Africa Bitcoin Corporation has appointed economist and author Saifedean Ammous as its “bitcoin strategic advisor”.

IBM is said to be in advanced talks to acquire data infrastructure company Confluent for about $11-billion.

You saw it here first

There are many contenders for “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

Continue reading…

The economy is showing recovery signs as key infrastructure reforms begin strengthening growth prospects.

Observers in dark locations away from street lighting can expect to see more than 100 meteors an hour

The Perseid meteor shower in August often catches the headlines because of the warmer conditions associated with watching the display, but to many astronomers the Geminids put on the better show.

The Geminids have been active since 4 December and they reach their climax this week with the peak...

What started as a fact-finding mission for Netflix culminated in one of the biggest media deals in the last decade.

More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscape

It is not likely to be a hefty volume because the vast majority of the material has been lost in the mists of time. But the remnants of a language spoken in parts of the UK and Ireland 2,000 years ago are being collected for what is being billed as the first complete dictionary of ancient...

Tech moguls may foolishly hope to stay forever young, but others could benefit too from evidence of the human body’s dynamic and varied journey through life

Ageing can feel remarkably sudden. One morning you awake to find new aches, or lapses in strength and memory that you could swear were not present just a few days prior. We do not literally age overnight, but as research is increasingly...

Ethan Zuckerman says his intentions were good when he invented the ads.

Some say it’s overdiagnosis, others say it’s greater recognition. But it’s clear we must think about how our society is impacting human development

Gabor Maté is the author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Does the rise in diagnoses of ADHD mean that normal feelings are being “over-pathologised”? The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, seems to...

Scientists have developed algorithms that give predictive scores for a host of physical and mental traits

UK IVF couples use legal loophole to rank embryos based on potential IQ, height and health

The Guardian has learned that couples undergoing IVF in the UK are exploiting an apparent legal loophole to rank their embryos based on genetic predictions of IQ. But what is polygenic screening and...

British fertility clinics raise scientific and ethical objections over patients sending embryos’ genetic data abroad for analysis

What is polygenic embryo screening in IVF and does it work?

Couples undergoing IVF in the UK are exploiting an apparent legal loophole to rank their embryos based on genetic predictions of IQ, height and health, the Guardian has learned.

The controversial screening...

Former Perth curator Mark Harvey is one of the few people on Earth to have described 1,000 new species, many of them arachnids. Colleagues say his legacy is ‘unquantifiable’

Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

For most people around the world, 16 August 1977 was memorable because it was the day Elvis Presley died.

“We turned the radio on when we got back in the car...

The Streamer Awards organiser said the negatives of her online role made it hard to enjoy the job.

Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros Discovery’s TV and film studios and streaming division for $72-billion, excluding debt.