack Obama over environmental concerns.
Calgary-based TransCanada said ...
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Southampton, UK (SPX) Jan 31, 2017 -
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. Theoretical physicists and astrophysicists, investigating irregularities in the cosmic microwave background (the 'afterglow' of the Big Bang), have found there is substantial evidence supporting a holographic explanation of the univers ...
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Washington DC (AFNS) Jan 26, 2017 -
Space capabilities have created a revolution in military affairs, an environment in which information is key to the battlespace and deterrence means war will never be fought in space, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command said this week at Stanford University in California.
Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten spoke at the university's Center for Security and Cooperation on Stratcom's perspectiv ...
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Amsterdam, The Netherlands (SPX) Jan 31, 2017 -
More carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air also acidifies the oceans. It seemed to be the logical conclusion that shellfish and corals will suffer, because chalk formation becomes more difficult in more acidic seawater. But now a group of Dutch and Japanese scientists discovered to their own surprise that some tiny unicellular shellfish make better shells in an acidic environment. This is a completely ...
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Vienna, Austria (SPX) Jan 31, 2017 -
Recently, surprising physical effects were observed using special microscopic waveguides for light. Such "photonic structures" currently are revolutionizing the fields of optics and photonics, and have opened up the new research area of "Chiral Quantum Optics". Physicists from Copenhagen, Innsbruck, and Vienna, who are leading figures in this field, have now written an overview on the topic whic ...
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Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 01, 2017 -
Japan's ancient art of paper folding has inspired the design of a potentially trailblazing "smart" radiator that a NASA technologist is now developing to remove or retain heat on small satellites.
Vivek Dwivedi, a technologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has teamed with a couple of researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah to advance an unconventiona ...
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San Francisco (AFP) Jan 27, 2017 -
A technology industry alliance devoted to making sure smart machines don't turn against humanity said Friday that Apple has signed on and will have a seat on the board.
Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM, and Google-owned British AI firm DeepMind last year established the non-profit organization, called "Partnership on AI," which will have its inaugural board meeting in San Francisco o ...
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Manila (AFP) Jan 31, 2017 -
President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he has asked China to send sea patrols to help stop Islamic militants abducting sailors and attacking vessels off the southern Philippines.
Duterte said he would like Beijing to dispatch a fleet like it did in 2009 when it sent a naval convoy to the Gulf of Aden to protect Chinese ships from Somali pirates.
"I also asked China if they can patrol the ...
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Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 30, 2017 -
The launches of the Proton-M carrier rocket will be resumed within 3.5 months, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Saturday.
Rogozin's statement comes as the engines of the second and third stages of the Proton-M carrier rockets have been recalled earlier at the Voronezh Mechanical Plant because of technical problems.
"The launches of Proton-M will be resumed within 3.5 ...
moreA May Day return for Proton-M carrier rocket?
Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 30, 2017 -
The launches of the Proton-M carrier rocket will be resumed within 3.5 months, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Saturday.
Rogozin's statement comes as the engines of the second and third stages of the Proton-M carrier rockets have been recalled earlier at the Voronezh Mechanical Plant because of technical problems.
"The launches of Proton-M will be resumed within 3.5 ...
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Philippines' Duterte wants China sea patrols to stop kidnappings
Manila (AFP) Jan 31, 2017 -
President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he has asked China to send sea patrols to help stop Islamic militants abducting sailors and attacking vessels off the southern Philippines.
Duterte said he would like Beijing to dispatch a fleet like it did in 2009 when it sent a naval convoy to the Gulf of Aden to protect Chinese ships from Somali pirates.
"I also asked China if they can patrol the ...
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Apple joins group devoted to keeping AI nice
San Francisco (AFP) Jan 27, 2017 -
A technology industry alliance devoted to making sure smart machines don't turn against humanity said Friday that Apple has signed on and will have a seat on the board.
Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM, and Google-owned British AI firm DeepMind last year established the non-profit organization, called "Partnership on AI," which will have its inaugural board meeting in San Francisco o ...
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SmallGEO's first flight reaches orbit 
Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Jan 28, 2017 -
ESA's new small telecom platform was launched on its first mission in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Hispasat 36W-1 satellite, based on the SmallGEO platform, lifted off on a Soyuz rocket at 01:03 GMT this morning from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
SmallGEO is Europe's response to the market demand for more flexible, modular telecommunications platforms. It m ...
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 IAI debuts GPS anti-jamming system 
Bangalore, India (UPI) Jan 31, 2017 -
Israel Aerospace Industries has revealed its new ADA anti-jamming system, a product developed for use on multiple military platforms.
The system is designed to provide anti-jamming protection for Global Navigation Satellite Systems, or GNSS, receivers such as fighter jets or combat vessels. Israel Aerospace Industries plans to display the product during the Aero-India exhibition in Bang ...
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 Finnish defense forces order Bittium Tough Mobile LTE smartphones 
Oulu, Finland (UPI) Jan 31, 2017 -
Bittium has received a contract from the Finnish defense forces to provide Tough Mobile LTE smartphones.
According to Bittium, the company's smartphones are designed to be used in demanding environments, and come equipped with security features such as tamper-detection and integrity check capabilities.
Finnish defense officials say the purchase enhances their mobile communication ...
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 Raytheon, USAF developing new signal processor for AMRAAM 
Tucson (UPI) Jan 31, 2017 -
A new signal processor is being developed by Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force for the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile.
The new signal processor, being developed under the Form Fit Function Refresh program, or F3R, will help ensure AMRAAM production well into the next decade, Raytheon said.
"AMRAAM is and always has been the best missile of its kind," said Dr. Taylor W. La ...
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 Syria peace talks postponed until February 20 
United Nations, United States (AFP) Jan 31, 2017 -
UN-led peace talks on Syria have been postponed until February 20 to allow a ceasefire to take hold and to give the opposition time to present a united front, the UN envoy said Tuesday.
The talks in Geneva had been scheduled to begin on February 8 but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week announced they would be delayed, without providing reasons.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura t ...
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Yemen rebel 'suicide boat' attack kills Saudi sailors 
Riyadh (AFP) Jan 31, 2017 -
Yemeni rebel "suicide" boats attacked a Saudi warship on patrol in the Red Sea, killing two sailors in what the Saudi-led coalition called an escalation of the nearly two-year-old war.
But the rebels' Al-Masirah television website said the strike "took place with a guided missile".
The assault off the rebel-held port of Hodeida came as coalition-backed government forces pressed a deadly ...
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 Iraq PM says US ban punishes those 'fighting terrorism' 
Baghdad (AFP) Jan 31, 2017 -
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's decision to ban Iraqis from travelling to the United States punishes those who are "fighting terrorism".
Trump signed an executive order barring citizens of Iraq and six other Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for at least 90 days, a move he billed as an effort to make America safe from "radical ...
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Moscow (AFP) Jan 28, 2017 -
Russia on Saturday said it had ordered a full check of engines used on its key Proton rocket after a cargo ship crashed last month due to engine disintegration and an inspection revealed factory violations.
A plant making engines for both the Soyuz and Proton rockets had workers "switch technology and documentation," Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said, vowing to punish those responsib ...
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Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 31, 2017 -
Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos plans to call an open tender for the second stage of the Vostochny Cosmodrome construction in autumn 2017, in the light of abolition of the Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy), the Izvestia newspaper reported Monday citing its sources.
In late December, Spetsstroy, which had been constructing the cosmodrome, was abolished.
A ...
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United Nations, United States (AFP) Jan 31, 2017 -
The United States on Tuesday raised alarm at the United Nations over Iran's test-firing of a medium range missile, calling it "absolutely unacceptable," after Tehran warned the United States against fuelling tensions.
New US Ambassador Nikki Haley had requested the urgent consultations at the UN Security Council - the first action taken by the envoy just days into her mandate.
The row c ...
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Moscow (UPI) Jan 31, 2017 -
The Russian government has no plans to scale back defense spending in the coming years, according state media reports.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently discussed the Kremlin's plans to expand its production and grow its domestic defense industry. Funds for future projects, he said, have already been set aside.
"Currently several programs are being implemented for u ...
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