Aedan O'Brien

You might not be aware, but on 23 March 2016, the internet as we know it almost came crashing down. A huge amount of the software the Internet is built upon crashed when an angry programmer decided to unpublish all his code from a popular Javascript registry called npm.   That doesn’t sound like a

Apple just announced three new iPhones this week: the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR. The iPhone XS and XS Max will be available to preorder starting Friday before going on sale a week later, on September 21. The iPhone XR won’t be available until October 26, with preorders opening up

A lot of military technology manages to be both awe-inspiring and vaguely terrifying, and so it is with the Molar Mic – this little microphone and speaker combination actually clips on to the wearer’s back teeth. It’s completely wireless and invisible to anyone else.   Despite its rather precarious position, the little device can pick

When You Wu was growing up in China, officials would shut off water to his community for half a day each week in the name of conservation. The experience contributed to Wu’s interest in water scarcity, which he chose to study more in-depth after moving to the United States 10 years ago.   The Massachusetts

It’s finally in the water. For five years now, The Ocean Cleanup, an organisation founded by 24-year-old Dutch innovator Boyan Slat, has been trying to create a system that can clean plastic out of the world’s oceans.   There’s a mind-boggling amount of plastic in the oceans, and that amount grows every day. At least

Life has been soaking up sunlight and storing it as a fuel source for billions of years. But scientists have just put a new twist on this ancient process that could finally provide us with the efficiency we need to compete with fossil fuels.   A study led by the University of Cambridge in the

Around 20 years ago, two computer scientists proposed a technique for teleporting a special quantum operation between two locations with the goal of making quantum computers more reliable.   Now a team of researchers from Yale University have successfully turned their idea into reality, demonstrating a practical approach to making this incredibly delicate form of

What does your neighbourhood look like? Are there gyms, parks, swimming pools? Or are you surrounded by busy roads, fast food outlets, and convenience stores? The answer looks increasingly important. Obesity is a complex health issue impacted by a range of factors, one of which is the physical, urban environment we live in. Now, scientists

A new form of misinformation is poised to spread through online communities as the 2018 midterm election campaigns heat up. Called “deepfakes” after the pseudonymous online account that popularized the technique – which may have chosen its name because the process uses a technical method called “deep learning” – these fake videos look very realistic.

As the Pentagon reorients toward great-power competition with adversaries like Russia and China, its preparations go beyond learning to ski and practicing to drive across Europe.   US military units rely on wireless networks and radio-frequency communications to talk on the battlefield, sharing intelligence, targeting data, and orders. But concern is growing that rivals like

As the Pentagon reorients toward great-power competition with adversaries like Russia and China, its preparations go beyond learning to ski and practicing to drive across Europe.   US military units rely on wireless networks and radio-frequency communications to talk on the battlefield, sharing intelligence, targeting data, and orders. But concern is growing that rivals like

If you’re watching a movie where an underwater submarine is communicating with an aeroplane, some creative licence is being taken – the sonar waves used by subs can’t reach the air, and radio waves used by planes don’t travel at all well underwater.   That’s always caused problems for communications between underwater and airborne vehicles,

If you’re watching a movie where an underwater submarine is communicating with an aeroplane, some creative licence is being taken – the sonar waves used by subs can’t reach the air, and radio waves used by planes don’t travel at all well underwater.   That’s always caused problems for communications between underwater and airborne vehicles,