- One million tonnes of rock have been blasted from the top of a mountain in Chile, South America. The explosion was done to make a flat spot to build the world’s biggest ever telescope, called the European Extremely Large Telescope. The telescope will have a mirror about half the size of a football pitch. It will be made up of nearly 800 hexagon-shaped parts and will allow scientists to see deeper into space than ever before. It’s hoped astronomers will be able to see the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, and also to find other Earth-like planets which might have forms of life. The plan is for the Extremely Large Telescope to start working within the next 10 years.
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- Being allowed to play computer games in school lessons sounds too good to be true. But more than 200 UK schools are using a specially adapted version of the popular game Minecraft to help pupils to learn. Minecraft is set in a virtual world where players build with blocks of different materials. At one school, children play the game and then write stories inspired by their experience. Teachers using the game say it can help get kids who don’t like books to do more reading and writing.
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- A ‘kill switch’ feature that disables stolen mobiles is being added to Google Android and Microsoft Windows phones. It’s hoped this will mean fewer phones are taken because it helps to make the phones useless to thieves. It works by the phone owner sending a signal to their device after it’s stolen. Apple and Samsung already have similar features on certain devices. But some experts warn that thieves could get around the ‘kill switch’, or that the signal might not get through. If the phone is switched off or in aeroplane mode for example, the signal might not be received. Around 300,000 mobile phones are stolen and reported to the police in the UK every year.
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- One Direction star Louis Tomlinson has been talking about his takeover of Doncaster Rovers football club. It’s been confirmed that the 1D singer is jointly buying the club with businessman John Ryan, who’s a former chairman of the League One side. Louis was born in Doncaster and is a lifelong Rovers fan. He played for the club’s reserve side earlier this year. Louis said: “I’m willing to put a lot of time in… It’s such a big passion and I want to hopefully make a difference.” He also said he wants to give young people in Don caster an opportunity.
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- The giant online retailer Amazon has revealed a new smartphone capable of showing images in 3D. Ground-breaking technology in the phone allows its four front facing cameras to track your face and adjust images on the screen to make them look three dimensional. Now on sale in America it costs the same amount as an iPhone or Samsung smart phone. HTC and LG produced their own 3D phones in 2011, but these only used 3D filters in the screen, and didn’t do very well. Amazon’s 3D phone alters the images depending on the position of your face