Tech

Wales has become the first UK nation to join the metaverse.The launch of Wales in the metaverse hopes to give virtual visitors from all over the world the chance to see what the country has to offer.Tourism body Visit Wales has created the immersive experience with the aim of platforming some of Wales’s experiences and attractions.Around 600 million people visit the metaverse each year, across a number of platforms.The Welsh metaverse is being hosted on platform Spatial.Organisers say they believe Wales is also the first European nation to use this approach to market itself as a tourism destination.The announcement comes after a report by a committee of MPs published last July found Wales “lacked a coherent brand” to attract overseas visitors. Image:Pic: Visit WalesPresenter of Doctor Who...

The first extreme geomagnetic storm in two decades created a spectacular light show in UK skies on Friday night – and some parts of the country may have witnessed a colourful display once again on Saturday night.Friday night’s event across parts of the Northern Hemisphere posed a threat to communication networks, navigation systems and power grids too.Elon Musk’s Starlink, which owns around 60% of the estimated 7,500 satellites in orbit, providing internet coverage around the world, warned of a “degraded service” as a result of the phenomena. Image:Edinburgh. Pic: PAIt was the first G5 or strongest-rated geomagnetic storm since 2003, which caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.So what caused the extreme geomagnetic storm?A series of strong solar flares spewed...

AstraZeneca has begun the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID vaccine – ending an era in which it saved millions of lives while being dogged by controversy.The jab, developed at Oxford University, was once hailed as “the vaccine for the world” because it could be stored in fridges rather than the ultra-cold freezer temperatures originally required for alternative mRNA shots, making it more suitable for developing countries.But AstraZeneca (AZ) said demand for the jab had tailed off as more up-to-date vaccines target newer variants of the virus. It no longer manufactures nor supplies the vaccine.The voluntary withdrawal has started in the EU, with the European Medicines Agency announcing that the vaccine is no longer authorised for use.In a statement, AZ said: “According to independent estima...

A ransomware group has carried out its threat against a Scottish health board and published a “large volume” of stolen data on the dark web.NHS Dumfries and Galloway was the subject of a cyber attack in March and confirmed hackers were able to access a “significant quantity of data”, including patient and staff-identifiable information.The cyber criminals later released a “proof pack” – which included confidential information on a small number of patients – and warned more would follow.In an update on Monday, the health board confirmed a “large volume of data” had been published.Julie White, chief executive of NHS Dumfries and Galloway, branded it an “utterly abhorrent criminal act”.“We should not be surprised at this outcome, as this is in line with the way these criminal groups operate,”...

Prehistoric plant DNA is being dug up from deep below the Arctic to see if it can help modern-day crops cope with the effects of climate change.Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are working with European scientists to analyse microbes from the palaeolithic period, when, like today, the planet was becoming warmer.The university team has been awarded £500,000 by Horizon Europe, a European Union scientific research initiative, to spend four years examining ancient soil samples extracted from deep below the Arctic under a project named Tolerate.Dr Ross Alexander, a plant molecular biologist at Heriot-Watt, said researchers were “using samples from the palaeolithic period, around 100-200,000 years ago, because the planet was warming then, much like now”.The aim, he said, was ...

Skin cancer statisticsA common form of cancer which can be treated by surgery.There were 224,000 skin cancers in England in 2019 and over 1.4 million between 2013 and 2019, making it the most common cancer diagnosed in the country, NHS Digital said on its website. For comparison, there were 288,753 new cancer diagnoses in 2020 overall.In 2021, the most recent year for which there is published data, there were 15,861 new cases of malignant melonoma of the skin in England, across all ages.8,078 of them were in men and 7,783 in women.Devon was the worst-affected NHS region, with over 300 cases in both men and women across all ages.Rates of cancer death fell in 2020, by 1% in males and 2% in females compared to 2019.Around 15,400 people are diagnosed with melanoma in the UK each year, the Roya...

Common and easily guessed passwords like “admin” or “12345” are being banned in the UK as part of world-first laws to protect against cyber attacks.As well as default passwords, if a user suggests a common password they will be prompted to change it on creation of a new account.It comes as a home filled with smart devices could be exposed to more than 12,000 hacking attacks from across the world in a single week, with 2,684 attempts to guess weak passwords on five devices, according to an investigation by Which?Password managing website NordPass found the most commonly used passwords in the UK last year were 123456 and, believe it or not, password.The new measures come into force in the UK on Monday, making it the first country in the world to introduce the laws. Image:Smart devices could...

Cows in the UK are not being tested for bird flu, despite the outbreak sweeping through American dairy herds, Sky News has been told.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said reports of the H5N1 virus in UK birds and poultry are currently so low that it does not consider cattle to be at risk.Scientists believe the H5N1 virus has been spreading in US dairy herds undetected for several months.It is also spreading between cows, according to the US Department of Agriculture.Transmission between mammals is a red flag for scientists monitoring viruses that could cause the next pandemic.A spokesperson for DEFRA said it was closely monitoring the US situation and collaborating with international partners to understand the origins and spread of the outbreak.“The risk level...

Most plant-based meat and dairy alternatives have lower levels of saturated fat and higher fibre than their animal-derived counterparts, researchers have found.They also have substantially lower environmental impacts, including lower greenhouse gas emissions, use of water resources and land use, according to a review of evidence on plant-based alternatives to meat, cheese, eggs and yoghurt.Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) who analysed over 90 studies and reports from 2016 to 2022 suggested plant-based alternatives could be a “useful steppingstone” towards a healthy and sustainable diet, though they warned nutritional value can vary considerably between products.Plant-based alternatives “have the potential to be healthier and nutrient-rich,” they s...

Hundreds of users of the gay dating app Grindr have alleged the company shared their private information, including their HIV status, with third parties, a law firm said on Monday. Austen Hays said it was filing the mass data protection lawsuit at London’s High Court and claimed thousands of Grindr users in the UK may have been affected.The firm alleges users’ highly sensitive information, including HIV status and the date of their latest HIV test, was provided to third parties for commercial purposes.It said around 670 people had signed up to the lawsuit over breaches said to have taken place between 2018 and 2020, with potentially thousands more joining the case.Austen Hays’ managing director Chaya Hanoomanjee said in a statement: “Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to comp...