Category: Technology

Consciousness is a subjective, personal thing, so scientists who study it usually rely on people to tell them what they are conscious of. The problem is that infants are presumably conscious but, without speech, they can’t let us know. Animals like dogs, cats, octopuses and maybe insects might also be conscious, but they can’t tell […]

Mammals, from the mighty blue whale to the tiny shrew, inhabit nearly every corner of our planet. Their remarkable adaptability to different environments has long fascinated scientists, with each species developing unique traits to survive and thrive. Despite such vast biological diversity, it was believed until recently that the structure and function of the heart […]

Back in 2010, Gary Wolf, then the editor of Wired magazine, delivered a TED talk in Cannes called “the quantified self”. It was about what he termed a “new fad” among tech enthusiasts. These early adopters were using gadgets to monitor everything from their physiological data to their mood, and even the number of nappies […]

New projects funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and led by researchers from Cranfield University have developed new ways to detect sugar syrup adulteration in honey. This paves the way for fast and accurate tests to discover fake products in a market worth many millions of pounds. There is growing consumer demand […]

A European spacecraft is about to zip by both Earth and the Moon in the space of 24 hours. In the early 2030s, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission will be the first European probe to orbit Jupiter. But first, it needs to carry out a key manoeuvre to help set up its eventual […]

Moptu, the brainchild of American Jewish tech entrepreneurs Josh Namm and Charles Haspel, has been disrupting the world of social media and news sharing long before Oct. 7. Yet as antisemitism has skyrocketed in the past nine months, with deadly misinformation being spread all over social media platforms, Moptu’s unique approach to social media could […]

The months of September to May are an unfortunate season in South Africa: malaria season. The mosquito-borne disease is found in the north-eastern districts of KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. There are fewer malaria cases in South Africa compared to other African countries. The World Health Organization estimated there were over 10 million cases of […]

The coach-athlete relationship is key to achieving greatness in elite sports. And at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the margins between success and failure will be tiny. Our new research offers insights on how the dark triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy), which tend to be more prevalent among athletes, might damage […]

An insect bites off another insect’s leg. Is this predatory behaviour, aggression, defence, competition or something else? In the case of carpenter ants, it’s for the good of the amputee and to the benefit of the colony. A July 2024 University of Lausanne study found carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) carry out lifesaving amputations on their […]