Soon, Choco With 40% Less Sugar

Nestle SA said that it has found a way to reduce the amount of sugar in chocolate by as much as 40%, a discovery that may give the Kit-Kat maker an edge as food producers face increasing pressure from governments, health advocates and shoppers to make products healthier. The world’s largest food company has developed a process to alter the structure of sugar that makes it taste sweeter in smaller amounts, according to chief technology officer Stefan Catsicas. Nestle will start selling products made using the new process in 2018 and will gradually reduce their sugar content. The move comes as the UK, Mexico and some US cities have levied sugar taxes to help fight childhood obesity and diabetes, which affects four times as many people now than in 1980. The World Health Organisation has said increasing the price of sugary drinks by 20% would reduce consumption by a fifth. “We want people to get used to a different taste, a taste that would be more natural,” Catsicas said. Nestle is seeking to patent the sugar-reduction process, which Catsics likened to making sugar crystals that are “hollow.” The crystals dissolve more quickly, stimulating the taste buds faster, he said. Unprocessed food has complex structures, which Nestle is trying to mimic by distributing the sugar in a less uniform way.

Apple Is Working On Autonomous Vehicles

Apple has revealed it is investing heavily in autonomous vehicles in a letter asking the US government to make it easier to develop self driving cars. The company is excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation. Apple looks forward to collaborating with NHTSA and other stakeholders so that the significant societal benefits or automated vehicles can be realized responsibly, and expeditiously. Apple issued the letter because it is “investing heavily in machine learning and autonomous systems. Rumors about Apple’s ambitions in the sector have circulated for years. The company has a separate organization called ‘Project Titan’ that is developing automotive projects. However, in early September, The New York Times reported that the group had narrowed its ambitions. Instead of designing and producing a complete self-driving car, the group will now concentrate on developing underlying technologies for autonomous vehicles. In its letter, Apple urges the NHTSA no to penalize new participants in the sector by restricting the testing of cars under development on public roads, for which established automakers generally have exemptions. Most major auto manufacturers and many tech groups are currently developing autonomous vehicles, considered to be the future of the automobile, along with electric power, with first production models promised for around 2020.

Self Flying Ambulance Test Succeeds

An autonomous flying ambulance has successfully completed its first solo test flight, offering a potential solution for challenging search and rescue missions. Completing such missions in rough terrain or combat zones can be tricky, with helicopters currently offering the best transportation option in most cases. However, these vehicles need clear areas to land, and in the case of war zones, helicopters tend to attract enemy fire. The autonomous flying vehicle, dubbed the Cormorant, has been tested by an Israeli company and could one day go where helicopters can’t. The vehicle is designed to eventually carry people or equipment without a human pilot on board. Rather than using propellers or rotors to fly, the Cormorant uses ducted fans that are effectively shielded rotors, which means the aircraft does not need to worry about bumping into a wall and damaging the rotors. Another set of fans propels the vehicle forward. The vehicle is effectively a decision making system that can figure out what to do if there is a problem in the inputs from the sensors, the company, Urban Aeronautics, said.

Indian Discovered Bug To Bypass iPad Lock

An Indian security researcher has discovered a bug that allows one to bypass Apple’s activation lock in its iOS 10.1 version, according to a media report. Hemanth Joseph, resident of Kerala, succeeded in bypassing the activation lock of an iPad he had bough online by exploiting a weakness in the iOS device setup process. When Joseph was asked to select a Wi-Fi network, he chose ‘other network’ and selected WPA2-enterprise as  the type of network to connect to, that gave him three input fields to fill – name, username and password. Upon testing he came to know that there is no character restriction in those fields and he typed thousands of characters than what iOS could handle. This caused the iPad to freeze, following which he locked the device by closing Apple’s magnetic Smart Cover over the screen. After opening the cover, the device was at the same screen, but as few seconds passed by, it crashed to iOS home screen. This made Joseph bypass the activation lock and to have full access to the iPad. The bug discovered by Joseph was reportedly fixed in an iOS update last month. Researchers at a US-based lab had earlier discovered another bug that allowed one to break the Apple lock.

Oz Boys Make Expensive HIV Drug For A Dime

A group of Australian school children working on a shoestring budget have recreated the HIV drug whose price was controversially jacked up 5000% by a former hedge fund manager. US company Turning Pharmaceuticals’ former chief Martin Shkreli became a global figure of hate after buying the rights to Daraprim and then raising the price in the US from $13.50 a tablet to $750. Youngsters at a Sydney school decided to draw attention to the scandal and went to work creating pyrimethamine, the active ingredient for Daraprim, an anti-parasitic used to treat people with low immunity, such as those with HIV, chemotherapy patients and pregnant women. Student James Wood said he and his friends had started off with just $20 of the drug, and in one reaction had produced thousands of dollars’ worth. University of Sydney research chemist Alice Williamson helped the boys synthesize the medicine using an online platform Open source Malaria. The pupils “shared the outrage of the general public”. Turning Pharmaceuticals continues to sell the only FDA approved form of the drug in the US, but reportedly cut the price in half for hospitals after the outcry. Daraprim, which figures on the WHO list of essential medicines, is cheap in most countries, with 50 tablets selling in Australia for $10.

A Robot That Washes Your Clothes, Then Folds Them

Hate doing laundry? Shin Sakane has a solution. The Japanese inventor received 6 billion yen ($53 million) from partners, including Panasonic Corp, last month to advance “the Laundroid” – a robot Sakane is developing to not only wash and dry garments, but also sort, fold and arrange them. The refrigerator size device could eventually fill the roles of washing machine, dryer and clothes drawer. Sakane, whose earlier inventions include an anti-snoring device and golf clubs made of space materials, said the funding will bring closer his dream of liberating humanity from laundry. Among his inspirations for the project is the 1968 Stanley Kubrick sci-fi classic ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. Laundroid was designed to resemble the mysterious objects in the film that brought technology to prehistoric humans, and the project was originally code-name ‘Monolith’. While the full product is slated for release in 2019, an early version that can only sort and fold clothing goes on sale worldwide in March. Sakane wouldn’t disclose how Laundroid works, but patents show that users dump clothes in a lower drawer and robotic arms grab each item as scanners look for features such as buttons or a collar. Once identifies, the clothes are folded using sliding plates and neatly stacked on upper shelves for collection.

NASA's Saturn Probe To Graze Past Planet's Rings

For the past 12 years, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has orbited Saturn, taking some of the most detailed images of the gas giant yet captured. Now, it’s time for the spacecraft, launched in 1997, to retire – but not before diving through unexplored regions and grazing past edges of the planet’s main rings. During its journey, Cassini has made numerous dramatic discoveries, including a global ocean within Enceladus and liquid methane seas on Titan. Engineers have been pumping up the spacecraft’s orbit around Saturn this year to increase its tilt with respect to the planet’s equator and rings. Following a gravitational nudge from Saturn’s moon Titan, Cassini will enter the first phase of the mission’s dramatic endgame on Thursday. Researchers calling this phase Cassini’s ‘ring-Grazing Orbits’, because they’ll be skimming past the outer edge of the rings. In addition, they have two instruments that can sample particles and gases as they cross the ring plane, so in a sense Cassini is also ‘grazing’ on the rings. Cassini will circle over and under the poles of Saturn till April 22 next year, diving every seven days – a total of 20 times – through the unexplored regions at the outer edges of the main rings. During the first two orbits, the spacecraft will pass directly through an extremely faint ring produced by tiny meteors striking the two small moons Janus and Epimetheus. Ring crossings in March and April will send the spacecraft through the dusty outer reaches of the F ring that marks the outer boundary of the main ring system.