Latest by G. Torbet

A study by psychology researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has shown for the first time a causal link between social media use and lower rates of well-being. Students who limited their social media usage to 30 minutes a day showed significant decreases in anxiety and fear of missing out.

Details of the user data stolen from government site healthcare.gov back in October have been revealed. Around 75,000 users had their data accessed by hackers, including information on their immigration status, whether they were pregnant, and partial social security numbers.

Design brand Muji and autonomous driving company Sensible 4 have combined forces to design the world's first autonomous shuttle bus for all weather conditions. The Gacha shuttle will be unveiled in Finland and is designed to look friendly and welcoming and can operate even in fog, snow, or heavy rain.

Researchers at MIT have developed an autonomous drone that can explore densely forested areas and produce collaborative maps without the need for GPS. The drones could be used to find lost hikers who cannot be seen by helicopters or traditional drones because they fly above the forest canopy.

New data from the Very Large Telescope confirms what scientists have believed for some time now: that there is an enormous supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* at the center of our galaxy. Scientists observed flares of hot gases coming from the edge of the black hole, confirming predictions.

Oregon senator Ron Wyden has drafted a data privacy bill for the U.S. which proposes sweeping changes to data laws to make data use more transparent and accessible to customers. The bill aims to protect Americans' privacy by giving customers more control over the sharing or selling of their data.

Scientists from Queensland University of Technology have announced that they will repurpose autonomous underwater drones to rebuild areas of coral reefs that have been damaged by rising sea temperatures. The drones will deliver coral larvae to damaged reefs to encourage them to take root and grow.

After 11 years spent studying two large objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the dwarf planet Ceres and the giant asteroid Vesta, NASA's Dawn mission has drawn to a close. The craft has run out of fuel and will no longer be able to charge its solar cells or communicate with Earth.

Developer Ubisoft has caused controversy by announcing that they will be releasing an update to Rainbow Siege Six which will streamline the game for the international market. The changes include removing background graphical elements which reference sex, gambling, or death, and have angered many fans.

NASA's Kepler telescope has been decommissioned after nine years of hunting for planets outside of our solar system. The mission was only expected to last 3.5 years but ended up successfully transmitting data for much longer. Now all of that data is made publicly available for scientists to learn from.

The developers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 have taken to Reddit to remind players not to abuse exploits like the one that allows multiple copies of the same perk to be equipped in multiplayer mode. Players are temporarily suspended for a first offense or banned for repeat offenses.

The Google homepage has been updated for mobile devices and now features the new version of the Discover feed. The feed shows a series of cards with content pulled from around the web. The rollout is just for the U.S. so far, but does apply to both Android and iOS devices.

An extensive ruling released by the Library of Congress protects the rights of customers to get around digital rights management software in order to repair their devices. In addition, historical video games can be legally archived now to preserve them for future generations of gamers.

Tesla's Navigate on Autopilot feature, which goes live tonight, will assist drivers by guiding the car from the on-ramp to the off-ramp of a highway, including making suggestions for lane changes and navigating highway interchanges. The speed of the lane changes is set by driver preferences.

Tiny new drones that can pull objects of up to 40 times their own weight have been developed by scientists working in the U.S. and Switzerland. The drones can perform complex tasks like lassoing a door handle to open it or navigating small spaces to deliver bottles of water in a rescue scenario.