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Deployment has begun at the world's first floating wind farm, off the coast of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland (BBC News). Named Hywind, the trial scheme will consist of five vast turbines, which will float 25km offshore and generate power for 20,000 homes. Project director Leif Delp says: "This is a tech development project to ensure it's working in open sea conditions. It's a game-changer for floating wind power and we are sure it will help bring costs down". Meanwhile, in a further commitment to renewable electricity, UK energy regulator Ofgem says that new government measures will reward solar panel users and those who allow their electricity use to be automatically scaled to meet available energy resources
The government has announced forthcoming new rules on the use of personal drones in the UK, including a mandatory registration programme (TechCrunch). The regulatory update will require "owners of drones weighing 250 grams and over … to register details of their drones to improve accountability and encourage owners to act responsibly". Other measures include a new drone safety awareness test for hobbyists and an expanded geofencing scheme that will prevent drones from approaching a wider variety of areas deemed hazardous.
An underwater robot sent on a one-way trip to the heart of Japan's ruined Fukushima nuclear plant has captured footage of what appear to be melted nuclear fuel rods (The Guardian). The images were captured during a three-day investigation by the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, and are the first fuel debris detected since the meltdowns triggered by 2011's earthquake and tsunami. The plant cannot safely be decommissioned until all the fuel debris has been located, but high radiation levels have made this a challenging process.
Secure messaging service Telegram has introduced disappearing media – photos and videos that you can set to vanish after a specified period, and which send back a warning if anyone tries to screenshot them (Engadget). Telegram is best known for its secure Secret Chat feature, which allows users to use optional end-to-end encryption to prevent anyone other than the sender and recipient from reading their messages. The app is available for Android and iOS, and has recently been in the news over founder Pavel Durov's claims that the US government attempted to bribe developers to insert a backdoor into the service.
A volunteer project to archive rare audio content from streaming service SoundCloud has been halted (Motherboard). Archivist Jason Scott tweeted that: "Due to a request by Soundcloud, archiving and storage of Soundcloud is ending immediately". The project was initiated following reports that SoundCloud, which is home to a unique cache of music created by its users, was experiencing financial difficulties and could be forced to shut down within the year. The company told Motherboard: "SoundCloud is dedicated to protecting the rights and content of the creators who share their work on SoundCloud. We requested the Archive Team halt their efforts as any action to take content from SoundCloud violates our Terms of Use and infringes on our users' rights. Most importantly, everyone's music and audio is safe on SoundCloud. SoundCloud is not going away – not in 50 days, not in 80 days or anytime in the foreseeable future".
From DDoS attacks to data manipulation, new cybersecurity regulations to organised fraud, businesses and consumers alike are faced with ever greater levels of security threats. Get inside knowledge on the developing threat landscape at WIRED Security 2017, returning to London on September 28.
Researchers at Georgia Tech who analysed 58 antivirus programs for Android found that many were relatively easy to defeat, often because they didn't take a nuanced and diverse approach to malware detection (WIRED). Taking on the mindset of an attacker, the researchers built a tool called AVPass that works to smuggle malware into a system without being detected by antivirus. Of the 58 programs AVPass tested, only two – from AhnLab and WhiteArmor – consistently stopped its attacks. The AVPass team says that Android antivirus developers need to build out their products so the programs are looking for multiple malicious attributes at once. It's much easier to sneak past one security guard than 10.
Apple has form when it comes to making adverts that are worth the time it takes to watch them, and its latest is action-comedy short The Rock X Siri (Engadget). Doing his part for the ad's promotion, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson hyperbolically describes it as "the biggest, coolest, sexiest, funnest (is that a word?) movie ever". The short's action sequences are held together by a plot that sees Johnson and his trusty digital assistant setting out to conquer the actor's life goals list. Yeah, we know, but there are some fun set-pieces, at least.
CBS and Netflix have debuted a new trailer for Star Trek: Discovery, revealing tensions between the Federation and the Klingon Empire that look set to underpin the series (Radio Times). The trailer has a dark, tense undertone and plenty of action, although it remains to be seen whether the franchise's latest entry will capture the cerebral aspects that underpinned its most popular incarnations. Star Trek: Discovery begins on September 24 in the USA, and comes to the rest of the world a day later on Netflix.
BBC America has used a new trailer to reveal that the First Doctor will be in this year's Doctor Who Christmas special (The Verge). Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi, who'll be making his final appearance before the baton is passed to Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whitaker, will be trapped in a frozen moment of time alongside his former incarnation. Rather than relying on archive footage of the original Doctor, William Hartnell, the First Doctor is played with distinct flair by David Bradley (Game of Thrones, Broadchurch, Hot Fuzz).
Stranger Things is set to return to Netflix just in time for Halloween, and the first full trailer for the season has been released (WIRED). In it, we glimpse the now even stranger world of Will Byers and his friends. The trailer shows Will suffering from possible hallucinations (or, more likely, changes in reality) where he's transported into a dark world filled with unknown creatures. "It’s 1984 and the citizens of Hawkins, Indiana are still reeling from the horrors of the demogorgon and the secrets of Hawkins Lab," Netflix says. "Will Byers has been rescued from the Upside Down but a bigger, sinister entity still threatens those who survived".
](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/false-memory-syndrome-false-confessions-memories)
As a researcher, Julia Shaw studies how false memories arise in the brain and applies it to the criminal-justice system. Contrary to what many believe, human memories are malleable, open to suggestion and often unintentionally false. "False memories are everywhere," she says. "In everyday situations we don't really notice or care that they're happening. We call them mistakes, or say we misremember things." In the criminal-justice system, however, they can have grave consequences.
With five Olympic medals, Ben Ainslie is one of the world's most successful sailors. His next challenge? To win the America's Cup. In this double issue, WIRED joins him and the Land Rover BAR team in Bermuda as he prepares for the race. Plus, we go inside the UK's new unicorn Improbable, and behind the lines at Elon Musk's distribution factory. Subscribe and save now. Out in print and digital. Subscribe now and save.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
