Surprised that cats like to play fetch too? Tzido Sun/Shuttestock Cats have a reputation for being aloof (some may even say lazy) – but our new research has found they interact with their owners in surprising ways. What we discovered also shows how important this kind of interaction can beContinue Reading
one photo/Shutterstock It’s another tragic record. A new report has confirmed yet another rise in drug related deaths in England and Wales. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that 4,907 “drug poisoning” deaths were recorded in 2022 (84.4 deaths per 1,000,000 of the population), the highest on record. WhileContinue Reading
Sdecoret / Shutterstock A supercomputer scheduled to go online in April 2024 will rival the estimated rate of operations in the human brain, according to researchers in Australia. The machine, called DeepSouth, is capable of performing 228 trillion operations per second. It’s the world’s first supercomputer capable of simulating networksContinue Reading
wikipedia/Foley, CC BY-SA It’s one of the great paradoxes of evolution. Humans have demonstrated that having large brains are key to our evolutionary success, and yet such brains are extremely rare in other animals. Most get by on tiny brains, and don’t seem to miss the extra brain cells (neurons).Continue Reading
MeSSrro/Shutterstock Google Deepmind has recently announced Gemini, its new AI model to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While both models are examples of “generative AI”, which learn to find patterns of input training information to generate new data (pictures, words or other media), ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) whichContinue Reading
Metamorworks / Shutterstock Tesla has recalled 2 million US vehicles over concerns about its autopilot function. Autopilot is meant to help with manoeuvres such as steering and acceleration, but still needs input from the driver. It comes just a few days after a whistle-blowing former Tesla employee cast doubt onContinue Reading
Primakov / Shutterstock China’s drive to expand its influence through soft power mechanisms like censorship is coming into sharper focus, especially under Xi Jinping’s leadership. Recently, the social media app TikTok has become a prominent symbol of this global strategy. The platform consistently denies that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance,Continue Reading
Rafapress / Shutterstock Google has launched Gemini, a new artificial intelligence (AI) system that can seemingly understand and talk intelligently about almost any kind of prompt –- pictures, text, speech, music, computer code and much more. This type of AI system is known as a multimodal model. It’s a stepContinue Reading
As online shopping increases over the festive period, so does the risk of cyber-scams. Chay Tee/Shutterstock The festive season is a time for joy, family and festive cheer. However, it’s also a prime target for cybercriminals. As online shopping ramps up, so does the risk of falling prey to cyber-attacks.Continue Reading
Great tits are familiar visitors to gardens. allanw/Shutterstock Every day, throughout the world, people put huge quantities of food out at feeding stations for birds and other wild animals. Although we know that connecting with nature benefits human health and wellbeing, scientists still know relatively little about the consequences ofContinue Reading
