20 results

U.K. to fund cell phone safety study

LONDON--The U.K. government is preparing to investigate whether mobile phones are as safe as the industry has been claiming. A total of 15 research programs, which will involve human volunteers, were announced on Friday. The total cost is expected to be around $6.3 million (£4.5 million). Four studies will investigate whether cell phone use can cause brain cancer or leukemia, while other studies will examine possible effects on blood pressure, hearing, brain function and the ability to drive. A further four studies will also look at the interaction of radio signals with the body in order to discover how much energy is deposited and where. The U.K. government and the mobile industry have each contributed to a $10.4 million fund to investigate the safety of cell phones. More projects are expected to be funded later this year from the remaining $4 million. --Graeme Wearden, ZDUK

January 25, 2002 by Graeme Wearden

U.K. teen avoids jail for nuclear hacking

A student who hacked into computers responsible for U.S. energy supplies and nuclear weapons has been sentenced to community service by a London court.

February 3, 2004 by Andy McCue

Making green on helping buildings get green

Phase one of the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is a program called the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit, under a group of designated "energy service companies" have been charged (get it?) with assessing buildings in 40 cities around the world, figuring out their energy-efficiency IQ, and making improvements.

August 30, 2007 by Heather Clancy

Foreign powers are main cyberthreat, U.K. says

Other countries are more of a risk to the U.K.'s infrastructure than hackers--and terrorists are even lower on the list, British agency says.

November 22, 2005 by Tom Espiner

Cyberterror 'overhyped,' security guru says

Officials claiming terrorists pose serious danger to computer networks direct attention away from common criminals, expert says.

November 23, 2005 by Tom Espiner

Bigger isn't better -- for carnivores

Imagine that you're a beaver: you might find enough small prey to easily survive. Now, imagine that you're a polar bear weighing half a ton, and things should become more difficult: you'll need to catch bigger preys. In 'Why are lions not as big as elephants?,' a short press release from the Public Library of Science, you'll discover that as it takes more energy to catch a large prey than a small one, and that a carnivore size cannot really exceed one ton. Apparently, life was easier for herbivores who were able to reach 30 tons or more...

January 16, 2007 by Roland Piquepaille

Some Enron assets up for bid online

More than $21 million worth of assets from Enron Europe, a subsidiary of the bankrupt U.S. energy company, will go on the auction block next week in a three-day worldwide live auction and Webcast. The Webcast will allow buyers to place bids over the Internet and compete directly with bidders at the company's London headquarters. The auction will be the largest ever held in the United Kingdom, according to Bache Treharne, the company running the onsite auction. DoveBid, an online auction company for industrial assets, will conduct the Web auction. Up for bid are thousands of flat-screen monitors and personal computers, hundreds of servers, plasma screens, networking equipment and luxury office furniture. Bidding begins each day at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, starting Feb. 27. --Alorie Gilbert, Special to ZDNet News

February 22, 2002 by Alorie Gilbert

Love or loathe the Olympics? UK's Twitter mood to light up London Eye

An algorithm by MIT graduates will scour Twitter to work out how the country's feeling towards the Olympics, and translate the result into a light show on the capital's big wheel

July 20, 2012 by Jo Best

Man vs Machine at Computer Museum: WITCH is faster

After the world's oldest working digital computer was rebooted at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park last week, it showed its paces in a race against a man with a hand-cranked Facit mechanical calculator.

November 26, 2012 by Jack Schofield

Nationwide data breach bill clears a hurdle

House committee approves a bill that, if passed, would force all companies to notify customers when their data is exposed.

April 3, 2006 by Dan Ilett