Science

Apple and Facebook are on course for a series of clashes as court cases and technological developments pit their business models against each other. The technology industry will be reshaped in the winner’s image. Despite the looming threat of antitrust action from competition regulators in both the European Union and the United States, both companies

Bats that lived in a Cambodian cave in 2010 carried a pathogen that is “nearly identical” to the virus that causes COVID-19, scientists have discovered. Samples the scientists tested have been stored in a freezer at the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, since December 2010 following a study by the Natural History Museum in

A pop-up urban airport which will showcase so-called “flying cars” and drones is to be opened in Coventry, with government support for programmes that tackle road congestion and pollution. As shown by slick computer generated marketing imagery, the zero-emission hub, called Air One, will be located close to the Ricoh Arena in the north of

Tesla has posted its first ever annual profit capping a stellar year in which its surging share price have seen it become the world’s most valuable car maker. The electric vehicle firm, led by Elon Musk, reported a profit of $721m for 2020 compared to a loss of $862m a year earlier. However there was

The COVID-19 pandemic will cause “exponential” growth in heart disease over the next few years, researchers have claimed. It is known that COVID-19 can cause heart damage, but the pandemic also means that patients are delaying care for heart attacks and strokes, according to a report published by the American Heart Association. These issues are

Astronauts are scheduled to take a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) today to install a new British-built communications system that will deliver almost instantaneous messages back to Earth. The British-funded and developed system will speed up scientists’ access to data from experiments on board the ISS, from investigations into the effects of radiation

Google says it has made progress on its so-called Privacy Sandbox plans to remove third-party cookies from its Chrome browser amid concerns about the browser’s market dominance and privacy protections. Third-party cookies are trackers placed on websites that enable advertisers to follow users around the web, for instance displaying a product which the user viewed

Taking a regular afternoon nap could be one way to stay mentally agile, according to a new study. The research, published in the journal General Psychiatry, looked at the sleep patterns of 2,214 healthy people aged 60 and over in several large Chinese cities. Some 1,534 took regular afternoon naps of between five minutes and

Scientists believe they have finally cracked the mystery of how butterflies fly despite their “unusually short, broad and large wings” compared to their body size. A new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society finds that the key is not in the downstroke, when the butterflies’ wings push them forward, but in the

Netflix has notched up more than 200 million subscribers after consumers staying at home during the pandemic helped it achieve a record year of growth in 2020. The US company, which pioneered streaming in 2007, said it added a better-than-expected 8.5 million new paying customers in the final quarter of the year to reach a

A new electric car battery that can be fully charged in five minutes has been manufactured for the first time on a normal production line in China, based on designs by Israeli company StoreDot. The breakthrough could address a significant concern for electric car drivers – the fear of running out of power during a

How often have you stood in a queue and caught the whiff of someone smoking several metres away? Now imagine that’s a cloud of the COVID virus that you’re inhaling. That’s the concern of Dr Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester. Image: Virologist Dr Julian Tang says people need to rethink their

Compliance with coronavirus rules has risen sharply since December and is now at its highest point since the first lockdown, according to a major new survey seen by Sky News. The results cast doubt on the government’s claims that rule-breaking is contributing to a rise in COVID-19 deaths, after ministers and senior police officers warned

Bitcoin plunged by more than 20% over the weekend – wiping more than $10,000 (£7,395) off the price of a single coin. The fall puts the cryptocurrency on track for its biggest one-day drop since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to shred global markets. Bitcoin fell as low as $30,500 on Monday

He has been kicked off most of the mainstream social media platforms following his supporters’ rioting at the US Capitol, but President Donald Trump is still searching for online options to reach his followers. The far right-friendly site Parler had been the leading candidate until Google and Apple removed it from their app stores and

Elon Musk has overtaken Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest man, according to reports. Mr Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who founded Tesla, has a net worth of more than $188.5bn (£139bn) following shares in his company gaining more than 5% on Thursday. Bloomberg reported that this put him $1.5bn (£1.1bn) ahead