A meteorite four times the size of Mount Everest may have helped life to thrive after it smashed into Earth, research suggests. The S2 meteorite crashed into our planet around 3.26 billion years ago and such impacts are usually considered disastrous for life. But experts suggest the conditions caused by the impact of the space rock, which had a diameter ...

The first UK trial of a rigid sail that can be fitted on commercial ships to reduce their carbon footprint is under way in the Irish Sea. The sail being tested is more like an aircraft wing than the traditional sheet of billowing canvas. And the vessel it’s been fixed to is no ordinary ship either. It’s one of the ...

A company was hacked after it hired a North Korean cyber criminal posing as an IT contractor. The unnamed company fell victim to a new North Korean hacking tactic, according to cybersecurity company Secureworks, which investigated the incident. A North Korean cyber criminal posing as an IT contractor was hired for a fixed-term contract by the firm, which is based ...

The amount of AI-generated child abuse images found on the internet is increasing at a “chilling” rate, according to a national watchdog. The Internet Watch Foundation deals with child abuse images online, removing hundreds of thousands every year. Now, it says artificial intelligence is making the work much harder. “I find it really chilling as it feels like we are ...

The amount of AI-generated child pornography found on the internet is increasing at a “chilling” rate, according to a national watchdog. The Internet Watch Foundation deals with child pornography online, removing hundreds of thousands of images every year. Now, it says artificial intelligence is making the work much harder. “I find it really chilling as it feels like we are ...

The Tasmanian tiger, a wolf-like marsupial that once stalked the forests of Tasmania, could be brought back from extinction after a team of US and Australian researchers claimed a series of scientific breakthroughs. Also known as the thylacine, the labrador-sized beast was Australia’s only native apex predator. The last one died in a Hobart zoo in 1936 after the rest ...

A new rule that will force businesses to make it easier for customers to cancel unwanted subscriptions and memberships is to be introduced in the US. The “click-to-cancel” rule will ban retailers and businesses from misleading consumers about subscriptions and require them to obtain people’s consent before charging for memberships, auto-renewals, and programmes linked to free trials. In the Federal ...

Jabs used for weight loss and treating type 2 diabetes could help people with alcohol abuse problems, according to a study. The injections led to a 50% lower rate of alcohol intoxication in people taking them compared to those who had not been prescribed them, researchers found. They also found off-label use of the drugs could help people addicted to ...

Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to support a new law to ban smartphones in schools to stop children “doom-scrolling” – after Number 10 refused to back the plan. New Labour MP Josh MacAlister is calling for the government to make legal changes to make social media and smartphones less addictive for children and to “empower” parents and teachers to ...

Microsoft users face more than 600 million cyber attacks every day, partly fuelled by a growing trend of cyber crime gangs working with nation states, according to a new report by the company. In this year’s Digital Defence report, Microsoft said countries like Russia, Iran and North Korea have changed how they worked in the last year, including starting to ...