Nintendo has said it will no longer sell games in Russia through its online store as the Japanese giant winds down operations...

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 18, 2023--

Elon Musk has denied reports that his brain implant startup Neuralink killed monkeys during research experiments, claiming instead that tests were only done on “terminal” primates. Neuralink admitted to euthanizing eight animals during trials of its brain-computer interface technology last year, however denied accusations from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) that it subjected monkeys to “extreme suffering”. The animal rights group accused Neuralink of “inadequate animal care” at the company’s lab at the University of California’s Davis Primate Centre, alleging that nine violations of the Animal Welfare Act were committed. Neuralink defended its animal testing record in a blog post last year, claiming that it is “absolutely committed to working with animals in the most humane and ethical way possible”. The firm also noted that “all novel medical devices and treatments” must be tested on animals before they can be trialled on humans. “The use of every animal was extensively planned and considered to balance scientific discovery with the ethical use of animals,” the blog post stated. Neuralink CEO Elon Musk has now added more details about the startup’s animal testing practices, after the issue was brought up by one of his followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. “No monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant,” Mr Elon Musk posted to X. “First our early implants, to minimise risk to healthy monkeys, we chose terminal monkeys (close to death already).” Mr Musk founded Neuralink in 2016 with the ultimate aim of merging artificial intelligence with the human brain. An implanted chip could improve hearing and vision, while also delivering “enhanced abilities” like greater reasoning and anxiety relief, according to the tech billionaire. Early applications of the technology will be for treating brain disorders and neurological conditions, though the company is yet to set a date for when its chips will be ready to use. In May, Neuralink revealed that it had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin testing its technology on humans. Neuralink said that FDA approval “represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people”. Read More 10 ways AI will change the world – from curing cancer to wiping out humanity SpaceX launch of Starship rocket on hold amid ‘mishap investigation’ Famed tech journalist deletes X account with epic rant at Elon Musk First photo emerges of Elon Musk and his baby twins with Neuralink director

By Peter Frontini and Ana Mano SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian authorities said on Monday they had seized 28.7 metric tonnes

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The EU telecoms regulators' group BEREC on Friday criticised a push by telecoms providers

Baffled scientists are trying to unravel the mystery of how a meteorite left Earth’s atmosphere and somehow came back again. Unlike boomerangs, meteorites don’t have a reputation for coming back around again, so when a black rock found in Morocco in 2018 seemed to have done just that, it left the scientific community confused. The rock, whose official name is Northwest Africa (NWA) 13188, is a scientific first (that we know of) to have left the Earth’s atmosphere, gone into outer space and returned again. The 646-gram piece of rock is remarkable not only for its journey but also its makeup. NWA 13188 has a bubbly texture and contains crystals. Its chemical components suggest that the rock is made out of the minerals produced by molten minerals that come from volcanic activity. It also possesses trace elements and oxygen isotopes, which suggests to scientists that it is not the typical meteorite that originates in space, but instead, it originated on Earth itself. However, according to a geophysicist from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, Jérôme Gattacceca, who studied the rock and presented the findings, it has undergone an interesting journey in orbit. Scientists can identify this because of the presence and concentration levels of Helium-3, Beryllium-10, and Neon-21, which suggest exposure to cosmic rays that are not present in Earth’s atmosphere. Compared to other more traditional meteorites scientists have studied, the concentrations are lower on NWA 13188 but are still higher than rocks on Earth. It is thought that NWA 13188 could have been expelled from Earth and in orbit for thousands of years. Scientists said, “We consider NWA 13188 to be a meteorite, launched from the Earth and later re-accreted to its surface”. Despite the rock originating on Earth, the team said it fits the definition of a meteorite since it has achieved orbit. The definition states: “Material launched from a celestial body that achieves an independent orbit around the Sun or some other celestial body, and which eventually is re-accreted by the original body, should be considered a meteorite. “The difficulty, of course, would be in proving that this had happened, but a terrestrial rock that had been exposed to cosmic rays and had a well-developed fusion crust should be considered a possible terrestrial meteorite.” It is not yet understood how the rock came to be launched from Earth into space, as researchers said it still “remains to be determined”. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Romance scams are unfortunately common. Swindlers gain people's trust by pretending to date them online,

Amazon Prime Video is the latest video-streaming service to embrace ads. But unlike its rivals,

In a drive to help the firm hit its financial aims, Capcom has confirmed an “unannounced major title” will be released in next six months – sparking speculation over which of its hit franchises could be set for another sequel.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads app has become the leading Twitter competitor within hours of launching, attracting three times as many users as all other rivals combined. Parent company Meta, which also controls Facebook and Instagram, saw 22 million people sign up to its latest app offering within 12 hours of releasing it on Thursday. The text-based social media app is designed to offer an alternative to Twitter, which has been blighted with issues and controversies since Elon Musk took it over last year. Other Twitter rivals, including Donald Trump’s Truth Social, are yet to reach a critical mass to make them serious contenders in the space. The former US president’s app has around 2 million monthly active users, while Bluesky, Mastodon, Parler and Tribel have an estimated 4.5 million users combined. It took Twitter roughly three years to reach the number of users that Threads achieved in its first day, however Mr Musk’s app still has more than 10-times the number of active users. Thread’s user growth puts it in line to become the fastest growing app of all time, with no other launch seeing as many users sign up in a single day. Early adopters of Threads include singer Jennifer Lopez, NFL star Tom Brady and adventurer Bear Grylls. Despite this success, it remains a long way off the number of Twitter users, which had an estimated 330 million monthly active users in the first half of the year. It is unclear how many of the new Threads users were already Twitter users, and whether they will make the switch permanently if they were regular users of Mr Musk’s platform. Some analysts believe Threads could potentially become the most popular text-based social media app, given that it arrives at a time of growing dissatisfaction with Twitter among some users. “Threads looks set to be the Twitter killer, and comes at the worst possible time for Elon Musk’s doomed social network,” said Drew Benvie, chief executive of consultancy firm Battenhall. “The long anticipated alternative to Twitter will offer Instagram’s two billion users a more reliable and useful way of using social media that Twitter used to do so well. But with Twitter becoming more unreliable, costly and unsafe than ever, I expect users will vote with their fingers.” Read More Threads: What is it, can it rival Twitter and what are the risks? Watch live: Robots take part in UN discussion on AI in healthcare Threads: What it’s like to use Instagram’s new Twitter rival Meta’s new Twitter rival app Threads gets over 10 million sign-ups

By Sam Tobin LONDON Stock photo provider Getty Images has asked London's High Court for an injunction to

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