Japan's synthesized singing sensation Hatsune Miku turns 16
Hatsune Miku has always been 16 years old and worn long aqua ponytails
2023-09-02 16:26
Norfolk Southern says a software defect -- not a hacker -- forced it to park its trains this week
Norfolk Southern believes a software defect — not a hacker — was the cause of the widespread computer outage that forced the railroad to park all of its trains for most of Monday
2023-09-02 01:53
Superdry Says Extreme Weather Hit Summer Sales: The London Rush
Superdry said extreme weather events across the UK and Europe hurt sales for its spring-summer collection. The fashion
2023-09-01 15:50
Retailers Are Driving East Africa’s Adoption of Digital Payments
Retailers such as grocers and department stores are driving the uptake of digital payments in East Africa, with
2023-09-01 13:54
Elon Musk says X, formerly Twitter, will have voice and video calls, updates privacy policy
Elon Musk says his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, will give users the ability to make voice and video calls on the platform
2023-09-01 02:28
Nissan is reusing the batteries from old Leaf electric vehicles to make portable power sources
Batteries in older Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are getting a new life as portable power sources that can be used to run gadgets on the go or deliver emergency power in disasters
2023-08-31 19:55
China's Baidu makes AI chatbot Ernie Bot publicly available
Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm Baidu has made its ChatGPT-equivalent language model, Ernie Bot, fully available to the public
2023-08-31 13:46
After Tesla relaxes monitoring of drivers using its Autopilot technology, US regulators seek answers
Tesla is letting some drivers use its Autopilot driver-assist system for extended periods without making them put their hands on the steering wheel, a development that has drawn concern from U.S. safety regulators
2023-08-30 21:29
Live worm discovered in woman's brain in a worrying world first
A worm has been found living inside a woman’s brain, in a horror-movie-style world first. Doctors in Canberra, Australia, were left stunned after they pulled the 8cm (3in) parasite from the patient’s damaged frontal lobe tissue during surgery last year. "Everyone [in] that operating theatre got the shock of their life when [the surgeon] took some forceps to pick up an abnormality and the abnormality turned out to be a wriggling, live 8cm light red worm," said infectious diseases doctor Sanjaya Senanayake, according to the BBC. "Even if you take away the yuck factor, this is a new infection never documented before in a human being." Senanayake and his colleagues believe the parasite could have been in there for up to two months. The patient, a 64-year-old woman from New South Wales, was first admitted to her local hospital in late January 2021 after suffering three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by a constant dry cough, fever and night sweats, The Guardian reports. By 2022, her symptoms extended to forgetfulness and depression, and she was referred to Canberra Hospital, where an MRI scan of her brain revealed “abnormalities” that required surgery. “The neurosurgeon certainly didn’t go in there thinking they would find a wriggling worm,” Senanayake told the paper. “Neurosurgeons regularly deal with infections in the brain, but this was a once-in-a-career finding. No one was expecting to find that.” The team at the hospital sent the worm to an experienced parasite researcher who identified it as an Ophidascaris robertsi. This type of roundworm is commonly found in carpet pythons – non-venomous snakes that are ubiquitous across much of Australia. Writing in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Mehrab Hossain, a parasitologist, said she suspected that the patient became an "accidental host" to the worm after cooking with foraged plants. The 64-year-old was known to have often collected native grasses from around her lakeside home, Senanayake told The Guardian. He and his co-workers have concluded that the woman was probably infected after a python shed eggs from the parasite via its faeces into the grass. By touching the plants, she may then have transferred the eggs into her own food or kitchen utensils. Fortunately, the unlucky and unique patient is said to be making a good recovery. However, Senanayake told the BBC that her case should serve as an important warning to society more broadly. "It just shows as a human population burgeons, we move closer and encroach on animal habitats. This is an issue we see again and again, whether it's Nipah virus that's gone from wild bats to domestic pigs and then into people, whether its a coronavirus like Sars or Mers that has jumped from bats into possibly a secondary animal and then into humans,” he said. "Even though Covid is now slowly petering away, it is really important for epidemiologists… and governments to make sure they've got good infectious diseases surveillance around." Sign up for 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.
2023-08-29 15:51
New tool will allow college athletes to report gambling suspicions to a sports wagering monitor
A digital platform where college athletes can alert their administrations anonymously to improper or illegal conduct by coaches, teammates or others is expanding to allow them to report suspected gambling activity
2023-08-29 02:25
How an Oil Giant Took Control of Biden's Billion-Dollar Bet on Carbon Capture
When Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s Vicki Hollub introduced the idea of “net zero oil” two years ago, few outside
2023-08-28 22:27
Schools got $190 billion in pandemic aid, but the funds haven't reversed learning loss
America's K-12 schools received the largest-ever infusion of federal aid to help them address pandemic-related challenges, yet students are still struggling to catch up from the learning loss they experienced during remote learning.
2023-08-27 22:15