Science & Technology News

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – The Ebola virus raging through West Africa is mutating rapidly as it tears a deadly path through cities, towns and villages, but the genetic changes are for now not giving it the ability to spread more easily. Concern that the virus could gain capability to transmit through the air – creating a nightmare scenario of the disease being able to spread like a flu pandemic, killing millions – was fuelled by a top infectious disease expert in the United States. …

A look at how Serena Williams inspires people.

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Contrary to some earlier projections, the world’s population will soar through the end of the 21st century thanks largely to sub-Saharan Africa’s higher-than-expected birth rates, United Nations and other population experts said on Thursday. There is an 80 percent likelihood that the number of people on the planet, currently 7.2 billion, will increase to between 9.6 billion and 12.3 billion by 2100, the researchers said. They also saw an 80 percent probability that Africa’s population will rise to between 3.5 billion and 5. …

By Jonathan Stempel REUTERS – A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a jury order requiring Apple Inc to pay VirnetX Holding Corp $368.2 million in damages for infringing four patents concerning technology for providing security over the Internet. Shares of VirnetX plunged as much as 59.8 percent after the decision by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington. The company and its lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. …

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) – NASA won’t meet a congressionally ordered goal to find 90 percent of nearby and potentially dangerous asteroids larger than 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter, the agency’s Inspector General said on Monday. The shortfall comes despite a 10-fold increase in NASA’s annual budget over the past five years – from $4 million in 2009 to $40 million in 2014 – to track and assess potentially dangerous asteroids and comets. So-called “Near-Earth Objects,” or NEOs, fly within about 28 million miles (45 million km) of Earth. …

By Simon Johnson and Daniel Dickson STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s centre-left leader began efforts to forge a minority government by reaching out to his defeated centre-right foes on Monday, a day after winning an election marked by big gains for an anti-immigrant party that now holds the balance of power. Stefan Lofven’s Social Democrats and two other left-leaning parties garnered more votes than the outgoing centre-right Alliance of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in Sunday’s election but fell short of a parliamentary majority. …

By Simon Johnson STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – At the height of the global financial crisis trade union leader Stefan Lofven, now set to become Sweden’s prime minister after Sunday’s election, did the unthinkable and cut a deal with employers agreeing pay cuts and shorter hours. The deal, which some industrialists say helped many Swedish firms survive the crash, underscored the pragmatism and negotiating skills of Lofven, leader of the Social Democrats, who now faces the hard task of managing a minority government. …

By Gerry Shih and Matthew Miller BEIJING (Reuters) – Inside Alibaba, where co-founders are revered like rock stars, relatively few employees know about the soft-spoken executive who for years kept his same cramped office, unfashionable clothes and the self-effacing demeanor of a metalworker’s son. But for investors in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s [IPO-BABA. …

CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has arrived at the base of a mountain of layered rock that scientists suspect holds clues about whether the planet most like Earth in the solar system had the ingredients to support and preserve signs of microbial life. The 1-ton rover touched down inside an ancient impact basin in August 2012. It quickly discovered a region inside the Gale Crater landing site that was chemically and geologically suited for the same kind of rock-eating microbes commonly found on Earth. …

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The biggest dinosaur predator that ever stalked the Earth was also the weirdest. Scientists announced on Thursday the discovery in Moroccan desert cliffs of new fossil remains of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, a 50-foot (15-meter) long, seven-ton African monster that breaks the mold for how a dinosaur predator looked and behaved. It was roughly 9 feet (2.5 meters) longer than Tyrannosaurus rex and equally massive. …