Category: Technology

fran_kie/Shutterstock For some people, sleep brings a peculiar kind of wakefulness. Not a dream, but a quiet awareness with no content. This lesser-known state of consciousness may hold clues to one of science’s biggest mysteries: what it means to be conscious. The state of conscious sleep has been widely described for centuries by different Eastern […]

In today’s world, huge amounts of data are being created all the time, yet more than half of it is never used. It stays in silos, or isn’t managed, or can’t be accessed because systems change, or isn’t needed because business priorities change. This “dark data” accumulates in servers and storage devices, consuming electricity and […]

How is an animal feeling at a given moment? Humans have long recognised certain well-known behaviour like a cat hissing as a warning, but in many cases we’ve had little clue of what’s going on inside an animal’s head. Now we have a better idea, thanks to a Milan-based researcher who has developed an AI […]

Beijing, China — Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has released an updated version of its flagship model, DeepSeek V3.1, marking a notable evolution in its open-source large language model (LLM) lineup. The new model builds on the original DeepSeek V3 architecture, which also serves as the foundation for its reasoning-focused R1 model, and introduces a hybrid […]

Tim Peake Fred Duval / Shutterstock The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has become part of the government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). The announcement was made on August 20 2025 by Chris Bryant MP, minister of state for data protection and telecoms. Cutting red tape and duplicative bureaucracy within DSIT and UKSA seems […]

TSViPhoto/Shutterstock Psychologists have long considered how a tendency towards irrational thinking or particular personality traits might predict peoples’ interest in conspiracies. Yet these individual factors do not explain the group processes through which conspiracy theorists are extending their influence and impact. Over five years, we sought out and got to know people on the cusp […]

As generative AI reaches maturity and its limitations become more apparent, a new paradigm is emerging: agentic AI. Touted as the next evolution in artificial intelligence, agentic systems promise autonomy, iterative reasoning, and goal-oriented action. Yet, despite growing interest, the term remains loosely defined and frequently misunderstood—fueling both hype and skepticism. A recent Gartner report […]

In the archaeology galleries of the Yorkshire Museum, an incredible Viking silver neck-ring takes centre stage. The ring is made of four ropes of twisted rods hammer-welded together at each end, its terminals tapering into scrolled S-shaped hooks for fastening behind the neck. Weighing over half a kilo, it makes a less-than-subtle statement about the […]

Orla/Shutterstock I recently asked myself if I’ll still have a healthy brain as I get older. I hold a professorship at a neurology department. Nevertheless, it is difficult for me to judge if a particular brain, including my own, suffers from early neurodegeneration. My new study, however, shows that part of your brain increases in […]

News media shape public understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) and influence how society interacts with these technologies. For many people, especially those who have not sought more knowledge about AI elsewhere, media platforms are a primary source of information. This is particularly significant in Africa, where historical and socioeconomic contexts like colonial legacies and uneven […]