SKT, China Mobile agree on LTE roaming service

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile operator, said Thursday that it has agreed to launch an automatic international Long Term Evolution roaming service with China Mobile Ltd., as well as other LTE services.Under the deal, travelers and businesspeople will be able to use their regular LTE services offered by the two mobile carriers more easily between the two countries, according to SK Telecom.About 6.8 million Koreans and Chinese traveled between the two countries last year. Early this

Dec. 5, 2013

Ancient DNA from human relative sets age record

NEW YORK (AP) ― Scientists have reached farther back than ever into the ancestry of humans to recover and analyze DNA, using a bone found in Spain that’s estimated to be 400,000 years old. So far, the achievement has provided more questions than answers about our ancient forerunners.The feat surpasses the previous age record of about 100,000 years for genetic material recovered from members of the human evolutionary line. Older DNA has been mapped from animals.Experts said the work shows that ne

Dec. 5, 2013

Men’s and women’s brains are wired differently: study

Women aren’t very good at reading maps, and men are incapable of multi-tasking.At first glance they might seem like a couple of hoary old stereotypes from the battle of the sexes. But are they?A new study looking at the neural wiring of the male and female brain has concluded that there may be some truth to commonly held beliefs about what makes men and women tick.The study, published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, has found striking differences between the way that men’s an

Dec. 5, 2013

Argentina grapples with its most polluted river

BUENOS AIRES (AP) ― The picturesque La Boca district draws hordes of tourists to stroll its narrow streets lined with colorful buildings and eat at outdoor restaurants. Now it has a new, unwanted claim to fame: The Riachuelo river flowing through the neighborhood has been named one of the planet’s 10 dirtiest places.Thousands of people live along the river, and environmentalists say a court-ordered cleanup of decades of industrial pollution and sewage has made little progress in five years. Many

Dec. 5, 2013

Samsung’s global share in mobile memory nears 50%

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. saw its market share in the global mobile memory industry reach 50 percent in the second quarter thanks to growing demand for mobile devices, a market researcher said Wednesday.Samsung Electronics sold about 1.41 billion units of mobile dynamic random access memories in the second quarter of this year, according to a report by market researcher IHS iSuppli.Its global market share stood at 49.4 percent at the end of June.The numbers are calculated b

Dec. 4, 2013

Korea develops new shark-repelling device

South Korea has developed a new shark-repelling device that provides safety to both humans and sharks, the government said Wednesday.The device uses solar panels set on top of floating buoys to create a curtain of magnetic fields that is only irritating to sharks, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.Each solar panel creates a magnetic current of less than 5 volts, which is virtually undetectable to humans or other fish, a ministry official said.“The country sees a considerable numb

Dec. 4, 2013

Federal study warns of sudden climate change problems

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Hard-to-predict sudden changes to Earth’s environment are more worrisome than climate change’s bigger but more gradual impacts, a panel of scientists advising the federal government concluded Tuesday.The 200-page report by the National Academy of Sciences looked at warming problems that can occur in years instead of centuries. The report repeatedly warns of potential “tipping points” where the climate passes thresholds, beyond which “major and rapid changes occur.” And some of

Dec. 4, 2013

ISON confirmed dead after brush with sun

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― A comet that grabbed attention worldwide for being likened to a massive snowball in space did not survive its brush with the sun last week, NASA confirmed on Tuesday.“Though the exact time of ISON’s death is uncertain it does appear to be no more. All that is left is a cloud of debris without a nucleus,” C. Alex Young of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center told AFP in an email.Dubbed the “Christmas Comet,” the icy giant described as a massive and dirty snowball skimmed past t

Dec. 4, 2013

LTE subscribers near 27m in S. Korea

The number of subscribers to the so-called long-term evolution (LTE) mobile network in the country reached 27 million last month, with over 50 percent of mobile phone users using the faster wireless coverage, industry data showed on Wednesday.According to the data compiled by the country's three mobile carriers, some 27.35 million people subscribed to the LTE service as of end-November, accounting for slightly more than half of the country's 54.4 million mobile phone users.The end-November figur

Dec. 4, 2013

Techies vs. NSA: Encryption arms race escalates

SAN JOSE, California (AP) ― Encrypted email, secure instant messaging and other privacy services are booming in the wake of the National Security Agency’s recently revealed surveillance programs. But the flood of new computer security services is of variable quality, and much of it, experts say, can bog down computers and isn’t likely to keep out spies.In the end, the new geek wars ― between tech industry programmers on the one side and government spooks, fraudsters and hacktivists on the other

Dec. 2, 2013

Mice can ‘warn’ sons, grandsons of dangers via sperm

PARIS (AFP) ― Lab mice trained to fear a particular smell can transfer the impulse to their unborn sons and grandsons through a mechanism in their sperm, a study said Sunday.The research claims to provide evidence for the concept of animals “inheriting” a memory of their ancestors’ traumas, and responding as if they had lived the events themselves.It is the latest find in the study of epigenetics, in which environmental factors are said to cause genes to start behaving differently without any ch

Dec. 2, 2013

India says its Mars spacecraft on course

NEW DELHI (AP) ― India’s Mars orbiter mission ventured out of Earth’s sphere of influence early Sunday in an attempt to reach the red planet’s orbit after a critical maneuver.The Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organization said the spacecraft fired its main engine for more than 20 minutes, giving it the correct velocity to leave the Earth’s orbit.“The Earth orbiting phase of the spacecraft ended. The spacecraft is now on a course to encounter Mars after a journey of about 10 months around

Dec. 1, 2013

Smartphone app to give earthquake warning

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) ― A smartphone app designed to give early warning of earthquakes could be ready as early as next year, according to scientists at the World Science Forum in Rio de Janeiro. Researchers from the University of California showed off the project this week at a conference on how to use technology to ward off natural disasters. The app is based on technology used in an early warning system prepared by a team under professor Richard Allen, director of the UC Berkeley Seismological

Dec. 1, 2013

Did Comet ISON survive? Scientists see tiny hope

STOCKHOLM (AP) ― A comet that gained an earthly following because of its bright tail visible from space was initially declared dead after grazing the sun. Now, there is a sliver of hope that Comet ISON may have survived.New images being analyzed Friday showed a streak of light moving away from the sun that some said could indicate it wasn’t game over just yet.“It certainly appears as if there is an object there that is emitting material,” said Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queens University

Dec. 1, 2013