A team of scientists at the Scripps Research Institute has synthesized a new nicotine-degrading enzyme and successfully tested it in nicotine-dependent rats. Named NicA2-J1, the engineered enzyme decreased blood nicotine levels and had remarkable efficacy in reducing addiction-like behaviors in the rodents. The results appear in the journal Science Advances. …

Photo: tpmvideos on Instagram  If you are wondering where to head for All Hallows’ Eve this year, there are plenty of options besides a night of watching scary movies at home. For those who are more adventurous and want to venture outside of the typical house party, a spooky Halloween fest can help …

Google’s latest phone officially launched yesterday, and for the third time, Verizon is the only carrier selling the new Pixels directly. In past years, Verizon has sold SIM-unlocked Pixels that worked on every carrier — indeed, all its phones were unlocked because of a legal agreement it made a decade …

The European Commission handed down a ruling earlier this year that fined Google a record $5 billion for anticompetitive practices in Android licensing. In addition to the fine, the Commission is forcing Google to unbundle some of its apps from Android, but the company says that’s going to mean more …

The CPU market has changed more in the past 22 months than it did from 2008-2017 combined. That’s not to say that CPU architectures didn’t change, or that we didn’t see per-core pricing come down. But Intel had a remarkably successful run with the product positioning it introduced at the …

Google’s Chrome OS started as an incredibly rudimentary platform with a browser and…well, that’s was basically everything. Since then, it has expanded to support more native features via Chrome updates, as well as Android and Linux apps. Linux support is still relatively new — it rolled out widely in Chrome …

The team behind mileage-tracking app MileIQ, a company Microsoft acquired a few years ago, is out with a new application. This time, the focus isn’t on tracking miles, but rather expenses. The new app, simply called “Spend,” arrived on the App Store on Thursday, offering automatic expense tracking for work …

A remarkable new species of predatory fish that lived about 152 million years ago (Jurassic period) has been identified from a fossil found in Germany. Piranhamesodon pinnatomus, 2.8 inches (7.1 cm) long, from the Late Jurassic of Ettling, Solnhofen Archipelago, Germany. Image credit: M. Ebert. The ancient fish, named Piranhamesodon …

Wind-dispersed plants have evolved ingenious ways to lift their seeds. The common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) uses a bundle of drag-enhancing bristles that helps to keep their seeds aloft. A new study, led by University of Edinburgh researchers Ignazio Maria Viola and Naomi Nakayama, shows that movement of air around and …

When I think about my experience as an immigrant and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, I remember growing up in Brazil and how we saw tech founders and CEOs as kings. We imagined what it would be like to assume the throne. But these weren’t just any kings. Silicon Valley was …