Weird science: 3 win Nobel for unusual states of matter ADVERTISING Weird science: 3 win Nobel for unusual states of matter How is a doughnut like a coffee cup? The answer helped three British-born scientists win the Nobel prize in
Weird science: 3 win Nobel for unusual states of matter
How is a doughnut like a coffee cup? The answer helped three British-born scientists win the Nobel prize in physics Tuesday.
Their work could help lead to more powerful computers and improved materials for electronics.
David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, who are now affiliated with universities in the United States, were honored for work in the 1970s and ’80s that shed light on strange states of matter.
“Their discoveries have brought about breakthroughs in the theoretical understanding of matter’s mysteries and created new perspectives on the development of innovative materials,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and currently a visiting lecturer at Aalto University in Helsinki.
Plan to revamp Chicago police misconduct probes gets review
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to create a new agency that would investigate police shootings and police misconduct allegations drew sharp criticism Tuesday from some City Council members who said the proposed ordinance lacks necessary transparency and oversight over a department long plagued by a reputation of misconduct and brutality.
Emanuel’s plan, while addressing some concerns about the independence of the new Civilian Office of Police Accountability, does not create a civilian board whose job would include selecting a permanent head of the agency. That’s something critics of the department have said is crucial to restoring public trust in Emanuel’s leadership and the police force in the wake of the now-famous video of a white police officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald.
Instead, Emanuel postponed plans to create such a board, with the city’s lawyer, Stephen Patton telling aldermen on Tuesday that would be ask to approve a resolution on Wednesday that calls for an ordinance on the new board to be completed and go before the City Council early next year. That means IPRA administrator Sharon Fairley would head the new agency on an interim basis.
The mayor’s ordinance to create the new agency went before a joint meeting of the council’s Committee on Budget and Government Operations and Committee on Public Safety. The recommendation of both committees is expected to go before the full City Council for a final vote on Wednesday.
The ordinance would create a new agency to replace the Independent Police Review Authority, which has been widely criticized for not completing investigations in a timely manner and nearly always siding with officers.
LAPD releases video showing suspect with gun before shooting
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police released surveillance video Tuesday showing an 18-year-old black suspect running from police while holding what appears to be a gun in his left hand just before he was fatally shot by officers in a death that has generated rowdy protests.
The footage shows a man crouching behind an SUV and pulling a handgun from the waistband of his sweatpants. He then tucks the gun back into his waistband and runs around the corner of a strip mall as officers run after him.
The footage posted to the police department’s YouTube channel does not show officers shoot Carnell Snell because that location was not within the viewing range of the surveillance camera. But police said the video supports the account Chief Charlie Beck gave Monday justifying the shooting.
Beck said Snell had a fully loaded semi-automatic handgun in one hand and turned toward officers when they fired Saturday.
The video was made public just as Black Lives Matter organizers gathered Tuesday morning to protest Snell’s killing at a meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission. The board of civilian overseers convened at midmorning and was later closed to the public after demonstrators interrupted speakers and shouted for Beck’s resignation.
Report: Yahoo gave US intel agencies access to email
NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo reportedly scanned hundreds of millions of email accounts at the behest of U.S. intelligence or law enforcement. The scans, reported by Reuters, allegedly selected incoming messages that contained a string of unknown characters.
Yahoo did not deny the report, saying only that it is a “law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States.”
According to the Tuesday report, Yahoo acceded to a 2015 government directive to give email access to the National Security Agency or the FBI. Reuters cited anonymous sources including two former employees and another person with knowledge of the events.
Yahoo continues to face questions about a breach in 2014 that compromised at least 500 million accounts.
The Department of Justice and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google gets aggressive with new phones, other gadgets
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is ratcheting up its rivalry with Apple and Amazon in unveiling new smartphones and an internet-connected speaker sporting a digital assistant that the company hopes to make indispensable.
The devices unveiled Tuesday are part of Google’s bold move to design and sell its own hardware, instead of just supplying Android and other software for other companies to make products. Google’s previous attempts at hardware have had limited distribution and included such high-profile flops as its internet-connected Glass headgear.
This time around, Google is betting big that it has matured to the point that it can design software and hardware to work seamlessly with each other — an art that Apple mastered during the past 15 years as it mesmerized consumers with its iPods, iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Borrowing another page from Apple’s book, Google is backing its expanded product lineup with the biggest marketing campaign in its 18-year history. The company isn’t disclosing how much it will spend, but made it clear the ads touting products “Made by Google” will be ubiquitous during the next few months.
“They have done some advertising in the past, but it’s never been with this kind of ‘let us take care of everything for you’ way,” Gartner analyst Brian Blau said. “This is more like Apple’s way of doing things.”
