Category: Technology

Pablo Carlos Budassi, CC BY-NC-SA To an astronaut today, the Earth looks like a vibrant blue marble from space. But 700 million years ago, it would have looked like a blinding white snowball. This seems an unlikely cradle for life, yet new evidence suggests the frozen ocean featured restricted ice-free oases that provided a lifeline […]

Frame 352 from the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film in 1962. wikipedia It was the image that launched a cultural icon. In 1967, in the northern Californian woods, a seven foot tall, ape-like creature covered in black fur and walking upright was captured on camera, at one point turning around to look straight down the lens. The […]

Criticize the government online? The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) might ask Google to cough up your name. By abusing an investigative tool called “administrative subpoenas,” DHS has been demanding that tech companies hand over users’ names, locations, and more. We’re explaining how companies can stand up for users—and covering the latest news in the […]

The DeepTech Catalyst Biotech Incubator (DTC Bio) is a collaboration between the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Shaping a better tomorrow Addressing a range of real-world challenges, the latest businesses to join the DTC Bio are: Oshun Labs: developing functional products derived from seaweed to […]

Sorapop Udomsri/Shutterstock Are you one of those people who can’t drop off to sleep if it’s “too quiet”? If so, you’re not alone. According to a 2023 survey of UK participants, 50% of people listen to some kind of noise to help fall asleep. Many people have turned to pink, white or brown noise to […]

We are calling on technology companies like Meta and Google to stand up for their users by resisting the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) lawless administrative subpoenas for user data.  In the past year, DHS has consistently targeted people engaged in First Amendment activity. Among other things, the agency has issued subpoenas to technology companies to […]

In April 2007, the Baltic nation of Estonia woke up to one of the world’s first major cyber-attacks on civil society carried out by a state. A series of massive “distributed denial of service” assaults – floods of fake traffic from networked computers – targeted government websites, banks, media outlets and online services for weeks, […]

Flock contracts have quietly spread to cities across the country. But Flock ALPR (Automated License Plate Readers) erode civil liberties from the moment they’re installed. While officials claim these cameras keep neighborhoods safe, the evidence tells a different story. The data reveals how Flock has enabled surveillance of people seeking abortions, protesters exercising First Amendment […]

Andy Burns As soon as you drive over the top of the Peak District and down into Sheffield you can see the light pollution – and it’s horrible, said a participant in a research project into darkness and light pollution. In the last 100 years, the places where people can experience darkness have reduced dramatically. […]

For decades, astronomers have been watching WOH G64, an enormous heavyweight star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy visible with the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere. This star is more than 1,500 times larger than the Sun and emitting over 100,000 times more energy. For a long time, red supergiant WOH G64 looked […]