Sunday 9 June 2019

'Hurry up!': G20 urged to speed up digital tax

Top G20 finance officials agreed Saturday there was an urgent need to find a global system to tax internet giants like Google and Facebook but clashed on the best way to do it.

* This article was originally published here

Proof of sandwiched graphene-membrane superstructure opens up a membrane-specific drug delivery mode

Researchers from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University (THU) report a sandwiched superstructure for graphene oxide (GO) that transports through cell membranes. The discovery, published in Science Advances, opens up a membrane-specific drug delivery mode, which could significantly improve cytotoxicity effects over traditional drug carriers.

* This article was originally published here

Walmart one-ups Amazon with deliveries direct to refrigerator

Walmart said Friday it was readying a new home delivery service where its employees could come inside and stock up customers' refrigerators.

* This article was originally published here

Mapping the ocean's unseen heroes, one microbe at a time

The picture of how climate change is impacting our ocean is often told via its larger inhabitants: scrawny polar bears, bleached coral, dwindling catch in fishing nets. But just as importantly, microscopic marine organisms play an essential role in our biosphere.

* This article was originally published here

Using a simulation framework to study spine behaviors of quadruped robots

Researchers at the Robert Bosch center for cyber physical systems in Bangalore, India, have recently proposed a simulation framework to systematically study the effects of spinal joint actuation on the locomotion performance of quadruped robots. In their study, outlined in a paper pre-published on arXiv, they used this framework to investigate the spine behaviors of a quadruped robot called Stoch 2 and their effects on its bounding performance.

* This article was originally published here

Somebody's watching you: The surveillance of self-driving cars

Picture the future, where driving is a thing of the past. You can hop in your car or one from a ride-share, buckle up and tell the car where you want to go. During your ride, you can check your email and look up a few things online through your dashboard. Meanwhile, your whereabouts and other details are being tracked remotely by companies. As self-driving cars develop further, autonomous vehicles will play a much larger role in the digital economy as car companies and others harness personalized customer information through geospatial and navigation technologies, combining it with existing financial consumer profiles, according to a study in Surveillance and Society.

* This article was originally published here