Category: Technology

Around 631,000 years ago — a geological blink of an eye — catastrophe unfolded in what is now north-western Wyoming, US. During what is thought to have been a series of immense volcanic eruptions, life within hundreds of kilometres of the blasts was shattered. Ash was dispersed across much of North America and the effects […]

Master1305/Shutterstock Imagine you are at a cocktail party. The room is crowded, people are coming and going, and you can barely hear your friend as they tell you some juicy gossip about the date they went on last week. The fact you can still follow what they’re saying is down to your brain performing some […]

Stir crazy? udra11 Battenberg cake is one of my favourite cakes. But when I tell people that one of the things I like most about this cake is its E-number, they tend to look at me strangely. It contains the raising agent E541, acidic sodium aluminium phosphate, which is one of the most restricted food […]

Would Ted be coming with you in an emergency? 4_17amdani/Shutterstock Imagine it’s the dead of night. Your phone pings with a text – it’s a government emergency alert: “Leave your home immediately! Only take with you enough supplies for the next three days.” What would you want in your go-bag? Our new survey of UK […]

For a farmer wondering whether to invest in a new digital solution, a successful demonstration hundreds of kilometres away may not be particularly convincing. But seeing the same technology work on a neighbouring farm, or hearing a recommendation from a fellow farmer, a friend, or even a conversation in the local café, carries a different […]

Blue Andy/Shutterstock Right now, your brain is recognising the shapes of these letters, analysing their meaning, and holding a stream of thought together – all on about 20 watts of power. That’s roughly what it takes to run a lightbulb. Yet reproducing even a small fraction of the brain’s capabilities using today’s AI systems can […]

Alexander Supertramp / Shutterstock On Saturday, Donald Trump said, “We’re leading China on AI… and, frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.” But the danger the world is waking up to is that this is a game both the US and China could lose, potentially fatally, with AI itself […]

Motion-blurred greyhounds in coloured racing jackets racing around a floodlit track at night. Craig Allen/flickr, CC BY-NC This year, greyhound racing in Britain turns 100 years old. The first race ran on July 24 1926 in Manchester, where six dogs chased a mechanical hare around a track. Recently, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) […]

At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, a humanoid robot named Tiangong Ultra ran the 100-metre sprint in a staggering 8.64 seconds, shattering Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s legendary human world record of 9.58 seconds. The internet laughed at the robots’ awkward, lurching finishes and spectacular falls – but the laughter masked a chilling reality. […]

Russian mathematician Yurii Nesterov's work on gradient descent methods is influential in the development of AI technology. Simons Foundation via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-ND Russian mathematician Yurii Nesterov was recently awarded the Gauss Prize for outstanding mathematical contributions for his “groundbreaking work” on optimisation. The award cited his work on gradient descent methods – and […]