James Webb Space Telescope reveals cosmic butterfly’s secrets – UKRI

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled unprecedented details of one of the galaxy’s most spectacular stellar phenomena, revealing the hidden heart of the Butterfly Nebula for the first time. Located 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, the famous Butterfly Nebula has captivated astronomers with its distinctive wing-like structure. However, its ancient central […]

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What makes Lake Iro in Chad so special? It’s not just a viral sunglint photo

Lake Iro in Chad was in the news in early August 2025 after a picture taken by a NASA astronaut was published showing it looking like a large, circular silver mirror as sunlight reflected off its surface and into space. The phenomenon is known as a sunglint and can happen to any water surface under […]

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Can you be aware of nothing? The rare sleep experience scientists are trying to understand

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 […]

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Data that is stored and not used has a carbon footprint. How companies can manage dark data better

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 […]

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Can AI teach us how animals think?

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 […]

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DeepSeek Quietly Releases V3.1 Hybrid AI Model, Targeting Agentic Use Cases

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 […]

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The UK Space Agency has been absorbed into the science department. The potential effects are still unclear

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 […]

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Why people embrace conspiracy theories: it’s about community, not gullibility

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 […]

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From Generative to Agentic: Charting the Next Leap in Artificial Intelligence

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 […]

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Vikings were captivated by silver – our new analysis of their precious loot reveals how far they travelled to get it

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 […]

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