Author: Diane Shipley

Staff Writer Diane is especially interested in high-tech medical advances, weird and interesting uses of science, new gadgets, and the intersection of tech and lifestyle. When not working, she reads the internet, listens to podcasts, watches American TV, and thinks about leaving the house.

DIY smartphone hormone tests are coming

We’ve written before about the rise in smartphone test apps and how the trend for at-home health screening is only set to grow. Now scientists have told a conference that the next step will likely be do-it-yourself tests to check levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Dr Joel Ehrenkranz and his team from Intermountain Healthcare…

Sony announces Xperia C3 for selfie-obsessives

Sony has finally accepted that duck faces are here to stay and announced a new selfie-focused phone, the Xperia C3. It has a 5.5 inch 720 pixel display, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB storage with support for 64 GB microSD cards, and is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor running Android 4.4.2. It also comes…

Remote controlled computer chip contraception is coming soon

How do you fancy being a bionic woman (with a very low chance of accidental pregnancy)? That’s certainly one of my life goals, and it could soon become a reality thanks to a Massachusetts-based company called MicroCHIPS which has developed a contraceptive computer chip that is implanted in the skin and controlled via wireless remote.…

Now you can 3D print with Nutella (and other pastes)

We hear a lot about the huge potential of 3D printers to make guns, planes, and even replacement human organs. But what about the really important things: cake toppers, ceramics, and fun designs in Nutella? Until now, those have all been pipe dreams, but a Kickstarter project brings a whole new (and non-gross) meaning to…

Finnish scientists communicate via smartphones’ compasses

Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for anything that makes me feel like I might one day be a little bit like Sydney Bristow or Veronica Mars, but my first response to reading that Finnish scientists used Android phone's in-built compasses to send encoded messages to each other was, ‘Why?’ I mean, we already have…

Scientists have discovered your brain’s on/off switch

Scientists from George Washington University have discovered a way to switch human consciousness on and off – and they weren’t even looking for it. As New Scientist reports, lead researcher Mohamad Koubeissi and his team were monitoring an epileptic patient’s brain activity by sending high frequency signals to deep brain electrodes, to try to identify…

Twitter exacerbates relationship problems, says study

If you find yourself bickering with your partner over Twitter, watch out: it’s a warning sign your relationship could be on thin ice. At least, that’s according to new research from the University of Missouri-Columbia, published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Russell Clayton, a doctoral student in the journalism department, surveyed 581…

Uber victory: Transport for London releases statement siding with app in cabbies row

Bad news for black cab drivers, but good news for ride-sharing apps (and their users): Transport for London (TfL) has released a statement confirming that Uber is operating legally in London. Cabbies had previously challenged TfL’s position, because Uber drivers calculate journey distances and fares using an app. Taxi drivers say this is equivalent to…

The GoGlove will let you control your phone with your fingertips

You know what it’s like: you’re skiing, or riding your bike, or going for a run, and you reach the summit, your adrenaline’s flowing, you’re about to start your descent, and you need the exact right life-defining piece of music to inspire you… Then your shuffle serves up that one bongo-based meditation track you downloaded…