Mysterious moon: Scientists find unusual rock on lunar surface December 23, 2015 While we search far and wide in space to find out everything we can about the universe, it turns out there are still some unanswered questions about our closest neighbour – the moon. An unmanned Chinese rover, currently roaming the lunar surface, has identified a new type of rock with a composition that's different from [...]
Hoverboard Lucozade thief Omaree Lindsay who went viral from CCTV video released by police is spared jail December 23, 2015 What's thought to be the first ever conviction for using a hoverboard illegally has been handed down to a thief who brazenly swiped a crate of Lucozade and escaped down the street on a self-propelled scooter, becoming internet famous in the process. Footage of the theft went viral after CCTV was released by the police to catch him. [...]
Beatles back catalogue confirmed for music streaming from midnight on Christmas Eve on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon, Google December 23, 2015 The back catalogue of hit songs from the Beatles such as Hey Jude will be available on music streaming service for the first time, giving a Christmas treat to music fans. The fab four's music will be available on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal, Groove and Rhapsody. On Spotify, both free and premium users will be able to [...]
Nasa has had to cancel its 2016 mission to Mars – and it won’t be rescheduled until 2018 at the earliest December 23, 2015 Nasa has had to put its latest Mars mission to one side, due to a technical fault in one of its scientific instruments. The US space agency was due to send its InSight spacecraft to the red planet in March next year, with the intention of probing the structure of the Mars's interior by listening to [...]
Tweet controlled drones? Twitter just patented that (watch out Marcel Hirscher) December 23, 2015 Drones raise enough questions as it is – where can they fly, who can fly them, how do you avoid accidents, to name just a few – but imagine if they were controlled simply with a tweet? Sounds a a little crazy, yes, but not too crazy for Twitter. The social network has filed a [...]
Cyber siege: What businesses should learn from 2015’s hacks against TalkTalk, Carphone Warehouse and Wetherspoons December 23, 2015 We will remember the past year in IT security as yet another in which cyber-attackers have got the better of major organisations, from the US government’s HR agency, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and health insurance giant Anthem over in the States, Hong Kong-based toy manufacturer VTech and Japanese-owned Hello Kitty brand, through to [...]
Northern Powerhouse: The North’s digital economy is booming but needs more infrastructure spending December 23, 2015 This year has seen the potential of the Northern Powerhouse truly realised and our digital sector sits at the beating heart of this agenda. The North’s digital economy is booming. It employs over 170,000 people and there has been a 57 per cent rise in new digital companies over the past three years. The UK’s [...]
Winter Solstice 2015: What you need to know about the shortest day of the year December 22, 2015 Today is officially the shortest day of the year, meaning we will see less sunlight than on any other day in 2015. By the time the sun goes down this afternoon, we will have experienced a total of seven hours, 49 minutes and 41 seconds of sunlight in the UK. So, what is the winter [...]
From lack of control to confident ignorance – these are the three different types of stupid December 22, 2015 From blatant buffoonery to more subtle levels of idiocy, most of us would agree that it takes a lot of effort just to avoid stupidity as we negotiate daily life. But now scientists have given us a helping hand – by putting labels on the different types of stupidity. Hungarian experimental psychologist Balazs Aczel and his team collected online news [...]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully returns its Falcon 9 rocket after sending it to space in breakthrough for reusable rockets December 22, 2015 Activist billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX has sent its Falcon 9 rocket into space and back again – an important breakthrough for reusable rockets in space exploration. The first stage of the Falcon 9 gently touched down at Cape Canaveral 10 minutes after lift-off, to employees’ cheers. This was SpaceX’s first flight since June, when one of its rockets exploded [...]