Evidence of earliest silkworm farming outside China found, upending Silk Road timeline

It may not be the most majestic creature on our beautiful planet, but the humble silkworm deserves a place alongside horses, cattle, cats, and dogs due to its profound impact on human civilisation.

The luxurious fabric spun from the silkworm’s natural secretion ignited the creation of a vast global trade network, connecting Asia with the Mediterranean. This network became a catalyst for transformative exchanges of goods, ideas, and technologies across continents, significantly shaping the course of world history.

However, the history of silk predates the Silk

A comparative analysis of ancient silkworm cocoons discovered at the Sapalli Tepe site, a significant Bronze Age archaeological location in southern Uzbekistan. Photo: X. Zhou/IVPP, CAS
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Karaoke in the car? China’s new wave of gadget-laden electric vehicles

BYD, China’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer, is integrating karaoke systems into its new premium models. Photo: Xinhua

China’s electric vehicles (EVs) already lead the way in terms of battery and autonomous driving technologies. Now, the country’s auto brands are adding a new dimension to the notion of intelligent cars: turning them into full-scale entertainment centres.

A new wave of Chinese-developed EVs is hitting the market equipped with everything from voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) assistants, to headlights that double up as film projectors and


Canadair water-bomber builder feels heat of demand as wildfires rage around the world

As Canada, the United States and Europe grapple with another brutal wildfire season, pressure is building on the manufacturer of the Canadair "Super Scooper" water bombers to increase production, and on the federal government to bulk order the planes.


Instead of making hydrogen, this Canadian company is drilling for it

A Saskatchewan company is drilling for hydrogen to prove it can be extracted from the ground at a commercial scale. Max Power says that could lead to greener, cheaper hydrogen for decarbonizing industry and transportation. Here's what you need to know about the development of natural hydrogen.


65 years after the Berlin Wall was built, Germany’s east-west scars help feed a rising far-right party

Decades after the Berlin Wall fell, observers see deep-seated regional grievances and feelings of second-class citizenship driving a surge for the far-right Alternative for Germany party.


Five years after Kabul fell, the reckoning over Afghanistan is far from over

The Taliban victory not only displaced hundreds of thousands of Afghans, the reimposition of their strict, authoritarian fundamentalist regime has featured the systematic erasure of women from public life, the suppression of free media and dissent and the enforcement of rigid moral codes through a dedicated ministry.


How AI grief bots are allowing people to commune with the dead

It may seem like something ripped directly from an episode of Black Mirror, but generative AI and large language models are now being used to conjure up the dead, using the massive digital footprints many of us leave behind when we die.


在西非職場,我重新理解「效率」:談正事前的聊天也是工作的一部分

本文定義跨文化效率,非僅任務速度,更含溝通與關係。建立信任是降低長期協作成本的投資。海外工作者應校準自身標準,避免文化誤判。

How a $40 parking ticket became a fight for accessibility in Quebec

When Charlie Rousseau visited her hometown of Rouyn-Noranda, Que., for a festival in June, she noticed there were old-style parking meters that required users to slip change into a slot to pay. The problem is, Rousseau can't easily hold coins, let alone reach the slot to pay.


張致恒老婆雯雯發文呻窮「一月死兩次」 疑欠租一家準備搬屋 上月欠交電費被Cut電

藝人張致恒(Steven)自2019年與區燕雯(雯雯)奉子成婚以來,家庭生活一直備受外界關注,兩人育有四名兒子,生活壓力沉重。繼上月雯雯在社交平台呻因欠交電費被Cut電後,昨日(14日)再發文疑似欠租,準備「搬屋」