Science

Fifty measuring devices are to be dropped on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to measure the Earth’s “pulse”. They will detect vibrations caused by seismic waves and continuously record motions hundreds of kilometres deep within the planet. The seismometers will be positioned across an area that includes the Canary Islands, Madeira

An 18-year-old Dutch student will become the youngest ever person in space after being confirmed as the first paying passenger aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s rocket when it lifts off next week. Oliver Daemen will join Bezos, the tycoon’s brother Mark and veteran aviator Wally Funk on the New Shepard mission to space when it

A man has been arrested over the racist abuse of England players on social media following Sunday’s Euro 2020 final defeat. Greater Manchester Police said the 37-year-old from Ashton-Upon-Mersey was arrested on suspicion of an offence under the Malicious Communications Act, after he went to Cheadle Heath police station on Wednesday morning. He remains in

An international team of astronomers has discovered a teardrop-shaped star that it predicts is about to explode in a supernova. The star’s unusual shape is caused by a nearby white dwarf distorting the ball of burning gas with its intense gravity. The pull of the white dwarf is so great that it will eventually cause

The 5G rollout across Britain is being held up by owners of phone mast sites who are refusing to accept swingeing rent cuts. Fox Lane Sports and Social Club in Leyland, Lancashire, is one of the landlords being offered around 10% of the current rent it receives, and has responded by refusing to allow mast

Elon Musk has said he “rather hates” being CEO of Tesla, telling a court that he would rather focus on engineering and design issues. But, he added, he had to remain in charge of the electric car giant “or the company was going to die”. The heated remarks came as Musk took the stand on

The masterminds behind the FIFA and NBA game series have bought Codemasters, the British studio behind the F1 brand – and this week, Electronic Arts release their first precision-racing experience. EA already owned the high-octane racer Need For Speed but now, following the $1.2bn (£864m) takeover, they have expanded their automotive offering to Formula 1.

Twitter has moved to stamp on racist abuse directed at black England players after the Euro 2020 final but in the face of widespread demand for social media platforms to act, is its approach enough? The abuse was also posted on Facebook and comes after players and clubs boycotted social media entirely in April in

Britain’s national security adviser is looking into the sale of a major UK chip manufacturer to a Chinese-owned firm. Prime minister Boris Johnson said he had asked Sir Stephen Lovegrove to look into the purchase of Newport Wafer Fab by Nexperia. Mr Johnson said: “We have to judge whether the stuff that they are making

Scientists have discovered a new type of astronomical cataclysm, offering an answer to a 13-billion-year-old mystery. Known as a “magneto-rotational hypernova” the phenomenon is caused by the destruction of a collapsed, rapidly spinning star, and is described in a new study published in the journal Nature. It is believed to be the origin of elements

Pension scam victims are losing over £50,000 on average, more than double the typical figure reported last year. Action Fraud said complaint data showed that the average loss this year so far has been £50,949, compared with £23,689 during 2020. But the losses in each case ranged from less than £1,000 to as much as

A decade-long investigation into Leonardo Da Vinci’s DNA has found 14 living male relatives, from whom it hopes to uncover the secrets of his genius. Da Vinci was a renaissance polymath whose works include some of humanity’s most famous religious paintings as well as scientifically exact anatomical and technical drawings that prefigured the invention of

It was no coincidence that the criminals struck on Friday evening, just as their victims in the US were logging off and preparing to celebrate Independence Day weekend. Everything about the attack on Miami-based Kaseya was designed to provide the criminals with the maximum return on investment, including the timing – on the eve of

Cancer patients who take aspirin as part of their treatment could cut their risk of death by 20%, according to a major review of studies. Researchers at Cardiff University said the medication – commonly used as pain relief – not only has “biological mechanisms” that help reduce mortality risk, but they also found it to

The last century’s space race was a competition between the world’s great powers and a test of their ideologies. It would prove to be a synecdoche of the entire Cold War between the capitalist United States and the socialist Soviet Union. The starting pistol in the race to the future was fired in 1961 when

Hundreds of people have died as record temperatures were reached in the US and Canada this week. A “heat dome” over the US Northwest and western Canada’s British Columbia has caused temperatures to rise to more than 49C (120.2F) in a region not used to extreme heat. Many of the excess deaths are presumed to