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UK govt approves construction of road tunnel near Stonehenge
The British government on Friday approved the construction of a controversial road tunnel near the historic Stonehenge site in southwestern England.
India launches cut-price mission to land on Moon
India launched a rocket on Friday carrying an unmanned spacecraft to land on the Moon, its second attempt to do so as its cut-price space programme seeks to reach new heights.
Google launches ChatGPT rival Bard in EU, Brazil
Google launched its AI chatbot Bard in the European Union, Brazil and a dozen other countries on Thursday and unveiled new features as it expands access to its answer to Microsoft-backed ChatGPT.
Musk launches xAI to rival OpenAI, Google
Elon Musk on Wednesday launched his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, as he seeks to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT -- a program he accuses of being politically biased and irresponsible.
In Brazil, stargazers escape cities in search of 'astro-tourism'
Awestruck by the oranges and blues of the Jewel Box star cluster, part of the Southern Cross constellation, Pedro Froes manages to get out a few words: "It's incredible."
Chinese hackers breached US govt email accounts: Microsoft
Chinese-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies, computer giant Microsoft said.
NASA celebrates Webb telescope anniversary with close-up of stellar birth
Jets of red gas bursting into the cosmos, and a glowing cave of dust: NASA marked a year of discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope Wednesday with a spectacular new image of Sun-like stars being born.
NASA celebrates Webb's first year with close-up of stellar birth
Jets of red gas bursting into the cosmos, and a glowing cave of dust: NASA unveiled a spectacular new image Wednesday depicting the birth of stars to mark the first anniversary of the James Webb Space Telescope's science operations.
NASA to unveil new Webb image on telescope's first anniversary
NASA is set Wednesday to unveil a new image from the James Webb Space Telescope a year after it first stunned the world with breathtaking views of the distant cosmos.
India shoots for the moon with latest rocket launch
India on Friday launches its latest attempt at an unmanned moon landing, the next frontier of a burgeoning, cut-price aerospace programme rapidly closing in on the milestones set by global superpowers.
Canadian lake ground-zero for Anthropocene epoch
Scientists on Tuesday designated a small body of water near Toronto, Canada as ground-zero for the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch defined by humanity's massive and destabilising impact on the planet.
Foxconn pulls from $19.4 bn deal in India to make semiconductors
Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn withdrew from a $19.4 billion deal with India's Vedanta to make semiconductors in the South Asian nation owing to "challenging gaps", it announced Tuesday.
Australia, New Zealand revive 'football's Ashes'
Australia and New Zealand will play this year for the "Soccer Ashes", sporting officials said Tuesday, a long-forgotten trophy recently rediscovered almost 70 years after it was lost.
ChatGPT dragged to US court over AI copyright
US comedian Sarah Silverman and two other authors have sued Open AI over copyright infringement in the latest pushback by creatives since the company's release of ChatGPT took the world by storm.
Signs of the human era, from nuclear fallout to microplastics
As scientists make the case that humans have fundamentally transformed the planet enough to warrant our own geological epoch, another question arises: is there anything left untouched by humanity's presence?
'Like a mirror': Astronomers identify most reflective exoplanet
A scorching hot world where metal clouds rain drops of titanium is the most reflective planet ever observed outside of our Solar System, astronomers said on Monday.
In vaccination champ Brazil, many have stopped getting shots
Two years after Brazil began emerging from its pandemic horror show thanks to a massive immunization campaign, officials face a paradoxical predicament: vaccination rates have plunged, and not just for Covid-19.
Startup bets on kitesurf to blow away shipping pollution
Inspired by kitesurfing, French firms want to deploy the same wind technology to propel everything from yachts to cargo ships in order to cut the shipping industry's massive carbon footprint.
US destroys its last chemical weapons, watchdog hails milestone
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the United States has fully destroyed its decades-old stockpiles of chemical weapons, a milestone hailed as completing the elimination around the world of all known stores of the agents of mass death.
US has destroyed all its chemical weapons: Biden
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the United States has fully destroyed its decades-old stockpiles of chemical weapons, fulfilling a commitment under the three-decade-old Chemical Weapons Convention.
AI robots at UN reckon they could run the world better
A panel of AI-enabled humanoid robots told a United Nations summit on Friday that they could eventually run the world better than humans.
Musk predicts Tesla self-driving cars 'later this year'
Electric car giant Tesla is set to realise fully autonomous vehicles "later this year", CEO Elon Musk said Thursday, in the billionaire's latest forecast for the long-anticipated milestone.
Final Ariane 5 blasts off amid Europe rocket crisis
Europe's workhorse Ariane 5 rocket blasted off for a final time on Wednesday, with its farewell flight after 27 years of launches coming at a difficult time for European space efforts.
US court limits officials' contacts with social media firms
A US federal court on Tuesday restricted some top officials and agencies of President Joe Biden's administration from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content, a ruling that could curtail government efforts to fight online falsehoods.
Disinformation researchers lament 'chilling' US legal campaign
The study of disinformation has emerged as a political lightning rod in the United States, with conservative advocates launching a sweeping legal offensive that researchers fighting falsehoods denounce as an intimidation campaign ahead of the 2024 election.
Carbon 'capture' climate tech is booming, and confusing
Humanity's failure to draw down planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions -- 41 billion tonnes in 2022 -- has thrust once-marginal options for capping or reducing CO2 in the atmosphere to centre stage in climate policy and investment.
UN talks aim to harness AI power and potential
The United Nations is convening this week a global gathering to try to map out the frontiers of artificial intelligence and to harness its potential for empowering humanity.
Britain's public health service at 75: on life support?
Deeply loved but wracked by crisis, Britain's National Health Service (NHS) on Wednesday marks 75 years since it was founded as the Western world's first universal, free healthcare system.
Time appears five times slower in early universe: study
Time appears to run five times slower in the early universe, scientists said on Monday, for the first time using extraordinarily bright cosmic objects called quasars as "clocks" to confirm this strange phenomenon.
Europe's space telescope launches to target universe's dark mysteries
Europe's Euclid space telescope blasted off Saturday on the first-ever mission aiming to shed light on two of the universe's greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter.
NASA's Mars helicopter 'phones home' after no contact for 63 days
Long time, no speak: NASA has re-established contact with the intrepid Ingenuity Mars Helicopter after more than two months of radio silence, the space agency said Friday.
Virgin Galactic finally takes its first paying customers to space
Virgin Galactic successfully flew its first paying customers to the final frontier Thursday, a long-awaited achievement that puts it back on track in the emerging private spaceflight sector.