October 2026

Inner west Sydney seat has long been safely held by the PM – but potential changes to copyright laws are angering its large creative community Get our daily political email, free app or daily news podcast The prime minister is facing growing discontent within his own electorate as creatives push back against the federal government’s […]

OpenAI Sam Altman says sorry, mathematicians: the onslaught of AI math slop will continue. The ChatGPT maker sparked an existential crisis in the field by releasing hundreds of AI-generated solutions to math problems that haven’t been solved by humans, and sparked further controversy over how it chose to release its solutions and communicate with mathematicians.

The artificial intelligence buildout is making an enormous bet on what businesses will eventually be willing to pay for intelligence. In our research this summer on forecasting the AI bubble, we argued that a key indicator to watch is productive utilization by enterprise customers. Specifically, we said at the time, if infrastructure supply catches up

AI robots couldn’t let us keep our vanity to ourselves. They’re now hitting the gym, too — but the reps they’re getting in aren’t of the weightlifting kind. Enter Neura, a buzzy robotics startup in Metzingen, Germany, that is positioning itself at the forefront of embodied AI by training these advanced systems to inhabit and

Gap, M&S, Topshop and more are taking a leaf from luxury label playbooks to satisfy savvier generation of shoppers High street brands that boomed in the noughties before the squeeze of both sustainably minded consumers and the rise of ultra-cheap online labels are staging a comeback. This time, rather than focusing solely on trend-led affordable

A major international study found that a simple blood test could help predict Alzheimer’s-related cognitive decline years before symptoms appear, with the highest-risk individuals facing a 38% chance of impairment within five years and an estimated 78% chance within 10 years. Scientists believe the discovery could pave the way for earlier intervention and future treatments

Scientists have recreated a primordial state of matter from the dawn of the universe by colliding oxygen nuclei at nearly the speed of light. The surprising results show that this exotic substance can form in smaller, lower-energy collisions than previously demonstrated, challenging the known boundaries of early-universe physics.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University have uncovered a surprising process that helps humans develop sharp vision before birth, challenging decades of assumptions about how the eye forms. Using miniature human retinas grown in the lab, researchers discovered that a vitamin A derivative and thyroid hormones work together to shape the foveola, the tiny region at

Scientists have discovered a bizarre bacterial defense system that works almost completely backward from anything seen before. Unlike typical bacterial immune systems that keep a deadly toxin under control until a virus attacks, this unusual mechanism waits until an infection begins before producing the DNA that switches on its lethal weapon. The infected bacterium then

A Neanderthal who died 75,000 years ago may have been killed by a wooden spear deliberately aimed at the heart, revealing rare evidence of prehistoric violence. A circular hole in the shoulder blade suggests the weapon pierced the chest and caused a rapidly fatal injury. Surprisingly, the same individual had survived an earlier devastating facial