One of the innovations at this year’s Paris Olympics was supposed to be an electric flying taxi service.
Germany’s Volocopter promised its electric-powered, two-seater aircraft, the VoloCity, would be ferrying passengers around the city.
It never happened. Instead the company ran demonstration flights.
While missing that deadline was embarrassing, behind the scenes a more serious issue was playing out – Volocopter was urgently trying to raise fresh investment to keep the firm going.
Uranium is making a comeback thanks to a renewed focus on nuclear energy as a climate crisis solution. Canada, rich with high-grade deposits, could become a nuclear “superpower”. But can its potential be realised?
Leigh Curyer had been working in uranium mining for nearly two decades when he noticed a striking shift.
In 2011, the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan badly damaged the world’s view of nuclear power, and the price for the heavy metal – a critical component for nuclear fuel – cratered.
Amazon One Medical is expanding its telehealth services with the launch of upfront and low-cost treatment plans and medication delivery for several beauty and lifestyle concerns. Customers can get treatment plans and medication for men’s hair loss for as low as $16 per month, anti-aging skincare for $10 per month, and erectile dysfunction care for $19 per month.
Other treatment plans include medication for motion sickness and eyelash growth.
The move puts Amazon in direct competition with Hims & Hers, a direct-to-consumer telehealth company that offers treatment plans for a variety of health and wellness concerns like hair loss, erectile dysfunction, weight loss, and more for a monthly fee.
Apple’s new iPhone software comes with a novel security feature that reboots the phone if it’s not unlocked for 72 hours, according to security researchers.
Last week, 404 Media reported that law enforcement officers and forensic experts were concerned that some iPhones were rebooting themselves under mysterious circumstances, which made it harder for them to get access to the devices and extract data. Citing security researchers, 404 Media later reported that iOS 18 had a new “inactivity reboot” feature that forced the devices to restart.
Now we know exactly how long it takes for this feature to kick in.
Last month, two major storms, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, caused a total of between $51.5 billion and $81.5 billion of property damage, mostly to Southeastern US states, according to estimates from CoreLogic.
That’s a lot of damage – but it’s only a small fraction of what climate change has cost people around the world.
A new report is flashing a warning signal about climate change and natural disasters, finding that their total economic damage has skyrocketed into the trillions.
The report from the International Chamber of Commerce, which comes as the United Nations Climate Change Conference begins in Azerbaijan this week, estimated that the total cost of damage from climate-related extreme weather events globally was approximately $2 trillion between 2014 and 2023 – roughly in line with the economic toll of the 2008 global financial crisis.
Bitcoin on Sunday hit a new record above $80,000. The world’s largest cryptocurrency surged in the run-up to Tuesday’s US presidential election, rose sharply immediately on election night after it became clear Donald Trump would win and has continued rising in the days since his victory.
Bitcoin is up 80% this year, dwarfing the S&P 500’s still-electric 25.7% gain this year. After briefly touching the $80,000 milestone, bitcoin was trading just below it Sunday mid-morning.
The crypto industry believes Trump’s victory is a bullish sign for Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Although Trump was once a bitcoin skeptic, once saying it “was based on thin air,” he has fully embraced crypto in recent months — unlike the Biden administration, which has sought to rein in crypto.
A ghostly white deep-sea shark has been discovered off the coast of Albania.
The critically endangered angular roughshark (Oxynotus centrina) was caught by a commercial trawler off Sazan Island — an uninhabited military island — at a depth of around 656 feet (200 meters).
The shark is the first of its species to be discovered with leucism, a genetic disorder that disrupts melanin production, causing a reduction in pigmentation, scientists report in a new study. Unlike albinism, in which animals completely lack melanin and have red irises, leucistic sharks have normal iris pigmentation even if they appear completely white.
Primordial black holes may be exploding throughout the universe. If we can catch them in the act, it could pave the way to new physics, a study suggests.
Primordial black holes (PBHs), which are thought to have formed right after the Big Bang, may be heating up and exploding throughout the universe.
These black hole explosions, powered by Hawking radiation — a quantum process where black holes generate particles from the vacuum due to their intense gravitational fields — could be detected by upcoming telescopes, physicists suggest in a new study. And, once spotted, these exotic explosions could reveal whether our universe contains previously undiscovered particles.
Factory workers at Boeing voted to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production of its bestselling airliner and generate much-needed cash.
Leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district in Seattle said 59% of members who cast ballots agreed to approve the company’s fourth formal offer and the third put to a vote. The deal includes a 38% wage increase over four years, and ratification and productivity bonuses.
However, Boeing refused to meet strikers’ demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.
Tropical Storm Rafael was chugging past western Jamaica on Tuesday and was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it headed toward Cuba.
The storm was located 65 miles (105 kilometers) southwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica, on Tuesday morning. It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and was moving northwest at 13 mph (20 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The center said it expected “steady to rapid intensification” over the next 24 to 36 hours. It was expected to continue to pass by Jamaica through Tuesday afternoon, be near or over the Cayman Islands on Tuesday night and make landfall in Cuba on Wednesday.
Dispatches From The Front 