EVEN in rich countries childbirth is not a tidy affair. On an earthen floor in a dimly lit home in Bangladesh it can be a killer. Bangladesh has nevertheless reduced maternal deaths during childbirth by 40%, from 322 per 100,000 births to 194, during the first decade of this century. It has done so in several ways: by...

CHIPMAKERS dislike quantum mechanics. Half a century of Moore’s law means their products have shrunk to the point where they are subject to the famous weirdness of the quantum world. That makes designing them difficult. Happily, those same quantum oddities can be turned into features rather than bugs. For many years researchers have been working o...

A BOOK with the title “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition” does not sound destined to be a bestseller, particularly at $199 a pop. But DSM-5, as it is known for short, is almost certain to become one. Its predecessor, DSM-IV, which was published in 1994, has sold more than 1m copies. DSM-5, which will go on sale on...

Young high fliers in India's technology capital Bangalore are so proud to work for Western technology firms such as Microsoft and IBM that they are having their logos tattooed on their bodies....

Darkened varnish obscures Goya’s signature in a 1771 masterpiece, according to a new analysis using terahertz waves

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The Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab will use the most advanced commercially available quantum computer, the D-Wave Two.

Quantum computing took a giant leap forward on the world stage today as NASA and Google, in partnership with a consortium of universities, launched an initiative to investigate...

A so-called metal-organic framework could offer a better way to get at the vast uranium resource dissolved in the ocean.

A new material could potentially be used to extract uranium from seawater more efficiently, new research suggests.

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With dozens of new features, Google’s social network is becoming more like a photo service and a news site.

Despite the 190 million people that Google says use its social network every month, Google Plus has always struggled to escape Facebook’s shadow and seem like a hopping social destination.

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Scientists produced embryonic stem cells from the DNA of one person combined with a human donor egg.

Scientists from Oregon Health and Science University reported on Wednesday in the scientific journal Cell that they had created embryonic stem cells from a cloned human embryo. This is the first time...

Google will help people who build Android apps follow their users around without draining too much battery life.

Google is giving mobile app creators more ways to tap into people’s activities and locations without draining too much phone battery power.

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