Science & Technology – motto.media

Line Just Went Orwellian on Japanese Users with its Social Credit Score

Michael Grothaus reports: It appears other countries besides China are heading toward a bleak dystopian future where a human being is scored by their online activities. Only this time, it’s a tech company and not a government implementing the [...]

People Are Calling for Zuckerberg’s Resignation. Here Are Just Five of the Reasons Why

Facebook has been beset by scandals over the last year and many believe that nothing will change until its founder and CEO is gone. Charlotte Jee reports: A petition has been launched with one simple objective: to force Mark Zuckerberg to resign as [...]

Tim Berners-Lee’s Radical New Plan to Upend the Internet

With an ambitious decentralized platform, the father of the web hopes it’s game on for corporate tech giants like Facebook and Google. Last week, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, asked me to come and see a project he has been [...]

Japan Successfully Lands Robot Rovers on an Asteroid’s Surface

Chandler Thornton and Euan McKirdy report: The Japanese space agency JAXA said it made history Saturday by successfully landing two unmanned rovers on an asteroid. “The two rovers are in good condition and are transmitting images and [...]

Cheese Played a Surprisingly Important Role in Human Evolution

Ancient Egyptian cheese helps us understand when and how dairy came into our lives. Penny Bickle writes: A solid white mass found in a broken jar in an Ancient Egyptian tomb has turned out to be the world’s oldest example of solid cheese. Probably [...]

Mysterious X-37B Military Space Plane Nears 1 Year in Orbit

Leonard David reports: The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B miniature space plane has winged past 340 days in orbit performing secretive duties during the program’s fifth flight. The robotic craft’s latest mission, known as Orbital Test [...]

Death Wish Coffee Launches into Space

NEW YORK (Death Wish Coffee PR) Doug Messier reports: Death Wish Coffee, also known as The World’s Strongest Coffee, announced its launch into space on June 28th aboard SpaceX CRS-15, officially making it the galaxy’s strongest coffee. The [...]

HondaJet Business Plane To Go On Sale in Japan Next Year

TOKYO (Reuters) — Honda Motor Co. on Wednesday said it would start selling its six-seater business jet in Japan next year, as it seeks to expand global sales by tapping into demand from a growing class of high net-worth individuals. The automaker [...]

Hackers Disable Scores of Canon-made Security Cameras Across Japan

More than 60 security cameras made by Canon Inc. have been hacked and rendered unusable at places including key waterways, a fish market and a care facility for people with disabilities, it was learned Monday. Many of the networked cameras had [...]

Japan: Facial Recognition System to Screen Departing Foreign Visitors

The Justice Ministry plans to expand the use of a facial recognition system at Haneda Airport to four other airports. The system, which currently screens the faces of Japanese nationals returning home, will also be used for foreigners leaving Japan [...]

Game Changer: Rare-Earth Minerals Found in Japan in a ‘Semi-Infinite’ Deposit, Potential Economic Boon

Scientists found a deposit of rare-earth minerals off the coast of Japan. It could be a huge boon to the country’s economy. Because China has tightly controlled the world’s supply of these minerals — which are used in everything from [...]

OH YES HE DID: Elon Musk Has Deleted Tesla and SpaceX’s Facebook Pages

Chris Mills reports: As of Friday afternoon, the Facebook pages for Tesla and SpaceX are no longer online, a move that appears to have been taken after Elon Musk was questioned on Twitter. The move appears to be a response to the #DeleteFacebook [...]

These Japanese Songbirds Have Their Own Warning Call for ‘Snake!’

Japanese songbirds can make unique calls to warn of a snake nearby, causing their comrades to conjure a visual image of the predator and react accordingly, researchers said Monday. Until now, the ability to visualize something after hearing the word [...]

Glass That Can Completely Heal Itself After Breaking Developed by University of Tokyo

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Voyager 1 Just Fired Up its Backup Thrusters for the 1st Time in 37 Years

NASA’s far-flung Voyager 1 spacecraft has taken its backup thrusters out of mothballs. Voyager 1 hadn’t used its four “trajectory correction maneuver” (TCM) thrusters since November 1980, during the spacecraft’s last [...]

[VIDEO] Astronauts Make Pizza in Space

Astronauts at the International Space Station created a video of themselves making pizza in zero gravity. (UPI) — Astronauts at the International Space Station created a video of themselves making pizza in zero gravity. Italian astronaut Paolo [...]

North Korea State Media Says New Missile Puts All of U.S. in Striking Range

It landed in Japanese waters but flew higher than any other missile the North had previously tested. North Korea says it has successfully tested a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can reach the whole of continental United [...]

Air Force to Discuss ‘Unusual and Compelling Urgency’ for New Missile-Warning Satellites

WASHINGTON — Sandra Erwin reports: Defense and space industry executives were surprised Wednesday to see a U.S. Air Force “sources sought and request for information” in FedBizOpps on the next-generation missile-warning satellite [...]

Restrepo-Schild and her team developed a two-layered artificial retina they say works much like the real thing (Credit: peshkova/Depositphotos)

AI Can Be Made Legally Accountable for Its Decisions

Computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and legal scholars say AI systems should be able to explain their decisions without revealing all their secrets. By Emerging Technology from the arXiv Artificial intelligence is set to play a significantly [...]

China’s AI Awakening 中国人工智能的崛起

The West shouldn’t fear China’s artificial-intelligence revolution. It should copy it. Will Knight reports: On a tropical island that marks the southern tip of China, a computer program called Lengpudashi is playing one-on-one poker against a [...]

Japan’s First ‘Regulatory Sandboxes’ Could Open Next Spring

Suspending rules in selected zones aims to free innovators and entrepreneurs. TOKYO — Japan is looking to create so-called regulatory sandboxes in three locales as soon as next spring to test technologies such as self-driving cars and [...]

To Stay Young, Kill Zombie Cells

An anti-aging strategy that works in mice is about to be tested in humans. Megan Scudellari, Nature magazine: Jan van Deursen was baffled by the decrepit-looking transgenic mice he created in 2000. Instead of developing tumours as expected, the [...]

There’s Something Wrong With This Iron Man 3 Scene

One Spark is not like the other. Rhett Allain writes: Late at night, I tend to flip through the channels just to see what’s up. If there’s a good movie on, I might watch part of it—and recently, I stumbled on Iron Man 3. I know [...]

[VIDEO] Yahama’s Robo-Motorcyclist Tears Around a Racetrack at 124 MPH

And it’s totally mesmerizing to watch in action. The video above shows the company’s Motobot—literally, a robotic motorcyclist that sits atop a standard Yamaha and controls and balances the bike—as it charges around a racetrack and tries to [...]

The Great Interferon Beta Mambo Chickens: Researchers Rear Hens that Lay Drug-Filled Eggs

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Kansai in Osaka Prefecture has succeeded in making hens lay eggs that contain a pharmaceutical agent that can be used to treat such diseases as cancer and hepatitis, it has [...]

From Tokyo to the United States in 30 Minutes: SpaceX Plans to Use Spaceships for Earth Passenger Transit

Some of the flight times SpaceX displayed during its presentation include 22 minutes for Hong Kong to Singapore, 24 minutes from LA to Toronto, 25 minutes from LA to New York, and just 30 minutes from New York to Paris. Darrell [...]

[PHOTO] Behold: First Picture of Functional SpaceX Spacesuit

Elon Musk has revealed the first picture of a new SpaceX spacesuit. Elon promises more in days to follow. Worth noting that this actually works (not a mockup)…. (read more) via [...]

Japan to Join Multinational Neuroscience Research Project

The government will begin a five-year joint neuroscience research project with the United States and the European Union next fiscal year, aimed at tackling the global impact of depression and dementia, among other mental and neurological disorders [...]