Tech and Science Daily | The Standard

Al brings you today’s Tech and Science Daily from The Standard. We cover a push for a more interventionist UK cyber strategy, new findings on barriers to international digital identity, a quantum photonics milestone involving light drift, early-stage research into an intranasal vaccine approach, and the latest Xbox Game Pass arrivals and departures. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Today, the MHRA puts the brakes on the UK’s PATHWAYS puberty blocker trial work while safety concerns get addressed, the UK’s space-weather mission heads toward its launch site (because satellites don’t protect themselves), and NASA’s Artemis II rocket gets rolled back for more fixes — yes, really. After that: a quick cyber patch warning, a punchy Arc Raiders update, and Samsung’s Unpacked week la...

TfL gets an advert banned by the ASA for reinforcing a harmful stereotype, while the UK moves to force platforms to remove abusive intimate images within 48 hours — or face serious penalties. After the break, we hit the global AI acceleration story, and a proper gaming palate-cleanser with a big Avowed update. More on all of it at standard.co.uk — and follow Tech and Science Daily from The Standar...

London finally starts putting the brakes on pedicab chaos — licences, checks, and fare caps that might save tourists from heartbreak and the rest of us from the noise. Outside the M25, a Bristol engineer builds a sensor-packed insole designed to spot dodgy gait changes before they turn into nasty falls. Then it’s full sci-fi: Microsoft shows off laser-written glass storage that could keep data saf...

Waymo’s robotaxis are already causing aggro by plugging into black-cab-only charging bays, the Tube gets hit with “SMS blaster” scam tech, and the UK tells businesses to “lock the door” on cyber criminals. Plus, a major quantum result finally makes elusive Majorana qubits readable in real time, and Discord’s teen-by-default settings roll out globally with age checks on the horizon. For more head t...

Imperial researchers report early-but-serious results for a psychedelic-assisted depression treatment, while UK scientists kick off about research funding uncertainty. After the break, it’s the “update your browser right now” Chrome zero-day, a fresh Artemis II countdown rehearsal date from NASA, and in gaming, John Wick steps out in a suit and into an untitled new action game. Plus: Apple tees up...

The government’s proposing a first-ever official Thames bathing spot at Ham and Kingston — which is either progress or the start of a new kind of group chat argument. Then: the UK moves to pull AI chatbots into the Online Safety net, with child-safety rules catching up to fast-moving tech. Also, Oxford researchers find public support for health-data sharing for AI is real — but only if the safegua...

King’s College London says loose fabric can track movement better than skin-tight sensors, meaning your next health tracker might be… a shirt button. Then we’ve got the UK pushing telecoms giants to bin surprise mid-contract price hikes (about time), plus Microsoft scrambling to patch Windows and Office bugs that hackers are already exploiting. After that: China tests new Moon-mission hardware, an...

TfL’s talking upgrades for 2026 — the sort that decides whether your commute is “fine” or “character-building”. Over in the US, Instagram’s “endless scroll” is being argued over in court, while Samsung confirms Galaxy Unpacked for 25 February, and Steam quietly tries to stop Early Access from promising the moon. More at standard.co.uk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TfL starts trialling new bus shelter designs across the city — brighter, safer, and hopefully less bleak in the rain. Then the UK competition regulator gets Apple and Google to commit to fairer app store rules, before we head to Exeter where scientists are gene-editing wax moths to speed up infection research and tackle antimicrobial resistance. After the break: an ancient fossil find that rewrite...

Today on Tech and Science Daily from The Standard : the UK sets out new measures aimed at protecting universities from foreign interference, as concerns grow about pressure on researchers and sensitive collaboration. Plus, a record-setting DDoS attack is linked to the AISURU/Kimwolf botnet — a reminder that insecure everyday devices can end up powering serious cyber disruption. And in gaming, Sony...

We're kicking the week off by reverse-engineering spider silk like it’s no big deal. We’ve got King’s College scientists explaining the tiny “molecular stickers” that help make nature’s toughest fibres… After the break, OpenAI launches Frontier — the latest attempt to turn “AI agents” into something your workplace can actually deploy — plus a gaming exclusivity wrinkle with Nioh 3 and a consumer g...

Al’s back with your London-first tech and science sprint. Sutton just waved through a £1bn expansion of the London Cancer Hub — yes, it’s labs, but also somehow a pub and padel court. Then we hit the UK’s Data (Use and Access) Act updates landing today , before a quick detour into a promising new CAR-T-style cancer treatment result (mouse-mode, but still exciting). After the break: NASA’s Artemis...

Today: a Lancet study puts an AI stethoscope through its paces in 205 London GP surgeries — aiming to catch serious heart conditions earlier. The government’s dropped a brand-new National Cancer Plan for England , with big survival targets and big promises. Plus, the International AI Safety Report 2026 lands with fresh warnings about deepfakes and rising risk… before we lighten it up with a next-g...

For this episode of Brave New World, Evgeny is joined by psychologist, author, and researcher Dr Jim Fadiman, a central figure in the modern understanding of psychedelics, who also goes by the “father of microdosing”. Drawing on decades of research and thousands of user reports, the conversation traces the history of psychedelics - from early scientific study in the 1950s and 60s, through prohibit...

Alan Leers is on with your weekday tech-and-science fix from London. Today: a new Imperial-led study asks if Boots and Tesco loyalty card data — from consenting volunteers — could help spot early cancer warning signs sooner. Plus, why handwriting is making a comeback (yes, really), Valheim celebrates five years of Viking chaos, and Notepad++ issues a sobering reminder that software updates need pr...

Alan Leer is on mic in London, and today’s briefing is basically: cleaner transport, messier politics, and the internet doing internet things. West Ealing to Greenford becomes the unlikely star of the show as a battery-only train starts carrying passengers. Then it’s a UK science funding wobble, before we head online: Google says it’s smashed a massive proxy network, and an antivirus update story...

TfL’s flirting with the idea of dragging the Overground out to Stevenage — because apparently we’re collecting Hertfordshire now. The Online Safety Act hits a new phase as Pornhub says it’ll block new UK users unless they verify their age, and we look at the bigger question everyone’s dodging: what happens when “free” telly (Freeview) starts to look like an expensive legacy network with a 2034 off...

Guy’s and St Thomas’ starts trialling AI plus robot-guided tools to speed up lung cancer diagnosis — less waiting, more answers. Up the country, the MoD pushes forward “wingman drones” designed to fly alongside Apache helicopters, because 2026 is really leaning into the sci-fi timeline. Then we swerve hard into gaming: Terraria drops its massive Bigger and Boulder update, Steam owner Valve gets pu...

Today, the NHS is eyeing drones to move urgent pathology samples across south-west London — because the South Circular simply cannot be trusted. We’ve also got a new Oxford estimate putting a chunky price tag on how cold snaps and heat spikes quietly strain the NHS, plus a battery-recycling method that tries to do three jobs at once. Then it’s a quick hop into gaming with Arc Raiders’ latest roadm...

We’ve got a brand-new hub landing in the capital, while the UK government tries to make public-sector data actually useful, and throws serious horsepower at Cambridge to power it all. Plus: NASA’s Artemis II crew goes into quarantine, because the Moon doesn’t wait for your sniffles. After the break, it’s a reminder to respect your password manager (Under Armour breach), a big AI law move out of So...

London’s picked up another “start-up friendly” badge, and we're quietly asking whether that translates into anything real for founders beyond bragging rights. We also head to CERN, where an €860 million pledge is sharpening the focus on what comes next for big, headline-grabbing particle physics, and the very practical tech that tends to spill out of it. After the break, it’s a proper cybersecurit...

For episode five of Brave New World , Evgeny is joined by Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences - the company working on de-extinction and species preservation, including its flagship woolly mammoth project. Together, they explore what “bringing back” an extinct species actually means in practice: rebuilding fragmented ancient DNA, comparing it to a close living relative (the Asian...

Alan Leer is in the host seat in London, watching the Sun kick off like it pays rent here — a severe space-weather event has operators on satellite-watch and grid-watch. Back on the ground, Brick Lane’s Truman Brewery row turns into the most modern London argument imaginable: do we prioritise homes, or the server farms that keep the city’s digital heartbeat going? Meanwhile, the EU moves toward fo...

Alan Leer on the mic from London with a security-flavoured tech-and-science roundup: the government green-lights China’s mega-embassy by the Tower with data-cable nerves in the background, OpenAI makes ChatGPT guess who’s under 18, and researchers remind us quantum computers aren’t magically “unhackable” — they’re just expensive and complicated. Plus, Riot’s 2XKO finally lands on console, and ther...