awardwinning

Though the Heatbit Mini is a plug-and-play multifunctional device that's easy for anyone to use now, this wasn't the case when the company was started in 2020 by Alex Busarov. ZDNET spoke to Siranush Sharoyan, marketing director at Heatbit, to learn more about the company and what such a device means for consumers. We all know what took over the world in 2020, and Busarov experienced this in China, one of the countries with the strictest COVID-19 lockdown regulations. During the lockdown, Sharoyan says, Busarov…

An image of a young polar bear napping on an iceberg is focusing minds on vanishing polar habitats.The image won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award, hosted by London's Natural History Museum.Amateur photographer Nima Sarikhani took the photo during a three-day expedition off Norway's Svalbard archipelago."This photograph has stirred strong emotions in many of those who have seen it. Whilst climate change is the biggest challenge we face, I hope that this photograph also inspires hope; there is…

Photo: David JosephSometimes, a moment is so fleeting or a scene is so small that not even the fiercest squint can capture it.Thankfully, that’s where cameras—and the photographers that wield them—come in. Today, the winners and finalists of the fifth Close-up Photographer of the Year competition are revealed. Showcasing nature at its smaller scales, the awarded images—selected from nearly 12,000 entries—offer an intimate look at the animal kingdom, fungi, and the remarkable planet that we call home.Here are the winning…

An artificial intelligence (AI)-driven system was autonomously able to learn about some Nobel Prize-winning chemical reactions and design a successful laboratory procedure to make them, new research published in the journal Nature describes. One of the most complex reactions that their creation, named 'Coscientist' by the researchers, was able to pull off pertains to organic chemistry and is known as palladium-catalysed cross couplings, which in 2010 earned its human inventors the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in recognition…

If you find unpacking satisfying and oddly soothing this game is for you. As you may have guessed, the aim of Unpacking is to unpack a character’s belongings and find a place for them in her new home. So on one level, Unpacking is simply a block-fitting puzzle game. But it also reveals a story with every new item you unpack, which makes it a unique and surprisingly immersive game that’s ideal if you’ve been looking for a puzzle game with a difference. Unpacking was created by Witch Beam, an independent game studio based…

Food waste is a big problem. In the US alone, it’s estimated that more than 80 million tons of food goes to waste every year. The iPhone app Too Good To Go aims to reduce some of that waste by connecting businesses that have food to spare with people who want to eat it.Businesses are able to post on the app that they need to get rid of food and people can buy them at a hugely reduced price compared to what they'd usually pay.The kind of food you get deals on with Too Good To Go will depend on the businesses in your area…

The Hugo Award-winning The Murderbot Diaries books from Martha Wells are becoming a 10-episode Apple TV+ series starring Alexander Skarsgård, Apple announced. It will follow a self-aware "SecUnit" robot that must hide its free will in order to complete a dangerous assignment and comes from About a Boy creators Chris and Paul Weitz."Murderbot is an action-packed sci-fi series, based on the award-winning books by Wells, about a self-hacking security android who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable…

Korean films are renowned for their authentic storytelling and impressive plot advancements. Like the booming K-drama business, the Korean cinema industry is gaining significant attention owing to internationally acclaimed films like Concrete Utopia and Academy award-winning movies like Parasite and Minari. This year has witnessed some outstanding Korean films, ranging from intellectually stimulating dramas to adrenaline-pumping action. 2023 is shaping up to be another great year for fans of Korean entertainment as…

Veteran film and stage actor Alan Arkin has died at 89. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe as well as a Tony Award. The cause of death hasn't been revealed yet. (Also Read: Glenda Jackson, two-time Oscar winning actor, dies at 87) Alan Arkin's last role was in Netflix series The Kominsky Method Alan's sons confirmed the newsAlan Arkin's sons Adam, Matthew and Antony offered a joint statement on the family's behalf to People. “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature,…

As It Happens6:09Canadian photographer captures extraordinary beauty of ordinary pigeons with award-winning shotLiron Gertsman usually doesn't bother taking pictures of pigeons.But when he spotted a pair of them preening each other affectionately in White Rock, B.C. — their iridescent green and purple feathers shimmering in the sunlight — he was moved to take out his camera. "I definitely overlooked pigeons for a while. But that changed when I captured this picture because I just saw them shining in a new light," the…