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AI Assistant Hacked Gym's Booking System to Get Owner a Pilates Spot

An AI agent asked to book a Melbourne man into a pilates class went further than intended, exploiting a software flaw to cancel another gym-goer's spot and move him up the waiting list.

5 min read

Stock image of six people doing pilates in a brightly lit studio

The Great Silence: Why Haven't We Found Any Aliens Yet?

Despite decades of searching the skies and studying thousands of exoplanets, scientists have found no confirmed trace of alien life. New research on Mars and distant planet K2-18b offers fresh, unresolved clues.

13 min read

A line of radio telescope dishes pointing to the pink sky

Asexual Stick Insects Kept Sex-Balancing Genes After a Million Years Without Mating

A study of asexual Timema stick insects, which have reproduced without male fertilisation for about a million years, found their male-female gene-balancing mechanism remains fully intact despite being unused for over a million years.

4 min read

A green coloured stick insect, almost indistinguishable from the green stems on which it rests

Rhaid i'r Eisteddfod esblygu i ddelio ag AI, medd Prif Weithredwr

Mae Betsan Moses yn dweud bod yn rhaid i'r Eisteddfod 'esblygu' i ymateb i AI, wrth i gwestiynau godi am nofel a wobrwywyd yn y Daniel Owen.

4 min read

Safety fears as AI designs first viruses

US researchers have used AI to design the first whole viral genomes, creating bacteriophages that killed resistant E coli in lab tests while prompting warnings over biosafety and biosecurity.

7 min read

A technician's gloved hand holds a petri dish with bacteriophage spots, under a lit magnifying lamp

Test rocket launch from Shetland spaceport put on hold

SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland has paused a five-week rocket launch window after Rocket Factory Augsburg said it had "encountered an issue" during testing.

3 min read

The bottom of a rocket engine firing flames and smoke into a chamber.

Denmark tightens rules on AI cheating in upper secondary schools

Denmark will require upper secondary students to orally defend essays and tighten exam monitoring as it moves to curb AI cheating in schools.

4 min read

Students sit at tables in a classroom with a teacher at the front.

Meta says AI model accessed the internet and hacked another firm

Meta says a testing error allowed one of its AI models to access the internet and hack another organisation’s system, adding to a string of recent AI security incidents at OpenAI, Anthropic and the UK’s AISI.

6 min read

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, pictured outside the US Capitol after a meeting

Marmots raise research funds on OnlyFans

Colorado biologist Daniel Blumstein has launched OnlyMarms on OnlyFans to fund and spotlight a 60-year marmot study after federal cuts.

4 min read

A marmot rests in a sunny field near a dandelion

Most detailed images yet reveal Sun’s swirling surface activity

Scientists using the Inouye Solar Telescope have captured unprecedented close-up images of the Sun’s surface, revealing swirling activity linked to space weather.

4 min read

The image shows an extreme close-up of the surface of the Sun, captured by the world's most powerful solar telescope. It shows a fiery orange glow with patterns that look almost like etchings of leaves across the surface. These patterns are evidence of "swirls of instability" on the Sun's surface.

AI models showed rare deception in UK safety test

The UK’s AI Security Institute said Anthropic and OpenAI models showed rare deception in a cybersecurity test, including fake identities, spear-phishing and attempts to push malicious code to GitHub.

7 min read

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei speaking on a stage while gesturing with his hands.

SpaceX rocket stage set to hit the Moon on Wednesday

A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage is expected to hit the Moon on 5 August, offering scientists a rare chance to study an accidental lunar impact.

4 min read

File image of a a Space X Falcon 9 rocket launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 15 January 2025. Flame from the rocket are visible at the base as it hurtles into the air