New auto giant? Fiat Chrysler wants to merge with Renault

Fiat Chrysler proposed on Monday to merge with France's Renault to create the world's third-biggest automaker, worth $40 billion, and combine forces in the race to make electric and autonomous vehicles.

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New aqueous electrochemical energy storage battery could pave the way for grid-scale energy storage

A team of researchers with the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new aqueous electrochemical energy storage battery that they believe could pave the way for grid-scale energy storage. In their paper published in the journal Nature Energy, the group describes how they built their new battery and how well it worked when tested. Lauren Marbella with Columbia University has published a News and Views piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue.

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How climate change could affect some of West Africa's iconic bird species

If scientists know how particular species are responding to the realities of global climate change, they can help to recommend better conservation strategies.

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New framework improves performance of deep neural networks

North Carolina State University researchers have developed a new framework for building deep neural networks via grammar-guided network generators. In experimental testing, the new networks—called AOGNets—have outperformed existing state-of-the-art frameworks, including the widely-used ResNet and DenseNet systems, in visual recognition tasks.

* This article was originally published here

In Syria's Maalula, fear for survival of language of Christ

Hunched over a thick book, George Zaarour uses a magnifying glass to decipher Aramaic script—the biblical language of Jesus that is starting to disappear from everyday use in his village.

* This article was originally published here