By Alex Whiting - Reducing everyday offences may depend on harnessing the power of virtual reality, conscious design and community spirit. Picture a young offender with a headset immersed in a virtual room, coming face to face with an avatar of his or her future self. The person tells the avatar about his or her lifestyle, substance abuse, debts or time hanging out with delinquent friends. Then the person travels forward through a 3D representation to become a future self and give the younger one advice. Facing the future Enabling people to speak...

As a deadly disease that people can catch from ticks moves across the continent, the EU is seeking new tests and a vaccine for the infection. By Anthony King - A 62-year-old man was bitten by...

Neil McArthur, University of Manitoba - We are about to witness the birth of a new kind of religion. In the next few years, or perhaps even months, we will see the emergence of sects devoted to the worship of artificial intelligence (AI). The latest generation of AI-powered chatbots, trained on large language models, have left their early users awestruck —and sometimes terrified — by their power. These are the same sublime emotions that lie at the heart of our experience of the divine. People already seek religious meaning from very diverse sources. There are, for instance, multiple religions that worship extra-terrestrials or their teachings. As these chatbots come to be used...

With more people getting on track for sustainable high-speed rail, reducing noise pollution and sophisticated traffic management will boost adoption. By  SARAH WILD On track for reduced noise pollution and railway safety amplifiers The whistle coming down the tracks is the sound of Europe’s rail renaissance. Coming round the bend is increased adoption of high-speed rail transportation which promises to reduce road traffic and to curb harmful emissions. Cars are major culprits in air pollution, accounting for 14.5% of Europe’s total carbon emissions. Around half the flights in Europe are short haul journeys of less than 1 500km which generates many more emissions than the equivalent journey by rail. The European Green Deal features...

By Gareth Willmer - More and more miniature satellites are being launched every year, driving up demand for smaller rockets. Contemporary life would hardly be possible without satellites. Much of what people do on Earth today relies heavily on what’s happening high above their heads – from monitoring wildfires, deforestation and sea-surface temperatures to enabling connections to new mobile technologies like 5G in hard-to-reach areas. A recent wave of cheaper, miniature satellites being sent into low orbits of 500 to 1 000 kilometres above Earth by the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and UK-based OneWeb signals a growing trend. Less is more With some tracking the globe’s whole landmass and providing unprecedented detail,...