Tech & Science

All known Homo naledi fossils in cave are female, study finds

The first-ever protein analysis of Homo naledi fossils has revealed that all known individuals recovered from South Africa's Rising Star Cave system appear to be female, raising new questions about the behavior and social structure of this enigmatic human relative.

Consumer RAM prices surge up to 89% as AI devours chip supply

A structural global memory chip shortage, driven by the insatiable demands of artificial intelligence data centers, is forcing consumer electronics makers to raise prices and warning of worse to come. Consumer DRAM and NAND flash prices surged by as much…

Immunotherapy enabled 3 births in women with early menopause, pilot study finds

A pilot study from Karolinska Institutet has demonstrated that immunotherapy with rituximab can temporarily restore egg maturation in women with autoimmune premature ovarian insufficiency, a condition that typically leads to permanent infertility. Three of ten women treated in the study…

Study warns European incomes could fall 27% as deadly heatwave shatters records

As Europe endures one of its most severe early-summer heatwaves on record, a new study warns that the economic toll of such events on households is far greater than previously understood — and set to worsen dramatically without aggressive climate…

Perseverance finds most robust organic carbon yet in Mars crater

NASA's Perseverance rover has detected macromolecular carbon within mudstones at Mars' Jezero crater, a finding researchers describe as the most robust organic detection in the area to date and the first identification of such complex carbon on an unprepared natural…

Qualcomm unveils datacenter CPU, buys AI startup Modular for $3.9B

Qualcomm used its Investor Day event in New York on Wednesday to formally enter the data center processor market and announce the acquisition of AI software startup Modular, moves that together represent the chipmaker's most aggressive push yet into AI…

Two more Google DeepMind researchers set to leave for Anthropic, Bloomberg reports

Google Alphabet Inc. is poised to lose two more high-profile AI researchers to Anthropic, according to Bloomberg News, deepening a talent drain that has already rattled investors and sent the company's stock tumbling.

Samsung shifts half of HBM production to HBM4 chips

Samsung Electronics has dedicated roughly half of its high-bandwidth memory production capacity to sixth-generation HBM4 chips, a move designed to capitalize on surging demand for AI memory and close the gap with rival SK Hynix.

Scientists detect black hole event horizon’s ‘fingerprints’ for first time

Scientists have detected the direct imprint of a black hole's event horizon in gravitational wave data for the first time, extracting information from closer to the "point of no return" than any previous observation. The findings, published Wednesday in Nature,…

Nature study finds cosmic structures ten times larger than models predict

A study published in Nature on Wednesday challenges one of the foundational assumptions of modern cosmology, reporting the detection of anisotropic structures in the cosmic web on scales of up to a gigaparsec — roughly 3.26 billion light-years — well…

Nature critique questions Microsoft’s quantum chip claims

A peer-reviewed critique published Wednesday in the journal Nature has raised pointed questions about Microsoft 's claimed quantum computing breakthrough, alleging that the company's validation software contained coding errors and could produce contradictory results based on arbitrary measurement choices.

Qualcomm to buy AI startup Modular in $3.9B stock deal

Qualcomm announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire AI software infrastructure startup Modular Inc. in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.9 billion, marking one of the chipmaker's largest bets yet on artificial intelligence beyond its core smartphone…

Microsoft says Copilot AI helped disrupt global malware networks

Microsoft used its Copilot AI tool to assist investigators in dismantling the infrastructure behind two widely used cybercrime tools, Amadey and StealC, as part of a sweeping international law enforcement operation announced this week.

Stripe, Anthropic and OpenAI launch nonprofit to fight respiratory infections

A coalition of tech and AI companies has launched a nonprofit called Intercept with the aim of combating respiratory infections, including the common cold and flu, according to reports published Tuesday by the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review.

ESA’s Euclid telescope captures 60 million stars in record Milky Way image

The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has produced the largest and most detailed visible-light photograph ever taken of the Milky Way's galactic center, revealing more than 60 million stars in a six-gigapixel mosaic released on Wednesday, June 24.

Meta, Microsoft push data center leases past $850 billion

Meta Platforms and Microsoft each committed tens of billions of dollars in additional data center leases in their most recent quarters, pushing total future lease obligations among major cloud computing firms past $850 billion, according to a Bloomberg analysis of…

Morgan Stanley nearly doubles China humanoid robot forecast to 50,000 units

Morgan Stanley raised its 2026 China humanoid robot shipment forecast for the second time this year on Tuesday, now expecting 50,000 units to ship — nearly double its previous projection of 28,000. The revision reflects accelerating commercial deployment across Chinese…

ByteDance seeks record $20B offshore loan for AI push

ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, is in preliminary talks with banks for a loan of approximately $20 billion that would represent its largest-ever offshore borrowing, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. The move comes as the Beijing-based firm dramatically…

Nvidia’s banned AI chips double in price on China’s black market, FT reports

Prices of Nvidia's restricted AI chips have more than doubled on China's black market over the past six months, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, underscoring how U.S. export controls have created a vast scarcity premium even as they fail…

Meta’s Oversight Board orders removal of deepfake video, demands policy changes

Meta's Oversight Board on Tuesday overturned the company's decision to leave up a reportedly AI-generated sexualized video on Instagram, ordering its removal and calling on Meta to strengthen protections for non-public figures targeted by deepfake intimate imagery.

DDR2 prices surge as AI-driven memory shortage hits oldest DRAM standard

The global memory crisis has cascaded down to the oldest DRAM standards still in production. DDR2 contract prices rose 55 to 60 percent in the second quarter of 2026, with a further 35 to 40 percent increase forecast for the…

NASA captures massive warm wave as El Niño threatens historic strength

El Niño has officially arrived in the Pacific Ocean, and forecasters say it could intensify into one of the most powerful events recorded, with far-reaching consequences for North America's weather, agriculture, and economy over the next year.

Hubble captures earliest galaxy clearing cosmic fog

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have detected ultraviolet light escaping from a galaxy that existed just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang — a finding once considered impossible. The discovery, published on Monday in the Astrophysical Journal, offers…

Anthropic launches Claude Tag, an always-on AI teammate inside Slack

Anthropic on Tuesday unveiled Claude Tag, a new AI agent that lives inside Slack Salesforce, Inc. as a persistent, always-on teammate for enterprise workers, marking the company's most ambitious push yet into workplace collaboration software.

Alibaba sues Pentagon over Chinese military designation

Alibaba filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday, challenging its designation as a "Chinese military company," according to a court filing reported by Reuters. The legal action escalates the Chinese e-commerce giant's pushback against the Pentagon's…

LastPass says hackers stole customer data in Klue supply chain breach

A supply chain attack on market intelligence platform Klue has compromised Salesforce data at a growing list of organizations, including multiple cybersecurity companies, after a newly emerged extortion group called Icarus exploited a stolen legacy credential to harvest OAuth tokens…

China’s Agibot livestreams humanoid robots on active factory line

Chinese robotics company Agibot launched a six-day global livestream on Tuesday showcasing its G2 humanoid robots autonomously performing quality inspection and sorting tasks on a live tablet assembly line at Longcheer Technology's factory in Nanchang, China. The broadcast, running June…

Ukraine launches platform sharing captured Russian weapons data with allies

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense announced on June 19 the launch of TrophyLab, an access-controlled online platform that catalogs captured Russian military equipment and makes detailed technical intelligence available to allied governments, defense companies, and research institutions. The move formalizes what…

ByteDance launches Doubao 2.1 Pro, claims it beats Claude Opus 4.6

ByteDance unveiled its next-generation AI model family at the 2026 Volcano Engine FORCE conference on Tuesday, releasing Doubao 2.1 Pro and the broader Seed 2.1 lineup as the company pushes to dominate enterprise AI deployment in China and beyond.

Meta launches own-brand AI smart glasses at $299

Meta on Tuesday unveiled its first line of AI-powered smart glasses sold under its own name rather than a partner brand, marking a new chapter in the company's wearables strategy. The collection starts at $299 and is available with prescription…