Codemakers race to secure the internet as quantum threat looms

How do you outsmart a computer that could soon eclipse anything we have ever built? That is the challenge facing researchers who are working to build up our defences against the coming age of quantum computing.  Quantum computers promise a giant leap in computational power, but they will also bring risks. Their code-breaking capabilities could […]

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Why the Pacific tsunami was smaller than expected – a geologist explains

The earthquake near the east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia on July 30 2025 generated tsunami waves that have reached Hawaii and coastal areas of the US mainland. The earthquake’s magnitude of 8.8 is significant, potentially making it one of the largest quakes ever recorded. Countries around much of the Pacific, including in […]

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Psychedelic drug DMT and near death experiences have long been linked – my study is the first to explore the connection in depth

BLACKDAY/Shutterstock Have you ever wondered why people who nearly die often describe speeding toward supernatural light, or seeing their life flash before their eyes? You may have also heard about the powerful psychedelic dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a class A illegal drug in the UK, and how it might generate the so-called near-death experiences. In a recent […]

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Aeroflot Cyberattack Disrupts Flights, Raises Global Security Concerns

A major cyberattack on Russia’s national airline Aeroflot has triggered widespread flight cancellations and delays, marking one of the most disruptive digital strikes since the onset of the Russia–Ukraine war in 2022. The breach, which occurred early Monday, crippled Aeroflot’s IT infrastructure and affected over 100 flights, including operations by subsidiaries Rossiya and Pobeda. 🕵️‍♂️ […]

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Smart cities start with people, not technology: lessons from Westbury, Johannesburg

Protesters blocking roads in Johannesburg, demanding a reliable water supply. Photo: Silver Sibiya GroundUp, CC BY-NC-ND African cities are growing at an incredible pace. With this growth comes a mix of opportunity and challenge. How do we build cities that are not only smart but also fair, inclusive and resilient? A smart city uses digital […]

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What to do when wasps crash your picnic – a scientist’s guide to dining safely with these insects

Wasps get a hankering for jam once the colony larvae pupate. victoras/Shutterstock It’s summer in the northern hemisphere and that means sun, sea – and wasps. A lot of us have been taught to fear wasps as aggressive insects that exist only to make our lives a misery. But with unsustainable wildlife loss across the […]

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Long-COVID, viruses and ‘zombie’ cells: new research looks for links to chronic fatigue and brain fog

Millions of people who recover from infections like COVID-19, influenza and glandular fever are affected by long-lasting symptoms. These include chronic fatigue, brain fog, exercise intolerance, dizziness, muscle or joint pain and gut problems. And many of these symptoms worsen after exercise, a phenomenon known as post-exertional malaise. Medically the symptoms are known as myalgic […]

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China Proposes Global AI Cooperation Organization to Promote Inclusive Development

At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced plans to establish a Global Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, aimed at fostering international collaboration on AI development and governance. Li emphasized that AI is a transformative engine for economic growth, but warned that current global governance is fragmented, with significant disparities […]

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A company says it could turn mercury into gold using nuclear fusion. Can we take this claim seriously?

RHJPhotos / Shutterstock The alchemist’s dream is to make gold from common metals, but can this be done? The physics needed to explain how to change one element into another is well understood and has been used for decades in accelerators and colliders, which smash sub-atomic particles together. The most notable present-day example is the […]

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Porn websites now require age verification in the UK – the privacy and security risks are numerous

As of July 25 2025, people in the UK accessing web services with pornographic content will have to prove they are over 18 years of age. This development has been in the works for a while. It was proposed in 2014 by the video-on-demand regulator, and legislated for introduction in 2019 through the British Board […]

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