Science

InvestigationCosmetic Counterfeits: Lebanon Grapples with the Surge of Fake Beauty Products (2/3)

Bélinda Ibrahim 12/07 19:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Lebanon Cosmetic Counterfeits Beauty Products Skin Care Health

On Instagram, just a few clicks on reseller accounts or sponsored stories plunge you into a sleek, alluring world where top brands — Lancôme, Estée Lauder, Guerlain, Dior, La Roche-Posay — are sold at slashed prices. Descriptions sound convincing: “imported from the US,” “end-of-line stock before ...

InvestigationFake Beauty, Real Risks: Investigating Cosmetic Counterfeits (1/3)

Bélinda Ibrahim 11/07 19:00 - Reading : 7 minute(s)

Beauty Care Black Market Health Sunscreens Cosmetic Counterfeits

Same logo, same packaging, same “high protection” claim… but sometimes, the contents are just water and thickeners. In a recent investigation led by journalist Hugo Clément and pharmacist Laurence Coiffard (for “Sur le Front,” France 5, June 2025), several counterfeit sunscreens were lab tested. Findings were alarming: some products ...

SpotlightShould We Be Concerned About ChatGPT’s Impact on the Human Brain?

Bélinda Ibrahim 10/07 15:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

AI ChatGPT MIT Study Brain Lazy Neurosciences

A team of researchers at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by neuroscientist Nataliya Kosmyna at the MIT Media Lab, conducted a preliminary study to explore the effects of ChatGPT on brain activity. Their approach was notably unconventional—combining writing and memory tasks with 32-channel EEG (electroencephalogram) ...

SpotlightRaphaël Rodriguez: The French Chemist Challenging Cancer Cells’ Achilles’ Heel

Bélinda Ibrahim 09/07 15:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Raphaël Rodriguez Ferroptosis Curie Institute Cancer Metastatic Cells

At the Curie Institute in the heart of Paris, a low-profile chemist is taking on one of the biggest puzzles in modern cancer research. Raphaël Rodriguez, a research director at the CNRS, has spent years investigating how metastatic cells —scattered, dormant tumor cells that often evade treatment — manage to defy medicine. More importantly, he ...

SpotlightClimate Change Made European Heatwave Up To 4C Hotter: Study

This is Beirut 09/07 09:15 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Europe Climate

Human-caused climate change made recent European heatwaves up to 4C hotter in many cities, scientists said on Wednesday, pushing temperatures into deadly territory for thousands of vulnerable people. This likely led to far more heat-related deaths than would have occurred without the influence of global warming, concluded a rapid study of the ...

When AI Develops an Attitude of Its Own

Lyne Sammouri 06/07 16:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

AI Artificial Intelligence Technology

You ask your AI assistant or chatbot to do something, and instead of just doing what you told it to do, it dodges your request, deceives you or backtalks like a stubborn taxi driver who refuses to put the meter on. It might find an exception, or even lie to get what it's trying to do. Frustrating, isn't it? This might have surprised you. But in ...

ChronicleClimate Change: Salvation Through Poetry

Fady Noun 05/07 09:30 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Pope Francis Donald Trump Europe USA global warming

The current heatwave scorching Europe and the drought gripping Lebanon trace back to a single root cause: climate disruption driven by global warming and soaring CO₂ emissions—both reflecting what Pope Francis memorably called “despotic anthropocentrism,” a worldview that elevates humankind above all else, heedless of the rich diversity ...

IRCAD Lebanon: The Liver and Pancreas Go Robotic

Makram Haddad 03/07 22:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Middle East IRCAD Antoine Maalouf Robotic Pancreas

Under the luminous ceilings of the Clinique du Levant, IRCAD Lebanon officially launched yesterday its very first international course on robotic liver and pancreas surgery. A first in Lebanon, described by its president, Dr. Antoine Maalouf, as “a quantum leap in regional surgical practice.” “What we are launching here goes beyond the ...

SpotlightHow Robots and Raw Earth Are Redefining Homebuilding

Bélinda Ibrahim 03/07 14:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Homebuilding Robots Cocoons TECLA Italy

They look like cocoons, settled on the ground as if they had naturally grown there. No straight lines, no concrete, just earth, carefully layered by two robotic arms moving with the grace of a choreographed dance. In 200 hours—barely eight days—an entire house takes shape. Printed on site using only natural materials. Its name? TECLA. Its ...

SpotlightWhat If Whales Could Speak? AI Is Listening In

Bélinda Ibrahim 02/07 18:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

AI Whales Humpback Whale Humans Science Conversation

For decades, scientists believed whales sang only to navigate, attract mates or maintain social bond. But recent research by the SETI Institute and the University of California, Davis is challenging this view. Using AI, researchers have identified remarkably structured acoustic patterns and behaviors suggesting some cetaceans may be attempting to ...

ALMA Telescope Reveals Unprecedented Detail in Early Galaxies

This is Beirut 02/07 10:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

USA

Chile's ALMA observatory, which houses some of the world's most powerful telescopes, has captured its most detailed images to date of the building blocks of the early universe – primarily cold gases, dust, and stellar light in 39 galaxies. "We've never achieved so much detail and depth in galaxies from the early universe," Sergio Martin, head ...

SpotlightWhen Students Stop Thinking: The Hidden Cost of AI-Written Essays

This is Beirut 02/07 10:10 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Artificial intelligence Education ChatGPT

When Jocelyn Leitzinger had her university students write about times in their lives they had witnessed discrimination, she noticed that a woman named Sally was the victim in many of the stories. "It was very clear that ChatGPT had decided this is a common woman's name," said Leitzinger, who teaches an undergraduate class on business and society ...