‘Smart home’ gadgets promise to cut power bills but many lie idle – or can even boost energy use
Cutting energy use takes more than just the flick of a smartphone. 3dfoto/shutterstock.com“Smart” home control devices promise to do many...
TECHNOLOGY
Explorer Robert Ballard’s memoir finds shipwrecks and strange life forms in the ocean’s darkest reaches
Tube worms, anemones and mussels clustered near a hydrothermal vent on the Galapagos Rift. NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Galapagos Rift...
Spider legs build webs without the brain’s help – providing a model for future robot limbs
Erik Karits/Shutterstock Arachnophobes often cite spiders’ unpredictable movement as the basis of their fear, pointing out how each spindly leg...
Back to school: how to help your teen get enough sleep
ShutterstockWhen the holidays end, barring a fresh outbreak of COVID-19, teenagers across Australia will head back to school. Some will...
Mobile World Congress 2018: 3D selfies, super slo mo video and 4G for the moon
The biggest mobile showcase of the year – the Mobile World Congress (MWC) – wrapped up in Barcelona yesterday, where...
How ancient Babylonian land surveyors developed a unique form of trigonometry — 1,000 years before the Greeks
This stone tablet records the restoration of certain lands by the Babylonian king Nabu-apla-iddina to a priest. Babylonian, circa 870...
Is Google getting worse? Increased advertising and algorithm changes may make it harder to find what you’re looking for
ShutterstockOver the past 25 years, the name “Google” has become synonymous with the idea of searching for anything online. In...
Vital Signs: a connected world makes this coronavirus scarier, but also helps us deal with it
The health implications of the Wuhan coronavirus (now called “Covid-19”) outbreak are, obviously, deeply concerning. At the time of writing,...
Teaching chatbots how to do the right thing
AI chatbots still struggle to understand the impact of their words. (Shutterstock)In this age of information — and misinformation —...
Why it’s unlikely there will be another #Censusfail tonight
Kaitlyn Baker/Unsplash, CC BY-SAAs the appointed hour for tonight’s census approaches, the question on many lips is: will it go...
