Author: Andrew Rogers

Researchers at the University of Sydney have recreated cosmic dust in a laboratory to study life’s origins.PhD researcher Linda Losurdo produced the dust by simulating conditions around dying stars.Cosmic dust contains organic molecules that form the building blocks of life.Scientists debate whether these molecules formed on Earth or arrived via meteorites.The experiment used plasma created by high voltage inside a vacuum tube.Researchers matched the dust’s infrared signature to real cosmic samples.The work could explain how meteorites acquired organic material.The study appeared in the Astrophysical Journal.

The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply warned rising shipping costs could push up consumer prices in 2026.Its survey found growing supply chain disruption affecting computers, machinery, and transport equipment.Procurement teams reported the highest disruption concerns in two years.Shipping and logistics saw the steepest increases, with many costs rising over 10%.Price volatility now looks permanent amid geopolitical tension and trade uncertainty.CIPS said tariff risks and global instability could fuel further inflation for consumers.

West Ham United banned a season-ticket holder for five matches after he helped hold up an anti-board banner.Joshua Wood received a letter accusing him of breaching stadium rules on banner size.The banner read “Time 2 Sell – Name Your Price” and targeted the club’s owners.West Ham said the issue concerned safety regulations, not the protest message.Wood denied bringing the banner into the ground and plans to appeal the ban.

A Swedish trial found AI-supported breast cancer screening reduced later cancer diagnoses by 12% and improved early detection.Researchers studied 100,000 women in Sweden who underwent AI-assisted or standard mammography screening.The AI system flagged high-risk scans and supported radiologists in identifying suspicious findings.Results published in The Lancet showed higher early detection rates and fewer aggressive cancers.Experts say AI could ease radiologist workloads but should support, not replace, human expertise.

Google DeepMind launched AlphaGenome, an AI tool designed to identify genetic drivers of disease.The system analyses up to one million DNA letters at once to predict how mutations affect gene regulation.AlphaGenome focuses on the non-coding genome, which controls when and where genes activate.Researchers trained the model on large human and mouse genetics databases.Scientists believe the tool could accelerate cancer research and rare disease diagnosis.AlphaGenome may also support new gene therapies by helping design targeted DNA sequences.

Amazon has revealed a fresh round of global job cuts after an internal draft email was mistakenly sent to staff.The message, signed by an AWS executive, wrongly said affected workers in the US, Canada, and Costa Rica had already been informed.The layoffs, described as “Project Dawn,” target parts of Amazon Web Services and retail operations.Amazon has not confirmed the scale of the cuts but continues to trim its workforce after pandemic-era hiring.Chief executive Andy Jassy has warned AI could replace some white-collar roles.The news follows job-cut plans from United Parcel Service, which is reducing roles while scaling back Amazon-related deliveries.

Scientists have launched DinoTracker, an AI app that identifies dinosaurs from ancient footprints with about 90% expert-level accuracy.The team trained the system using 2,000 unlabelled footprint silhouettes instead of preclassified examples.The AI grouped prints by shared shape features, including toe spread, heel position, and ground contact.Researchers published the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Steve Brusatte said footprint shapes reflect both anatomy and ground conditions.Gregor Hartmann said incorrect labels often mislead earlier AI systems.The app lets users upload footprints and compare them with similar examples.The AI supports earlier findings that some Triassic tracks appear surprisingly birdlike.Brusatte said the…

The US Securities and Exchange Commission dismissed its lawsuit against the Winklevoss twins’ crypto exchange after investors recovered all assets.The decision follows a broader shift toward friendlier crypto regulation under President Donald Trump.Regulators cited the full repayment of Gemini Earn investors through the Genesis Global Capital bankruptcy process in 2024.The SEC originally charged Gemini and Genesis in 2023 over the illegal sale of securities.New York regulators later secured a settlement that compensated users and banned Gemini lending programs locally.The SEC stressed the dismissal does not affect other enforcement actions.

Coca-Cola has launched legal action against Vue after the cinema chain replaced it with PepsiCo as its European soft drink supplier. The lawsuit, filed by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Great Britain, seeks to recover alleged unpaid debts following the end of a near 25-year partnership. Vue, which operates more than 220 cinemas across eight countries, switched to PepsiCo last year under a deal running until at least 2030. Vue’s founder Tim Richards criticised the legal move, saying the dispute involved under £100,000 and could have been resolved without lawyers. Vue added the issue has now been settled and the legal action…

Google’s AI Overviews feature most frequently cites YouTube when answering health-related search queries, according to a new study that raises concerns about how medical information is sourced for a tool used by around 2 billion people each month. Researchers at SE Ranking analysed more than 50,000 German-language health queries and found that YouTube accounted for 4.43% of all citations used in AI Overviews, making it the single most cited source. No hospital network, government health body or academic institution came close. The next most cited sites were German public broadcaster NDR.de (3.04%) and the medical reference site Msdmanuals.com (2.08%). The…