Human Rights Watch has called for an international ban on ‘killer robots’ – autonomous machines that independently decide their targets, Press TV reports. “They’re weapons where there is no human intervention. That is, the armed robot itself makes the decision about what its target should be and when it should pull the trigger,” Stephen Goose, the arms division director of Human Rights... 

In the Swedish Academy of young translators, new recruits study a crash course in complex languages. It is not only about military discipline: specialists discovered that intensive study of foreign tongues stimulates the growth of the hippocampus and causes changes in other structures of the brain. Learning languages also helps in preventing Alzheimer’s disease. In the Swedish Academy, young... 

The local Fox affiliate in Denver has confirmed widespread sightings of a UFO in the skies over Denver, even getting a shot with their own cameras. The videos of this sighting have been verified for authenticity and all experts asked so far agree that this clearly qualifies as a UFO. Unnamed witnesses have come forward with video and still pictures of the aircraft, and have explained to reporters... 

Major US electronics corporation Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) plans to eliminate 1,700 jobs. Major US electronics corporation Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has announced plans to slash its global workforce by 1,700 people as a ‘cost-cutting’ measure. The move, announced Wednesday by the Dallas-based chipmaker, is part of the TI’s plan to discontinue its mobile business, according to the company’s... 

Otome 3D compnay will open the world’s first 3D printing photo booth in Japan. The world’s first 3D printing photo booth, creating life-like miniature photos, is set to be unveiled at the Eye of Gyre exhibition in Japan. A Japanese company known as Omote 3D is planning to offer the 3D photo printing service at the Eye of Gyre exhibition that will be held in Tokyo’s Harajuk. According... 

“2001: A Space Odyssey” may have been the most famous and commented film of science-fiction, yet it is too the most ridiculous. His technical agenda has been humiliated by the time, like the whole dreams of this modern deceiving world. In 2001 we haven’t landed on Jupiter or in one of its satellites. In 2012 we are not traveling anywhere; we are not even traveling anymore. The space... 

Panasonic Corp., Japan’s second largest TV maker, saw its credit rating cut by two levels by Standard & Poor’s after it forecast a $9.5 bn loss 30 times bigger than analyst estimates. ­S&P said it has downgraded long-term debt to BBB, down from A-, as “huge losses for the second year in a row weaken the company’s financial profile and could further slow its recovery in the next... 

Bald men can regain hair with eye drops for glaucoma. Drug interactions and pre-existing diseases can make the therapy risky. However, eye drops for glaucoma have become a macho thing. It may even end one of the world’s greatest male torments, baldness. So a survey, published by researchers in the journal FASEB, reveals. Eye drops for glaucoma have become a macho thing. It may even end one of... 

Beluga white whale, NOC American scientists have identified a male beluga whale capable of making human-like sounds and spontaneously mimicking human conversations. According to a paper published online in Current Biology, researchers heard a nine-year-old whale named NOC emitting sounds octaves below normal ones. The discovery occurred when a diver at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in California... 

New space debris could threaten the International Space Station and other space missions after Russian rocket ‘Briz-M’ recently exploded into some 500 fragments, most of which are now floating in low Earth orbit. ­The rocket was previously floating inert in space after it failed on a mission to deliver two satellites to its intended orbits in a botched August launch. The rocket engine stalled... 

The traffic of commercial, private and fishing ships has increased enormously since the ice cover has been getting thinner. A recent study has revealed that the amount of plastic debris and litter piled up on the Arctic Ocean’s seabed has doubled in the past ten years. German researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research studied more than 2,000 photographs of the Arctic... 

NASA scientists reported on Thursday that the robot Curiosity will study the recently discovered bright particles on the Martian surface after it was ruled out that they could be from any cables of the ship that carried the android. In October, it showed transmitted while collecting samples of Martian soil. Scientists at the U.S. space agency NASA (by acronym) announced that the robot Curiosity will... 

Conversion: Dr Ebon Alexander claims he had an out-of-body experience whilst in a coma When it came to the after-life, Eben Alexander used to be just like most scientists — a firm non-believer. By his own account only ‘nominally’ a Christian, the 58-year-old, Harvard-educated neurosurgeon knew too much to have time for the tales of out-of-body experiences that patients would sometimes describe... 

A little-known plant with a truly bizarre name is now making headlines as a cancer killer, with the compound of the plant vanishing tumors in mice with pancreatic cancer. Known as the “Tripterygium Wilfordii” or Lei Gong Teng sometimes called “Thunder God Vine”, the Chinese plant is actually integrated into Chinese medicine and has been used for ages in remedying a number of... 

Mozilla’s ‘Boot to Gecko’ project will be launched as a fully-fledged smartphone operating system next year to offer users an open alternative to proprietary and partially closed rivals, the non-profit organisation has announced. The announcement is not a huge surprise as B2G has rumbled along for a year since inception, but Mozilla has offered an unexpected level of commercial...