Weekend takeaway: Zombies and machines

6 Jan 2017

All your essential sci-tech reading this weekend. Image: Aleksey Boyko/Shutterstock

From CES to zombies and Trump’s video trove, we cover all the important areas in the sci-tech world this week.

1. Herstory festival of light illuminates the Irish women who did the extraordinary

To mark Women’s Little Christmas across Ireland, libraries, museums and other iconic buildings will be lit up with the images of Irish women whose amazing achievements are often overlooked by history.

2. Head Stemette Anne-Marie Imafidon honoured with MBE

Stemettes CEO Anne-Marie Imafidon, a newly minted MBE, believes delivery is the key to engaging young women in STEM. Claire O’Connell reports.

3. Ireland places 4th in Forbes’ Best Countries for Business list

Ireland appears to be making quite a name for itself abroad, having been placed fourth in Forbes’ annual Best Countries for Business, with Sweden taking first place.

4. Study: If a zombie outbreak occurs, the human race is doomed

Physics students wanting to see how the world’s population would fare in the event of a zombie outbreak discovered that after just 100 days, our species would be doomed.

5. BMW, Intel and Mobileye to put driverless cars on the road this year

BMW has revealed that its alliance with Intel and Mobileye will result in 40 self-driving test cars hitting the road by the second half of this year.

6. Audi and Nvidia to bring AI-based driverless car to road by 2020

Audi and Nvidia are collaborating on their own self-driving car that will have AI at its core, hitting roads in 2020.

7. DJI acquires majority stake in Swedish camera maker Hasselblad

Chinese drone-maker DJI is understood to have acquired a majority stake in iconic Swedish camera brand Hasselblad.

8. Enormous Milky Way black hole is shooting out planet-sized objects

Within the heart of our galaxy lies a monstrous black hole that, contrary to our understanding of them, is shooting out planet-sized objects at a significant rate.

9. Trump video tower: Internet Archive reveals searchable Trump trove

TV appearances made by Donald Trump in the last eight years can now be found in the Trump Archive, a searchable repository created by Internet Archive.

10. Is 2017 the year to make a change in your career? We can help

As we come to the end of the first working week of 2017, we offer some career advice for those looking to switch things up in the new year.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com