Researchers say sediment changes due to waste dumping and coastal erosion intensified by climate breakdown

As much as half of some British beaches’ coarse sediments consist of human-made materials such as brick, concrete, glass and industrial waste, a study has found.

Climate breakdown, which has caused more frequent and destructive coastal storms, has led to an increase in these substances on...

Artemis II mission was due to begin as early as next week and astronauts have spent almost two weeks in quarantine

Nasa has postponed its historic mission to send astronauts around the moon and back again, after issues arose during a critical test of its most powerful rocket yet.

The US space agency had planned to launch the Artemis II mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as early as...

Aerospace business and artificial intelligence firm to unite for IPO as world’s most valuable private company

Business live – latest updates

Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX has acquired his artificial intelligence business xAI, in a $1.25tn (£910bn) merger that consolidates part of Musk’s empire as SpaceX prepares to go public later this year.

The two companies announced the deal on Monday...

UPFs are made to encourage addiction and consumption and should be regulated like tobacco, say researchers

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report.

UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to...

Just like men, women are increasingly being told by online influencers that the classic symptoms of middle age could be down to low testosterone. In the second part of this miniseries exploring the hormone, Madeleine Finlay finds out what testosterone supplementation is doing for women. She hears from science journalist Linda Geddes, who is taking testosterone for low libido, and from prof...

Musk’s space exploration company and his AI start-up are merging.

The answers to today’s problems

Earlier today I set you these three problems about the number 11. Here they are again with solutions.

1. Funny formation

odd positions: 9,7,5,3,1 sum to 25;

even positions: 8,6,4,2,0 sum to 20.

Continue reading…

The Reddit-like website which launched in late January allows AI bots to speak to each other.

The UK’s largest porn site has blocked unregistered users from accessing explicit content in the country, but why motives remain unclear.

Puzzles one louder than ten

It’s two decimal digits long, it’s prime, it’s a palindrome and it’s the number of players in a football team.

Let’s hear it for “legs” eleven!

Continue reading…

Social media has been flooded with fake, AI-generated images and videos. But will the majority of users actually care?

Straddling the celestial equator, the constellation is visible in both hemispheres

Orion, the hunter, one of the most recognisable constellations in the night sky, is well placed for observation from the northern hemisphere during February. Straddling the celestial equator – the projection of Earth’s equator on to the night sky – the constellation is also visible from the southern...

Every second, 11m bits of information enter our brains, which then efficiently prioritise them. We need to learn to work with the process, rather than against it

It’s believed that we have about 50,000 thoughts a day: big, small, urgent, banal – “Did I leave the oven on?”. And those are just the ones that register. Subconsciously, we’re constantly sifting through a barrage of...