With countries fighting wars and natural calamities sweeping away civilisations, it seems a global collapse might be a spark away. But the possibility of entire humanity vanishing off the face of Earth seems a little less plausible with the years of effort we have spent preparing solutions for such situations. However, not everyone can be…

Ulanqab’s operating computing capacity rose from 24,000P in 2024 to 172,000P by August 2026 China’s artificial-intelligence boom is no longer confined to laboratories, software companies or technology districts in its biggest cities.By the end of 2025, China had 602 million generative-AI users, up 141.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to the China Internet…

One of the world’s most difficult plastics to recycle could soon have a far more valuable second life. Scientists at Virginia Tech have developed a chemical method that converts polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, into polyalphaolefin, an important material used in high-performance lubricants including engine oil. The approach tackles a longstanding problem with PVC, which is…

The bill’s sponsors said it was not intended to hinder academic speech or debate, but to prevent the targeting of Israel and ⁠Judaism (Photo: Reuters). The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that blocks federal aid for universities boycotting Israel, but it needs to pass the Senate to become a law.The lower…

Across the United States, some rivers are beginning to flow through places where dams once stood. In 2020, 69 dams were removed across 23 states, reopening hundreds of miles of waterways that had been blocked for decades. Some structures had outlived the purpose for which they were built, while others had become expensive to maintain…

In 2023, researchers tested whether a building could be cooler than the air outside while still relying on natural ventilation. The experiment used two insulated boxes in California to study how radiative cooling, thermal mass and temperature-driven airflow could work together without fans or mechanical systems. The test box had an uninsulated aluminium roof covered…