Tech news stories

‘Incredible moment in history:’ Particle accelerator and AI offer first peek inside 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scroll
7th February 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans, Tech

A 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scroll buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius is filled with lost words that scholars can now decipher thanks to AI and a particle accelerator.

AI to revolutionise fundamental physics and ‘could show how universe will end’
4th February 2025 | theguardian.com | Earth, Humans, Space, Tech

Advanced artificial intelligence is to revolutionise fundamental physics and could open a window on to the fate of the universe, according to Cern’s next director general.

Interstellar lightsails are a step closer
31st January 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Humans, Space, Tech

The idea of lightsails is something out of science fiction. As early as the 1950s and ‘60s, science fiction writers John Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke and others were toying with the idea of “solar sails” for spacecraft propulsion…Project researchers report in a paper published in Nature Photonics that they have developed a platform to test the materials that could one day form lightsails.

Discovery in South Africa holds oldest evidence of mixing ingredients to make arrow poison
24th January 2025 theconversation.com | Ancient, Humans, Tech

Our research has revealed that the femur’s contents are arguably the oldest multi-component arrow poison in the world. It’s a complex recipe combining at least two toxic plant ingredients. There’s also evidence of a third toxin.

Curiosity Finds Evidence of Open Water on Ancient Mars
22nd January 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space, Tech

NASA’s Curiosity Rover has been exploring Mars since 2012 and more recently has found evidence of ice-free ancient ponds and lakes on the surface. The rover found small undulations like those seen in sandy lakebeds on Earth.

AI could crack unsolvable problems — and humans won’t be able to understa
5th January 2025 | livescience.com | Humans, Tech

AI promises to accelerate scientific discovery, but if scientists aren’t careful public trust may be left behind.

A Major Leap Forward in Technology Took Place 900,000 Years Ago
12th December 2024 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans, Tech

Around 900,000 years ago stone tech 2.0 was released into Spain. University of Santiago de Compostela anthropologist Diego Lombao and colleagues found the earliest known European example of advanced stone tool techniques. This research was published in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.

MIT astronomers find the smallest asteroids ever detected in the main belt
11th December 2024 news.mit.edu | Humans, Space, Tech

The team’s detection method, which identified 138 space rocks ranging from bus- to stadium-sized, could aid in tracking potential asteroid impactors. In a paper appearing in the journal Nature, the researchers report that they have used their approach to detect more than 100 new decameter asteroids in the main asteroid belt.

Scientists analyze largest map of the universe ever created — and it proves Einstein right yet again
20th November 2024 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans, Space, Tech

The analysis, which looked at nearly 6 million galaxies and quasars spanning 11 billion years of cosmic time, found that even at colossal scales, the force of gravity behaves as predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

First artwork painted by humanoid robot to sell at auction fetches $1m
8th November 2024 | theguardian.com | Humans, Tech

Ai-Da’s works were “ethereal and haunting” and “continue to question where the power of AI will take us, and the global race to harness its power”…

DNA stores data in bits after epigenetic upgrade
26th October 2024 | nature.com | Ancient, Humans, Tech

‘Bricks’ of DNA, some of which have chemical tags, could one day be an alternative to storing information electronically.

New study eases concerns over possible ‘doomsday’ asteroid swarm
9th October 2024 phys.org | Ancient, Earth, Humans, Space, Tech

Using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) telescope to survey large expanses of sky, a team of researchers led by the University of Maryland investigated a stream of space debris known to drift near Earth called the Taurid swarm.

The asteroid hunters: how new technology will help save Earth from a catastrophic collision
1st October 2024 | theguardian.com | Humans, Space, Tech

The existential threat from a large meteor is real, but two next-generation telescopes are about to make us safer.

Engineers Gave a Mushroom a Robot Body And Let It Run Wild
4th September 2024 | sciencealert.com | Earth, Humans, Tech, Weird

“By growing mycelium into the electronics of a robot, we were able to allow the biohybrid machine to sense and respond to the environment,” says senior researcher Rob Shepherd, a materials scientist at Cornell. This research was published in Science Robotics.

‘Closer than people think’: Woolly mammoth ‘de-extinction’ is nearing reality — and we have no idea what happens next
2nd September 2024 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans, Tech

Scientists are getting very close to bringing a few iconic species, like woolly mammoths and dodos, back from extinction. That may not be a good thing.

‘We can’t answer these questions’: Neuroscientist Kenneth Kosik on whether lab-grown brains will achieve consciousness
22nd July 2024 | livescience.com | Humans, Tech, Weird

So much is still unknown about consciousness, nevermind whether brain organoids will achieve it, explains a leading neuroscientist.

News stories covering technology, and the latest inventions and medical advancements.