Category: Science &Technology

{{Apple has taken on Dropbox and WhatsApp with a series of software upgrades that mimic the rival apps’ services.}}

At its annual conference for software developers, the firm unveiled iCloud Drive, an internet-based storage app, which works on Apple systems and PCs.

In an effort to keep customers using all its technologies, Apple improved integration for calls and messages across its devices.

It also unveiled new mobile and desktop operating systems.

Apple’s iMessage app was given extra features, some of which are similar to rival service WhatsApp, recently acquired by Facebook for $19bn (£11.3bn).

Users will be able to easily create and modify group messages, send voice clips with a single swipe, and even create and exchange short video clips.

The ability to send and receive text messages across all Apple devices was also introduced.

Jan Koum, WhatsApp’s co-founder, reacted to Apple’s announcement by tweeting:

“Very flattering to see Apple “borrow” numerous WhatsApp features into iMessage in iOS 8 #innovation”

{{UN peacekeeping missions should deploy more drones and state-of the art technology to become more effective, limit boots on the ground and keep aid workers safer, their chief said on Thursday.}}

On the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, staff paid tribute to more than 3 000 peacekeepers who have died since 1948, including 106 last year, and to those still serving on the frontline.

The head of UN peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, said that a peacekeeper died on average once every three days in 2013, and that technology needs to be upgraded to assist a record number of UN boots on the ground.

The Security Council last month approved a new mission in the Central African Republic and in December voted to send an extra 5 500 soldiers to war-torn South Sudan.

“Clearly we cannot continue to afford to work with 20th century tools in the 21st century,” Ladsous told reporters in New York.

He said drones had already helped in the Democratic Republic of Congo and could be vital in improving humanitarian access.

“They [convoys] can use the images of the machines to make sure they are not going to be attacked or hijacked on the way. That, I think, is a very significant development,” Ladsous said.

“We do need them [drones] in countries like Mali, like Central African Republic and clearly in South Sudan it would be my desire that we might deploy them,” he said.

Surveillance drones could replace some military observers and make a big difference.

wirestory

{{Google has launched a service to allow Europeans to ask for personal data to be removed from online search results.}}

The move comes after a landmark European Union court ruling earlier this month, which gave people the “right to be forgotten”.

Links to “irrelevant” and outdated data should be erased on request, it said.

Google said it would assess each request and balance “privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information”.

“When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information,” Google says on the form which applicants must fill in.

Google said it would look at information about “financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials” while deciding on the request.

Earlier this month, the BBC learned that more than half of requests sent to Google from UK individuals involved convicted criminals.

This included a man convicted of possessing child abuse images who had also asked for links to pages about his conviction to be wiped.

On 13 May, the EU’s court of justice ruled that links to “irrelevant” and outdated data on search engines should be erased on request.

The case was brought by a Spanish man who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed home, which appeared on Google’s search results, infringed his privacy.

On Friday, Google said that EU citizens who want their private details removed from the search engine will be able to do so by filling out an online form.

However, they will need to provide links to the material they want removed, their country of origin, and a reason for their request.

Individuals will also have to attach a valid photo identity.

“Google often receives fraudulent removal requests from people impersonating others, trying to harm competitors, or improperly seeking to suppress legal information,” the firm said.

“To prevent this kind of abuse, we need to verify identity.”

agencies

{{The first two attempts at a database of every single human protein – the “proteome” – have been made public.}}

This builds on our knowledge of the genome by showing which genes actually produce proteins in which tissues.

One team in Germany and one spanning the US and India have published their proteome maps in the journal Nature, and on searchable, public websites.

Some of the 17-to-18,000 reported proteins arise from stretches of DNA previously thought to be “non-coding”.

Along the vast length of DNA packed inside each of our cells, our genes are the sections which contain the instructions, or code, for making proteins.

“While we have a good idea of what the genome looks like, we didn’t know how many of those potentially 20,000 protein-coding genes would actually make protein,” said Prof Bernhard Kuester, who led the German team at the University of Technology, Munich.

{{Unexpected results}}

To find out, the researchers extracted all of the protein from many different samples of human tissues, as well as a number of cell lines.

The proteins in that purified mixture were then chopped into small pieces and a technique called mass spectrometry revealed the sequence of amino acids forming each of those pieces.

With a lot of computing power and patience, these batches of protein fragments can be compared with the human genome to make a map, showing which genes in which tissues are “expressed” and producing protein.

“This is the first inventory, if you like,” Prof Kuester told media, “like a dozen years ago with the first draft of the human genome.”

And just like the results of the Human Genome Project, these data contain some surprises.

Both groups found hundreds of unexpected proteins, produced by fragments of ancient genes (called “pseudogenes”) or by lengths of DNA that were not thought to be genes at all.

As well as the newcomers, there were notable absences. “We have good reason to believe that there are hundreds of known, annotated genes that perhaps are redundant,” said Prof Kuester.

The team based in the US and India, led by Prof Akhilesh Pandey of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, found evidence for only 84% of the proteins that might be predicted from looking at the genome.

{{Beyond genetics}}

Prof Pandey told the media it was important to study the proteins themselves, as well as the genes that encode them.

He offered an example of how a researcher, investigating a particular gene, might use one of the new databases: “They can look at the expression and get clues about what it could be doing.

For example if a protein is expressed in the foetal gut and not the adult gut, then they might think of some sort of developmental process.”

The tissue-by-tissue breakdown could also help scientists trying to figure out the actions and side effects of drugs.

By comparing the proteome of various cancer cell lines, Prof Kuester and his team have already identified certain clusters of proteins that could increase or decrease sensitivity to cancer drugs.

Dr Kevin Mills, who uses proteomics to study rare diseases at the UCL Institute of Child Health, agrees that it is crucial to look “beyond genomics” at protein levels and how they vary.

“Genetics can’t tell us everything,” said Dr Mills, who was not involved in either study. “This is really important. We’re not static – we’re fluid and dynamic and our proteome changes continually.”

BBC

{{In an unprecedented, three-year cyber espionage campaign, Iranian hackers created false social networking accounts and a fake news website to spy on military and political leaders in the United States, Israel and other countries, a cyber intelligence firm said on Thursday.}}

ISight Partners, which uncovered the operation, said the hackers’ targets include a four-star U.S. Navy admiral, U.S. lawmakers and ambassadors, members of the U.S.-Israeli lobby, and personnel from Britain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The firm declined to identify the victims and said it could not say what data had been stolen by the hackers, who were seeking credentials to access government and corporate networks, as well as infect machines with malicious software.

“If it’s been going on for so long, clearly they have had success,” iSight Executive Vice President Tiffany Jones told media. The privately held company is based in Dallas, Texas and provides intelligence on cyber threats.

ISight dubbed the operation “Newscaster” because it said the Iranian hackers created six “personas” who appeared to work for a fake news site, NewsOnAir.org, which used content from the Associated Press, BBC, Reuters and other media outlets.

The hackers created another eight personas who purported to work for defense contractors and other organizations, iSight said.

The hackers set up false accounts on Facebook and other online social networks for these 14 personas, populated their profiles with fictitious personal content, and then tried to befriend target victims, according to iSight.

The operation has been active since at least 2011, iSight said, noting that it was the most elaborate cyber espionage campaign using “social engineering” that has been uncovered to date from any nation.

To build credibility, the hackers would approach high-value targets by first establishing ties with the victims’ friends, classmates, colleagues, relatives and other connections over social networks run by Facebook Inc, Google Inc and its YouTube, LinkedIn Corp and Twitter Inc.

The hackers would initially send the targets content that was not malicious, such as links to news articles on NewsOnAir.org, in a bid to establish trust.

Then they would send links that infected PCs with malicious software, or direct targets to web portals that ask for network log-in credentials, iSight said.

The hackers used the 14 personas to make connections with more than 2,000 people, the firm said, adding that it believed the group ultimately targeted several hundred individuals.

“This campaign is not loud. It is low and slow,” said Jones. “They want to be stealth. They want to be under the radar.”