Mobile phone experts' guide 2012: How to reduce your bill to changing contract
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:01:49 GMT

Other expert advice includes what to do if your phone is almost out of battery and the disturbing truth about data.

Lake Vostok: Russian scientists drilling into 'alien' Antarctic lake buried for 20m years
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:41:59 GMT

The team have been out of radio contact with anxious colleagues for six days - they are drilling into a lake buried deep beneath the Antarctic ice, one of the most alien and inhospitable places on Earth.

Prince Charles right that plants really can communicate with one another
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:37:27 GMT

In news to gladden the heart of Prince Charles, once much mocked for having conversations with cabbages, it appears science has caught up with what many gardeners have long held true – plants can communicate.

Mars is too dry to support life on its surface
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:18:08 GMT

Samples of soil found that the surface had been starved of any moisture that might enhance the view that there are living organisms on the red planet.

Could voice analysis software give away lying CEOS? Harvard researchers test system to warn investors of fraud ahead
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:13:27 GMT

Researchers at Duke University believe there is a way to catch CEOs lying investor calls - using a technique called Layered Voice Analysis to listen for tiny signals that they are not telling the truth.

Hubble captures sharp picture of 'barred spiral' galaxy just like our own Milky Way
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:46:19 GMT

Hubble has captured an incredibly sharp view of the heart of a galaxy just like ours - showing the 'bar' of glowing gas being pulled towards the black hole at the galaxy's centre.

Bright lights of Broadway: The astonishing picture of a nighttime New York and surrounding cities as seen from 200 miles above Earth
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:29:14 GMT

This breathtaking picture of America's east coast at night shows the thin veil of atmosphere which protects all life on earth from the harsh and inhospitable environment of outer space.

Caparo T1: Fastest supercar in the world put up for sale for £280k
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:52:21 GMT

This Caparo T1, being advertised for sale by Stratton Motor Company in Norwich, was designed to be the closest thing to a road-legal F1 car. It can go from 100mph to zero in just three seconds.

The swarming quadrotors that could one day help our troops
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:34:08 GMT

The nano quadrotors have been programmed by a team at the University of Pennsylvania, to carry out autonomous swarm behaviour.

Virtual reality contact lenses that beam images directly into your eyes could be on sale in 2014
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:02:17 GMT

Contact lenses with screens could be on sale as early as 2014, says U.S. company Innovega.The tiny 'screens' sit directly on users' eyeballs and focus images and information into their eyes.

EU says Google should 'halt' its upcoming privacy changes
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:29:57 GMT

European regulators have written to Google CEO Larry Page calling on the search giant to halt the introduction of its new 'one-size-fits-all' privacy policy while privacy authorities investigate.

Mega pixels not mega bucks: Asda offers 10pm digital camera at record low price of £25
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:21:44 GMT

Retailer slashes the price of a 10 megapixel EasyShare Mini compact to a record low of just £25, following the bankruptcy of Kodak's U.S. arm.

Cleaning up with Windows: Leaked video shows Microsoft's new phones will run the same apps as PCs
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:21:07 GMT

Leaks from within Microsoft have revealed a suite of hi-tech new features for Microsoft's Windows Phone - including new software that will let the phones share apps with Windows PCs.

Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says controversial study - and conservative politics can lead people to be racist
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:29:23 GMT

Conservative politics, as practised by the likes of British PM David Cameron, work almost as a 'gateway' into prejudice against others, academics at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, claim.

Twitter users say two thirds of Tweets - 130 million a day - are not worth reading, and one in four is
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:55:14 GMT

Twitter fans think that only a third of Tweets are worth looking at - and a quarter are actively disliked for reasons including constant updates about where people are.

Nasa probe sends back video from 35 miles above the dark side of the moon
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:49:27 GMT

Nasa's twin Grail probes are now orbiting the moon with a mission to measure its gravity. One sent back its first video - showing the crater-scarred surface of the side we never see from Earth.

Second Earth? Astronomers find planet orbiting its star at just the right distance for water on the surface
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:35:03 GMT

A telescope in Chile detected a planet that is described as 'perhaps the best new candidate for life': a rocky planet with a temperature that may be similar to Earth's - which could have seas like ours.

Devastating hurricane allows scientists to watch evolution in action on vegetation-stripped islands
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:22:08 GMT

Rhode Island University scientists have observed an effect of evolution never seen before in the wild- by transporting forest lizards to islands stripped bare of vegetation by hurricane Frances.

Natural tilts in earth's axis alter temperature enough to cause ice ages, says Harvard scientist
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:15:48 GMT

A Harvard professor used computer models to work out what causes the cycles of ice ages and melting - and found that a century-old idea about earth's axis is the only idea that fits.

Underground ant city in Brazil that 'rivals the Great Wall of China' with a labyrinth of highways
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:51:36 GMT

The abandoned megalopolis, which features vast subterranean highways, paths and gardens, was found buried beneath the earth in Brazil.

Evidence from eruption 3,500 years ago hints volcanoes may give us a century's warning that they're going to blow
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:34:52 GMT

Stones from an eruption 3,500 years ago in Greece hint that magma had been running for 100 years before the volcano went off - and we could use seismic monitors to detect similar movement beneath volcanoes now.

Print you own counterfeit trainers: Is 3D piracy closer than we think?
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:01:33 GMT

'Stealing' trainers by downloading a blueprint then covertly printing out a 'copy' at home may seem like the work of science fiction - but a site already offers the blueprints, and printers already exist.

Very dirty dancing: Dung beetle's quick step may inspire future robots
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:45:34 GMT

The US Air Force Office of Scientific Research is interested in understanding how lifeforms with simple brains are capable of doing complex tasks as a basis for developing autonomous robots.

Phew! 21-mile wide monster asteroid hurtles safely past Earth
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:00:49 GMT

'433 Eros', which is 400 times the City of London, came within 16.6million miles of our planet yesterday evening.

Alpha males get a beta in the board room: Testosterone-fuelled men are stubborn and hard to work with, say scientists
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:20:27 GMT

In simulated work environments, extra testosterone led to volunteers being overconfident and favouring their own selections over their partner’s, say researchers at UCL.

Four huge volcanic eruptions are to blame for the 'Little Ice Age' that cooled Earth up until the late 19th century
Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:41:51 GMT

A study at the University of Colorado analysed sediment cores and ice, and revealed that four massive tropical volcanic eruptions which occurred between 1275 and 1300AD triggered the period of cooling.

Every textbook on the brain is wrong - and our brains are more similar to monkeys than we thought
Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:24:14 GMT

Researchers at Georgetown University found that the speech centre in human brains is in a different place than we thought - and that we might have to re-examine the orgins of human language.

Nasa solves the mystery of Earth's 'missing energy' - it's all going into the sea, says space agency
Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:40:46 GMT

An international team of satellite experts and oceanographers have solved one of Nasa's most baffling mysteries - where the energy from the sun was going.

Ever wondered where the nearest public toilet is? Now you can find out using a new smartphone app
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:54:22 GMT

Developed by three students from the University of Amsterdam hoge nood, which means 'desperate need' is able to tell the difference between public and semi-public toilets.

Did bonobos actually tame themselves? Scientists find that the African apes evolved to become gentler creatures
Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:57:32 GMT

Bonobos are the kinder, less violent cousin of chimps - almost like a 'tame' animal. A Duke University researcher says they were divided by a river a million years ago, and bonobos 'tamed' themselves.

Nasa reveals stunning new hi-def 'Blue Marble' image of our world, as captured by agency's latest satellite
Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:51:29 GMT

Nasa's 'Blue Marble' images of our world started in 1972, when Apollo astronauts took an image of our world from space. Blue Marble 2012 was taken by the new Suomi NPP satellite.

Born to run: MRI scans reveal that sprinters are born with different feet from the rest of us
Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:32:36 GMT

Researchers at Penn State used magnetic resonance imaging on the feet of competitive sprinters and found that they had significantly longer bones in their forefeet - 6.2 per cent bigger than non-sprinters