Robotic killers that detect feral cats, spray their fur with poison and rely on them to essentially lick themselves to death have been deployed in the Australian desert for the first time. Feral cats are one of the biggest threats to many of Australia's endangered species, killing millions of animals every day throughout the country – and controlling them has proved difficult. It took John Read, an ecologist seven years to invent and produce four of the "grooming traps". After extensive testing, he has switched on the first one in a nature reserve in south-west Queensland. "Cats are hard-wired to hunt," Read said.

Most singles use Tinder or some other dating site, but that doesn't mean they want to tell everyone. Following a rollout of a test feature in Australia, Tinder received complaints that the app was outing users to their Facebook friends. After using'Tinder Social', members' names and dating profiles were added to a list that was shared with their Facebook friends who also use the app – exposing who is swiping for dates. Tinder is testing a new feature in Australian that lets users organize group dates, but the new feature is also outing them to their Facebook friends. By using'Tinder Social', users' names and dating profiles are being added to a public list that is shared with their Facebook friends who also use the app Tinder is testing a new feature in Australian that lets users organize group dates, but the new feature is also outing them to their Facebook friends.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Tinder, the dating app notorious for translating physical attraction into the swipe of a single fingertip, has launched a group dating feature. Tinder Social has been rolled out on a trial basis in Australia, but has been met with alarm after users realised the new feature exposes Facebook friends that also use the app. In a blog post announcing the launch of Tinder Social, the company presents the function as a means to meet people on a platonic basis, promising to take "an average night out with your friends to the next level". Users included in the trial are now able to join public groups consisting of Facebook contacts, and others can add them to these groups without permission. Crucially, these features are opt-out rather than opt-in; Tinder might out a person as a user of its app before an individual has a chance to turn the feature off.

Tinder wants to help you go out and bring along some friends. The popular dating app is expanding beyond one-to-one matches and looking to connect groups. Called Tinder Social, the new feature lets users create a group of people that includes everyone's pictures and names -- pulled from users' Tinder profiles -- as well as a location of where you are interested in going for the night. The app then functions the same as one-to-one matching, where users can swipe and match with other nearby groups that are interested in a night out. Once you're matched, you can chat with everyone in the group.

Plants have memories of past events that they can pass onto their offspring. For instance, 'mother' plants can sense temperature changes and use that information to form long-term memories that help future generation flower at the right time. Now, new research has found a prions, a protein linked to mad cow disease, could be responsible for how plants form memories. Plants have memories of past events that they can pass onto their offspring. Prions are a type of protein that fold under certain conditions. They can also trigger other proteins around them to fold as well.

They had invented--or, rather, discovered; no, really they'd just inexplicably gone to the trouble of creating--a die with a hundred and twenty sides. "What do you use it for?" "We have no idea," he answered. Futility notwithstanding, the d120 is billed as the "ultimate fair die allowed by Mother Nature (i.e., mathematics!)," At two inches in diameter and a little more than three ounces in weight, the d120 casts an impressive but not a runaway roll--even with so many sides, all of them skinny right triangles, the die is far from spherical.

With business applications of artificial intelligence ranging from customer service, to hiring, to marketing, it's clear that AI is a tool that is critical for companies to embrace. But using AI has consequences for business structures, hierarchies, and budgets. The world's smartest cities: What IoT and smart governments will mean for you Intelligent cities are at the forefront of the next wave of the Internet of Things. The goals are to streamline communication and improve the lives of citizens. And save a little money along the way.

A slowdown in tech start-up funding has at least one big beneficiary: Walt Disney Co.'s video games division. The entertainment giant is having an easier time finding partners with whom it can develop mobile games, one of its top executives said last week. Why? Up-and-coming companies are losing access to the cash needed to launch games on their own. "As the venture money has dried up and exits have slowed down and valuations have come down, larger game developers that have one or two hits [but not a big stable of them] are now open to work with us in co-development," said Chris Heatherly, senior vice president and general manager at Disney Mobile Games. The comments came during a discussion last week at the L.A. Games Conference with Michael Metzger of investment bank Houlihan Lokey.

Auckland-based software developer Touchpoint Group has launched a new artificial intelligence program, designed to help companies better understand customer behaviours. Labelled Ipiphany, it is the first cognitive analytics program in the world to be able to simultaneously "learn" from combinations of customer information collected via text, machine learning and natural language processing. Launched following a three-year cognitive behaviour research project by data scientists in Australia and New Zealand, the research allowed Touchpoint Group to develop a cloud-based solution designed to deliver faster insight compared to traditional research methodologies. Formed in Auckland in 2001, Touchpoint is one of the region's leading developer of customer engagement software across industries including banking, insurance, and utilities, and already provides solutions for many of the largest banking and financial services companies. Touchpoint Group CEO Frank van der Velden believes Ipiphany could "dramatically improve" the financial returns from existing investments in "customer data" made by large companies.