Charlie Hebdo latest: Al Qaeda threatens more attacks while search continues for accomplice Hayat Boumeddiene January 10, 2015 Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has claimed responsibility for the terror attacks on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The group said it ordered brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi to attack Charlie Hebdo as “revenge for the honour of the Prophet Mohammed”, after it printed inflammatory cartoons of the religious figure. [...]
Why governments, not pharmaceutical firms, will benefit most from the discovery of new antibiotic Taixobactin January 9, 2015 Earlier this week, scientists in the US made a discovery capable of transforming the pharmaceutical industry's approach to antibiotics. While screening 10,000 bacterial strains from a sample of soil, they found an antimicrobial called Taixobactin. Experimentation showed harmful bacteria were not immune to this toxin, which means it could provide the answer to the [...]
Falling oil prices help the UK close its trade deficit January 9, 2015 The UK's trade gap is narrowing, as falling oil prices drive down the price of imports relative to exports. According to the Office for National Statistics, in November last year the deficit fell to £1.4bn – a decrease of £1.1bn from the previous month and lower than any point since June 2013. This [...]
How bad is alcohol for your health? Drinking could be harming you in ways you’re unaware of January 9, 2015 If you feel unwell after a big night of drinking, it might not just be because you're hungover – there's a high chance you're actually ill. This is because alcohol lowers your immune system as soon as it enters the body, making you more vulnerable to the viruses and bacteria you come into contact [...]
Online gaming transformed by a player you’ll never be able to beat: One robot has played more poker than all of humanity combined January 9, 2015 You might as well give up, people – you'll never be the best poker player in the world. There's now a computer programme so good at it, the Canadian scientists who developed it say it will never make a mistake. They describe the new software as having “solved” the game, with an algorithm [...]
SpaceX launch Q&A: Expert explains the science behind landing a reusable rocket January 8, 2015 Tomorrow morning at 10:09am, SpaceX will launch its Falcon 9 rocket towards the International Space Station (ISS). Once far enough into space, the rocket will release its Dragon cargo and gradually turn around to go back on itself. Then, for the first time ever, scientists will try to land a rocket on Earth. [...]
The curse of paternal uncertainty: Why men are more jealous than women in relationships January 8, 2015 Men are more jealous than women in heterosexual relationships, it turns out – and the difference is driven by men's ingrained fear of fathering someone else's child. A group of researchers at Chapman University in the US carried out a poll on 64,000 Americans, asking them to describe how they would feel if their [...]
Your ultimate space travel guide: These gorgeous Nasa posters show which exoplanets should be top of your list January 8, 2015 They are the Caribbean Islands of space exploration – Nasa's top exoplanet recommendations offer landscapes you can only imagine, intense heat and out-of-this-world views. HD 40307g, Kepler-16b or Kepler-186f have been picked by the space agency's Travel Bureau, primarily because you are less likely to explode, implode or casually drift off into space than [...]
There’s a new cheese economy in China, but the UK is failing to get a slice of it January 8, 2015 China is developing a taste for cheese, but the UK is falling behind New Zealand, Australia and the rest of Europe when it comes to sending the dairy product over there. Until recently, cheese was viewed as a luxury product in China, but the market for it is growing fast as more and more affluent and [...]
Men, don’t take selfies – you look narcissistic and psychopathic January 7, 2015 You're a fine looking man and you're contemplating putting another selfie online. You know it's going to look self-involved (especially with the bedroom behind you), but you look too darned good to deprive all your Facebook friends of such a vision. This is the attitude currently tainting the reputation of hard-working, reputable men [...]
