Sci-Tech news

• Preparing for Skylab: The separate 1972 experimental mission that never left the ground

  29-07-2022 13:26 via go.theregister.com
  
  Bags of splashy fun for astronauts in SMEAT's simulation Feature  Remember Skylab? How about SMEAT? Fifty years ago, a trio of US astronauts took part in 56-day simulation of a Skylab mission that would prove critical to the success of the US's first crewed space station.…
  
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• 'Time traveler' claiming to be from the year 3700 issues chilling warning for humanity as he reveals 'evidence' of future apocalypse

  07-07-2026 21:08 via dailymail.com
  
  A man claiming to have traveled hundreds of years into the future says he has returned with 'proof' and a chilling warning to humanity about their fate.
  
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• South Korean chip startup FuriosaAI invades European datacenters

  07-07-2026 19:59 via theregister.com
  
  Power-efficient South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI has landed on European shores. On Tuesday, the chip biz revealed that it had begun fielding its RNGD — pronounced “renegade” — line of AI accelerators at colocation giant Equinix’s LS2 datacenter in Lisbon, Portugal. Founded by June Paik and Hanjoon Kim back in 2017, before LLMs were cool, Furiosa has largely focused its attention on the South Korean domestic market, scoring wins with the likes of LG Electronics
  
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• Warning to millions as lung-damaging air sweeps across five US states TODAY

  07-07-2026 19:57 via dailymail.com
  
  Officials have issued health warnings to millions of Americans as lung-damaging air engulfs five US states on Tuesday.
  
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• Story of human evolution rewritten as new evidence reveals a far more complex origin

  07-07-2026 19:46 via dailymail.com
  
  A new landmark study has uncovered evidence that challenges the long-held beliefs about human evolution.
  
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• CAI cloud worm gives competitors' malware the boot, then steals secrets and mines for coin

  07-07-2026 19:15 via theregister.com
  
  EXCLUSIVE There's no honor among thieves as a new worm steals from other infectious software. It pilfers “multiple” victims’ credentials and mines for cryptocurrency while killing competitors’ processes, including similar secret-harvesting malware. It’s called Cloud AI Infrastructure Attack Framework (CAI), and it’s a centralized botnet that targets cloud-native developer tools like Docker, Kubernetes, Redis, etcd, Kubelet, and Ray for credential theft and cry
  
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• NASA calls time on CAPSTONE after four years of lunar orbit lessons

  07-07-2026 18:50 via theregister.com
  
  After four years of operations around the Moon, NASA's CAPSTONE mission has bitten the lunar dust, in a manner of speaking. The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) was launched in 2022, with a primary mission to validate the near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) intended for NASA's "paused" Gateway space station. Launched in June 2022 on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, CAPSTONE had a troubled start to life, briefly giving controllers the s
  
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• Story of human evolution rewritten as new evidence points to a far more complex origin

  07-07-2026 18:40 via dailymail.com
  
  A new landmark study has uncovered evidence that challenges the long-held beliefs about human evolution.
  
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• New tool gives CLIs a warm and GUI feeling instead

  07-07-2026 18:30 via theregister.com
  
  Using command-line tools is often the best way to get something done, but remembering all those flags is a chore. Now, you can let a simple open-source CLI module turn any command into a GUI for you instead. That’s the solution Jordanian full-stack software engineer Omar Soutari built for his first entry into the FOSS community and released this week. Instagui, as he calls it, parses CLI tools’ help documentation, makes an API call to Claude to digest it, and then renders the whole t
  
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• Hidden inscription from after Christ's crucifixion reveals new details of the Roman Empire

  07-07-2026 18:02 via dailymail.com
  
  Ancient inscriptions written the language Jesus spoke have revealed a lost 1,700-year-old chapter in early Christian history.
  
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• Predatorgate snoopfest victims launch €8M sueball at spyware maker

  07-07-2026 17:59 via theregister.com
  
  Eight victims of Greece’s spyware scandal, later dubbed “Predatorgate,” have sued the Athens-based company behind the program used to surveil them. According to the Predator victims’ lawyer, Zacharias Kesses, each of the plaintiffs is asking for €1 million in moral damages after having their devices hacked between 2020 and 2021. Among those seeking damages is journalist Thanasis Koukakis, who was one of the most high-profile victims at the time. Others include lawyer
  
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• Court tosses Microsoft's appeal in pre-owned software licenses battle

  07-07-2026 17:28 via theregister.com
  
  The UK's Court of Appeal has dismissed Microsoft's appeal against a ruling that ValueLicensing (VL) can resell pre-owned software licences. The judgment, handed down July 7, follows a ruling by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in November that customers could resell their licenses, even if Office contained clipart. In 2021, VL filed a claim accusing Microsoft of stifling the market for pre-owned on-prem software licenses, alleging the US biz baked restrictive clauses into its contracts &nda
  
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• Put all your data and AI to work and get it out of silos and lakehouses

  07-07-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  Imagine your refrigerator sits in another building, 100 metres from your kitchen. Every time you cook, you walk over for each ingredient, then walk back to check that you closed the fridge door. That could be another long walk back if you forgot the milk for your morning coffee. Until the agentic era, this was the norm. Data could live in that fridge and get pulled when needed. Applications and humans didn't need millisecond or even live data to make important decisions; humans can work on copie
  
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• Ancient inscriptions written in Jesus' language reveal forgotten chapter of early Christianity

  07-07-2026 16:40 via dailymail.com
  
  Ancient inscriptions written the language Jesus spoke have revealed a lost 1,700-year-old chapter in early Christian history.
  
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• Have the long-lost remains of King Alfred the Great finally been found? Investigator claims bones buried under a Hampshire car park may belong to the Anglo-Saxon ruler

  07-07-2026 16:37 via dailymail.com
  
  The long-lost remains of King Alfred the Great have been found buried under a car park, an investigator claims.
  
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• Microsoft flips Windows Backup to on by default unless you're in the EU

  07-07-2026 15:30 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft is enabling Windows Backup for Organizations by default in Windows 11 26H2 everywhere except the EU, meaning businesses elsewhere with sovereignty and privacy concerns will be forced opt out instead. Now dubbed "Windows settings backup and restore," the service backs up a device's settings and a list of installed Microsoft Store apps, which can then be restored to a new device. Microsoft gave a use case for the technology: "Imagine a lost laptop, a hardware refresh, or an unexpected re
  
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• Enterprise AI still smarting from leaping before looking

  07-07-2026 15:00 via theregister.com
  
  The majority of companies that deploy AI systems end up shooting themselves in the foot with security, according to DigiCert. Seventy-eight percent of enterprises report "experiencing AI-related security incidents or identifying AI-related vulnerabilities," the digital identity biz said in a commissioned survey. Among respondents, 27.7 percent experienced one incident, 21.9 percent experienced multiple incidents, and 28.4 percent had no incidents but identified vulnerabilities, a company spokesp
  
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• DRAM prices are killing the cheap smartphone

  07-07-2026 14:42 via theregister.com
  
  Rising memory prices are making budget smartphones commercially unviable to produce, forcing users to delay upgrades, pay more for higher-tier devices, or turn to the second-hand market instead. This is according to analyst Omdia, which estimates memory costs accounted for almost 60 percent of the total bill of materials in sub-$400 smartphones during calendar Q1 of 2026 – and things haven't improved since then. In fact, market watcher TrendForce predicted last month that the tech industry
  
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• Could you outrun a spider? Scientists rank the sprinting speeds of 258 eight-legged species - and the fastest could easily catch you

  07-07-2026 14:10 via dailymail.com
  
  If you thought you could outrun a spider, think again. Scientists have identified the fastest spider ever recorded, and the quickest could easily catch you.
  
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• Fake IT bods on Microsoft Teams coax workers into installing malware

  07-07-2026 13:21 via theregister.com
  
  Cybercriminals are using fake IT support calls on Microsoft Teams to persuade employees to surrender control of their PCs before installing the EtherRAT remote access trojan, according to researchers at Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42. Victims receive a phishing email disguised as an employee survey before a follow-up Microsoft Teams call from someone claiming to be IT support. During the call, the attacker persuades the target to hand over remote control and install legitimate remote administration
  
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• Spain collars alleged pro-Russia hacktivist after FBI tip-off

  07-07-2026 12:30 via theregister.com
  
  Spanish police have arrested a man they believe is affiliated with at least two pro-Russia hacktivist groups linked to attacks on critical national infrastructure (CNI). Arrested in March at his home in Palencia, central Spain, the man is suspected of having close ties to CyberArmy of Russia Reborn (CARR) and Z-Pentest, and may have carried out attacks on behalf of NoName057(16). All three hacktivist groups were named by the UK's NCSC earlier this year as part of an advisory warning about the da
  
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• Mysterious interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS could be three times OLDER than Earth, study reveals

  07-07-2026 12:16 via dailymail.com
  
  While 3I/ATLAS is definitely a comet, its composition and age have remained unclear. Now, astronomers have solved these mysteries.
  
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• Government's cyber pledge lands 60 signatories, including M&S and, somehow, Capita

  07-07-2026 12:07 via theregister.com
  
  After serving as last year’s poster child for retail cyber misery, Marks & Spencer has become one of the first companies to sign up to the UK government's new Cyber Resilience Pledge. The retailer is among 60 organizations that have signed up to the voluntary scheme, launched by technology secretary Liz Kendall on Tuesday. Signatories commit to treating cybersecurity as a board-level responsibility, signing up to the National Cyber Security Centre's Early Warning service, and encouragi
  
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• MPs tell Brit government: Sort out your tech sovereignty or get left out in the cold

  07-07-2026 11:43 via theregister.com
  
  MPs are warning the UK has no "coherent strategy" for creating sovereign capabilities across a range of technologies, including AI, space, and quantum computing. A report published Tuesday by the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee says the UK is in a global race for sovereign tech capabilities, with AI emerging as a "central arena" for competition and collaboration. A recent move by the US government to restrict some of Anthropic's AI models "should be a powerful reminder that the UK m
  
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• Earth's second MOON is revealed for the first time: Chinese satellite beams back incredible image of rare 'micromoon'

  07-07-2026 11:28 via dailymail.com
  
  This is the first image of a rare 'minimoon' that loops around the Earth like a dance partner.
  
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• Northern Ireland tries (again) to expel Capita from schools IT contract

  07-07-2026 11:15 via theregister.com
  
  Four years after its first attempt, Northern Ireland's Education Authority (EANI) is trying once again to replace Capita, with a procurement for an IT services deal worth up to £851 million. An earlier effort to replace the UK tech services company foundered when EANI ended its £485 million contract with Fujitsu by "mutual agreement" after "extensive negotiations" in November 2024. The deal's collapse led to an extension of the authority's contract with Capita, which bagged an additi
  
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• One and done! NASA Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen dramatically RETIRES after a single mission around the moon - as one fan asks 'what do you guys see up there that you don't want to go back?'

  07-07-2026 11:01 via dailymail.com
  
  The Canadian astronaut was one of four members of the Artemis II team, who made history earlier this year by flying around the moon.
  
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• UK guts planning red tape so datacenters can bypass the neighbors faster

  07-07-2026 10:30 via theregister.com
  
  Reform of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 aims to cut a year off the approval process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) in England and Wales – a category that now includes datacenters. The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) confirmed that changes under the Act, taking effect later this month, will scrap the statutory requirement for pre-application consultation on NSIPs. These are major developments – power stations, rail
  
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• Brussels shows how to remove friction from collaboration

  07-07-2026 10:00 via theregister.com
  
  When the Flemish Government set out to renovate its Brussels headquarters, it had two strategic aims. The first was to create a workplace that encouraged hybrid workers to come to the office more regularly, by fashioning a space that fostered connection, teamwork, collaboration, and a deeper sense of wellbeing and belonging. The second goal was sustainability. Another objective was that the government's head office building played a large part in its 2050 climate goals. Yannic Laleeuwe is market
  
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• Broadcom and Apple extend custom silicon pact to 2031

  07-07-2026 09:19 via theregister.com
  
  Broadcom has signed a deal to provide Apple with custom chips until 2031. The chips and code shop has supplied Apple with silicon since the late 2000s when its wireless products found a home in early iPhone models. Broadcom’s silicon has found its way into iThings ever since. Broadcom’s announcement of its extended relationship with Cupertino is brief, stating only that the two companies “have agreed to expand their long-standing technology collaboration through 2031 by enterin
  
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