The National Cyber Security Centre warns traffic cams and parking sensors in increasingly smart cities pose a risk of being hacked in ransomware attacks. Covid-19 spreads to rural Indian villages amid oxygen shortages, vaccine production worries and new fears about strain spread to UK. Chinese rocket chaos latest: It’s due to land somewhere this weekend, but no one knows where. No masks and key workers are guests of honour at the Brit Awards 2021. How a chicken-sized desert dinosaur was a brilli...
May 07, 2021•7 min
SpaceX has successfully managed to take off and land its SN15 vertically after four previous tests rockets were destroyed during tests. Why is meme-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin that can’t be spent anywhere soaring to all-time high? Mystery of whether Facebook’s algorithms amplified Trump’s violent rhetoric in conspiracy groups. Peloton is recalling treadmills following a child’s death. Millions of internet users have a security risk in their living room - that old router, warns a consumer watch...
May 06, 2021•6 min
Supermarket bosses are threatening to boycott goods from Brazil as anger grows over land reforms feared to fuel rainforest destruction. Twitter receives record number of responses for poll on rules governing world leaders. He’s back online! Donald Trump launches new blog-esque “communications” platform. Dozens more SpaceX Starlink satellites launched amid space junk collision and light pollution concerns. Latest on China’s out-of-control space rocket - where will it land? Blue carbon: the greate...
May 05, 2021•6 min
After a booming weekend for crypto, eBay says customers could soon buy second-hand goods on the auction site with Bitcoin or non-fungible tokens. No pre-nup could see a record-breaking divorce settlement for Microsoft founder Bill Gates and ex-wife Melinda Gates after 27 years of marriage. 3D heart scans to give 100,000 NHS patients faster treatment amid concerns over doctor exodus fuelled by Covid work stress. Fears out-of-control Chinese rocket falling to Earth could shower cities with debris....
May 04, 2021•6 min
Global coalition of tech firms and national security agencies calls for “aggressive and urgent” action to stop criminals hacking schools and hospitals for Bitcoin. “Don’t let your guard down” - Scientists warn immunity takes a while to develop after first Covid shot. Social media racism: Tech giants face being fined millions for failing to block abuse. This strange new Tetris keypad technique is helping retro Nintendo players break world records. Mars mishap and a scramble at Mission Control as ...
Apr 30, 2021•6 min
Tech experts want social media users to verify with their real ID, but at what cost for those in despotic countries with human rights risks? Buzz Aldrin and Tim Peake lead tributes to Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who has died aged 90. Billion-year-old fossil that looks like mince could be oldest animal ever found. Dr Helen Fisher from King’s College London on her new study linking childhood air pollution exposure and poor adult mental health. Climate crisis: World’s glaciers melting fast...
Apr 29, 2021•6 min
Google is hoping to block a Supreme Court legal action over claims it secretly tracked millions of iPhone users’ internet activity. Podcast celebrity Joe Rogan slammed over anti-vaxx conspiracy. Self-driving cars given green light for motorways in 2021. ‘Red Dwarf’ asteroid-catcher launched by China to test future space mining missions. Journey to the Centre of the (Cornish) Earth: Super-drill inspired by Jules Verne to bore for electricity and heating. Ultra-hot flares on the Sun reveals magic ...
Apr 28, 2021•6 min
Apple unveils a more inclusive set of Siri assistants, enhanced tracking protection and promises to stop iPhone batteries dying so fast - if you have a compatible device. Hotter than hell...scientists discover mega-planet that can vaporise metal. Shift workers more likely to test positive for Covid-19 and end up in hospital, study finds. Man buys Google for $3...and it was easier than you think. Jeff Bezos is bitter that Elon Musk has been awarded Nasa’s Moon shot contract. New Cold War space ra...
Apr 27, 2021•6 min
Schools in the United Kingdom will get free teaching materials to help challenge fake news fuelling vaccine hesitancy. Why India is asking Twitter to take down tweets critical of its COVID-19 handling. Facebook and Google are ‘failing to take down scam adverts’, says consumer rights watchdog. China is building a 13,000-satellite web router mega-constellation to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink. Nasa’s little helicopter Ingenuity completes its longest mission yet on Mars. (Not so) pink supermoon set to...
Apr 26, 2021•5 min
It's a milestone for space history as four astronauts on a Nasa/SpaceX mission to ISS are the first crew to blast off in a recycled private spacecraft. Can a Tesla car be ‘tricked’ into driving without a human on-board? The Unhurt Locker: Underwater “Telexistence” bomb disposal robots will help humans work remotely while being able to feel the fuse. Back to the Cold War for Call of Duty as shoot-em-up franchise release 80s-era Warzone update. How artificial intelligence is helping unlock the anc...
Apr 23, 2021•6 min
The European Commission wants to stop “unacceptable” robot software that manipulates human behaviour or uses “subliminal techniques”. Licence to meme: MI5 joins Instagram. Earth Day: Joe Biden to host a virtual summit with 40 world leaders to fight climate change. A climate supercomputer is being built by the UK’s Met Office weather service and Microsoft. Teenagers who are big social media users often drink more, study says. Alexa, give me a short back and sides...Amazon opens London hair salon....
Apr 22, 2021•5 min
The former children’s commissioner for England launches a legal claim against TikTok over allegations it illegally collected personal data from millions of children. UK Instagram users will soon be able to filter out racist and sexist DMs. ESA astronaut ready for blast-off in recycled SpaceX capsule. Skygazers will have a chance of catching a shooting star as the annual Lyrids meteor shower is scheduled to appear. Vast underwater sea meadows are being planted to encourage seahorses to combat hab...
Apr 21, 2021•6 min
Apple’s set to unveil a string of new devices in what some analysts are predicting will be “an action packed” event. It’s likely the tech giant will officially release its iOS 14.5, which promises to unlock an iPhone while wearing a mask through Apple Watch. Plus, Facebook and Reddit take on audio social networking-site Clubhouse, Nasa’s Ingenuity helicopter to be ‘pushed to the limit’, WHO warns a deadly Covid variant that can beat current vaccines is ‘a matter of when, not if’ and, Google make...
Apr 20, 2021•6 min
Nasa’s Ingenuity helicopter has had its Wright Brothers moment after it successfully launched off Mars. The test was the tiny helicopter’s baby step towards proving powered flight on another world. Plus, why young people who’ve previously had Covid-19 are to be deliberately re-infected with the virus, Facebook set ‘to launch audio-social products’, two men killed in Tesla, which officials say had no one at the wheel, and the Lord of the Rings MMO is officially cancelled. Listen to our other podc...
Apr 19, 2021•6 min
Scientists have grown human cells in monkey embryos. Researchers from the Salk Institute in California have produced what’s known as monkey-human chimeras, but some ethicists are raising concerns, saying this type of work “opens Pandora’s box to human-nonhuman chimeras”, plus previous coronavirus infection ‘doesn’t fully protect young people against reinfection’, scientists calculate how many billions of T-rexes roamed the Earth and, live 3D holograms are allowing friends kept apart to dine toge...
Apr 16, 2021•7 min
Can you smell your friend’s breath? Then you’re probably close enough to catch Covid. That’s according to scientist Dr Julian Tang who says people should employ the "garlic-breath" test to measure if someone is too close and could transmit the virus. Plus, a study finds magic mushroom compound performs at least as well as antidepressant, the Evening Standard’s Jim Armitage on why Coinbase’s stock exchange listing is such a big deal for cryptocurrency and, scientists figure out why dinosaurs with...
Apr 15, 2021•7 min
Ludwig Ahgren has live-streamed on Twitch non-stop for 31 consecutive days. In doing so, he’s broken the platform’s record for having the most paying subscribers - hitting more than 280,000. Plus, hear what a spider web sounds like, Apple and Samsung confirm special events this month, a man sues Detroit police over his wrongful arrest based on facial recognition tech, and ‘fairy lights’ in the night sky turn out to be Starlink satellites. Listen to our other podcasts: Women Tech Charge : intervi...
Apr 14, 2021•6 min
The artificial intelligence and speech tech firm behind Apple’s Siri has been bought by Microsoft for $16 billion. The purchase of Nuance Communications is the second largest in Microsoft's history. Plus, the Kent coronavirus variant 'spreads more easily, but doesn’t make you more sick,’ Japan plans to release into the sea more than a million tonnes of radioactive water, Cyberpunk 2077 ‘will sell for years to come’ and, why the latest dinosaur discovery has been dubbed ‘Monkeydactyl’. Listen to ...
Apr 13, 2021•6 min
Nasa’s tiny helicopter it hopes will prove powered flight on another world is possible is gearing up for its first attempt to take to the Martian skies. Ingenuity had been scheduled to fly on Monday but a tech issue during a rotor test means the Nasa team is now hoping for a Wednesday launch at the earliest. Plus, more than half of children think gaming should be part of the school curriculum, but parents aren’t so sure, Nintendo warns of a possible stock shortage of Switch consoles this year an...
Apr 12, 2021•7 min
It’s a big day in space history - marking 60 years since Russian Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space, and also 40 years since the launch of Nasa’s first space shuttle. How women are crowdsourcing their own security for protection against street predators with app SafeUp. Egyptologists announce the discovery of a 3,000-year-old royal city thought lost forever beneath the desert. Ocean study will use underwater microphones to monitor whale migration and disintegration of icebergs. Monkey ten...
Apr 09, 2021•5 min
Twitch says it will ban users for offline offences such as child abuse, threats of mass violence or membership of “hate groups” that happen entirely away from the site. Facebook says it does not plan to notify half-billion users affected by data leak, Carbon dioxide pollution hits record high despite pandemic lockdowns, a mystery of the exoplanet born ‘far away from current location’ is zooming through deep space. Rugby player develops a tech wearable to monitor head trauma. How the Ganges river...
Apr 08, 2021•7 min
The Google-owned platform says some 1.6 million out of every one billion pieces of content uploaded were flagged and deleted for sexual abuse, misinformation and hate speech. A new search tool lets Facebook users check if their data was among half a billion users hacked. The health regulator NICE says opioids should not be prescribed for phantom chronic pain. Google, Facebook and Amazon face a new regulator in a bid to curb tech giants’ dominance. The E3 gaming expo will be streamed to everyone ...
Apr 07, 2021•6 min
Millions of social media users are being urged to keep an eye out for fishy emails and dodgy feed activity after personal account details, including phone numbers, were splurged over the internet. A five-minute breast cancer jab is being rolled out. NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity survives first night in sub-zero Martian weather. Russia will use space conference to push forward plans for China moon base. Moscow extends throttling of Twitter until mid-May over Navalny protests. Sexual violence i...
Apr 06, 2021•6 min
The European Space Agency is looking for a new cohort and applications are now open. Thomas Reiter, ESA astronaut and advisor to the Director General, tells us what it’ll take to make the cut of the agency’s most diverse team yet. Plus, new evidence of meteor particles reaching Antarctica 430,000 years ago, a living robot’s been created out of frog skin cells, and coins unearthed in Rhode Island may help solve one of the planet's oldest cold cases. Listen to our other podcasts: Women Tech Charge...
Apr 01, 2021•7 min
Police in China and the tech giant Tencent say they have busted $10-a-day cheating hacks ring allegedly netting $76 million for codes to games including Call of Duty and Fortnite. No intergalactic experience required: first all-civilian crew ready to buckle-up for SpaceX flight. Another super-rocket fail for Elon Musk as exploding prototype scatters debris over miles in Texas. Rise of ‘extortionware’ as hackers seek to embarrass victims for cash. DNA can be collected from air so could help enfor...
Mar 31, 2021•6 min
Earth’s been given the all-clear for the next century, with NASA dismissing the threat from a particularly menacing asteroid. But we’ll still have a close encounter from Apophis in 2029 and Marina Brozovic from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory tells us it's the space rock that’ll be more likely to experience a shudder as it passes by Earth. Plus, light coming from an explosion three billion years ago has illuminated a ‘goldilocks’ black hole, long-term weightlessness causes the heart to shrink a...
Mar 30, 2021•7 min
The World Health Organisation says its ‘extremely unlikely’ Covid-19 came from a lab leak in Wuhan, China. The Associated Press reveals details of a leaked report from a WHO team who visited the city to study the origins of the virus. Plus, a Suez Canal video game aims to capture the ‘gargantuan’ task of freeing the boat, a mass experiment shows how music festivals post-Covid can go ahead, and Elon Musk hints at another Starship launch. Listen to our other podcasts: Women Tech Charge : interview...
Mar 29, 2021•6 min
An investigation by Facebook security researchers shows Chinese hackers used spyware to target Uyghur activists and journalists living in the United States. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey launches own online poll during Congress grilling. Six-month-old babies are youngest participants in Pfizer’s trials of children’s Covid vaccine. Rare elephant breeds being driven to extinction by ivory poachers, conservationists warn. Three-minute gadget deliveries by drone being tested. Facial recognition: 700-year-ol...
Mar 26, 2021•7 min
Attorney generals for 12 US states accuse Facebook and Twitter of failing to stop misinformation spreading about coronavirus vaccines. Computer says you’re fired: union warning over rise of the AI boss. Digital self-defence classes lead online fightback for women and non-binary people. Nasa’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity has a tiny piece of Wright brothers’ first plane stowed aboard. Stop sign where no-one stops is Twitch sensation. Knights who say NFT...John Cleese hopes to make fortune from ‘absu...
Mar 25, 2021•6 min
YouTube is being criticised for allowing a lengthy, graphic livestream of the tragedy in Boulder, Colorado, as Twitch deleted the footage. Scientists warn there’s a rising risk of wildfires in colder countries from climate change. Cyberpunk 2077 in 8K over Steam? If you’ve got the bandwidth now you can, maybe. It’s Mars or bust for SpaceX rockets by 2030, says Elon Musk. You can buy a Tesla now with bitcoin instead of olde worlde cash or credit. ‘I’m no longer a Mac’...as Noughties computer ad a...
Mar 24, 2021•5 min
