FRIDAY, 19 DECEMBER 2025, 02:07
Sixty years after a team of American and Indian climbers abandoned a plutonium-powered generator on the slopes of Nanda Devi, one of the world’s most forbidding Himalayan peaks, the U.S. government still refuses to acknowledge that the mission ever happened. The device, a SNAP-19C portable generator containing plutonium isotopes including Pu-239 — the same material used in the Nagasaki bomb —...
The data centers used for work on artificial intelligence can cost tens of billions to build. Tech giants are finding ways to avoid being on the hook for some of those costs.
Grid constraints that were once a hallmark of developing economies are now plaguing the world’s richest nations, and new research from Bloomberg Economics finds that rising electricity system stress is directly hurting investment. The analysis examined all G20 countries and found that a one-standard-deviation increase in grid stress relative to a country’s historical average lowers the...
LG smart TV owners discovered over the weekend that a recent webOS software update had quietly installed Microsoft Copilot on their devices, and the app cannot be uninstalled. Affected users report the feature appears automatically after installing the latest webOS update on certain models, sitting alongside streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube. LG’s support documentation confirms that...
We often hear that money makes the world go round. While the stock market gets all the glory, there is a much quieter, yet significantly larger giant operating in the shadows. This is the Foreign Exchange, or FX, market. It is the place where national economies are constantly weighed against each other. It goes far […]
The Black Hat Europe hacker conference in London included a session titled “Don’t Judge an Audiobook by Its Cover” about a two critical (and now fixed) flaws in Amazon’s Kindle. The Times reports both flaws were discovered by engineering analyst Valentino Ricotta (from the cybersecurity research division of Thales), who was awarded a “bug bounty” of $20,000 (£15,000 ).He said: “What especially...
Lightspeed Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley venture firm, has amassed more than $9 billion to invest in artificial intelligence. That is its biggest haul.
The world’s top chipmaker wants open source AI to succeed—perhaps because closed models increasingly run on its rivals’ silicon.
A young engineer who would one day become CEO of SAA and one of the fathers of the Internet installed South Africa’s first link to the ARPANET more than 50 years ago.
The child’s was trying to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid – but a film with “strong sex and sex references” played instead.
This year, the Durban University of Technology (DUT) proudly celebrates 21 years as a dynamic force in South African higher education.
Renewable capacity continues to expand as government advances transmission expansion and private sector participation initiatives nationwide.
Wiocc Group has secured $65-million in debt financing to expand open-access digital infrastructure across Africa.
South Africa’s future hinges on how inclusively we unlock it.
Shortly after 2pm, the currency was trading at R16.78/$, continuing a firming trend that started in April.
An early flu season, a new variant and poor takeup of vaccines leave the already vulnerable health service in a dangerous position
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
You might be feeling stressed out seeing the headlines about “super flu” and comparing the current winter health challenges with 2020 and Covid. Amid all the noise, it’s...
Despite advancements in laptops, desktop computers still have a place. These are the WIRED-tested options you should consider.
The autonomous vehicle industry is heating up thanks to advances in AI. But can those same innovations help startups like HyprLabs build safe tech?
The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI is built for small and medium businesses that want real productivity gains from AI.
Synthetic fabrics, particularly from fast fashion retailers, can be treated with a range of hazardous chemicals which can cause an allergic reaction. If you think this is happened to you, we’d like to hear from you
Have you suffered any personal health repercussions you suspect may have been caused by your fashion purchases?
Research has shown that synthetic fabrics, particularly from fast...
The companies have been fined in the past over outages leaving customers unable to call emergency services.