Crawling on his belly through a sewer pipe beneath the streets of Warsaw, Poland, with a battle raging overhead, 16-year-old Lucjan Krause could scarcely have imagined he would survive the fighting, let alone go on to build a globally admired atomic physics program at the University of Windsor. Now 92 and still in full command […]

The millennium bug is back with a vengeance, after programmers in the 1990s simply pushed the problem back by 20 years

As US-Iran tensions rise following the assassination of an Iranian general and missile attacks on US troops, UN diplomat Neil Walsh warns cyberattacks can be just as impactful

The US Army has built a prototype device that allows wearers to go glove-free in freezing conditions. It works by heating the forearm, which helps keep the fingertips warm

James Dean is set to be the latest actor to star in a film long after his death, but the rise of true Hollywood immortality raises big ethical questions

Orange-coloured gel has been made into artificial skin that can be 3D printed in any shape and detect human touch – one day it could help robots feel

A review of two-factor authentication methods, which involve websites sending confirmation texts to your phone, has found that millions of people may risk having their online accounts hacked

Plans to ban face recognition in public places would only halt a tiny fraction of its use. Instead we need to regulate the technology – and fast, says Donna Lu

An AI based on deepfake technology can translate videos of a person speaking in one language into another. In future, it could help people who don’t speak the same language communicate

Ancestors is the latest attempt to gamify millions of years of evolution but doesn't have the excitement gene, says Jacob Aron

Soft finger-like gripper robots have been engineered to sweat when hot and are able to cool down almost three times more efficiently than humans

This week, watch nail-biting drama as researchers escape an underwater lab, discover physical intelligence – humans' most essential ability – and visit Vincent van Gogh

A person who has ingested cocaine will excrete a compound that can be detected from a single fingerprint, even if they have washed their hands

A sci-fi collection explores extreme corporate futures, such as a Tinder-run city where you can swipe left or right for everything from sex to teachers

The UK government has announced plans to police content on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, but it won't be able to do more than the social networks are already doing

This week, hide behind the sofa from mind-altering plants, listen and learn from technologies past and find out how the world is underpinned by numbers

QR codes, tracking apps and drones at toll booths are just some of the tech tools China is deploying to monitor the spread of the new coronavirus

Electric cars depend on cobalt as a key ingredient in their batteries, but a new analysis reveals we may run out by 2030, while car firm Tesla is moving to other types of battery in China

An AI search engine takes one-tenth of a second to search more than 2 billion satellite images, identifying natural or built features that look alike, such as forests or military bases

Robots are replacing manufacturing workers in France, making companies more productive and reducing employment across the industry

A new movie reimagines H.G. Wells's novel The Invisible Man. We still can't make people invisible, but it is possible to make tiny objects completely disappear

Tech firms are making record profits but paying little tax. Now global leaders are discussing ways to make them pay their fair share

We’re used to tweaking our digital selves to look thinner or more attractive. A new generation of Instagram filters could drastically change how we perceive ourselves

Honeywell, the same company that might make your humidifier or home security system, is unveiling a powerful quantum computer that will be available to the public

A lightweight liquid metal alloy that is less dense than water could be used to make exoskeletons and transformable flexible robots

Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them

A secret US Navy project known only as CLAWS will equip armed robot submarines with sensors and algorithms enabling them to destroy targets without explicit human control

A robot can recreate the mechanism plants use to transport water to bend itself towards the sun and open its leaves like a real plant

A self-powered device that generates electricity from the wind can also absorb and break down harmful nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide from the air

An AI can detect the presence of smells and even distinguish between scents like ammonia or carbon monoxide, which could be useful for detecting hazardous odours

This image of an enormous ship under construction features in a new book and show that challenge common ideas about beauty - while the real ship may help cut carbon emissions

Flexible displays for wearable devices can now be made using fish scales instead of plastic – and the new displays biodegrade within a month of being discarded

An artificially intelligent eco-assistant can persuade hotel guests and staff to reduce their electricity use by up to a third

Kate Darling researches human-robot interaction. She explains why we are prone to forming emotional connections with robots and what we can learn from our relationships with pets and other animals

A spring-powered exoskeleton that minimises the amount of energy our legs lose when running could help boost human running speeds by more than 50 per cent

Always forgetting birthdays? Terrible at staying in touch? New tech promises to turn you into the best buddy ever. We put it to the test

Lab-grown ‘meat’ often uses gelatin produced in slaughterhouses to give artificial beef a meat-like texture – but substituting soya protein can achieve that without killing animals

Pandemics of the past can teach us about the current one, says John Troyer, who studies how we use technology to alter the experience of death

Is our love affair with AI really about building a new kind of deity to meet human needs no amount of rationality can fill? Max Barry's disturbing novel Providence lays out the case, says Sally Adee

Glass has an unusual atomic structure that resembles a liquid frozen in place, making it hard to predict how it will behave. DeepMind has developed an AI capable of doing so, which may also be able to predict traffic jams

The video game Resident Evil 3 was in development long before the coronavirus outbreak, but it holds up a mirror to the strange times we live in today

Businesses, individuals with land, and local governments are competing to host an underground nuclear waste facility in the UK, and receive a yearly £2.5 million incentive

Qubits are often stabilised by being supercooled, which makes quantum computer chips hard to scale up. Now they have been operated at above -272°C for the first time

A high-speed 3D printer is being tested by the US Army for producing spare steel parts near the front lines – it could also make weapons or aircraft parts

An image-editing program designed by researchers at Abode uses AI to let you quickly transform the shape of objects in images and change the lighting

Many countries are hoping to use contact-tracing apps to leave lockdown and suppress further coronavirus outbreaks, but the use of such technology has many issues

Artificial intelligence can tell whether a human or a bot is posting on Twitter based on how regularly they post and how much they reply to others, which could help identify fake accounts

The US Navy is researching how to use lasers to form plasma into 2D or 3D infrared images of aeroplanes that can distract heat-seeking missiles

AI can check satellite images of the ocean and distinguish between floating materials such as seaweed or plastics, which could help clean-up efforts

Black paint usually absorbs heat, but a new two-layer polymer paint reflects infrared light and keeps objects 16°C cooler, which could help make buildings more energy efficient