A British scientist has been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics. Sir Roger Penrose, alongside German Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez, won the prize for discoveries relating to black holes. One half of the 10 million Swedish kronor prize (£866,000) has...
The developers of a potential COVID-19 antibody treatment have moved trials to a third phase, hailing "rapid achievement" with no safety concerns to date. The world's largest vaccines player, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Vir Biotechnology said their trial programme was...
Anti-virus software creator John McAfee has been detained at a Spanish airport after being indicted in the US on fraud charges, according to the Reuters news agency. McAfee, who designed software of the same name, was reportedly arrested in Barcelona on Saturday while...
Earth is not necessarily the best planet in the universe for life, a new study has found.Researchers have found some 24 planets that are "superhabitable", offering conditions more suitable for life than they are here on Earth.And some of them even have better stars...
Mars will make its closest approach to Earth in more than two years this month, as it reaches its point of opposition in the night’s sky.Nasa has described the red planet’s appearance as “effectively a ‘full’ Mars”, offering the best chance to view our planetary...
SpaceX has once again scrubbed the launch of its latest Starlink mission.It was the fourth attempt to deliver a batch of 60 satellites into low-Earth orbit as part of Elon Musk’s controversial plan to beam high-speed internet down to Earth.“We are standing down from...
A Briton is among three scientists who have been co-awarded a Nobel prize for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Michael Houghton, along with Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice, will receive a gold medal and prize money of $1.1m (£780,000) for their work...
Apple is taking a former business partner to court for allegedly stealing and reselling more than 100,000 devices which it had been hired to dismantle and recycle. GEEP Canada received more than 500,000 devices between January 2015 and December 2017, which the...
Dozens of animal species that are in regular contact with humans could be vulnerable to infection with the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to new research. Domestic cats and dogs could be affected, as could mink, lions, and tigers - all of which...
Almost half of the nearly 16,000 people with coronavirus missed by the Test and Trace system still have not had their contacts traced, the health secretary has admitted. An "IT failure" within Public Health England - a problem with an Excel spreadsheet reaching its...
Researchers are looking at whether the common cold could offer some protection against contracting coronavirus. A recent study at Yale University found that rhinovirus - the most frequent cause of a cold - could jump-start the body's antiviral defences, providing...
We still don't know why 15,841 confirmed cases of coronavirus were effectively lost in the English testing system. The prime minister called it a "computer problem". Elsewhere it's been referred to as a "glitch". What we do know is that on 24 September something went...
A cargo ship has been launched to the International Space Station with a special food delivery for astronauts. The American global aerospace company Northrop Grumman launched its capsule from the Virginia Coast on Friday. It contained a 360-degree camera designed for...
Donald Trump has been given two experimental drugs after testing positive for COVID-19. White House doctor Sean Conley said the president was given a dose of an antibody drug being developed by Regeneron on Friday before he was taken to a military hospital where he...
Membership to Facebook groups promoting anti-mask arguments has risen by nearly 2,000 per cent since August, new analysis has revealed.Separate analysis of data from the media tool Crowdtangle by The New York Times found that from the start of August through to 27...
An exploding supernova in a galaxy 70 million light-years away has been recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope.The rare event outshone the entire host galaxy, coming from a white dwarf star that gathered material from its companion star.A white dwarf is a degenerating...
More than half of people who wear disposable face masks to protect against coronavirus are using them multiple times, while those who opt for reusable coverings are not washing them regularly, the government's top scientific advisers have found. According to a report...
Russia is responsible for over half of all state-sponsored hacking, vastly more than any other state, according to a new report from Microsoft.It is followed by Iran, which makes up 25 per cent of the attacks monitored.China is responsible for 12 per cent of attacks,...
The new head of the Secret Intelligence Service has said he will try and persuade some of his Twitter followers to work for MI6. Richard Moore, formerly the British ambassador to Turkey, was an active Twitter user under his old account - tweeting more than 18,000...
Orionid meteors burning through Earth’s atmosphere this month will bring “prolonged explosions of light,” Nasa has said.Commonly referred to as ‘shooting stars’, the display produced by the Orionid meteor shower could be one of the most spectacular in years, with...
Apple is working on a foldable iPhone with a “self-healing” screen to fix scratches and dents, according to reports.The tech giant has filed a patent for the device which would have a screen that runs right across the actual fold in the phone.And according to the...
Apple has brought its redesigned maps to the UK and Ireland in a new update.The new maps will look different, adding more detail when scrolling – and travelling – around. But it builds entirely new maps information, too, which required Apple to gather its own data on...
Apple has finally killed the iPod Nano. The iPod Nano joins the iPod classic, the fourth-generation iPod shuffle, and the fifth-generation iPod Touch as part of its “Vintage” range of products.This means the product has not been updated for more than five years. Once...
Slack has gone down, with users unable to send or receive messages.The workplace chat app has become one of the central ways that remote offices collaborate as they work amid lockdowns.Slack acknowledged the problems in an update to its official status page.“Some...
Twitter went down for many users on Thursday, leaving people around the world unable to load or post new tweets.The outage began at around 3pm BST and appeared to last for around 30 minutes.Website monitor DownDetector registered thousands of reports from users...
In a blog post about the update, Google said that a new “Suggestions” tab, which will appear at the bottom of the screen underneath familiar editing settings such as “Enhance” and “Colour Pop”.This new feature will make recommendations for the photo the user is...
COVID-19 antibodies in blood plasma donations appear to drop within just months of symptoms emerging, a study has warned. The NHS has been using plasma as a treatment for coronavirus infections, and the number of people receiving donations has quadrupled in the last...
Cyber security analysts tasked with investigating Huawei equipment used in the UK's telecommunications networks discovered a "nationally significant" vulnerability last year. Investigators at the UK's Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) found an issue so...
Astronomers have found six galaxies lying around a supermassive black hole in a cosmic "spider's web" of gas extending to more than 300 times the size of the Milky Way. Researchers say it was formed when the universe was less than a billion years old and this is the...
Google has unveiled its Pixel 5 smartphone - a 5G-compatible flagship device with a more affordable price tag - and an updated Nest smart speaker, alongside new services including Google TV. Although the Pixel 5 had been announced earlier this year when Google...
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has added a mystery Falcon 9 rocket mission to their record-setting schedule for October.Observers speculate that the rocket may again be a covert launch for the US military or a national security organisation.The surprise mission was revealed in...
Google has launched a new version of its Chromecast, finally adding a menu and a remote.A new service called Google TV will allow the set-top box not just to work as an accessory for the phone but on its own, too.Google TV looks to unite a variety of different apps,...
Google has revealed its Nest Audio, a smart speaker for the home.The speaker replaces the Google Home, which first arrived in 2016. It has gone through a number of revisions since then, but the update brings a complete redesign and puts in a new shape.The new Nest...
Google has launched new phones, its first ever with 5G.The Pixel 4a with 5G and the more expensive Pixel 5 with 5G both add the faster internet speeds as well as a range of other new upgrades and features.The Pixel 5 starts at £599 and comes in black and “Sorta Sage”....
Some users of the new NHS contact-tracing app have received notifications saying they'd been near someone with coronavirus, only to discover the alerts were system checks sent by Google and Apple. People who downloaded the COVID-19 app in England and Wales told Sky...
Scientists in Australia claim to have proved that time travel is theoretically possible after solving a logical paradox.Physicists from the University of Queensland used mathematical modelling to reconcile Einstein’s theory of general relativity with classical...
Apple is working on a new type of phone sensor that uses lasers to monitor dangerous particulates in the air, according to a patent filing.The ‘Particulate matter sensors for portable electronic devices’ patent describes how an array of lasers could detect the...
The commission said that Google had “obstructed the development of competing mobile operating systems which could have provided a platform for rival search engines to gain traffic”.Google then offered an auction to other companies, allowing them to pay for inclusion...
Astronauts Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner were instructed to move into the Russian segment of the ISS in order to collect data at a range of locations.Previous checks had been made in the US, European, and Japanese modules of the space station.“One...