Israeli beauty-tech firm Pollogen has launched a sleek new device that can give you a ‘super-facial’ in less than 10 minutes, without having to go to the salon.

The egg-shaped Geneo Personal is a handheld oxygenation system that taps into a process known as the Bohr Effect to give you clearer, fresher skin at home.  Instead of simply ‘rubbing air bubbles on your face,’ Geneo Personal stimulates oxygen from beneath the skin’s surface, according to the firm.

Pollogen unveiled the product in an Indiegogo campaign in March for a discounted $109 ahead of its official release next year, when it will retail at $249.

The palm-sized Geneo Personal device is designed to deliver a high-quality, once-per-week facial treatment in just six minutes.  It releases carbon dioxide bubbles across your face as you exfoliate, lowering the PH levels at the surface of your skin.  This, in turn, draws oxygen up from beneath ‘to react and enrich the surface from within,’ the firm explains.  The carbon dioxide ‘stimulates a release of oxygen from your blood cells up to your skin’s surface,’ according to Pollogen.  ‘This physiological response is what makes your facial skin really level up.’

The campaign has already raised more than $110,000 on Indiegogo, touting the ability to rejuvenate your face in a matter of minutes.

Geneo Personal is currently priced at $109 for early-birds, and comes in three pastel colors: powder pink, mint green, and white.  The device itself measures just under 5-inches long and weighs less than a pound.  When it’s not in use, it fits into a discreet charging stand.  And, according to the firm, it will give you an Instagram-ready appearance – no filter necessary.

Sharon Ravic, CEO of Pollogen said: ‘It’s a 3-in-1 facial experience, because it Oxygenates, Exfoliates, and Nourishes your skin in just 6 minutes.  We put our face through a lot every day, exposing it to the sun’s harsh rays and air pollutants.  It’s time to unlock the skin’s natural potential by raising the oxygen levels in our skin cells.  Throw out the brush heads and bring on the bubbles.’

Geneo Personal is expected to begin shipping February 2019.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

The 'gamification' of dating apps is damaging singleton's chances of spotting the right match for them, a psychiatrist has warned.

Swiping through endless faces on apps like Tinder and Bumble, known as 'infinite swipe'.  The practice has become so addictive that more than one in 10 users swipe for over 14 hours a week, a survey backing up the claims has revealed.  The rise of dating apps has given rise to a new user phenomenon: the 'infinite swipe.

Just like other tech platforms such as Facebook and Google have adopted the persuasive design feature of infinite scroll, to engage the user in habit forming experiences, dating apps have leveraged the power of the 'infinite swipe'.  Users are 'nudged" to process the face of a potential match in less than a second, with little or no context on the person's personality.

Dr Richard Graham, clinical director of Good Thinking, a London digital mental well-being service, said: 'Whilst love at first sight can happen in a moment, this gamification of such an important life search is potentially demeaning to all.  It's time we placed more importance on taking time to get to know someone, on personality and conversation, rather than basing decisions on looks alone.  Would you just choose the person who can take a great selfie?'

A survey of 1,000 dating app users in the UK has found that nearly a third (30 per cent) spending more seven hours per week trying to find a match and 14 per cent swipe for over 14 hours.

Men were found to be more promiscuous with dating apps than women, with nearly half (40 per cent) using three or more apps at a time.  One in ten men admitted to using more than five dating apps at the same time.

Men also spend more time trying to find a date than their opposite sex, with one third (34 per cent) swiping for over an hour each day compared with just a quarter of women (27 per cent).

Forty per cent of men use three or more apps at a time, with one in ten using more than five to find a date.

Despite 76 per cent of users matching with over 30 people each month, only 22 per cent have had more than 10 conversations.

A quarter of women revealed they hadn't been on a single date in the past six months.

While 26 per cent of men questioned admitted to swiping right, for a 'yes' on more than half of the users they came across, only nine per cent of women swiped right, or 'no', to more than half of their options.

The research also found that males and females have different opinions on the key traits they look for in a partner.  Men rated looks as the most important factor in a match, followed by sense of humour and conversational skills, while women rated a sense of humour as the most important, followed by conversational skills, looks and height.

The survey was commissioned by Alex Durrant, CEO of JigTalk, a dating app that aims to put 'personality' rather than 'looks' at the forefront of online dating.

JigTalk says it tries to encourage conversation by initially hiding a users' face, before revealing it like pieces of a puzzle the more users talk to each other.  JigTalkers have to send eight messages each to completely unveil their match's face.

Mr Durrant said: 'Dating apps have led to hundreds of thousands of marriages and partnerships across the world, but we must use them as messaging platforms to make conversations on, rather than just photo sharing apps.  Getting to know a potential partner's personality is key to finding love.  It's an innate need which goes hand in hand with visual attraction.  You wouldn't meet someone in a bar and not talk to them, so it's crazy why we do this on dating apps.'

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

The first ever incarnation of a dating app can be traced back to 1995 when Match.com was first launched.  The website allowed single people to upload a profile, a picture and chat to people online.  The app was intended to allow people looking for long-term relationships to meet.

eHarmony was developed in 2000 and two years later Ashley Madison, a site dedicated to infidelity and cheating, was first launched.

A plethora of other dating sites with a unique target demographic were set up in the next 10-15 years including: OKCupid (2004), Plenty of Fish (2006), Grindr (2009) and Happn (2013).

In 2012, Tinder was launched and was the first 'swipe' based dating platform.  After its initial launch, its usage snowballed and by March 2014 there were one billion matches a day, worldwide.

In 2014, co-founder of Tinder, Whitney Wolfe Herd launched Bumble, a dating app that empowered women by only allowing females to send the first message.

The popularity of mobile dating apps such as Tinder, Badoo and more recently Bumble is attributable to a growing amount of younger users with a busy schedule.

In the 1990s, there was a stigma attached to online dating as it was considered a last-ditch and desperate attempt to find love.  This belief has dissipated and now around one third of marriages are between couples who met online.

A survey from 2014 found that 84 per cent of dating app users used online dating services to look for a romantic relationship.  Twenty-four per cent stated that that they used online dating apps explicitly for sexual encounters.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Global leaders in innovation and science have been revealed and, yet again, the US leads the way.  European countries dominate the top ten but the most innovative three nations are the US, Israel and South Korea.  But, six of the top ten nations are European, with the UK sitting in 15th position, between Norway and Singapore.

The list was compiled by engineering firm RS Components, based in the UK, who compiled a list of metrics to gauge the nous of each nation.  RS Components analysed each country across four different areas: number of scientific research papers released, number of patents registered, percentage of GDP spend on research and development and number of researchers per 1,000 people.  Every country was allocated a score based on their figures for each metric with their overall score determining their final rank within the index.

1. United States - 26,855
2. China - 14,234
3. Germany - 8,201
4. United Kingdom - 7,214
5. Japan - 4,670
6. France - 4,572
7. Switzerland - 3,059
8. Canada - 3,041
9. Australia - 2,531
10. Spain - 2,476

1. United States - 155,982
2. Japan - 54,422
3. South Korea - 20,201
4. Germany - 17,752
5. China - 14,234
6. Canada - 7,492
7. United Kingdom - 7,167
8. France - 7,026
9. Israel - 3,804
10. Italy - 3,090

A spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Although there is no single measure that helps us capture scientific progress in one metric, there are a few ways to discover how certain countries are doing in regard to leadership within the scientific sector.  Science is constantly adapting and aiming to help cure and combat diseases worldwide and it is clear to see that as a human race we prioritise its success and funding.'

The finished data set revealed the US is the overall runaway winner with a score of 75.07 out of 100.

Israel came in second with a mark of 61.33 but comes when looking at the amount of people in the population working in research.  However, it is the world leader when it comes to spending on research and development and the amount of researchers in its population.  It tops the chart in regards of the latter with 17 individuals working in research for every 1,000 people.

South Korea and Japan came third and fourth, respectively, and are the only other non-European countries represented in the top-ten.

Global 'leaders', the UK and China, marked surprisingly low on the scale - coming in at 15th and 20th.  China's rapidly developing innovation sector has been hugely driven by tech advancements from firms such as Huawei.  The analysis revealed that despite the investment and focus, it has less researchers per capita than Argentina - with only two people per 1,000 working in research.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

A luxury car brand once hailed as Spain’s equivalent to Rolls Royce or Bentley and a favourite of the royal family is wowing critics with a new design that it hopes will restore the brand's global reputation.

Hispano Suiza's 'Carmen' is a lightweight supercar that's largely built from carbon fibre and powered entirely by electricity.  The supercar costs £1.3m, has 1,005 bhp and can accelerate to 62 mph in under three seconds with a top speed of 155mph.  Currently at the concept stage, it would be the first production vehicle from the firm - who rose to popularity in the Roaring Twenties - since its original incarnation went bust in 1968.

According to its makers, the 4.7m-long, two-seater Carmen is aimed at the emerging 'hyperlux' market, which combines hypercar performance with top-end levels of luxury.

The Carmen uses batteries used in Formula E, a motor racing division that uses only electric-powered cars -  to produce all the  of energy in its rear wheels, with the speed electronically limited at 155mph.  'We limit the top speed because we don't think there's sense in any more', said Technical director Luci Marti who spoke to top Gear.

The car weighs in at just 1,690kg, made possible by lightweight material in the interior and carbonfibre in its frames.  According to Hispano Suiza, the new model is said to be one of the most 'carbonfibre-intense cars in the world'.

Miguel Suqué Mateu, the great grandson of the founder and current president of Hispano Suiza Fábrica de Automóviles S.A. talks called the making of the new model: 'Succeeding in realising a dream we had for years, seeing once again the Hispano Suiza on the road, all around the world.'  He said: 'Back in 1900, when Hispano Suiza started, it built the first electric car in the world, but the prototype was never industrially manufactured.  Now, 119 years later, in March 2019, Hispano Suiza has its first 100% electric car, offering great performance and manufactured in Barcelona, the realisation of my great grandfather's dream.'

Mr Luci, who spent three years at Koenigsegg, which has produced the world's first 300mph car, said: 'Even though I came from Koenigsegg this is a dream job.  There, we had the old chassis and engine and suspension, here I was given a white sheet of paper and told 'create the car'.  I was like 'really, I can put everything I've learned in this chassis?  I don't want to compete with the performance of a Koenigsegg or a Rimac'.

The Carmen has been entirely designed and built by QEV Technologies, a company based in Barcelona that researches and develops electric vehicles which also manages the Mahindra team in Formula E, a racing series for electronic cars.

The Hispano Suiza has been owned by four generations of the Suqué Mateu family, which is trying to revive its brand as a luxury supercar.  The brand has however not produced any new models for 70s years, as after World War II, the company moved into aerospace design and manufacture and today it exists as a subsidiary of French manufacturing giant Safran.

The full name of the model is Carmen Mateu, named after the current president's mother, who was the granddaughter of the firm's original founder.

The annual production run of the Carmen will be seven cars and the total production number will be limited to 19, say its makers.  Back in the Twenties and Thirties, the brand was renowned as top of the range in luxury vehicles that put it on par with the likes of Rolls-Royce and Bugatti today.  It was supposedly a favourite of the Spanish monarchs, as well as members of the Rothschild family, and even Picasso.

Asked who the car is aimed at, Mr Marti explained that it is definitely the same luxury market that appreciates the classically inspired designs of the brand, but hopefully with a fewer additions.  He said: 'We are after a new market; collectors mainly and perhaps fewer young people, and instead those who know what Hispano Suiza is.  The styling is heavily inspired by the 1938 Hispano Suiza Dubonnet Xenia, so they really won't be young if they remember that.  The teardrop shape, covered rear wheels and round headlamps are all a direct nod to a car from 81 years ago, a unique attitude in the electric car segment.'

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Vegetable patches are moving from back gardens to the front of people’s homes so they can show off to their neighbours.

No longer are gardeners hiding muddy vegetable patches at the bottom of their gardens with an abandoned spade and some slug-ravaged lettuce leaves.  Urban gardeners, who often do not even have a back garden, are instead growing fashionable vegetables like chillis and sweet potatoes in hanging baskets and plant pots.

Experts say they are doing so to impress other people, as the ‘grow-your-own’ trend has seen fruit and vegetable seed sales outstrip flowers in Royal Horticultural Society garden centres.

Wyevale Garden Centres has reported that 40 per cent of homes now have hanging baskets, with the fashion for growing vegetables in them driving the trend.

Mark Sage, head of horticulture at Wyevale Garden Centres, said: ‘Gone are the days when gardeners need vast amounts of space and traditional Peter Rabbit-style veg patches to grow their own.  Impressive displays of fruit and vegetables are guaranteed to gain the attention of neighbours when they are near the front door.  Aside from keeping up with the Joneses, Brits are taking their displays one step further so they can put pictures of them on social media.’

Millennials are mixing up fresh produce and ornamental flowers in hanging baskets near their front doors, according to experts.

Favourites for ‘miniature vegetable patches’ in hanging baskets include tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, pak choi and peas.

Wyevale Garden Centres’ Garden Trends report, based on survey data from more than 27,000 British gardeners, says a gardening project to create a ‘mini kitchen garden in a pot’ was one of its most popular social media items last year.  The report says sales of hanging baskets have doubled between 2012 and this year.

Mr Sage added: ‘The nation’s space squeeze is moving the veg patch away from its typical spot in the corner of the back garden and into the spotlight by the front door.  Innovative modern vegetable patches can fit into containers as small as hanging baskets, window boxes or pots by the front door or on the kitchen windowsill.’

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

A stunning series of images released recently has captured the moment two supersonic planes break the speed of sound to produce simultaneous sonic booms with interacting shockwaves.  The breathtaking photos mark the first time this effect has ever been imaged, according to NASA.

It comes more than 10 years in the making, relying on an advanced air-to-air photographic technology that could help the space agency collect the data it needs to develop its ‘quiet’ supersonic plane.

Physical Scientist J.T. Heineck of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View said: ‘We never dreamt that it would be this clear, this beautiful.  I am ecstatic about how these images turned out.  With this upgraded system, we have, by an order of magnitude, improved both the speed and quality of our imagery from previous research.’

The team captured the incredible images during the fourth phase of Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren flights, or AirBOS, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

With the upgraded imaging system, scientists were able to document the moment shockwaves ripple out from each of the two planes as they exceed the speed of sound.

The tests used a pair of T-38 aircraft from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base flying just 30 feet apart, with an altitude difference of just 10 feet.

In the images, the shockwaves can be seen eventually merging together as they ripple through the atmosphere.

Neal Smith, a research engineer with AerospaceComputing Inc. at NASA Ames’ fluid mechanics laboratory said: ‘We’re looking at a supersonic flow, which is why we’re getting these shockwaves.  What’s interesting is, if you look at the rear T-38, you see these shocks kind of interact in a curve.  This is because the trailing T-38 is flying in the wake of the leading aircraft, so the shocks are going to be shaped differently.  This data is really going to help us advance our understanding of how these shocks interact.’

NASA has been working to develop its own supersonic craft with a quieter sonic boom, with hopes to enable supersonic flights over land.  The X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane, or X-59 QueSST, will produce more of a sonic ‘rumble.’

With the new imaging system, NASA will be able to capture crucial data for the design of its craft, enabling shockwaves that don’t give off the characteristic boom.

Dan Banks, senior research engineer at NASA Armstrong said: ‘We’re seeing a level of physical detail here that I don’t think anybody has ever seen before.  Just looking at the data for the first time, I think things worked out better than we’d imagined.  This is a very big step.’

The new images were captured from a NASA B-200 King Air using an upgraded camera system.  The team also developed a new installation system to slash the time it takes to fit the aircraft with the upgraded cameras.

But, getting the shot wasn’t easy.  The King Air flying a pattern around 30,000 feet had to be in the exact right spot as the two T-38s passed supersonic speeds roughly 2,000 feet below.

Heather Maliska, AirBOS sub-project manager said: ‘The biggest challenge was trying to get the timing correct to make sure we could get these images.  I am absolutely happy with how the team was able to pull this off.  Our operations team has done this type of maneuver before.  They know how to get the maneuver lined up, and our NASA pilots and the Air Force pilots did a great job being where they needed to be. They were rock stars.’

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

A human being has controlled a robot hand from more than 5,000 miles away in a world first that could revolutionise the world of robotics.  The robot successfully transmitted the feeling of touch across the Atlantic, from California to London, allowing for instantaneous and lifelike remote control.

A demonstrator - equipped with a special glove - picked up balls, typed words on a keyboard and played chess in real time.  Three tech firms joined forces on the project which simulates touch and allows for long-distance control of robots.  Future applications, experts say, include bomb disposal, space exploration and breakthroughs in methods of communication.

SynTouch and HaptX in California watched alongside Shadow Robot Company in London and Madrid when a demonstration proved the concept works.

A California-based operator used a haptic glove to control a dexterous robotic hand in London and typed 'Hello, World!' on a keyboard in the British capital, more than 5,000 miles away.  The so-called Telerobot was also able to play Jenga, build a pyramid of plastic cups and move chess pieces.

Rich Walker, Managing Director of Shadow Robot Company said: 'This teleoperation system lets humans and robots share their sense of touch across the globe - it's a step ahead in what can be felt and done remotely.  We can now deliver remote touch and dexterity for people to build on for applications like safeguarding people from hazardous tasks, or just doing a job without having to fly there!  It's not touch-typing yet, but we can feel what we touch when we're typing!'

Its developers say the 'Shadow Telehand' is capable of remote handling of materials from afar and not endangering human life.  It would also be able to replace physical interactions with humans and sensitive subjects, such as in the developing of pharmaceuticals and avoiding contamination.

Jake Rubin, Founder and CEO of HaptX said: 'Touch is a cornerstone of the next generation of human-machine interface technologies.  We're honored to be part of a joint engineering effort that is literally extending the reach of humankind.'

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Scientists may finally have cracked the code to using DNA to pinpoint a specific individual from a set of identical twins.

Since it was first introduced to the courts in the 1980s, DNA analysis has transformed the way we approach criminal investigations.  But, despite more than 30 years of advancements since, there’s still one scenario that can stand in the way of nailing down the right suspect even when DNA is present: identical twins.

Identical twins arise from the same fertilized egg, and standard DNA tests are so-far unable to pinpoint the minute differences.  That means in cases where one twin commits a crime, it sometimes ends up that both walk free, as prosecutors are unable to conclude which of the two really did it.

The identical twin problem has stood in the way of both criminal investigations and paternity tests, researchers explain in a new study published to the journal Plos One.

With their new test based on DNA sequencing, however, the team may finally have broken ground.  Instead of looking at hundreds or even thousands of mutated segments to spot the differences between twins, researchers behind the new study propose comparing their entire genomes.

The current techniques are ‘hampered by the fact that the two individuals usually coincide for the genetic markers tested,’ the researchers explain.  But thanks to recent advances in genome sequencing, it’s now possible to assess DNA in much greater detail than ever before.

Identical twins – or monozygotic (MZ) twins – may start out from the same egg, but each take on their own mutations as they develop.  It’s these mutations that could help to reveal who in a pair is tied to a given DNA sample.  Doing this accurately would require ‘a genome-wide search for those few mutations that occur during early embryonic development and hence allow distinguishing between MZ twins in later life,’ the researchers say.

Lead author Michael Krawczak has been investigating the possibility of comparing twins’ unique mutations for years, and published a set of initial calculations in 2012 to settle a hypothetical paternity dispute.  A team at Eurofins Scientific in Brussels then picked up on the research and tested it out themselves using DNA from a pair of identical twin volunteers, and the wife and child of one of the men, according to the New York Times.  And in a proof of concept for the technique, the researchers were able to distinguish between the child’s father and uncle by comparing their whole genomes.

Krawczak’s team has now published a general mathematical framework to back up the method, in a step toward its use in forensic investigations.  But, it’s still in the early stages and will require much more testing before it can be adopted by the courts, experts note.

Steven A. McCarroll, a Harvard Medical School geneticist who was not involved in the study, told NYT, ‘It would be really nice to know that we could do this kind of analysis over and over and over again and never get it wrong.’

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

China and India have planted so many trees that the world is now greener than it was 20 years ago, a counterintuitive new study claims.  The superpowers are two of the world's top three most polluting nations and the increase in foliage is mostly a result of 'ambitious tree planting programs'.

NASA research discovered there is five per cent more greenery every year compared to the 2000s, resulting in more than two million square miles of extra greenery - the equivalent of more than the Amazon rainforest.  But researchers say this increase in vegetation is not enough to offset the damage of deforestation.

Chi Chen from Boston University, who led the research, said China and India ‘account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9 per cent of the planet's land area covered in vegetation’.

The greening on the planet was first detected in the mid-1990s and from images provided by NASA'S MODIS tool which orbits the Earth on two satellites and provides high resolution images of Earth's surface.

China is responsible for a quarter of the overall increase in green leaf area but has only 6.6 per cent of all the world's foliage.  Forty-two per cent comes from forests and a further 32 per cent comes from farmland.

India has contributed a further 6.8 per cent rise in green leaf area.

Scientists say it is important to factor in this latest finding into future climate change prediction models.

Rama Nemani, a research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, and a co-author of the work said: 'This long-term data lets us dig deeper.  When the greening of the Earth was first observed, we thought it was due to a warmer, wetter climate and fertilisation from the added carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to more leaf growth in northern forests, for instance.  Now, with the MODIS data that lets us understand the phenomenon at really small scales, we see that humans are also contributing.'

The research was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk