In a recent paper in Nature, we described a strange marine animal, called Tamisiocaris. They were giants that swam in the oceans over 500 million years ago. They had strange looking appendages on their…
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Environmental group Greenpeace has slammed Amazon for its environmental practices in its latest report on the green credentials of the technology industry. Greenpeace is concerned that Amazon Web services…
Citing Russia’s “ongoing violations of Ukraine’s sovereign and territorial integrity,” NASA announced April 3 that it has cut all ties with the Russian Federation with the exception of the International…
Serial entrepreneur and inventor James Dyson has spoken out against crowdfunding, arguing that the emerging trend is no good for supporting meaningful inventions. However, Dyson may have overlooked some…
Information overload has become an everyday experience for anyone who works with computers, owns a smartphone or waits at a bus stop with minute-by-minute updates about arrival times. And this information…
A collaboration between historians, text mining, and information visualisation researchers has thrown up new insight into the hunger for sugar, coffee and rubber in the 19th century, as well as how fat…
Pseudoscorpions are commonly known as “false scorpions” or “book scorpions”. They belong to the Arachanida class, and, as the name suggests, they are like scorpions but without a stinger on their back…
Every day, our lives are being captured digitally in the data that is generated by our transactions, interactions and movements. And as we become more connected through the internet of things, even more…
Chemists have long protested the use of the term “chemical-free” in marketing, particularly when used to promote organic produce. This can be seen in the continuing complaints to the advertising standard…
A new supercomputer, called ARCHER, has recently been launched. ARCHER is a Cray XC30, funded by EPSRC and NERC. It is more than three times more powerful than its predecessor, HECToR, and is hosted by…
It wouldn’t normally be cause for celebration when something related to cancer goes viral, but the recent #nomakeupselfie trend has been great news for charity-funded cancer research. The campaign has…
The UK government and many other interested international bodies are duly concerned about the proliferation of internet pornography. The latest development under consideration is the use of licenses to…
Animals have an easy life. They can run, hide, or bite back when predators are on the prowl. Plants cannot. Instead they have evolved to deploy a range of defence mechanisms including chemical warfare…
Even though spoked wheels and pneumatic tyres were invented in the 1880s, bicycle design hasn’t really changed a great deal in the time since – at least, at face value. However, look closer and around…
Mark Zuckerberg’s latest spending spree has landed Facebook an exciting new gadget in the form of the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset that is used by gamers and researchers alike to enhance encounters…
The astronomical instrument BICEP2 was deployed at the South Pole in 2009 to look for evidence that would support the theory of inflation, which tries to explain how the universe looked a trillionth of…
Alien species become invasive when their introduction to an ecosystem ends up causing ecological disruption in their new home. Cane toads, rabbits, water hyacinth, and zebra mussels are all infamous examples…
That the Malaysian government, with the help of the UK’s INMARSAT, was able to dramatically narrow down the search area for flight MH370, made it seem much more likely that the wreckage of the plane might…
Stem cell and cloning research using human cells remain controversial, even though it is nearly 20 years since Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be cloned. One of the main reasons for this controversy…
The average citizen may not feel that they have anything to fear from the rise of apps that promise to identify sex offenders in their area but they are part of a worrying trend that should act as a warning…
Cryptolocker, a particularly vicious form of malware that first appeared in September 2013, is a game-changer. After getting into your computer, it will encrypt all your data files, from your word documents…
I was 12 when I first came across an ocean dandelion. I wish I had known then how strange these animals truly are. I was watching a documentary where researchers had collected a deep-sea dandelion using…
It’s crunch time for the UK government’s controversial care.data scheme, which has been postponed for the second time. A new advisory panel is starting work this week to try to work out how to get this…
Given the media coverage brain imaging studies get, you might think that they are constantly revealing important secrets about this mysterious organ. Catherine Loveday thinks otherwise. She makes the point…
The latest developments in the case of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 strongly suggest that the plane’s wreckage has been found in the southern Indian Ocean. As the authorities from various…