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TIMES

THE TIMES OF INDIA, PUNE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2015

15

TRENDS

Silicon Valleys growing up, giving parents a break

iTOONS

SUNIL AGARWAL & AJIT NINAN

Un-Family-Friendly Culture Changing As Many Tech Co Founders Age And Have Children
Rick Gomez/CORBIS

Claire Cain Miller

ilicon Valley is beginning to admit it isnt just

for young people anymore. The Valleys un-family-friendly culture has long been
almost a point of pride, with
employers openly preferring
younger, childless employees
who were presumed to be more productive.
Young people just have
simpler lives, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks co-founder
and chief executive, said in
2007, when he was 23. Simp-

WINDS OF CHANGE

licity in life allows you to focus on whats important.

Recently, though, a gro-

SHORT CUTS

Cocoa, green tea may help

combat diabetes symptoms

ocoa, found in chocolate, and green tea

contain substances that may help prevent
and treat renal complications or diabetic retinopathy, a new study has claimed. The study by
researchers at the State University of Campinas
in Brazil suggests that cacao and green tea help
diminish death of podocytes, cells that restrict
the passing of proteins into urine. Scientists say
that polyphenols and themobromine found in
cacao and green tea can diminish the impact of
diabetes, Xinhua news agency reported.

High-potency cannabis can damage brain:

Smoking high potency skunk-like cannabis can
damage a crucial part of the brain responsible
for communication between the two brain
hemispheres, a new study by researchers at
Kings College, London has found. In experimental studies THC has been shown to induce
psychotic symptoms and skunk-like products
high in THC are now thought to be the most
commonly used form of cannabis in the UK.
Reuters

wing number of tech executives have been speaking out

about the struggle to balance

This chip lets phones

charge in minutes

work and family, particularly

as Silicon Valley faces pressure to become more diverse.
In an informal poll last
month by CB Insights, a private company data firm, 63%
of the 4,040 respondents
mostly startup founders who
are also parents said they
struggled with balancing their startup and parental duties
daily or all the time. Only 10%
said they never did. I know
people struggle with this I
certainly do as a parent and
founder but over 60%
struggling with it every day

or all the time even surprised

me, said Anand Sanwal, chief executive of CB Insights.
There are signs the culture
could be changing.
Last week, for example,
Zuckerberg sounded a different note when he said he would take two months of paternity leave after his daughter
is born. (Facebook offers
employees four months of paid parental leave.) On Thursday, Spotify said it would give
full-time
employees
six
months of paid parental leave and one month of trans-

ition in which they can work

flexible or shorter hours.
Many parents who work at
small startups report that
they were the first person at
the company to have a child,
and often there was no existing parental leave policy. One
reason this has recently become an issue could be that Silicon Valley is aging. There are,
of course, many established
companies with older employees, but many people who
work at the hot companies of
the web era are now also becoming parents. NYT NEWS SERVICE

THANKSGIVING PARADE ON US STREETS

Reuters

Andrew Griffin

he maker of a new chip claims that it

could reduce the charging times of
phones to a few minutes, and could
prevent dangerous explosions. The tiny
chip could be embedded into batteries of all
sizes and monitor how healthy and charged
they are. That in turn would mean that the
batteries would become much safer and quicker to charge, according to the scientist
that developed it.
Although the risk of a battery failing
and catching fire is very low, with the billions of lithium-ion batteries being produced yearly, even a one-in-a-million chance
would mean over a thousand failures, said
Rachid Yazami from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In addition
to knowing the degradation of batteries,
our technology can also tell the exact state of
charge of the battery, and thus optimise the
charging so the battery can be maintained
in its best condition while being charged faster, said Yazami. Those behind the battery
hope that it will be available for licensing before the end of 2016. THE INDEPENDENT

FESTIVE CHEER: (Clockwise from top) The Skylanders Eruptor balloon in New York; a couple dressed as
Santa Claus and Mrs Claus in Philadelphia; members of Spirit of America group in Manhattan and people in
costumes ride during Thanksgiving Day parade on Thursday

3D printed cups help astronauts drink coffee

A 500-metre aperture spherical telescope is under
construction among the mountains in Pingtang
county in China. The telescope, which will be the
largest in the world, will be put in use by
September 2016, according to local media

Washington: Scientists have developed new funky-looking cups

crafted from a 3D printed transparent polymer that could allow
astronauts on the International
Space Station (ISS) to enjoy an
aromatic cup of coffee.
Astronauts are accustomed
to drinking beverages from bags
due to safety concerns over
spillage.
Their responses when testing
out the cups ranged from Hey, you

NASA/Corbis

EASY SIPS ONBOARD ISS

can smell the coffee, to This is eerily like drinking on Earth. The
cups, six in number, elicit happy
eruptions of laughter because the
astronauts readily confess they
had not expected it to work.
Last year, Italy sent an espresso
machine up to the ISS which inspired the researchers to study the related strange fluids phenomena in
low gravity such as espresso crema formation and settling, capillary interfaces, and containment of

potentially hazardous drinks within a spacecraft. To do this, the researchers designed a cup that exploits surface tension as opposed
to gravity.
Wetting conditions and the
cups special geometry create a
capillary pressure gradient that
drives the liquid forward toward
the face of the drinker, said
Mark Weislogel, a professor of
mechanical engineering at Portland State University in US. PTI

Witnessed: Black hole

swallowing a star
300m light years away
Washington: Scientists have for the first time witnessed a black hole swallowing
a star in a galaxy 300 million
light years away and ejecting a flare of matter moving
at nearly the speed of light.
The finding tracks the
star about the size of our
Sun as it shifts from its
customary path, slips into
the gravitational pull of a
super massive black hole
and is sucked in, said Sjoert
van Velzen, a Hubble fellow
at the Johns Hopkins University in US.
Its the first time we see
everything from the stellar
destruction followed by the
launch of a conical outflow,
also called a jet, and we watched it unfold over several
months, van Velzen said.
The first observation of
the star being destroyed was
made in December last year.
Researchers used radio tele-

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Corbis

CAUGHT ON CAMERA

scopes to follow up as fast as

possible. They were just in
time to catch the action.
By the time it was done,
the team had data from satellites and ground-based telescopes that gathered X-ray,
radio and optical signals,
providing a stunning multi-wavelength portrait of
this event.
It helped that the galaxy
in question is closer to Earth
than those studied previously in hopes of tracking a jet
emerging after the destruction of a star. PTI

Times of India, Pune, November 28, 2015 Pp.15

New AI tech could bring

back the dead, claims firm
Andrew Griffin

company claims that

it is developing technology to bring people back from the dead. Humai says it is developing
technology that would allow
brains to be frozen and have
their information stored,
bringing people back using
artificial intelligence. The

technology could be available to the public within the

next 30 years, it claims.
Before the person dies, the
company would use AI to study the conversational style
and behaviour of their customers. This data will be coded
into multiple sensor technologies built into an artificial
body with the brain of a deceased human. THE INDEPENDENT