A financial trading firm's plan to make millions by building a mast higher than the Shard in rural Kent has suffered a setback after its proposals were challenged by Dover council. Vigilant Global is one of two companies hoping to build a communications mast designed to boost profits by shaving milliseconds off the time it takes to beam information to European markets. But the council questioned the tactics used by the firm in the planning process and cast doubt on whether local people would see the benefits that Vigilant says they will. In a 20-page document, council officials said Vigilant had provided "only scant detail of the purpose of the mast", instead choosing to focus on the potential benefits to the local community. "Of primary concern is the lack of detail of the main function and purpose of the mast," the council said, adding that the plan "appeared to relate to improvements in the financial field".

Jacob Katuva used to get up at dawn to cycle 12 miles from his village to collect water with his uncles and cousins when he was growing up in Kenya. Now he is part of a research team at the University of Oxford using cloud computing and mobile sensors to monitor water wells and help ensure that thousands of villages in rural Africa and Asia have a safe, secure supply of water. The time spent finding and carrying water, if local wells are not reliable, steals precious time from farming, making a living or going to school. It can even force people to revert to unsanitary water sources shared with animals. Water issues are tied to a cycle of poverty.

It's an alt-history sci-fi game (designed from the ground up for virtual reality) where Kennedy was never assassinated and NASA and Russia established a permanent moon base before expanding to the outer reaches of our solar system. In Mindfield's Pollen, you explore the Saturnian satellite Titan, sleuthing for clues and solving puzzles to learn what hides beneath the moon's surface.

A British Airways pilot told authorities that he believes his jet struck a drone as it approached for landing at Heathrow Airport Sunday. A British Airways pilot told authorities that he believes his jet struck a drone as it approached for landing at Heathrow Airport Sunday. British police are investigating what could be the first known case of a drone colliding with a passenger aircraft, after a pilot told authorities that he believed his jet hit a drone as it flew into Heathrow Airport from Geneva Sunday. "The flight landed at Heathrow Terminal 5 safely," police say. But they add that "an object, believed to be a drone, had struck the front of the aircraft."

Police are investigating a reported mid-air collision between a drone and a British Airways jet from Geneva that was approaching London's Heathrow Airport. BA said the Airbus A320 was not damaged when the object hit the nose of the plane, which landed safely with no injuries reported to anyone on board. Since April last year there have been 25 near misses between aircraft and drones, figures from the UK Airprox Board suggest. A dozen of these were denoted "Class A" which indicates there was a serious risk of collision. The Heathrow incident comes only weeks after the British Airline Pilots Association called for rules governing the use of drones to be enforced more strictly.

It's day one at the Singularity University: the opening address has just been delivered by a hologram. Craig Venter, who was one of the first scientists to sequence the human genome and created the first synthetic life form, is up next. And later, we will see two people, paralysed from the waist down, use robotic exoskeletons to rise up and walk. But first, the co-founder of the Singularity University, Peter Diamandis, gives us our instructions for the day. Your task, he says, is to pick one of the "grand challenges of humanity" – the lack of clean drinking water, say. And then come up with an idea that "can positively impact the lives of a billion people". Some of us haven't even had coffee yet. There's about 50 of us present and the room has been divided up into tables, one for education, another for poverty, another for water, and I'm not sure where I should sit. Diane Murphy, the university's PR executive, hesitates for a moment and then directs me over to the table marked "food". "Tell you what," she says.

Reinforcement Learning, a key Google DeepMind algorithm, could overhaul news recommendation engines and greatly improve users stickiness. After beating a Go Grand Master, the algorithm could become the engine of choice for true personalization. My interest for DeepMind goes back to its acquisition by Google, in January 2014, for about half a billion dollars. Later in California, I had conversations with Artificial Intelligence and deep learning experts; they said Google had in fact captured about half of the world's best A.I. minds, snatching several years of Stanford A.I. classes, and paying top dollar for talent. Acquiring London startup Deep Mind was a key move in a strategy aimed at cornering the A.I. field.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

GameStop is diving into the video game publishing business. The retailer best known for selling games announced plans Monday to launch a new division called GameTrust that will help distribute and market them. GameTrust will initially publish games from a lineup of developers that includes the creators of the "Trine," ''Deadlight" and "Ratchet & Clank" series. Mark Stanely, vice president of internal development at GameStop, said that unlike a traditional video game publisher relationship with a game creator, GameTrust's developers will retain creative control over their work. "Clearly, from the pedigree of these first four partners that we've signed on, they're not going to let a bad game go out the door," said Stanely in an interview.