The European Union is opeing a formal antitrust investigation targeting Microsoft into the software company’s Teams messaging and videoconferencing app over concerns that its bundling with its Office productivity sofware suite gives it an unfair edge over competitors

Scientists have unearthed a new species of wasp in the Amazon – and it's rather terrifying. The alien-looking parasitic creature came to light when a team at Utah State University were researching Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve in Peru. The wasp, known as Capitojoppa amazonica, has a giant almond-shaped head and is known to latch on to prey before sucking its blood and then eating it from the inside. It does so by laying eggs in its victims including caterpillars, beetles and spiders. The study’s lead author, biologist Brandon Claridge called the practice a "solitary endoparasitoid". "Once the host is located and mounted, the female will frantically stroke it with her antennae," Claridge told Live Science in an email. "If acceptable, the female will deposit a single egg inside the host by piercing it with her ovipositor (a tube-like, egg-laying organ)." He went on to explain that in some instances, "females will even stab the host with the ovipositor and feed without laying an egg as it helps with gaining nutrients for egg maturation." This isn't the first horrifying discovery, with researchers recently finding a new species of tarantula in Thailand that is characterised with illuminous blue legs. The spider is one of the rarest in the world, with Dr Narin Chomphuphuang explaining how it lurks in hollow trees. "The difficulty of catching an electric-blue tarantula lies in the need to climb a tree and lure it out of a complex of hollows," he explained. "During our expedition, we walked in the evening and at night during low tide, managing to collect only two of them." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The list of people who remain unaccounted for after Maui’s wildfire disaster dropped to 388, a significant decline

DETROIT The United States "won't tolerate" China's effective ban on purchases of Micron Technology memory chips and is

South Africa will require that crypto exchanges in the country operate with licenses by the end of the

The European Commission sent a warning letter Friday to Google and its subsidiary YouTube over disinformation and graphic content linked to the Hamas-Israel conflict, in the European Union's latest effort to scrutinize Big Tech's handling of the war.

Apple said Thursday that its revenue slipped 1% to $81.8 billion for its quarter ending July 1, marking the third consecutive year-over-year drop in quarterly revenue for the world's most valuable company.

It's been claimed that the subscription service is looking to add "higher-end games", such as 'GTA'.

The biggest fear overhanging everything around AI seems to be the inchoate thought that maybe one day machines will become smarter than people and wipe out the human race.

Stocks climbed as Wall Street prepared for an upcoming update on inflation that will hopefully show a smaller increase in pain for everyone

Last year was a mixed bag pay-wise for the women who run companies in the S&P 500 -- compensation increased for more than half of them, but the median pay package fell 6%

Solar and wind energy installations could earn hundreds of millions of dollars by mining bitcoin during periods of excess electricity generation, according to a new study. Scientists from Cornell University in the US, who conducted the research, said setting up mining operations could reduce the environmental impact of cryptocurrency, while also providing revenue that could be reinvested in future renewable energy projects. “Profitability of a mining system hinges on periods of steady energy availability since renewable energy sources can vary significantly,” said Fengqi You, a professor of energy systems at Cornell University. “Therefore, it is important to site the mining farm strategically to maximise productivity.” The state with the most potential for setting up profitable crypto mining operations is Texas, according to the study, with 32 planned renewable projects capable of generating combined profits of $47 million. California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada and Virginia all showed potential, though setting up mining rigs presents a large initial cost. One way of incentivising such projects, Cornell doctoral student Apoorv Lal suggested, could be the introduction of new policies that provide economic rewards for mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with clean energy ”These rewards can act as an incentive for miners to adopt clean energy sources, which can lead to combined positive effects on climate change mitigation, improved renewable power capacity, and additional profits during pre-commercial operation of wind and solar farms,” Mr Lal said. “We also recommend policies that encourage cryptocurrency-mining operations to return some of their profits back into infrastructure development. This would help create a self-sustaining cycle for renewable energy expansion.” Bitcoin has drawn criticism from environmentalists for the vast amounts of electricity required to support its network and mint new units of the cryptocurrency, with recent analysis from the University of Cambridge estimating that it uses roughly the same amount of electricity as Poland. The plummeting costs of renewable energy mean bitcoin miners are increasingly turning to solar, wind and hydro sources to power their operations. “In its current status, the infrastructure that supports the Bitcoin protocol cannot be sustained, but the beauty of the protocol is that the incentive structure will force miners to adopt the cheapest form of electricity, which in the near future will be renewable energy,” Don Wyper, COO of DigitalMint, told The Independent last year. The latest study, titled ‘From mining to mitigation: how bitcoin can support renewable energy development and climate action’, was published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Read More Bitcoin mining rate hits all-time high amid record-breaking prediction for 2024 Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away Scientists reveal surprise finding from huge study into internet and mental health Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away Scientists reveal surprise finding from huge study into internet and mental health Software firm Cloudsmith announces £8.8m investment