Science & Tech News

NEW Artificial intelligence has produced creepy images of what it thinks humans will look like in the metaverse. Craiyon AI, a popular text-to-image system, created several different pictures of what people might look like if humans all join the metaverse. Each has an augmented reality headset merged with their face. A number of tech companies, including Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, are pouring billions of dollars to create virtual worlds where people will be able to shop, work and be entertained. The images come after a different AI that works in the same way produced bizarre pictures of the 'last selfie ever taken' that showed apocalyptic scenes of people in front of nuclear blasts, with rotting flesh and total devastation behind them.

Researchers from the University of Sheffield harvested data from weather stations and social media worldwide and compared it against historical data. They determined that the eruption was equivalent to around 61 Mt of TNT, whereas the Tsar Bomba released between 50-58 Mt.

Images of lounging elephants, treefrog embryos and a parasitic fungus erupting from the body of a fly have all won prizes at an ecology photo competition. The doomed fly was captured by evolutionary biologist Roberto García-Roa in the Tambopata National Reserve, Peru, and won the top prize at the BMC Ecology and Evolution Image Competition. The contest aims to showcase the wonder of the natural world and emphasise the growing need to protect it from human activity. Mr García-Roa, from the University of Valencia, Spain, said: 'The image depicts a conquest that has been shaped by thousands of years of evolution. The spores of the so-called 'zombie' fungus have infiltrated the exoskeleton and mind of the fly and compelled it to migrate to a location that is more favourable for the fungus's growth. The fruiting bodies have then erupted from the fly's body and will be jettisoned in order to infect more victims.' Individual winners and runners-up were also announced in four categories; Relationships in Nature, Biodiversity Under Threat, Life Close Up and Research in Action.

A team of researchers attached cameras to U.S. Navy dolphins and captured rarely-seen footage of the sea creatures chasing fish, devouring sea snakes and even giving 'side eye' looks. GoPro cameras were attached with harnesses to six bottlenose dolphins over a six-month period to record audio and video - capturing them catching over 200 fishes and sea snakes as they roamed through a seawater pool and in San Diego Bay off the coast of California. The dolphins, which are trained to identify undersea mines, defend against enemy swimmers and protect a portion of the country's nuclear stockpile, are being studied because researchers want to learn more about their communication methods when they're hunting.

An astrophotographer has taken his clearest ever picture of Saturn while it made its closest approach to Earth this year. Our planet moved almost directly between Saturn and the sun on Sunday, in an annual celestial event known as 'opposition'. This is the moment when the Gas Giant is closest to us and is in its full phase, so can make for a great view even with the naked eye. Andrew McCarthy dodged the monsoon weather of Arizona in search of clearer skies to catch a glimpse of the ringed planet above Los Angeles, US, on Sunday. From the roof of a parking garage, he used two cameras to take more than 100,000 images of Saturn, before layering them together in this never-before-seen shot. The result is out of this world as the iconic rings illuminate the planet against the dark sky, with some of the many moons of Saturn appearing like stars around it.

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted off the shore of Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean in January (inset and right), the blast was so huge that tsunamis hit the shores of Japan, North America and South America. But an analysis of ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica found that a magnitude 7 volcanic eruption - which could be 10 to 100 times bigger than the one recorded in January - is a distinct possibility for this century. Eruptions of this size in the past have caused abrupt climate change and the collapse of civilisations. Yet one of the UK's leading volcanologists today warned that the world is 'woefully' unprepared for such an event (left: Tungurahua Volcano, Ecuador)

The Overture is still under development, but is tipped to be the 'world's fatest airliner', reaching speeds of Mach 1.7 (about 1,300mph). This is double the speed of current commercial jets and, could slash the current journey time between Miami and London from nine hours to just five. Here's a look at the key features we expect to see in Boom Supersonic Overture jet, ahead of its launch debut with American Airlines in 2025.

China has unveiled its first suspended maglev line built with permanent magnets, which engineers claim can keep a 'sky train' afloat even without a power supply. The 2,600ft experimental track, known as the Red Rail, is located in Xingguo county, Jiangxi province, in southern China. It uses powerful magnets to produce a constantly repelling force strong enough to lift a train with 88 passengers into the air

Residents of the beach town spotted the gigantic funnel during their morning commute Tuesday. The waterspout was swirling in the Gulf of Mexico with flashes of lightning cracking through the sky. This waterspout is the fifth reported in Florida's Panhandle area this summer, but data is lacking on these weather phenomena and experts are not sure how often the typically occur.

EXCLUSIVE Following calls from MPs for mandatory disclaimers on digitally altered photos, MailOnline enlisted the help of Stephen Davies, a professional photographer and image retoucher from South Wales, who has edited a series of red carpet photos of celebrities to show just how realistic the changes can look.

A robot, created by Google's parent company Alphabet, has demonstrated its cleaning and drink fetching skills in response to indirect instructions. The mechanical waiter was created by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, that is developing robots that can perform a range of tasks. Google has recently installed advanced language skills into the fleet, known as 'Everyday Robots', so they are better able to understand natural verbal cues. Most robots are only able to interpret simple, to-the-point commands, like 'bring me a glass of water', however these are able to respond to more vague requests. In Google's example, an Everyday Robot prototype is asked 'I spilled my drink, can you help?', which it filters through its internal list of possible actions. The bot finally interprets the question as 'fetch me the sponge from the kitchen' - a response that was not directly asked for, but is useful to the situation.

Allen Pan, a Los Angeles-based engineer and YouTuber, created the device out of a long tube and four plastic legs connected to a controller board. Footage shows a snake poking its head out the end of the device as it's serenely transported around the room. Pan, who posted a video blog of his project to YouTube, said he wanted to 'give snakes back their legs'. Around 150 million years ago, snakes had visible legs, but they evolved to lose them, thought to be due to a genetic mutation.

Construction of the new Category C facility, based in Full Sutton in East Yorkshire, will begin this autumn at a cost of £400 million. It will be designed 'from top-to-bottom with the latest smart technology to cut crime and protect the public'. The new facility will give offenders access to laptops and tablets in their cells - but in response to potential concerns the public may have with regard to prisoners accessing devices, a spokesperson for HM Prison Service said: 'All in-cell technology is fitted out with tough security measures and cannot be used to browse the internet'.

The Michigan-based car giant is testing smart headlights that project directions, speed limits, and weather information onto the road in front of you. For example, if the road ahead was icy, the car would project a snowflake icon on the road, while if the speed limit changed, the new limit would be shone on the ground.

Xiaomi revealed its first humanoid robot at an event in Beijing. CyberOne has arms and legs that allow it to walk just like a real human, while the android is fitted with AI technology that allows it to detect 45 human emotions. Its unveiling comes just one month before the highly anticipated launch of Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot.

Europe could be on course for its worst drought in 500 years, and according to scientists, weather conditions so far this year would have been 'virtually impossible' without climate change. But MailOnline's Shivali Best explains how the expansion of a high pressure system over the Atlantic called the Azores High is also to blame for the drought-like conditions over parts of western Europe.

Rob Thompson, from the University of Reading, posted an experiment about what could happen if heavy rain occurs after a heatwave. Very dry and hot periods can bake the soil hard. This means that if it rains, the water can't soak into the soil easily. Instead, most of it just runs straight off the surface, which can quickly turn into flash floods. 'If you're praying for rain, you should pray for two days of drizzle, as dreadful as that sounds,' Professor Thompson explained.

The $10 billion (£7.4 billion) observatory's powerful infrared gaze produced a rare sight of the Cartwheel and two smaller companion galaxies against a backdrop of many other galaxies. Scientists say the detailed view will provide new details about star formation and the galaxy's central black hole. Its appearance, much like that of the wheel of a wagon, is the result of an intense event - a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller galaxy not visible in this image or video.