Washington, September 1 What is yawning? Why is it so contagious? Experts at the University of Nottingham have published research that suggests the human propensity for contagious yawning is triggered automatically by primitive reflexes in the primary motor cortex — an area of the brain responsible for motor function. TheirRead More

London An extreme global warming event 56 million years ago was driven by massive carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from volcanoes, during the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean, a study suggests. Researchers from the University of Southampton in the UK used a combination of new geochemical measurements and novel globalRead More

San Francisco Apple is expected to launch its next flagship device iPhone 8 on September 12, a media report said. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is expected to release three new devices — iPhone 8 along with the updated versions of the iPhone 7 and 7 PlusRead More

Boston A simple device that can create complex birdsongs, including those of Zebra and Bengalese finches, has been developed by Indian-origin scientists at Harvard University. The device uses air blown through a stretched rubber tube to recreate birdsongs found in nature. Researchers found that the inherent complexity in birdsongs mayRead More

San Francisco Apple is expected to launch its next flagship device iPhone 8 on September 12, a media report said. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is expected to release three new devices — iPhone 8 along with the updated versions of the iPhone 7 and 7 PlusRead More

Washington NASA’s next mission to Mars, scheduled to launch next year, will focus on examining the deep interior of the red planet, according to the US space agency. Information gathered by the Insight mission will boost understanding of how all rocky planets formed, including Earth, NASA said. “Because the interiorRead More

Los Angeles Smartphone addiction, and anxiety caused by being separated from the devices, is getting worse as people are increasingly seeing their devices as an extension of themselves, a study has warned. Smartphones have become an integral part of living, penetrating deep into everyday life as “an irresistible intruder inRead More

Toronto People who play contact sports such as football and hockey — that have higher risk of body collisions — are more likely show changes in their brain structure and function, a study has found. Researchers at St Michael’s Hospital in Canada performed preseason brain scans of 65 varsity athletesRead More

London British scientists have developed the world’s smallest surgical robot that could transform daily operations for tens of thousands of patients, the media reported on Sunday. From a converted pig shed in the Cambridgeshire countryside, a team of 100 scientists and engineers have used low-cost technology originally developed for mobileRead More

Toronto, August 21 Can anyone claim the red planet or natural resources on asteroids? Business leaders and legal experts say the question has become more than philosophical as a growing number of firms, often backed by capital and technology from Silicon Valley, have set their sights on the resources ofRead More