A team of bioengineers has published a paper detailing a potential new contraceptive that protects against both HIV and pregnancy through drug release

A research paper has drawn on data from Nasa and ESA satellites to produce the most comprehensive assessment of ice sheet losses in Antarctica and Greenland to date

A study published by a sociologist has revealed that fear-mongering non-governmental anti-Muslim organisations have been heavily influencing US media since 9/11, their messages seeping into news articles and television reporting, drawing their ethos from the fringes, straight into the mainstream

Bored of the standard printing process, artist Sam van Doorn has created STYN, a playfully chaotic design tool made from lithographic ink and a pinball machine

Apple has begun rolling out the 11th iteration of its iTunes media player and store, and we're digging the redesigned interface, improved search, ability to play content straight from iCloud and sync playback across devices

The strange low-frequency sound recorded across the Pacific in 1997 has turned out to be an icequake, despite rumours it was the distant rumble of Cthulhu awakening

A British student facing trial and potential imprisonment in the United States for hosting links to pirated movies on hits TVShack website has avoided extradition thanks to an unusual deal

The presence of a supermassive black hole with the mass of 17 billion Suns within a compact galaxy could change how we understand galaxy evolution

Not only is Will.i.am's fabled "X Factor for tech entrepreneurs" going ahead, but his love of tech means he's ready to give up "the next 20 years" of his life to consumer eletronics

Each week the group Game The News is taking one of our most popular news stories and developing it into a simple game, under Wired.co.uk's editorial direction. This is one of those games

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has stepped in to request changes to Facebook's revised Data Use Policy

Media companies need to adopt "polymorphic publishing" models where they focus on their audience rather than technology, according to Incisive Media's CEO Tim Weller

Online fashion retailer Net-a-Porter is planning to launch a printed magazine within the next 12 months, according to CEO Mark Sebba, speaking at the Business Leaders Network's Making it Mobile event

On 28 November HitFix reported that Gordon-Levitt might be the new Batman, a rumour that spread like wildfire despite the actor's representatives denying the claim

John Mather, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, stopped by Reddit to talk alien journeys, stars and the James Webb Space Telescope

At Hyper Japan, ITK showed a working prototype of its Kinect-controlled robot hand, "Handroid"

New Yorkers weary of urban inequality have taken it upon themselves to pilfer equipment from luxury development sites in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and redistribute it to those in need. The group is operating offline because of recent government "zeal" for monitoring social network activity

Not content with launch one new console before the end of the year, Nintendo is also going to launch the Wii Mini

In advance of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), the European Parliament has issued a resolution stating that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) should not have control over the web

The Mars Curiosity rover has been nominated for Time magazine's Person of the Year 2012 title

A Swedish startup is launching an app that allows users to automatically connect to friends' and families' Wi-Fi networks via Facebook

The study, led by a team from the University of Bristol's Intelligent Systems Laboratory and the School of Journalism at Cardiff University, used data mining, machine learning and natural language processing techniques to analyse the news content of mainstream media

Molecules discovered in the Horsehead Nebula indicate that the clouds of gas and dust may be home to a massive natural petroleum refinery

YPlan is the latest in last-minute event discovery -- but can an app succeed by foregoing personalisation and tailored recommendations in favour of simplicity?

A proposed research centre at the University of Cambridge will investigate extinction-level threats posed by technological advances

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior has implemented an electronic tracking system that alerts male guardians whenever women under their protection cross the country border by text message

Zurich's Micasa lab has designed a lovely bit of furniture -- the Cocoon 1, a transparent bubble that can be configured to your needs

Charity can be inefficient and opaque, but through technology it can be made transparent and accountable, according to Scott Harrison, founder and CEO of Charity Water, speaking at Wired 2012

This week the team discusses the proposed ban on fully automatic killer robots, the army saving rhinos in South Africa, Europe's plan to visit Mars and the BBC's sad plan to axe the show of some fellow podcasters

The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman has sent a letter to the European Commission asking whether Facebook's adverts breach marketing laws

Interactive "smart" desks have the capacity to improve children's mathematics skills, particularly thanks to their collaborative learning potential

Mannequins fitted with facial recognition software are tracking the age, sex and race of retail customers so that companies can rebrand and market their stores accordingly

The Mine Kafon is a concept for a wind-powered minesweeper, or an artificial tumbleweed that can -- through the serendipity of the wind's random gusts -- clear a blight from the land that kills and maims hundreds each year

Reuters reports that the 35-year-old was found in possession of "nine million data files containing identification card data, addresses, tax ID numbers and licence plate numbers", which he was also suspected of trying to sell

There's being a fan of the Zelda series and then there's being in the Zelda Project: a collective of cosplayers who are bringing Link to life in photos from the greatest film never made. They're working on changing that, though

Check out our latest job vacancy.

Dogs learning to associate words with objects appear to shun human shape-based strategies, instead looking for items of a similar size and texture

In the second of my scooter group tests, after looking at the Switfy One last week, I'm looking at a more traditional Micro Scooter

The European Space Agency's member nations have prioritised a Mars mission over a trip to the Moon as part of the Naples council at ministerial level negotiations

We could learn a lot from the ancient Mayans' adoption of and approach to big data analysis, says Hitachi's chief technology officer

The BBC is going to axe popular radio programme "The Naked Scientists" because apparently science isn't appropriate for local radio. This is a terrible and concerning decision

Scotch tape strips thinned by lasers have been used to create a tiny robotic claw capable of sampling water

Wired.co.uk catches up with Okan Kaya, who this week broke the Guinness World Record for the longest ever videogame marathon, eventually clocking 135 hours and 50 minutes

Just like white noise and white light, white smells feature components from across the sense spectrum, overwhelming the nose and smelling as close to neutral as possible

Nanoscale structures capable of separating light into colours and rainbows have been developed by researchers in King's College London's biophysics and nanotechnology group

A midlife crisis may be a clichéd expectation for many humans, but a new study claims to have found evidence that orangutans and chimpanzees also experience a dip in "happiness" during the middle years of their lives

An upcoming paper by a political scientist will claim that in 40 years time world conflict will plummet, with the greatest decrease occurring in the Middle East

London is the world's seventh most influential startup ecosystem, after Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Boston, according to a piece of research called The Startup Ecosystem Report 2012

Impossible, a platform that encourages people to do things for each other for free, could bring a huge amount of social value, argued founder and former model Lily Cole at Wired 2012