Are deepfakes convincing enough to create false memories?
A new study has found that watching deepfake videos and reading short text descriptions of made-up remakes can cause people to falsely remember watching non-existent films. Last month, researchers at University College Cork in Ireland published findings from their research into false memories, a study which indicates that the impacts...
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Opinion – Has the Threads hype died already?
The arrival of Zuckerberg’s text-based social media platform Threads brought a sudden and fleeting moment of excitement to the digital sphere. Now, over half of the 100 million users who signed up have already stopped checking in. It hasn’t even been a month since the social media app Threads...
How the pandemic upended our perception of time
A new paper by cognitive neuroscientist Nina Rouhani has uncovered that isolating to curb the spread of COVID-19 significantly impacted our ability to accurately recall events – findings that are consistent with memory lapses experienced by prison inmates. Though almost everyone agrees that time has been passing very strangely...
Scientists resurrect functionally extinct animal frozen for 46,000 years
Scientists have revived microscopic animals from a slumber lasting some 46,000 years. Discovered in Siberian permafrost, researchers believe studying their evolution may show how species will adapt to a rapidly changing world. Microscopic animals hailing from the same prehistoric era as Neanderthals and dire wolves are currently multiplying in a...
Ethiopia restores social media after 5 months of shutdown
Ethiopia has taken a momentous stride towards reinstating communication freedom and reconnecting its citizens with the digital realm by lifting its social media ban after a prolonged five-month shutdown. The restoration of access to popular platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, and YouTube comes as a welcome relief for millions of...
The race to build a nuclear-powered moon base
Experts are turning to nuclear power to revolutionize energy generation on the moon, thanks to its remarkable reliability. Humanity has long been interested in the vast possibilities of space exploration. For decades, ever since Neil Armstrong first set foot on the lunar surface, many have envisioned a base there. A...
Why Elon Musk is rebranding Twitter as ‘X’
Having changed Twitter Inc to X Corp back in April, the inevitable rebrand of the social network as ‘X’ is now underway – but why? The bluebird is confirmed dead, and Elon Musk is holding the rifle. As you’ve no doubt seen already, the billionaire has been constantly touting ‘X’ on his profile this week while trolling those who proclaim that ‘Twitter is dead’ – which has trended a few times...
What is ‘phubbing’ and why is it damaging to relationships?
New research has uncovered that the phenomenon – whereby couples ignore each other in favour of their digital devices – is leading to increased conflict and reduced intimacy. While this may seem obvious, it’s taken a pair of psychologists to make us notice.
In this day and age, we’re all aware of how technology originally designed to strengthen connectivity has actually begun to do the opposite.
Made apparent by 
Autonomous drones are advancing firefighting efforts
The market growth for autonomous firefighting drones is on a rapid rise in 2023 and we could soon see devices put to use in both natural and domestic emergencies. As the climate crisis ignites blazes of increasing severity and regularity across the planet, emergency services will inevitably become stretched. Like the vast majority of industries, technology will be used to compensate for any disparity between demand and available manpower – the...
Fragments of interstellar meteor discovered in the Pacific Ocean
Harvard University Professor Avi Loeb has recovered tiny iron fragments near the fireball path of the first recognised interstellar meteor. Tests are now underway to discover more about its mysterious origin beyond our solar system. Scientists looked on in wonder in 2014, as a 500kg fireball plummeted from the sky and crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Manus Island. In the years that followed, research was compiled to determine whether the...
