Category: Technology

Ales stenar (Ale’s Stones) in southern Sweden is a monumental Iron Age stone ship-setting overlooking the Baltic Sea. These structures were graves or cremations surrounded by stones in the shape of a ship. It dates to around 600–1000 AD and broadly coincides with the period of back-migration into the region. Nicolas Delgado Clausen, CC BY […]

The use of digital agriculture is expanding across Africa. Tools like artificial intelligence (AI), sensors and blockchain are helping farmers receive information about weather, pests, markets and farm management. AI can analyse images and other farm data to detect problems or support decisions. Digital traceability systems can record where food comes from and what happens […]

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 […]