Author: The Conversation

That satisfying feeling after doomscrolling through endless TikTok videos or impulsively shopping online mimics the relief of scratching an itch. This is dopamine at work — a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) responsible for feelings of reward and accomplishment. Whether indulging in viral videos or engaging in new hobbies, dopamine creates a sense of achievement that keeps us coming back for more. However, reliance on these dopamine hits can lead to lasting brain changes, particularly in teenagers and young adults. This is what my team and I at London Southbank University study. We investigated which brain regions and connections change due to…

Until a few weeks ago, few people in the Western world had heard of a small Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company known as DeepSeek. But on January 20, it captured global attention when it released a new AI model called R1. R1 is a “reasoning” model, meaning it works through tasks step by step and details its working process to a user. It is a more advanced version of DeepSeek’s V3 model, which was released in December. DeepSeek’s new offering is almost as powerful as rival company OpenAI’s most advanced AI model o1, but at a fraction of the cost. Within days, DeepSeek’s…

We live in a golden age for space exploration. Scientists are gathering massive amounts of new information and scientific evidence at a record pace. Yet the age-old question remains unanswered: are we alone? New telescope technologies, including space-based tools such as the James Webb Telescope, have enabled us to discover thousands of potentially habitable exoplanets that could support life similar to that on Earth. Gravitational wave detectors have opened a new avenue for space exploration by detecting space-time distortions caused by black holes and supernovae millions of light-years away. Commercial space ventures have further accelerated these advancements, leading to increasingly sophisticated spacecraft and…

The AI revolution is well underway and two companies – DeepSeek and Nvidia – stand out among those competing to lead it. Outside the financial world, the story might seem distant – but it really does have consequences for everyone. It comes down to why investors are paying so much attention to AI, and how this competition could affect the technology we use daily. Developments in AI investment will shape the capabilities of the next generation of apps, smart assistants, self-driving technology and business practices. DeepSeek, the new player on the scene, is a Chinese company that has been making huge…

Of all the things that Donald Trump’s return as US president could mean, one is that Elon Musk’s plan to use Starship rockets for long-distance flights on Earth could move forward. Dubbed Starship Earth to Earth, this would see passengers transported by rocket between cities. They would briefly leave the planet’s atmosphere during the journey before flying back down to reach their destination. Musk claims it will be possible to travel to anywhere on Earth within an hour. His rocket company, SpaceX, has given examples such as New York to Paris in 30 minutes and London to Hong Kong in 34…

As wind-driven wildfires spread through the Los Angeles area in January 2025, fire-spotting technology and computer models were helping firefighters understand the rapidly changing environment they were facing. That technology has evolved over the years, yet some techniques are very similar to those used over 100 years ago. I have spent several decades studying combustion, including wildfire behaviour and the technology used to track fires and predict where wildfires might turn. Here’s a quick tour of the key technologies used today. Spotting fires faster First, the fire must be discovered. Often wildfires are reported by people seeing smoke. That hasn’t changed, but other ways fires…

State-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude have captured the public imagination by producing fluent text in multiple languages in response to user prompts. Those companies have also captured headlines with the huge sums they’ve invested to build ever more powerful models. An AI startup from China, DeepSeek, has upset expectations about how much money is needed to build the latest and greatest AIs. In the process, they’ve cast doubt on the billions of dollars of investment by the big AI players. I study machine learning. DeepSeek’s disruptive debut comes down not to any stunning technological breakthrough but to a time-honoured practice: finding efficiencies.…

The pursuit of nuclear fusion as a clean, sustainable energy source represents one of the most challenging scientific and engineering goals of our time. Fusion promises nearly limitless energy without carbon emissions or long-living radioactive waste. However, achieving practical fusion energy requires overcoming significant challenges. These come from the heat generated by the fusion process, the radiation produced, the progressive damage to materials used in fusion devices and other engineering hurdles. Fusion systems operate under extreme physical conditions, generating data at scales that surpass the ability of humans to analyse. Nuclear fusion is the form of energy that powers the Sun. Existing nuclear…

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, like chatbots, are attracting growing scrutiny for their voracious energy demands. However, energy consumption is only one part of their broader environmental impact. Late last year, ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot run by OpenAI, celebrated its second birthday. In its brief existence, the platform has amassed over 300 million weekly users who send roughly one billion messages to the chatbot per day. With US$6.6 billion raised in its last funding round, OpenAI has emerged as one of the most valuable private companies in the world. Soaring emissions Elsewhere in tech, other companies marked less savoury milestones. Alphabet —…

Almost US$600 billion was wiped off the value of artificial intelligence (AI) microchip maker Nvidia overnight on Monday, when a little-known Chinese startup, DeepSeek, threatened to upend the US tech market. While Nvidia suffered the biggest one-day loss in sharemarket history, other tech giants – Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, who are investing heavily in competing AI tools including ChatGPT and Gemini – were also hit. The rout was caused by investors’ shock at the claimed performance of DeepSeek’s new R1 chatbot. The Chinese AI was reported to be more advanced than its competitors and less expensive to develop. DeepSeek R1 has…