Category: Technology

🏭 Summary German automaker Volkswagen has issued internal warnings about possible production stoppages linked to a renewed semiconductor supply crisis, particularly involving chips from Nexperia, a Dutch-based but Chinese-owned supplier. The company cited geopolitical tensions and export restrictions as key factors threatening its manufacturing continuity. 🔧 Supply Chain Disruption The warning follows a decision by […]

Leaf your prejudices at the door. Black Salmon As far back as 1980, the American philosopher John Searle distinguished between strong and weak AI. Weak AIs are merely useful machines or programs that help us solve problems, whereas strong AIs would have genuine intelligence. A strong AI would be conscious. Searle was sceptical of the […]

Flash Vector/Shutterstock Most animals, including humans, carry an internal lunar clock, tuned to the 29.5-day rhythm of the Moon. It guides sleep, reproduction and migration of many species. But in the age of artificial light, that ancient signal is fading – washed out by the glow of cities, screens and satellites. Just as the circadian […]

DAKAR, Senegal, Oct. 16, 2025 — In a landmark moment for African innovation, Elly Savatia, a 25-year-old Kenyan engineer and social entrepreneur, has been awarded the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering. The accolade, which includes a £50,000 ($67,000) grant, recognizes Savatia’s creation of Terp 360, a web-based app […]

It's not just you – the autumn clock change really does feel that bad. Cast Of Thousands/Shutterstock The disruption of sleeping and waking patterns from the daylight saving clock change reveals a great deal about our everyday reliance on the interaction of sleep pressure and circadian clocks. First, you need to understand the intricate changes […]

Understanding what the environment looked like millions of years ago is essential for piecing together how our earliest ancestors lived and survived. Habitat shapes everything, from what food was available, to where water could be found, to how predators and prey interacted. For decades, scientists studying South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind have tried to reconstruct […]

Imaging technology has revolutionised palaeontology, allowing scientists to study fossils that are buried deep in the rock or too small to handle. Two recent studies I was involved with show some of the technology’s potential, including one that discovered a new dinosaur species that loomed over other carnivores it lived alongside hundreds of millions of […]

A new version of Minecraft aims to teach students about coastal erosion, flood resilience and climate adaptation, and shows how children can use computer games to learn about complex situations. CoastCraft is a new custom world from the educational arm of the Minecraft team that can be downloaded and added to the game. It is […]

SEATTLE, Oct. 21, 2025 — Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud computing provider, suffered a significant outage on Monday that rippled across the globe, affecting millions of users. The disruption began around 07:11 GMT in AWS’s U.S.-East-1 data center in Northern Virginia, its oldest and most critical hub. What Caused the Outage Amazon confirmed […]

In the 1960s, Frank Sinatra’s song Fly Me to the Moon became closely associated with the Apollo missions. The optimistic track was recorded in 1964, when US success against the Soviet Union in the Moon race was not assured. Nevertheless, when the crew of the Apollo 11 mission landed first on the lunar surface in […]