Sci-Tech news

• Children as young as 6 months know when words are related

  20-11-2017 21:00 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  The researchers, from Duke University in North Carolina, claim parents should talk to their children as much as possible as they are always listening and learning from speech.
  
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• Stonehenge's secret SISTER: Archaeologists discover an ancient monument just three miles away that may have served as a 'prototype' for the famous stones

  18-06-2026 01:01 via dailymail.com
  
  Archaeologists have discovered a secret sister monument to Stonehenge that might have served as a 'prototype' for the famous stones.
  
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• Git good with Epic Games' new open source VCS, Lore

  17-06-2026 22:49 via theregister.com
  
  Fortnite maker and Apple nemesis Epic Games has decided to git good all on its own with the open-source release of its homemade version control system, dubbed Lore. The project began life as Unreal Revision Control, and was used by internal teams and as the version control system (VCS) built into Unreal Editor for Fortnite. Now, Epic is ready to share its handiwork with the world. Lore is a centralized, content-addressed VCS that’s meant to be more flexible for developers, as it's licensed
  
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• If AGENTS.md smells ripe, your code won’t live up to the hype

  17-06-2026 21:32 via theregister.com
  
  If you're exposing your agent to a strong odor, it's time to clean up your instructions. Risky or poorly structured code patterns are known as "code smells," and it turns out coding agent directives can be similarly redolent, leading to wasted tokens and worse output. Coding agents rely on configuration files that summarize expected agent behavior. These context-enhancing files are commonly written in Markdown and named either CLAUDE.md for those using Anthropic models or AGENTS.md for pretty mu
  
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• Nvidia-backed optics vendor to boost wafer output by 4x to meet AI interconnect demand

  17-06-2026 20:12 via theregister.com
  
  As AI systems grow larger, optics are playing a larger part in their design – so much so that at Computex earlier this month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang proclaimed the technology would make Marvell the next trillion dollar company. Now, Nvidia-backed photonics vendor Coherent plans to boost indium phosphide (InP) wafer production at its Sherman, Texas, fab by 4x in anticipation AI proliferation will trigger an explosion in optical interconnect demand. Supply chains must be ready to meet that
  
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• Tornadoes bringing 'day of destruction' to millions as extreme storms hammer 15 major US cities

  17-06-2026 19:42 via dailymail.com
  
  Over 14 million people across several states face multiple emergency warnings as floods and twisters could ravage the US Wednesday night.
  
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• Massive password-stealing attack hits 75k Fortinet firewalls

  17-06-2026 19:27 via theregister.com
  
  If you have a Fortinet firewall, it's time to stop and change your passwords. Intruders somehow gained access to around 75,000 Fortinet firewall devices and stole credentials belonging to major corporations across 194 countries, in some cases leading to full network compromise. Security researchers say that they have verified the data, and the cracked FortiGate passwords belong to accounts spanning multinational corporations including FoxConn, Samsung, Comcast, Siemens, Lenovo, FedEx, PxW, Accen
  
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• Massive leak exposes 56 million email accounts and 124 million passwords... check if yours is compromised

  17-06-2026 19:24 via dailymail.com
  
  A huge cache of stolen usernames and passwords has raised fresh concerns that millions of online accounts could be vulnerable to hackers.
  
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• Uncle Sam bets $500M that Alphabet spinoff's AI can dig up new semiconductor materials

  17-06-2026 19:05 via theregister.com
  
  In order to move more semiconductor manufacturing onshore, the US needs to depend less on foreign-sourced materials. Now, the government is giving an Alphabet spinoff $500 million in CHIPS Act funds to find domestic minerals, molecules, and chemicals needed for this process. SandboxAQ (that’s AI and Quantum, for those wondering), which spun off from Alphabet in 2022 under the chairmanship of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, announced the award Wednesday. The company won’t be doing any
  
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• Deadly parasite causing cancer-like tumors in humans and pets spreading across US

  17-06-2026 18:42 via dailymail.com
  
  A potentially deadly infection to people and dogs has spread to the East and West Coast, and signs of the illness can stay hidden for up to 15 years.
  
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• Only half of US datacenter capacity planned for 2026 is actually under construction

  17-06-2026 17:55 via theregister.com
  
  Don't count your bit barns before they've at least started to hatch. Developers continue to announce new datacenter construction projects, but construction work for many due to come online this year or next appear not to have commenced, while planned capacity may have been overestimated. According to financial analyst Jefferies, known promises to build new stateside datacenters suggest 160 GW worth of infrastructure will be operational in the country by 2032 In a research note shared with The Re
  
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• Deadly tapeworms causing cancer-like tumors in humans and pets spreading across US

  17-06-2026 17:52 via dailymail.com
  
  A potentially deadly infection to people and dogs has spread to the East and West Coast, and signs of the illness can stay hidden for up to 15 years.
  
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• Life-threatening tropical storm Arthur forms off US coast with multiple states at high risk of danger

  17-06-2026 17:24 via dailymail.com
  
  Tropical Storm Arthur has formed off the US coast. Locals have been told to leave their homes if evacuations are given, as life-threatening flooding and storm surge are expected.
  
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• Smartphone market to shrink 15 percent this year due to memory crisis

  17-06-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  Unless your personal tech budget has bloated, prepare to stick with your current smartphone for a while thanks to AI-driven demand that has driven up memory prices and made new handsets so expensive that sales are falling dramatically. So says research firm CCS Insight, which expects smartphone shipments to fall by 15 percent this year as some entry-level devices have already seen their sticker prices go up by more than 50 percent since last year. The firm found that the primary smartphone marke
  
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• Digital sovereignty needs an operating model

  17-06-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  Europe, like much of the world, is living through a period of heightened geopolitical uncertainty in which sanctions risk, legal divergence, and cyber disruption have moved from abstract concerns to board-level variables. Digital sovereignty is shifting from aspiration to operational requirement, driven by resilience expectations, critical service dependency, and rising geopolitical and cyber risk. Definitions of sovereignty vary, ranging from blanket data localization edicts to industrial polic
  
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• AWS hypes continuous agentic DevOps, puts Kiro in your pocket

  17-06-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  AWS today introduced new and enhanced agents aimed at DevOps and code security at its New York Summit, including previews of Continuum for identifying and fixing application vulnerabilities, and an iOS mobile app for its Kiro coding tool. Matt Wood, chief AI and technology officer, said in a press briefing that the company sees AI tools operating continuously in the background, rather than being used on demand. AWS Continuum, now in closed preview, is a set of agents that "continually provide se
  
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• Noah's Ark could finally be found after historic deal promises 'irrefutable proof'

  17-06-2026 16:53 via dailymail.com
  
  A boat-shaped formation on a remote mountainside in eastern Turkey has reignited one of history's most enduring biblical mysteries.
  
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• Surface tension rises as Microsoft's latest kit starts at a pricey $1,499

  17-06-2026 16:25 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has unveiled new Surface hardware at prices that could keep customers away until the hardware supply chain sorts itself out. Two devices were announced – a new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with Snapdragon X2 silicon. The 13-inch Pro has, according to Microsoft, 53 percent faster graphics performance than the previous generation, and the 13.8 and 15-inch Laptop deliver 58 percent better graphics performance. The batteries should last all day, and the touchpad on the Laptop featu
  
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• Cisco adds another SD-WAN box to max-severity bug advisory

  17-06-2026 15:45 via theregister.com
  
  Cisco has updated a February security advisory, adding another product to the list of those affected by the maximum-severity CVE-2026-20127. Switchzilla made a small amendment to the original advisory on Tuesday evening, noting that Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Validator, formerly vBond, was also among the boxes attackers could pop open. Readers may remember the fuss over CVE-2026-20127 (10.0) a few months ago. The make-me-admin improper authentication flaw prompted a Five Eyes alert since attackers co
  
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• Homebrew 6.0 released with new security mechanism, Linux sandbox and more

  17-06-2026 15:31 via theregister.com
  
  The Homebrew team has released version 6.0 of this popular open-source package manager for macOS and Linux, with a new mechanism for trusting packages and support for sandboxing on Linux, to align with existing sandboxing on macOS. Homebrew 6.0 introduces tap trust, a "tap" being a collection of formulae, casks (a package of pre-compiled binaries) and commands which usually reside in a Git repository. The tool trusts official Homebrew taps by default, but requires an explicit agreement before it
  
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• Apple's WebKit performance tax leaves iOS browsers stuck in the slow lane, says Microsoft

  17-06-2026 15:02 via theregister.com
  
  Critics and competitors have long complained about the "Apple Tax" – the sales commission developers are obliged to pay on App Store sales and in-app purchases. Now Microsoft engineers have documented a performance tax – the performance hit that iOS users today endure because Apple requires iOS browsers, with theoretical exceptions, to use the WebKit browser engine that powers Safari. The performance tax comes to 28.6 percent, almost as much as Apple's 30 percent commission rate. Bro
  
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• Millions told to prepare NOW as Tropical Storm Warning is issued along US coast: 'Arthur is coming'

  17-06-2026 14:47 via dailymail.com
  
  Meteorologists have warned millions along the US coast to prepare for life-threatening weather as a system could soon develop into a tropical storm.
  
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• Intel starts cooking up enhanced 18A-P silicon for would-be foundry customers

  17-06-2026 14:14 via theregister.com
  
  While Intel ramps up production of its 18A process node, the chipmaker has started limited output of its enhanced variant, 18A-P, promising 9 percent higher performance at the same power. At the IEEE's 2026 VLSI Symposium in Hawaii, Intel disclosed that it has started risk production using 18A-P, the first of its planned enhancements for the 18A process, and potentially the first to be used for commercial customers of Intel's foundry biz. Risk production refers to initial low-volume output to qu
  
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• Windows devs rerolled old code to save precious bytes

  17-06-2026 14:01 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft's latest Windows update might or might not have improved performance for the company's flagship operating system, but there was a time when its engineers cared about performance. A lot. Veteran Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen on Monday hearked back to that time by telling another war story from the glory days of Windows, when a team was working on an x86-32 emulator for an unnamed processor (though it isn't particularly difficult to identify potential candidates). The emulator used bin
  
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• Do you have the 'M factor'? Scientists warn of emerging syndrome linked to violence and misogyny - and say 20% of men have it

  17-06-2026 13:57 via dailymail.com
  
  You've heard of The X Factor...but what about the M factor? Scientists are using this name to describe an emerging syndrome linked to violence and misogyny.
  
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• Who will win the World Cup? Mathematician's 11 models predict four possible champions (but NOT England!)

  17-06-2026 13:44 via dailymail.com
  
  England's World Cup journey begins tonight, but a mathematician warns that fans shouldn't get their hopes up.
  
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• Snap unveils £1,995 smart glasses after previous flops

  17-06-2026 13:37 via bbc.com
  
  The augmented reality glasses from Snapchat's parent company are expected to ship in autumn.
  
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• UK.gov links up with LinkedIn for jobs market intel from 40M accounts

  17-06-2026 13:30 via theregister.com
  
  The UK's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will draw on 40 million UK LinkedIn accounts to get a better understanding of local job markets. DWP said it plans to use anonymized data to help it find trends such as mismatches between local job ads and the skills possessed by local people. The department won't scrape the Microsoft-owned social network, instead relying on Redmond to analyze data and pass its findings to Skills England, a DWP agency whose officials are already working on the proj
  
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• Brit competition cops order Google to make search rankings less mysterious

  17-06-2026 13:01 via theregister.com
  
  The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has imposed two new conduct requirements for Google's search services, to improve transparency and fairness in result rankings and allowing users to port their search data to third parties. The requirements follow the CMA's actions in early June that let publishers opt out of having their work appear in AI Overviews, while requiring attribution and clear links to sources. "More activity is expected over the summer," the regulator warned. The fair
  
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• Helpdesk scammers are making house calls to make their lies feel more real

  17-06-2026 12:38 via theregister.com
  
  Six people suspected of bank helpdesk fraud are in custody after Dutch cops stormed an Amsterdam residence and caught them in conversation with a potential victim. Police say the individuals were aged between 15 and 30 and operated out of a makeshift call center they had established in an Amsterdam home. Authorities believe the accused committed bank helpdesk fraud, which has become increasingly popular across the Netherlands. Offenders were recently targeted as part of Game Over?!, a novel law
  
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