Category: Technology

Wikimedia We think of artificial intelligence based on large language models as a discovery of our own moment. But Jonathan Swift – yes, the writer of Gulliver’s Travels (1726) – foresaw it all in the 18th century. In our modern world we are repeatedly told by companies, governments, journalists and others that our lives can […]

Autumn walks in Britain are glorious, as the foliage changes colour and cool crisp air begins to bite. However, some of these European trees hide a much darker secret. For example, the yew tree’s lovely red arils – the cup-shaped coverings around the seeds – carry toxins that may have been used to poison arrow […]

Dusan Zidar The cyberattack on crypto-asset exchange Binance is potentially the largest theft of its kind on record. Binance has estimated the assets stolen at an eye-watering US$6.3 billion (£4.7 billion). On October 29, 2026, analytics firms reported that large amounts of crypto-assets had been moved from wallets used by the exchange across multiple blockchain […]

An illustration from the Wellcome Collection of a medieval monk's herb garden. Wellcome Collection For whatever the land you possess, whether it be where sand And gravel lie barren and dead, or where fruits grow heavy In rich moist ground; whether high on a steep hillside, Easy ground in the plain or rough among sloping […]

How handy would it be if you could make your tattoos invisible for a job interview in the morning, and reveal them again for a party in the evening? This sounds like science fiction, but it may soon be reality. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed invisible tattoo ink than can be […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Google DeepMind’s latest frontier AI model, Gemini 4 Carbon, has claimed the top spot on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5 with an aggregate score of 59. The benchmark result places Google’s newest release one point ahead of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5, which holds a score of 58, and two points ahead […]

The Hora 1 site is at the base of this peak of rock in northern Malawi. Chelsea Smith, CC BY-ND In the ancient past, when human communities were small and the only way to travel was by walking, what were the chances of meeting a stranger? And what would happen next? We know that ancient […]

Storm Austen and Storm Boelo swept across the UK in quick succession. Rain lashed windows, river levels rose and the clocks went back. It feels like winter has arrived all at once. Yet most of England and Wales are still in drought. Parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Sussex are in severe drought, the […]

When a humble dung beetle arrives at a patch of manure, it forms the dung into a ball and rolls it away in a straight line, putting distance between its food and competitors. That may sound simple, but there is much more to it than meets the eye. Lost in a desert at night or […]

Drones are starting to be used help experts predict winter storms more accurately. 1000 words/Shutterstock Weather drones are being tested to help update forecasts of extreme weather more quickly, and could help us prepare earlier for upcoming winter storms. With an unprecedented El Niño increasing the chance of storms and wet weather in Europe this […]