Anti-secrecy activists publish a trove of ransomware victims’ data
For years, radical transparency-focused activists like WikiLeaks have blurred the line between whistle-blowing and hacking. Often, they’ve published any data they consider to be of public interest, no matter how questionable the source. But now one leak-focused group is mining a controversial new vein of secrets: the massive caches of...
Opinion: Marginalised groups were ‘mistreated’ by Wikipedia’s editing corps
More than decade ago, I wrote an essay comparing Wikipedia to a vibrant city, how it “can send you down unlikely alleyways” via the many links embedded on a single page: There are the links to articles about other people or places mentioned; links to categories of articles on similar...
Billions poured into Covid vaccine facilitated multiple tests at the same time
The slowest part of vaccine development isn’t finding candidate treatments, but testing them. This often takes years, with companies running efficacy and safety tests on animals and then in humans. Human testing requires three phases that involve increasing numbers of people and proportionately escalating costs. The Covid-19 vaccines went through...
First ever peek inside Mars reveals a crust with three cake-like layers
NASA’s InSight mission has finally peered inside Mars – and discovered that the planet’s crust might be made of three layers. This is the first time scientists have directly probed the inside of a planet other than Earth and will help researchers to unravel how Mars formed and evolved over...
FDA scientists endorse Moderna coronavirus vaccine
Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration endorsed the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Moderna as safe and efficacious a day after the first doses of a competing vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech were delivered across the United States. The FDA reviewers said that the two-dose vaccine “was highly effective” in...
Technology experts foresee utility-like criticality for data centres in 2021
As the world moved online seemingly overnight in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the criticality of data centres and the unrelenting reliance on them across all walks of life became an enduring storyline of the crisis. This reality will manifest in new ways in 2021 as the data centre...
Scientist: It will be a while before engineers identify source of noise in owl aviation
Forget about the superstition about bad omens associated owls. Science is gradually changing the perception and now beyond the ugly looks of owls, the birds are attracting the interest of researchers keen on identifying the most important source of noise in owl aviation. Research suggests that owl wings have three...
How stealthy owls inspired the design of silent flights
Every owl fancier has a story of the first time they heard an owl – or, rather, did not hear one. It is unforgettable to see an enormous bird, whose wingspan can reach more than six feet, slipping through the air without even a whisper. Justin Jaworski’s first close encounter...
Australia terminates coronavirus vaccine trails after ‘false positives’
A billion-dollar deal for the Morrison government to buy more than 50 million doses of the University of Queensland’s potential coronavirus vaccine has been abruptly terminated after several trial participants returned false positive HIV test results. UQ, working in partnership with Australian global biotech company CSL will abandon its current...
Children’s immune systems can repulse coronavirus
Young children account for only a small percentage of Covid-19 infections – a trend that has puzzled scientists. Now, a growing body of evidence suggests why – kids’ immune systems seem better equipped to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 than are adults’. “Children are very much adapted to respond – and very well...
