WEIRD STUFF: Alexa to recreate the voices of the dead

Cats and dogs are best friends

Cats and dogs are actually best friends, according to new research.

The results, unveiled at the British Veterinary Association (BVA) live event in Birmingham last Thursday, found that 41 per cent of vets said that cats were having behaviour problems due to sharing a home with other felines.

Issues linked with cats living with other animals - including dogs - were mentioned by only seven per cent of vets.

It has been suggested that a dog in the house makes cats less stressed as they do not have to share things.

Dr Justine Shotton, from the BVA, explained that there are three reasons for a happy home of kittens.

She said: "The first is the compatibility of cats in the group. The second is the availability and accessibility of resources such as food and water.

"Third is population density. Ten cats in a small flat will probably be stressed."

---------------

Alexa to recreate the voices of the dead

The Amazon device could rekindle memories of late loved ones as part of new plans unveiled by the technology firm.

Amazon is developing the tech to allow the digital assistant to mimic any voice it hears from less than a minute of audio.

Rohit Prasad, Amazon's senior vice-president, explained that the company is aiming to "make the memories last" after "so many of us lost someone we love" during the pandemic.

Speaking at Amazon's Re: Mars conference in Las Vegas, he said: "We are unquestionably living in the golden era of AI, where our dreams and science fictions are becoming a reality."

The concept is controversial, with a documentary filmmaker using software to make the late chef Anthony Bourdain say words that he had never spoken.

Amazon are yet to give a timescale for when the feature could be launched.

-------------

Hamster goes to space

A hamster has survived a daring trip into space.

The rodent successfully returned to Earth after being launched into the stratosphere on a flying balloon.

The flying hamster reached a maximum altitude of 14 miles and is in good health after being recovered from the sea off Japan's Miyako Island.

The experiment was conducted by the company Iwatani Giken and saw the animal placed in an airtight cabin with the same atmospheric pressure and temperature as the ground.

A photograph showed the hamster looking out of the window seven miles above the Earth.

The balloon was launched from the city of Miyakojima and climbed at an average of 6.3 metres per second.

Iwatani Giken is hoping to bring space travel to the masses and the experiment was designed to give confidence to would-be space travellers.

Further flight tests to an altitude of 15 miles are planned, a height that would allow people to see the curvature of the Earth.