Science

Dermatitis and Staphylococcus: Your Smartwatch Could Be Carrying Both
SpotlightDermatitis and Staphylococcus: Your Smartwatch Could Be Carrying Both

They’ve become an extension of our bodies. Whether tracking sleep, heart rate, calorie burn, or simply serving as extensions of our messaging apps, smartwatches cling to our wrists day and night. But beneath their seemingly neutral tech surface, they can become insidious vectors of skin imbalances and dangerous pathogens. The threat doesn’t ...

AI Personal Shoppers Hunt Down Bargain Buys
AI Personal Shoppers Hunt Down Bargain Buys

Internet giants are diving deeper into e-commerce with digital aides that know shoppers' likes, let them virtually try clothes on, hunt for deals and even place orders. The rise of virtual personal shoppers springs from generative artificial intelligence (AI) being put to work in "agents" specializing in specific tasks and given ...

UN Says 70% Chance that 2025-2029 Average Warming will Top 1.5C
UN Says 70% Chance that 2025-2029 Average Warming will Top 1.5C

The United Nations warned Wednesday there is a 70 percent chance that average warming from 2025 to 2029 will exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius international benchmark. The planet is therefore expected to remain at historic levels of warming after the two hottest years ever recorded in 2023 and 2024, according to an annual climate report published by ...

Tobacco in Lebanon: Laws Going Up in Smoke, Teens Vaping, TFI Takes the Fight Forward
Tobacco in Lebanon: Laws Going Up in Smoke, Teens Vaping, TFI Takes the Fight Forward

Every year, the World Health Organization (WHO) dedicates the end of May to global awareness of the dangers of tobacco. But in Lebanon, despite Law 174, a committed NGO and decades of warnings, the scourge keeps spreading, especially among the youth. Journalist and President of the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) Elsa Yazbek Charabati gave This is ...

Ancient Bread Rises Again as Turkey Recreates 5,000-Year-Old Loaf
Ancient Bread Rises Again as Turkey Recreates 5,000-Year-Old Loaf

In the early Bronze Age, a piece of bread was buried beneath the threshold of a newly built house in what is today central Turkey. Now, more than 5,000 years later, archaeologists have unearthed it, and helped a local bakery to recreate the recipe -- with customers lining up to buy it. Round and flat like a pancake, 12 centimetres (five inches) ...

Turtle Populations Thrive Again in Lebanese Waters
SpotlightTurtle Populations Thrive Again in Lebanese Waters

Every summer, a rare spectacle unfolds on the beaches of southern Lebanon, where endangered sea turtles brave many dangers to lay their eggs. Their survival now depends on our commitment, as these silent giants struggle to exist. While beaches in southern Lebanon fill with swimmers and vacationers each summer, another visitor—discreet and ...

Fears for Crops as Drought Hits Northern Europe
SpotlightFears for Crops as Drought Hits Northern Europe

Parts of northern Europe have seen their worst drought in decades in recent weeks, with farmers from Scotland to the Netherlands fearing the dry spell will dent harvests if it continues. Water shortages can stunt the growth of crops such as wheat, corn, rapeseed and barley, Nicolas Guilpart, a lecturer in agronomy at the Agro Paris Tech research ...

Epilepsy in Lebanon: Journey to the Heart of the Crisis
Epilepsy in Lebanon: Journey to the Heart of the Crisis

There is epilepsy, its seizures, its fears, its stigmas. And then there is Lebanon, its shortages, its hospitals on their knees, its families wandering in pharmaceutical disarray. This Friday, May 23, on the campus of the Faculty of Medicine of USJ, the Epsilon association will hold its tenth Scientific Day, with one motto: “Improve the quality ...

Ads Pressured to Evolve as AI Changes Google Search
Ads Pressured to Evolve as AI Changes Google Search

As Google races to lead in artificial intelligence, it faces the challenge of making sure the technology doesn't slow its profit-pumping advertising engine. The internet giant is dabbling with ads in its new AI Mode for online search, a strategic move to fend off competition from ChatGPT while adapting its advertising business for an AI ...

Screen Addiction: The False Promise of 'Mindset Therapy'
SpotlightScreen Addiction: The False Promise of 'Mindset Therapy'

Excessive screen use often results in compulsive patterns, where individuals struggle to cut back despite being fully aware of the negative consequences. Today, the screen has become a space of projection—a mirror reflecting our solitude, a portal to fantasy and an endless source of stimulation. It is no longer just a tool, it’s embedded in ...

'Red Alert': Fires Drive Tropical Forest Loss to Record High
'Red Alert': Fires Drive Tropical Forest Loss to Record High

Eighteen football pitches every minute of every hour of every day: that is the record extent of tropical rainforest destroyed last year due in large measure to fires fuelled by climate change, researchers reported Wednesday. Tally it all up and the world lost 67,000 square kilometres (25,900 square miles) of precious primary tropical forest, an ...