A piece of computer history that helped launch a trillion dollar company is hitting the auction block and is expected to fetch $300,000 (£230,500). A rare, fully-functioning Apple-1 being auctioned by Boston-based RR Auction in September is one of only 60 or so remaining computers from the original 200 made. The machines were designed and hand-built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976 and 1977 and originally sold for about $666 (£511) to local enthusiasts. The Apple-1 was restored to its original, operational state by expert Corey Cohen. The system operated without fault for approximately eight hours in a recent test and will even ship with its original keyboard designed and built during the 1970s.

'Dragon eggs' lowered into the heart of volcanoes using drones could help monitor for clues of future eruptions with more precision, scientists have revealed. Such extreme, hazardous and unpredictable environments present a very difficult challenge to reliably record volcanic behaviour. For some volcanoes, it is simply too dangerous for humans to get close enough to take readings manually. However, scientists have got around this problem by creating highly sensitive pods that can be positioned in dangerous locations to provide real-time data on eruptions. Dubbed'dragon eggs', scientists say these devices could also monitor other natural phenomenon such as glaciers, geological faults and man-made hazards such as nuclear waste storage sites.

This blog post was created in partnership with André Burrell who is the Banking & Capital Markets Strategy Leader on the Worldwide Industry team at Microsoft. In our last blog post Anti-money laundering – Microsoft Azure helping banks reduce false positives, we alluded to Microsoft's high-level approach to a solution--which automates the end-to-end handling of anti-money laundering (AML) detection and management. Due to the growing number of fines issued, there is now an increased drive to hold compliance officers, senior executives, and board members personally liable for failing to have an adequate AML program and transaction monitoring system (TMS). Any alert generated and not closed by the TMS must be reviewed by a human. Current technologies cannot assess a transaction in context.

A tiny flying robot that can dart through the air like an insect has been unveiled by Dutch scientists. The DelFly Nimble's wings beat at 17 times per second to power the robot at speeds over 15 miles per hour (25kph) - and it can even do a loop-the-loop. Scientists behind the technology based it on the wing movements of fruit flies, and claim it could revolutionise our understanding of insect flight. The researchers, from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, say it can hover, dart left or right and even do barrel rolls. Lead designer Dr Matej Karasek said: 'The robot has a top speed of 25 km/h [15mph] and can even perform aggressive manoeuvres, such as 360-degree flips.

Facebook is expanding its fake news spotting systems to include photos and videos as part of its ongoing battle to halt the spread of misinformation on its service. Following successful trials in France, India, and Mexico, the company said it will now roll-out the system in 17 countries worldwide in a bid to staunch what it has branded'misinformation in these new visual formats.' The Artificial Intelligence (AI) system feeds potentially fake content to human fact-checkers, who use visual verification techniques such as reverse image searching and analysing image metadata to check the veracity of photos and videos. Previously, the company's efforts to tackle misinformation had been focused on rooting out false articles and webpage links. Russian agents and other malicious groups seeking to influence democratic elections in the US and elsewhere have repeatedly used images and video.

Dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution, artificial intelligence and robotics have improved exponentially in recent years with British companies like DeepMind leading the way in developing intricate neural networks previously thought impossible. However last week the Bank of England warned that'large swathes' of Britain's workforce is now under threat of unemployment as robots and algorithms take over jobs. Even industries previously thought immune, such as creative writing, are now being replaced by artificially intelligent programmes and earlier this month M&S announced it was replacing call centre staff with AI. Prof Al-Khalili added: "Many people are becoming increasingly nervous about what they see as unchecked progress in AI. "There are valid concerns about the widespread implementation of AI leading to an increase in inequality. Robotics and autonomous systems are predicted to bring about job losses, primarily affecting workers in low-skilled roles, and there is still little research on how the future effects of automation might vary across the UK. "We are now seeing an unprecedented level of interest, investment and technological progress in the field, which many people, including myself, feel is happening too fast."

Online sci-fi shooter Destiny, released in 2014, had a strange effect on some of its players. Unlike World of Warcraft, or most other games that people play every day, it didn't have hundreds of hours' worth of different planets to visit, enemies to defeat or characters to get to know. You could play through the entirety of Destiny's story in 10 hours; beyond that, it offered only a small selection of daily "strike" missions and an arena to challenge other players in shootouts. Yet people played for hours every day. A significant portion of players spent a thousand hours or more with the game over two or three years, as recorded by the ironically titled WastedOnDestiny.com.

Three US Representatives have sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence asking for a report on deepfake technology, how it could be used to harm the US and any countermeasures that can be taken to detect and deter nefarious use of the technology. While deepfakes gained notoriety when Reddit users began swapping celebrity faces onto porn stars, the potential for the technology's use in misinformation campaigns has generated a fair amount of concern. "Forged videos, images or audio could be used to target individuals for blackmail or for other nefarious purposes," the lawmakers said in their letter. The added, "Of greater concern for national security, they could also be used by foreign or domestic actors to spread misinformation. As deep fake technology becomes more advanced and more accessible, it could pose a threat to United States public discourse and national security, with broad and concerning implications for offensive active measures campaigns targeting the United States."

This year that game is undeniably Fortnite Battle Royale, an online free-for-all that every teen in America suddenly seems to be playing. It's not just kids, though–everyone from rapper Drake to Los Angeles Laker Josh Hart is a fan. That groundswell of support has propelled Fortnite from a simple video game into a cultural sensation, with hundreds of millions of fans worldwide who play the game, wear the gear and even learn the characters' victory dances. "Fortnite is another in a long line of games like World of Warcraft or Guitar Hero or Minecraft that is changing everything underfoot," says Mat Piscatella, a video-game industry analyst with research firm NPD Group. Fortnite's big draw is a madcap multiplayer mode that drops up to 100 players on an island in a last-person-standing showdown.

Forest loss is being driven by various factors, including commodity production, forestry, agriculture, wildfire, and urbanization. Curtis et al. used high-resolution Google Earth imagery to map and classify global forest loss since 2001. Just over a quarter of global forest loss is due to deforestation through permanent land use change for the production of commodities, including beef, soy, palm oil, and wood fiber. Despite regional differences and efforts by governments, conservationists, and corporations to stem the losses, the overall rate of commodity-driven deforestation has not declined since 2001. Global maps of forest loss depict the scale and magnitude of forest disturbance, yet companies, governments, and nongovernmental organizations need to distinguish permanent conversion (i.e., deforestation) from temporary loss from forestry or wildfire.