(The BBC) — The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has completed his $44-billion takeover of Twitter, according to U.S. media and an investor in the firm.
A number of top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, have reportedly been fired.
It brings to a close the saga that saw Twitter go to court to hold the billionaire to the terms of a takeover deal.
Musk tweeted that his interest in the firm was not about making money.
Twitter has...
(NASA) – The annual Antarctic ozone hole reached an average area of 23.2 million square kilometers between Sept. 7 and Oct. 13, 2022. This depleted area of the ozone layer over the South Pole was slightly smaller than last year and generally continued the overall shrinking trend of recent years.
"Over time, steady progress is being made, and the hole is getting smaller," said Paul Newman, chief scientist for Earth sciences at NASA's Goddard Space...
Long-term use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), or vaping, can significantly impair the function of the body's blood vessels, increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease. Additionally, the use of both e-cigs and regular cigarettes may cause an even greater risk than the use of either of these products alone. These findings come from two new studies supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The findings,...
(University of Bonn) – An international team of astrophysicists has made a puzzling discovery while analysing certain star clusters. The finding challenges Newton's laws of gravity, the researchers write in their publication.
The observations are consistent with the predictions of an alternative theory of gravity. However, this is controversial among experts. The results have now been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In their work, the researchers investigated open star clusters. These are...
A hermit dubbed by media as "the world's dirtiest man" has died at the age of 94, just months after having his first wash in decades.
Amou Haji had refused to use soap and water for more than half a century, fearing it would make him sick, the BBC reports.
The Iranian, who lived in the southern province of Fars, had avoided previous attempts by villagers to get him clean.
But, local media say, Amou Haji finally...
Some of Asia's largest animals, including tigers and elephants, are defying 12,000 years of extinction trends by thriving alongside humans, a University of Queensland-led study has revealed.
Researchers scoured paleontological records to compare the historic distribution of Asia's 14 largest species with their populations in present-day tropical forests.
PhD candidate Zachary Amir, from UQ's School of Biological Sciences and the Ecological Cascades Lab, said four species – tigers, Asian elephants, wild boars and clouded leopards – showed...
Almost all liver cancers develop after decades of chronic liver disease, but a new discovery by Columbia University researchers may lead to treatments that could break the link.
The research shows that during chronic liver disease a shift in the balance of quiescent and activated stellate liver cells not only promotes fibrosis but sets the stage for the most common type of primary liver cancer, called hepatocellular carcinoma.
The findings, published online in Nature, suggest that it may be possible to prevent...
Indian vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) has said it had to dump 100 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine after they expired, the BBC reports.
The firm stopped producing Covishield in December last year due to low demand, CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Thursday.
SII, the world's largest vaccine maker, has been making the local version of AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria jab.
Covishield accounts for more than 90% of the doses given in India.
India has administered over...
The industry executives were anxious, writes Shane Keating for the BBC.
Their company manufactured precision card-shuffling machines for casinos. Thousands of their mechanical shufflers were in operation in Las Vegas and around the world. The rental fees brought in millions of dollars each year, and the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
However, the executives had recently discovered that one of their machines had been hacked by a gang of hustlers. The gang used a hidden...
(Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) – Astrophysicists have performed a new analysis that places the most precise limits yet on the composition and evolution of the universe. With this analysis, dubbed Pantheon+, cosmologists find themselves at a crossroads.
Pantheon+ finds that the cosmos is composed of about two-thirds dark energy and one-third matter – mostly in the form of dark matter – and is expanding at an accelerating pace over the last several billion years. However, Pantheon+...
