Technology

Three vaccines approved for use in the UK have all reported they are around 90% effective in late stage trials. The UK was the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. It is currently being rolled out across the nation, alongside the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which was given the green light

Playing video games can be good for your mental health, new research suggests. The study by the team at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, focused on players of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing and Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville by Electronic Arts. Crucially, it included data from the games-makers on how long each participant

Four astronauts have begun their journey to the International Space Station (ISS) after a historic SpaceX launch. It is NASA’s first fully-fledged mission sending a crew into orbit on board a privately-owned spacecraft and the second time that SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has taken astronauts to the space station, after a test flight back in May

Elon Musk has said he “most likely” has a moderate case of COVID-19, as he continued to question the accuracy of the tests. “Am getting wildly different results from different labs, but most likely I have a moderate case of covid. My symptoms are that of a minor cold, which is no surprise, since a

NASA programme to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024 is “unlikely” to be achieved, according to an audit report by the agency’s office of inspector general. The report warns the space agency “will be hard-pressed” in “achieving any date close to this ambitious goal”, although it could potentially

From an idea first mooted in 1941, the UK has launched research into whether solar power in space could be beamed back to Earth as a sustainable energy source. The concept was first thought up by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov; now the UK Space Agency and UK government are aiming to make the idea a

Rebekah Vardy was looking bright and breezy as she arrived for Dancing On Ice rehearsals, ahead of her High Court libel hearing against Coleen Rooney. The wife of Premier League footballer Jamie Vardy is suing fellow footballer’s wife Rooney after she claimed Vardy had leaked private stories about her to the press. Vardy, 38, has

The launch of the new Xbox consoles on Tuesday caused a record demand for broadband data, according to some of the UK’s leading internet service providers. Many console users, whether using the Xbox Series X or the digital-only Series S, will have downloaded enormous video game files, with preloads for Call of Duty: Black Ops

A new inhaled protein treatment has been found to accelerate recovery and lower the odds of developing severe COVID-19 in patients, researchers have said. Small-scale trial results for the drug, known as SNG001, suggest that users were more than twice as likely to recover from COVID-19, compared to those who had the placebo drug. The

Apple has launched a new Mac Mini and two MacBooks – the first versions which are using a processor based on the company’s own designs. It was the third product launch ahead of Christmas, coming a month after the firm released four models in its new iPhone 12 range, and two months after its first

Donald Trump’s prolific tweeting masks a strategic use of the social media platform to divert the media from covering topics that are potentially harmful to him, according to new research. Behavioural scientists at the universities of Western Australia and Bristol have published a peer-reviewed paper into how the US president‘s messages on Twitter impact news

News that a Pfizer vaccine is 90% effective against COVID-19 has been heralded as a turning point in the global fight against the virus. But while the vaccine has been bankrolled by the American pharmaceutical giant, the science itself is the work of BioNTech, a German company founded by married couple and dedicated physicians Ugur

Few scientists would have expected a first-wave COVID vaccine to be 90% effective. Many had said that a jab that prevented just 50% of cases would be a gamechanger. So, with almost 1.3 million deaths so far in the pandemic, you can understand why the boss of Pfizer has called this “a great day for

Monkeys in a zoo in Finland have shown a “significant” preference for traffic sounds over jungle noises, researchers have found. A tunnel fitted with sensors was installed in a monkey enclosure at Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki. This allowed the white-faced saki monkeys to choose whether they listened to a playlist of traffic noises, nature and

Facebook has banned a group which, inspired by unsubstantiated claims from Donald Trump, was featuring calls for violence over concerns the election was being “stolen” by the president’s rivals. It comes as Joe Biden took the lead in the key state of Georgia, while Donald Trump doubled down on his claims political opponents were trying

Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has been banned from Twitter after he called for the beheading of Dr Anthony Fauci and the FBI director Christopher Wray. The action comes as Donald Trump supporters – some of them armed with rifles and handguns – descended on election counting centres after the president made unsubstantiated