Science

Over the next fortnight both Sony and Microsoft are launching their next-generation gaming consoles, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X respectively. The Xbox Series X launches in the UK on Tuesday, while the PS5 hits UK shores on Thursday 19 November. Both come ahead of Christmas and during another month of COVID-19 lockdowns

Virgin Hyperloop has trialled its first ever journey with human passengers at more than 100mph in the Nevada desert. Richard Branson‘s new technology, considered to be the future of high-speed ground transport, carries people in pods which travel through vacuum tubes. The two passengers – Virgin Hyperloop executives Josh Giegel and Sara Luchian – reached

Young people told to isolate due to coronavirus should be offered free mobile data, streaming services and gaming, the government’s scientific advisers have suggested. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said compliance with COVID-19 restrictions was “substantially lower and declining” among people aged 18 to 29 compared to older age groups due to a

The official statistics watchdog has issued a rare rebuke to the government and its scientific advisors, warning that their use of coronavirus data could “confuse the public and undermine confidence in the statistics.” The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said there was a danger that confidence in official figures could be undermined if they were not

According to a joint assessment by US intelligence agencies, the Russian state sponsored a disinformation campaign which brought the integrity of the last presidential election into disrepute. Has anything similar been identified in 2020? Votes are still being counted in a number of key states and the margins for victory remain wafer-thin. It is in

The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is edging towards the finishing line, but we still don’t know how far off a winner is. Kate Bingham, the head of the UK Vaccines Taskforce told MPs on the Science and Technology Committee that – if she put on her rose-tinted specs – she can see the first

More than 7,000 people have been given the wrong dates for self-isolation by Test and Trace, Sky News can reveal, raising further questions about the competence of the troubled service. An error in the software used by Test and Trace meant that the contact-tracing service gave contacts of people who had tested positive for coronavirus

A protest has been held in Bangkok after the Thai government announced it has banned Pornhub and 190 other websites showing pornography. Digital minister Puttipong Punnakanta said the block was part of efforts to restrict access to porn and gambling websites, adding that such content is illegal under the country’s cybercrime law. But the decision

Ahead of Apple’s surprise event this evening, with the title “One more thing” – a catchphrase used by Steve Jobs ahead of particularly significant announcements – we take a look at what’s likely to be announced. The special event will be broadcast from Apple Park at 6pm UK time, and the company is expected to

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) handled a record number of cyber security incidents over the last year, according to its annual review, which is published today. The agency handled 723 serious incidents between last September and the end of August – a 20% increase on the 602 it handled the year before. More

People still have a detectable immune response six months after being infected with COVID-19, according to the first study of its kind. The UK study found that people who had previously developed COVID-19 had raised levels of T-cells, an important back-up to antibodies in fighting infections. But the researchers, from Public Health England and the

An error with the NHS COVID app has left potentially thousands of people unaware that they were exposed to the coronavirus and needed to self-isolate. More than 19 million people have downloaded the English contact-tracing app since 24 September, but it has had the wrong settings to record whether these people were close enough to

US tech stocks have enjoyed a strong rally on Wall Street in advance of earnings reports from some of the biggest names in the business. Just a day after share values endured a global shock over tightening coronavirus restrictions, investors eagerly awaited updates on the progress made by the big earners of 2020 – Facebook,

An asteroid made of iron and nickel first discovered in 1852 could have been a protoplanet, according to scientists. The Hubble Space Telescope was used to study the asteroid, named 16 Psyche, during two points in its rotation. Dr Tracy Becker, a scientist from the Southwest Research Institute, said: “We’ve seen meteorites that are mostly

Twitter, Facebook and Google have been warned their platforms face new restrictions after they were criticised by Republican senators for alleged anti-conservative bias. Politicians from both US parties are looking to challenge legal protections for online speech granted to all three platforms. The Trump administration has asked Congress to strip some of the protections that

A mastectomy support group on Facebook says it faces a “constant battle” with the social media platform to keep its page open, despite not posting content which breaks any of the company’s rules. Jay Walker, the founder of the Mastectomy Network page, said several images have been removed from the page, despite Facebook‘s community guidelines