Tech and Science Daily | The Standard

As we approach Christmas we’re being reminded to look into the privacy of the tech we buy. The company behind Firefox, Mozilla, has released its annual list of tech products which may put users’ privacy at risk. Researchers have found the Omicron variant multiplies 70 times faster than the Delta Variant. The team in Hong Kong also found it replicates less well in human lung tissue which could indi...

NASA says its Parker Solar Probe has become the first to ‘touch the sun’. It’s Parker Solar Probe has successfully flown into the sun’s Solar Atmosphere, Dr Francisco Diego from UCL explains what the probe can learn from the sun, and why it’s so important. Plus - British astronaut Tim Peake issues a warning about space debris. Why Apple and Google have a ‘duopoloy’ over the smartphone market. Scie...

Experts at the University of Southampton are trialling a new covid vaccine that doesn’t require a needle, and could prove more effective than current jabs. Their vaccine instead uses a jet of air to give patients their dose. Scientists at the uni say it’s also designed to predict mutations in the virus, and could protect against future variants. MPs have called for ‘major changes’ to the draft Onl...

A UK robotics firm Elon Musk must sent viral on the weekend, now wants to work on his Tesla Bot project. Elon retweeted a video by Engineered Arts, showing off their hyper-realistic robot ‘Ameca’. We speak to Will Jackson from the company about their plea to Elon for a collaboration. Peleton have responded AGAIN to Sex and the City’s recent bombshell with their own parody advert. Crypto news:...

An asteroid over 1,000ft tall is due to pass Earth this weekend at over 14,700mph. Omicron: masks are back almost everywhere indoors in England. Elon Musk: influencer? Botox jabs cheating row leads to bans at Saudi ‘Crufts for camels’ pageant. Squashed in space...how sleeping bags could stop damage to astronauts’ eyeballs. Species relying on hydrothermal ‘lungs of the deep sea’ at extinction risk...

The World Health Organisation reports the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has now spread to 57 countries. UCL Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of the government’s SAGE advisory group, warns the strain's doubling time of two to three days is “very fast” and we can expect “a very large peak”. Game Awards 2021: what game has impressed you for its technical capabilities? And why the computer scie...

Research by the University of Westminster and University College London suggests patients will more likely reveal delicate health conditions such as STIs to an AI chatbot, but still want an IRL doctor to discuss cancer. Matrix Resurrections title to be released at Game Awards, but is that really Keanu in trailer? Halo Infinite set for release - how much free storage space will you need? No digital...

Is a new Sonic the Hedgehog game called Frontiers on the horizon? speculation for an announcement is around the Game Awards this week. Mina Smallman, the mother of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, has spoken out after two police officers were jailed for taking pictures of her dead daughters and sharing them on WhatsApp. Omicron: South Africa data ‘suggests variant results in less...

Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, one of the inventors of the coronavirus Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, urges governments not to squander preparedness learning to fight future pandemics. We speak to TikTok on Year of 2021 who reveal the popularity of Nathan Evans and PinkPantheress...but is this a career option? Bitcoin bloodbath: crypto limps into Monday after weekend crash. Nasa approves $400 million...

SpaceX has broken its own record for the number of rockets sent to space in a single year. The latest Starlink launch from Florida marks the 27th for Elon Musk’s private space firm in 2021 - beating the 26 it achieved last year. Experts say booster jabs can offer a good level of protection against the new Omicron variant of coronavirus - a new study suggests it may provide protection from hos...

Meta has reversed its ban on cryptocurrency ads across its platforms - creating a huge boost for the crypto economy. Jack Dorsey’s Square is changing its name to ‘Block’ and major cryptocurrency firms will be questioned by the US Congress for the first time. Scientists believe they’ve found ‘the trigger’ which causes extremely rare blood clots with the AstraZeneca vaccine and Pfizer boss...

The scientist behind the Pfizer jab has told the public not to ‘freak out’ over Omicron. Dr Ugur Sahin, the co-founder of BioNTech, stressed that it is likely vaccines will still provide protection against the variant. Women’s safety campaigners have launched a petition to bolster the UK Online Safety Bill. Seyi Akiwowo, CEO of Glitch - a UK charity that aims to end online abuse particularly...

Markets have fallen after the Moderna chief executive said that existing covid vaccines will struggle with Omicron. WHO Covid-19 special envoy for vaccine research, Dr Samba Sow, tells us what we know so far about the variant. We find out about the new Twitter boss - Parag Agrawal - after the departure of the tech giant’s co-founder Jack Dorsey. The mystery of ‘where the Earth’s water co...

Online retailers look set for a happy Cyber Monday, after data suggested Black Friday sales are currently on track to beat the last two years. A vaccine chief says that all adults in Britain are to be offered booster jabs to step up the battle against the Omicron Covid-19 variant. We hear from astronomer, presenter and author VirtualAstro about how anyone can get into stargazing and you...

It’s the day we’ve been waiting for - Black Friday - but across the UK, Extinction Rebellion’s been blockading 13 Amazon warehouses. An XR spokesperson claims the action is to draw attention to the e-retail giant’s “exploitative” practices, as well as the “wastefulness” the cyber sales extravaganza. But if you want to find a good deal, we’ve spoken to Katie Watts from Money Saving Expert. Covid: a...

Following NASA’s successful mission to deflect an asteroid, an astronomer working on the mission has told us how likely a collision is, and why we need to be prepared. Professor Alan Fitzsimmons also discusses the second phase of investigations, which comes after the rocket collides with the asteroid Dimorphos. India is expected to ban almost all private cryptocurrencies. It’s as leaders in the co...

NASA has officially launched its first ever asteroid deflection mission. The space agency’s ‘DART’ rocket launched from California, and is due to reach its target in September next year. The mission is a trial in case of space rock heads towards Earth in future. We speak to the team behind Robot 'teleport' tech that lets you hug loved ones anywhere in the world. New guidance has been issued f...

We speak to the Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca who says they're working on new antibodies to help better protect vulnerable people from covid-19 for around 12 months. It’s as the pharmaceutical giant opens a brand new £1billion Research and Development centre in Cambridge. It’s designed for a range of projects involving AI technology and advanced robotics. Good news for IBS patients: stud...

Spotify has stopped shuffling albums automatically after a request from Adele. She’s called on the streaming service to make the change, so music fans can listen to the tracklisting as it was intended. Some Tesla drivers were literally locked out of the cars over the weekend. It’s after an outage struck the app - which was promptly fixed. President of El Salvador outlines plans for volcano-powered...

The Swedish musician is building copyright software with fellow producers, using £1 million funding from Spotify and YouTube. New star wars: US Space Force satellite jammers to knock out Chinese and Russian comms. Climate change conspiracies appeared on Facebook during Cop26 eco summit. We’ll hunt criminals down with your Fitbit data, Scotland Yard warns...but could it frame the innocent? Dyson la...

Thousands of people living with HIV will be eligible for the six times-a-year shots, so they’ll no longer need daily pills to keep viral load low. Apple right-to-repair bombshell: what does it mean for your iPhone, and why is this happening now after so much pushback? Biggest space ship in history set for orbital launch in New Year, teases Elon Musk. A deceased rhino is helping scientists to save...

The e-retailer says UK-based Visa credit customers cannot buy goods after 19 January in a Brexit-based commissions row - we speak to the Evening Standard’s City Editor Oscar Williams-Grut on what this means for customers. Resident Evil Village and Call of Duty: Warzone in running for Game Awards 2021 amid pandemic surge in console purchases. Dog and bone for 21st century...meet Dr Ilyenag Hirskyj-...

Panic as Moscow defence chiefs bomb old space hardware 280 miles above Earth into 1,500-chunk shrapnel cloud, sending seven on ISS scrambling for ‘lifeboat’ escape pods. Xbox at 20: What are the 70-plus classic titles Microsoft has repurposed for newer consoles? Netflix hit Tiger King to be turned into five-act mini-opera. Are you ready to clock-on for work in the metaverse? Bitcoin has major upgr...

Microsoft is celebrating 20 years of its Xbox console on Monday, and it could be time to dust off your very old 360 CDs because the company’s also updating some of its relatively ancient titles. World’s biggest spaceship fires up all engines for first time. China’s developing a mega-ship able to launch satellites into space and retrieve boosters from ocean. The 1.5C global heating pledge is ‘barel...

Adele and Ed Sheeran’s impact on the vinyl shortage means that smaller artists face an even bigger wait when it comes to pressing. A lack of availability of materials and supply chain issues means there’s currently a global backlog. Couldn’t the big guys just use an NFT? Scientists say that an asteroid near Earth is actually a chunk of the Moon and researchers have found a way to make sustainable,...