Researchers from York University discovered that, if worker and queen honeybees exposed to field realistic levels of neonicotinoids die sooner and reducing the health of the entire colony. The researchers were also surprised to find that the neonicotinoid contaminated pollen collected by the honeybees came not from crops grown from neonicotinoid treated seeds, but plants growing in areas adjacent to those crops. This is season-long, field realistic research with typical exposure. Readmore

Australian engineer in collaboration with Dr. Susan Graham have develop a pair of drones that can help mitigate some of the damage by planting trees at a rate that far outpaces what is possible to do by hand. The first drone scans an area of land, searching for an ideal plot to plant. This drone helps to make a 3D map of the area and then special algorithms are employed to find the best places to plant. The second drone then takes that map and its payload of up to 150 seed pods and gets to work shooting the seeds into the ground. Lauren Fletcher, the CEO of BioCarbon Engineering, said: "We're firing at one a second, which means a pair of operators will be able to plant nearly 100,000 trees per day — 60 teams like this will get us to a billion trees a year."

Drones get a lot of press for their delivery capabilities, but Amazon packages aren't the only way to utilize this technology. There are lifesaving drones that can beat EMTs to emergencies, drones that could help to support declining bee populations, and even drones to stand in for backup dancers. All of this and much more is to come, since not even the sky is the limit. Readmore

An Israeli company will oversee $1 billion worth of solar field projects in Africa, harnessing the power of the sun, even as Israel itself struggles to bring its own plans for large solar fields online. The massive deal to install the solar panels is part of an agreement that came out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Liberia to attend the Economic Community of West African States on Sunday.

Jerusalem-based Energiya Global’s deal will start with a $20 million solar field next to Liberia’s main airport producing 10 megawatts of power, and eventually expand to other ECOWAS countries, though further fields are still in the preliminary planning stages. Energiya Global CEO Yossi Abramowitz, who was in Liberia with Netanyahu and was part of Israel’s negotiating team for the COP21 Paris Climate Accords, said Israel’s legacy of bureaucracy and its struggling infrastructure mean that the deals Energiya Global is inking with African countries will put those countries ahead of Israel in terms of percentage of renewable energy consumption. Read more

Vayyar has developed sensors that can detect and visually display – in three dimensions – what lies on the other side of any surface. From detecting breast cancer cells through the skin, to finding people on search and rescue missions – this technology can change the way we interact with the world, and save lives. Designed to see through materials, objects and even liquids, Vayyar’s sensors look through known barriers to deliver 3D images. Its technology can see through skin and tissue to detect cancer masses, look through walls and create a 3D image of hidden structural foundations; or, it can be used to create a smart home that tracks the location of persons needing care, as well as their vital signs as they move around the house.

Its 3D sensors rely on antennae that are constantly sending out radio frequency signals to create a 3D map of the environment. The signals travel through objects, detecting their location, size, movement, and makeup. Granted, radio frequency sensors have been around for a while; but Vayyar’s advantage comes from the quantity of antennae that can transmit and receive many signals at once, and the strength of the algorithms used to interpret the data. The startup packed these antennae into a compact, inexpensive system – which would be priced at a fraction of the cost of an MRI system – giving Vayyar an edge over other, more expensive and unwieldy technologies. Read more

The rapid pace of technological advancement is allowing more content to be created in more ways. Also, with the rise of automation, more people will be able to pursue creative endeavors. Automation will force most people out of a job and society will eventually be forced to adopt some form of universal basic income. What then? What are people going to do when they no longer have to work?. Initially, it seems like a nice problem to have as it will free people to do what they really want to do with their lives. But we define ourselves by how we contribute to society, for most people their career is the answer to who they are and what they do. Read more

It's common for people to pack on more pounds as they age, but now a new study may have an explanation for this weight gain — and it has nothing to do with exercise or poor food choices. Researchers identified an enzyme that appears to increase its activity in animals as they age. The increase in this enzyme's activity may play a role in the weight gain and fitness decline that come with aging, they said. In experiments in mice on a high-fat diet, the researchers found that mice that had this enzyme blocked gained less weight than normal mice. Our society attributes the weight gain and lack of exercise at mid-life … primarily to poor lifestyle choices and lack of will power," study author Dr. Jay Chung, head of the Laboratory of Obesity and Aging Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, said in a statement. "But this study shows that there is a genetic program driven by an overactive enzyme that promotes weight gain and loss of exercise capacity at mid-life," Chung said. [The Best Way to Keep Weight Off]

Because the new study was conducted in mice, researchers don't yet know if blocking this enzyme in humans will have the same effect. But the researchers said that, with more research, the findings could potentially lead to the development of new weight loss medications that would block this enzyme.

 Read more from the Journal Cell Metabolism.

It looks like lemonade, tastes like lemonade, but it's simply water. Researchers in Singapore say they have invented”virtual lemonade", using electrodes to mimic the flavor of the beverage and LED lights to imitate its color, that could one day allow people to digitally share drinks over the internet. Read more

Ghana, Kenya and Malawi will pilot the world's first malaria vaccine from 2018, offering it for babies and children in high-risk areas as part of real-life trials, the World Health Organization said on Monday.The injectable vaccine, called RTS,S or Mosquirix, was developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline to protect children from the most deadly form of malaria in Africa. In clinical trials it proved only partially effective, and it needs to be given in a four-dose schedule, but is the first regulator-approved vaccine against the mosquito-borne disease. Read more

Using powerful supercomputers, astronomers at Durham University reveal further evidence of the existence of dark matter – the mysterious substance that is believed to hold the Universe together. The scientists used computer models to simulate the formation of galaxies in the presence of dark matter and were able to demonstrate that their size and rotation speed were linked to their brightness in a similar way to observations made by astronomers. Read more