Science

Elon Musk has said Twitter will form a moderation council “with widely diverse viewpoints” and that “no major content decisions or account reinstatements” will be made before it meets. Musk’s $44bn deal to buy Twitter completed on Thursday and he reportedly sacked the company’s chief executive and two other top bosses. The world’s richest man

A robotics company claims to have made the world’s “fastest shoes” which can make you walk three times faster. Known as Moonwalkers, they look like futuristic roller skates but don’t require the wearer to balance any more than they would walking normally. Once they are strapped to your feet, tiny electric motors power eight wheels

Facebook parent Meta has beaten estimates for its quarterly revenue, helped by its continued dominance of the online advertising market. Revenue in the third quarter fell for a second consecutive time to $27.71bn (£23.83bn) from $29.01bn (£24.94bn). But it was still above analysts’ expectation of $27.38bn (£23.54bn), according to Refinitiv data. Net income fell to

5G connectivity is overhyped – and many users are yet to experience improvements in mobile speed or reliability, says a new study. Research from Uswitch.com found one in six mobile users felt the power of the technology had been overstated, and less than half said they had seen noticeable speed or reliability improvements since upgrading.

A partial solar eclipse which will make the sun “appear to have a bite taken out of it” will be visible from across the UK on Tuesday. Experts have warned people not to look directly at the sun, while parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland are expected to enjoy the best views. In London, the

“Open up! Quick, or we’re breaking the door!” Oleksiy didn’t want to let the Russians in, but nor did he want to antagonise them. Having cowered in a basement, desperate not to alert the invading soldiers to his presence, the silence had been broken by the heavy sound of a rifle bashing against the door.

Tonight’s skies will be lit up with celestial fireworks as Earth passes through debris left by Halley’s Comet. The Orionid meteor is active throughout October, but is expected to peak on Friday night. The shower is expected to present a dramatic light show and potentially produce up to 25 meteors every hour until the early

The public has been asked for its take on Microsoft’s record-breaking proposed takeover of the gaming giant Activision Blizzard. The $69bn (£61.8bn) deal was announced back in January, but has come under scrutiny around the world over concerns it would give the Xbox maker an unfair advantage over rivals such as Sony, which makes the

The source of one of the rarest meteorites on Earth has been identified by UK scientists. The Ivuna meteorite was found in Tanzania in December 1938. It was later split into a number of samples now housed at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London. After comparing it with samples from an asteroid known as

If you’re looking to freshen up your phone wallpaper, you’d be hard-pressed finding a better one than this. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the Pillars of Creation, the iconic arrangement of newly-forming stars made famous by a previous shot in 1995. Back then, it was the Hubble Space Telescope

Enormous ostrich-like dinosaurs in ancient North America were among the largest of its kind in the world, scientists have found. Ornithomimosaurs in the ancient supercontinent of Laurasia grew to huge sizes, with researchers estimating that one of the individuals they examined weighed more than 800kg. Scientists determined that the new fossils likely represented two different

The Black Death had such an impact on the human immune system that it still shapes how our bodies tackle today’s diseases, a study has found. By analysing centuries-old DNA from victims and survivors of the devastating pandemic, which is estimated to have killed upwards of 200 million people between 1346 and 1353, scientists identified

Netflix subscriber numbers increased by 2.4 million from July to September this year, more than double the number than was expected. The world’s largest streaming service also saw revenue exceed expectations and top $7.9bn, its third quarter results showed. It had been hoping to regain the million subscribers it lost in the first half of

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been ordered by the UK competition regulator to sell the GIF library Giphy. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the ruling was a “final decision”. The move followed a protracted effort by Meta to overturn a CMA ruling last year that the takeover, which completed in

The UK is gearing up to host its first ever rocket launch – but it’s quickly becoming a race against time to take off this side of Christmas. The fabulously named Cosmic Girl is due to take off from Cornwall, with rehearsals having been given the green light following the granting of the UK’s very

Girls are routinely given more generous grades in class than boys with the same academic abilities, according to a new study. Drawing on findings from tens of thousands of pupils and their teachers, researchers in Italy determined it was a systemic issue and set about theorising as to why it might be. Their work, published