Johannesburg (AFP) May 23, 2025
South Africa's government is moving towards easing its black ownership laws in the telecoms sector - a policy change that would smooth the way for Elon Musk's Starlink to enter the local market. The directive came days after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met his US counterpart Donald Trump for tense talks on deteriorating ties between the two countries. Telecoms companies oper

Paris (AFP) May 24, 2025
When astronomers announced last month they might have discovered the most promising hints of alien life yet on a distant planet, the rare good news raised hopes humanity could soon learn we are not alone in the universe. But several recent studies looking into the same data have found that there is not enough evidence to support such lofty claims, with one scientist accusing the astronomers

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 22, 2025
The SWOT mission captured the flood waves, which stretched from 47 to 166 miles long, as they traveled down rivers in Montana, Texas, and Georgia. In a first, researchers from NASA and Virginia Tech used satellite data to measure the height and speed of potentially hazardous flood waves traveling down U.S. rivers. The three waves they tracked were likely caused by extreme rainfall and by a

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 22, 2025
A recent study led by scientists at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GIG-CAS), in collaboration with international partners, uncovers how deeply subducted carbonates reshape the Earth's mantle chemistry, influencing both diamond formation and the evolution of cratonic lithosphere. Using high-pressure experiments that simulate depths from 250 to 66

London, UK (SPX) May 22, 2025
CloudCatcher, a citizen science program developed by STFC RAL Space, is inviting the public to help improve the accuracy of cloud detection in satellite imagery. The project plays a vital role in enhancing how scientists measure Earth's surface temperatures from space by verifying when clouds obstruct the satellite's view. This latest version of CloudCatcher builds on the success of a 2020

Paris (AFP) May 21, 2025
Microsoft has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that beats current forecasting methods in tracking air quality, weather patterns, and climate-addled tropical storms, according to findings published Wednesday. Dubbed Aurora, the new system - which has not been commercialised - generated 10-day weather forecasts and predicted hurricane trajectories more accurately and faster th

Week in images: 19-23 May 2025

Discover our week through the lens

Image: Lake Alakol in eastern Kazakhstan is featured in this radar image captured by Copernicus Sentinel-1.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 21, 2025
From being dismissed as internet magic money to becoming a household name, Bitcoin is now the poster child of cryptocurrency. However, Bitcoin isn't the only player in the game anymore. A number of other coins are stepping up, offering real use cases, better tech, and in some cases, more growth potential.