In honor the late, great Douglas Adams, we have a special "Towel Day" episode of The World's weekly Technology Podcast. It comes complete with an African social network built in China. We also will talk about the trend to put server farms in cold climates. Plus, we have Italian drones patrolling mafia garbage dumps, something called a Mine Kafon, and RoboFish!! Continue reading →

24 May 2012 Last updated at 01:43 GMT Virtual patient under the knife on hi-tech operating table By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. WATCH: Surgeon Aimee Di Marco shows how to cut up a digital cadaver At St Mary's Hospital in London, surgeon Aimee Di Marco is about to cut up a body. There will be no blood, no need for a scalpel or other medical instruments, and afterwards she will be able to place the organs back in the body, reattach the bones and blood vessels, and put the skin back on. The body in question is a virtual one, appearing on a touchscreen "operating table". It could represent the future for both teaching would-be doctors ... Continue reading →

The tunnels beneath our city streets are evolving and so are the life forms that live in them. It all sounds like the plot of a horror film, writes Quentin Cooper. Down in the underground, things are evolving. Not just evolving, going Wilde. It was good old Oscar who in 1889 came up with the much borrowed and adapted line “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”. If you want an example of such mimicry, look no further than Mimic. Remember Mimic, the late 90s Guillermo Del Toro film in which strange giant insectoids begin appearing in the Manhattan subway system? It turns out that it’s all the result of scientists’ misguided attempts at eradicating nasty disease-carrying cockroaches by genetically engineering a mutant ... Continue reading →

After two years of intentionally losing money in a very smart way, a Mexican cell phone company is set to change the way the country’s consumers use mobile phones to access the internet. If their plan works, it could transform not only the Mexican phone industry, but consumer finance systems in developing countries around the globe. When you bought your cell phone, you might have earned a few hundred dollars in discounts in exchange for the promise of sticking with your carrier for two years. Those shackling cell phone contracts might seem like a hassle, but they’re a first-world luxury. Mobile plans that bill you later, rather than forcing you to pay upfront, end up saving you money and making your life easier. “When you're ... Continue reading →

Irrigation and salinity of the farmland are under inspection in Iraq Flickr/tommigodwin [BAGHDAD] The high level of salt threatening two-thirds of Iraq's irrigated farmland — as well as many other countries — is being targeted by a group of Iraqi and international researchers and policymakers. The Iraq Salinity Project aims to develop long-term strategies to manage salinity in central and southern Iraq. It is coordinated by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and is scheduled to run until the end of 2014. Kamal Hussein, Iraqi deputy minister of environment, told SciDev.Net that farmers abandon an estimated 25,000 hectares of farmland in central and southern Iraq every year because of elevated salt levels. "Watering crops [through traditional irrigation canals] is one ... Continue reading →

Mind the Map: a journey through London cartography – in pictures The London transport network not only inspired Harry Beck's famous tube map, it has birthed a dazzling array of posters, designs and cartographic artwork for more than 100 years. Now a new exhibition, Mind the Map: Inspiring Art, Design and Cartography, at the London Transport Museum until 28 October, brings together the museum's most remarkable artworks. Take a trip through some of the best examples Continue reading →

We all know light pollution hampers our view of the stars. Not many appreciate what it's doing under our feet, says Tom Davies You're working on the impact of street lights on animals on the ground. Tell us more.We know that aerial invertebrates, such as moths, are attracted to street lights and can experience increased rates of mortality as a result of flying into the lights, exhaustion or increased predation by things like bats. What we don't know is if that has a lasting impact on population numbers. What did you find?Because aerial invertebrates are quite difficult to study with regard to community composition, we looked at ground dwelling invertebrates, including beetles, spiders and ants, to see if their communities were affected by proximity to ... Continue reading →

[Image: "Zero-Gravity Design" at the Domus Academy in Milan]. Given all the justifiable excitement in the past few days about the successful launch of SpaceX, Milan's Domus Academy is hosting a rather well-timed two-week design intensive this summer called "Zero-Gravity Design: Products & Microenvironments for Orbiting Hotels." It runs from July 2-13, 2012, and will be taught by "aerospace entrepreneur" Susmita Mohanty. From the studio brief: As the race to open up the space frontier to tourists revs up, so will opportunities for designers and architects. The participants of this course will design products and microenvironments for living aboard future Orbiting Hotels. The Space Tourists, will have to, after all, eat, drink, sleep, cleanse, exercise, work, play, improvise, relax, move, stay still, contemplate, congregate, seek ... Continue reading →