Here's why you see your friends online, all the time

Do you avoid meeting your friend over a cup of coffee, but chat away to the glory with the same friend online? Your not the only one, others do the same.

Call it a boon or a bane, but due the surge in social media usage among Indians, one-third of the country's below-35 people feel more comfortable socialising online than in real life, a new survey has revealed.
The survey conducted by Kissanpur reveals that 65 percent respondents in Bengaluru said they are more comfortable with virtual socialising, followed by 33 per cent respondents from Mumbai reiterating the same.
As many as 70 percent of the respondents in Bengaluru and 43 per cent in Mumbai say they get to know about the lives of their friends and relatives mainly online.

 

 

Spatial control gained over ‘wonder material’ Graphene can revolutionize flexible electonics

While altering the properties of ‘wonder material’ Graphene, researchers have gained unprecedented spatial control over the electrical properties of the material. With the new tweaked electrical properties, Graphene Oxide could revolutionise flexible electronics, solar cells and biomedical instruments.
For the study, researchers Jeffrey Mativetsky and Austin Faucett from Binghamton University triggered a local reaction with the help of an atomic force microscope. This enabled researchers to pattern electrically conductive features that are four nanometer small. It is highest spatial control yet while drawing a nanoscale electrically-conductive features in atomically-thin insulating sheets. It is to be noticed that one nanometer is nearly one hundred thousand times the width of a human hair.
“There is significant interest in defining regions with different functionalities, and writing circuitry into two-dimensional materials. Our approach provides a way to directly pattern electrically-conductive and insulating regions into graphene oxide with high spatial resolution,” said Mativetsky.
Graphene that was first discovered in 2003 has kept researchers to constantly experiment with it due to its interesting properties. It is nearly 207 times stronger than the steel by weight. Thus, it is widely used in bulletproof jackets for soldiers. Apart from being transparent it is also a good conductor of heat and electricity. Moreover, graphene founder Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were also awarded Nobel prize in 2010 for the revolutionary discovery.
Moreover, the new process is environment-friendly as researchers did not use any chemicals to gain spatial control.
The study has given new insights in exploiting the properties of wonder material graphene. Researchers believe that with new spatial control the material could revolutionize the  flexible electronics, solar cells and biomedical instruments.
The study appeared in the journal Carbon.

 

Living in a neighbourhood where there is greater access to fast food outlets may be linked to poorer bone development in early childhood, according to a new UK study. The study at the University of Southampton in the UK, looked at the bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) of 1,107 children at birth and at four and/or six years of age. The data was compared to the number of supermarkets, healthy speciality stores and fast food outlets within a child's neighbourhood.
After adjustments for other variables, researchers found that greater access to fast food outlets was associated with lower BMD and BMC in newborns. Associations between fast food outlet exposure and bone measures at four or six years of age were not significant. In contrast, increasing neighbourhood exposure to healthy speciality stores, such as greengrocers, was associated with higher BMD at four and six years of age.

 

Dozens of major websites crash all at once

 SAN FRANCISCO: Dozens of major websites including Netflix, Uber and the BBC went down simultaneously on Thursday in some areas of the United States, but were soon up again in most cases.

The cause of the crashes remained unclear, but some appeared connected to trouble at a cloud service relied on by companies, although that did not stop the social media rumor and conspiracy mill from going into overdrive.

"We're aware that members are experiencing issues streaming on all devices," streaming television service Netflix said in a tweet at its customer service Twitter account.