Worldcrunch
BETHLEHEM — Venetian larches, Turkish oaks, German lead, and 1,500-year-old nails: These are the base materials that a group of 30 Tuscan engineers, architects and archeologists are using to restore the Church of the Nativity for the first time in 600 years. Originally built in the 6th century by Byzantine Emperor Justinian, the church is […]
Like brain cells, those of the heart were long thought unable to regenerate. Science is showing this to be false, though applying treatment accordingly is still in its infancy.
No German federal contracts will go to companies that turn over data to the NSA and other spy agencies in the U.S., and elsewhere. There may, however, be one crucial exemption.
If you played a game on your smartphone in February, there’s a good chance it was Flappy Bird, a Vietnamese mobile app that took the gaming world by storm. According to Mary-Anne Lee for Games in Asia in Singapore, even professional gamers in Singapore couldn’t help but take notice. “The internet just blew up with news of Flappy Bird. It was ridiculously difficult and ridiculously addictive. I think what Flappy Bird has done for the country is given it the courage to realize, hey, we may not be Japan or Korea, but we do have the ability to produce something […]
PARIS — The 3D printing revolution promises to change the very way products are manufactured and sold, across a vast array of sectors. Inevitably this has sparked a race to directly print living cells of human beings. This technology is now available in the US and Japan, dubbed 3D bioprinting, with wide-eyed investors flocking to […]
No longer simply “service” rooms, kitchens and bathrooms have become increasingly integrated in living spaces. But the author also finds out what’s any home’s most important feature.
In Switzerland, famous and infamous for its secretive banks, the digital currency Bitcoin is already arriving in the real economy.
Since insecticides have killed most bees in China’s Sichuan province, local farmers are forced to fertilize the flowers themselves. But the “bee-men” may now be a dying breed.
How does it twirl? Why does it loop? An American cowboy might take it all for granted. But a French team has explored how the laws of physics can explain this common thread.
MUNICH — In many places in the northern Alps, the winter sports season is already over before Easter. Some view the mild winter as a kind of foretaste of climate change, but experts warn against reading too much into any single year’s weather. “What was extreme is that the weather this winter on the whole […]
The best weapon against insects is often other insects.
Falsely considered a type of magic, achieving hypnotic trance is already part of our everyday lives. Its potential applications for medical science are vast, if still largely unexplained.
Some see signs that the world’s tectonic plates are positioned in such a way to set off “the mother of all quakes.” Seismology has made advances, but is still not a perfect science.
“It’s not easy being green.” — Kermit the Frog PARIS – For some of us, being green is a hard-to-quantify choice of using a reusable bag at the grocery storetaking or taking public transport. But for others, environmental friendliness is a hard calculation to reach carbon-neutral status. That means removing as much carbon dioxide from […]
Drones don’t just make news, they are beginning to cover it. Brazil street protests are an early testing ground. But for now, the entertainment press is out ahead of the pack.
There are medically proven explanations for why our minds and bodies generally feel better when the season changes. So, goodbye Winter Blues, and hello Spring Euphoria!
BORDEAUX — Jeanne Lacombe, who runs four vineyards owned by wine magnate Bernard Magrez in France’s Médoc region, is used to waiting: for the grapes to ripen, for wines to age — and now, for her drone. It is due this month, and will come equipped with three carbon fiber feet, six propellers and a […]
ABDUL REHMAN GOTH — Ahmad Baloch couldn’t remember life ever changing much in this centuries-old fishing village just outside Karachi. But when two nuclear power plants started being built nearby, coast guard and naval security personnel arrived. “They don’t allow us free mobility in the waters,” he says of his fishing trade in Abdul Rehman Goth. “What are we going to do?” Fears about a terrorist attack on the nuclear power plants have led to massive security around them, leaving the fishermen locked out. “There are not enough fish recently,” Baloch says. “We’re just worried for our next generation.” Families […]
The American-invented dream of averting the finality of death by freezing one’s body is a world unto its own. Now it’s spreading to the UK, France and beyond.
While much of the West has seen the danger in abusing psychoactive drugs such as Valium, sales of these drugs in Brazil are skyrocketing, and doctors warn that it’s out of control.
A German-Spanish startup has created technology it says is so effective turning light into energy that it can also utilize moonbeams and office building windows.
A new, particularly scary version of an automobile ‘break-in’.
Natural reproduction and the adaptability of genes will always outperform the machinations of multinationals like Monsanto, accused of wanting world domination with GMO crop production.
Dane Dennis Aabo Sorensen lost his left hand and lower arm during a fireworks accident nine years ago. Now a new type of prosthesis has made it possible for him to feel sensation in his hand for the first time since then. “When I hold an object, I can feel if it’s hard or soft, […]
PARIS — Elegance is the watch word here, as a young model walks down the aisle, wearing a pair of astonishingly shaped stilettos, its complex patterns reminiscent of certain architectural constructions. The graceful shoes, created by French designer Pierre Renaux, were made entirely with a machine that is on the verge of changing the world, […]
A solar-powered hospital offers a glimmer of hope in a country still mired in poverty, and the after-effects of the massive 2010 earthquake.
The German driving legend has been in an artificially induced coma for more than a month since a ski accident. Doctors take us inside the state-of-the-art head trauma treatment.
TEL AVIV — Just last week at the Davos summit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was publicly praising the hi-tech industry in Israel. Now it seems his compliments may have been a bit premature. A new report says that Palestinian hackers from Gaza have recently launched a cyber-attack on Israel that has successfully targeted government […]
TEL AVIV — Frida Issa knew from the age of 11 that she’d one day work in the world of computers. But it was with her first job at a Tel Aviv startup that she first nurtured ambitions to do something on her own — and something built for the future. “We’re not into building […]
GENEVA — If the term “fast-track surgery” conjures a fast-food restaurant in your mind, then some explanation is in order. The term refers to a protocol that can reduce hospital stays by 30% to 50%, without any higher risk of readmission than ordinary surgery. In a study published last June in the British Journal of […]
Philosophers debate the meaning and sincerity of social network friendships, finding affirmation or disagreement from the words of long-dead forebears. Because there’s no app for that.
BEIJING — When he was 17, Zhao Bowen was a bored student who made an audacious decision. In a country where the cult of diplomas knows no boundaries, he quit school and decided not to take the exam that would have allowed him university entry. “All that fuss just to learn things that you can […]
PARIS — After he was in a car accident, Serge Fortuna was left with an infected wound that wouldn’t heal. When his doctors started talking about amputation, he refused and decided to try something else: a trip to the Republic of Georgia for phagotherapy, a treatment that uses specific bacteria-fighting viruses to heal antibiotic-resistant infections. […]
Researchers want to give new meaning to the idea of ‘plugging in’ students to maximize their performance.
A unique competition for humans seeking to inhabit Mars has prompted more sign-ups than you might have ever imagined. Inside a space program with the most pioneering of spirits.
BEIJING — For many Chinese, the successful Dec. 14 moon landing of the Chang’E-3 spacecraft was a moment of particular pride and joy. China has become the third country in the world to independently achieve a soft landing on the Moon and begin a round of lunar prospecting. It is also a milestone in China’s […]
Yogi Bear on the cutting edge of obesity research? Dr. Kevin Corbit, a scientist for the pharmaceutical giant Amgen, is convinced that by studying the behavior of the brown bear — an animal that can weigh up to 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) and consume up to 58,000 calories daily — we can understand a lot […]
TOKYO — Since the beginning of 2013, as many as 3,500 people have died on Japanese roads. Some 52% of these victims were aged over 65, representing a high mortality rate of 6 per 100,000 in an age category that is progressively becoming the dominant generation — in the aging archipelago, 1 out of 4 […]
Though physical money will still be around for a while, the spread of digital money is inevitable for four basic reasons: efficiency, hygiene, durability – and anonymity.