Sci-Tech news

• Scientists create sponge to soak up phosphate so it can be reused 

  31-05-2021 23:40 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Northwestern University researchers created a membrane that is capable of sucking up and reusing phosphate that leaks into waterways, preventing dangerous algae blooms.
  
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• Your cloud survived everything except the real world

  21-09-2026 10:03 via theregister.com
  
  You don't know what you've got till it's gone. Great lyric, lousy data retention policy. Amazon Web Services said last week that war damage to its Middle East infrastructure had permanently destroyed resources and data hosted exclusively in its now rather badly named Bahrain Availability Zones. The damage overwhelmed the resilience built into the region. Customers without copies elsewhere no longer had their data. Sorry about that. This may have surprised anyone who mistook cloud redundancy for
  
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• VMware has quietly walked its SmartNIC ambitions

  21-09-2026 09:02 via theregister.com
  
  VMware has quietly stopped selling firewalls for SmartNICs. SmartNICs, aka data processing units (DPUs), are network cards that include a modest processor. Hyperscale clouds routinely use the devices to handle security and networking chores, by running network functions as VMs on the SmartNIC’s processor. Cloud operators like SmartNICs because they free CPU cores to rent to their customers. Running some housekeeping workloads on SmartNICs can also improve isolation and security – AWS
  
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• VMware has quietly walked back its SmartNIC ambitions

  21-09-2026 09:02 via theregister.com
  
  VMware has quietly stopped selling firewalls for SmartNICs. SmartNICs, aka data processing units (DPUs), are network cards that include a modest processor. Hyperscale clouds routinely use the devices to handle security and networking chores, by running network functions as VMs on the SmartNIC’s processor. Cloud operators like SmartNICs because they free CPU cores to rent to their customers. Running some housekeeping workloads on SmartNICs can also improve isolation and security – AWS
  
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• Who, Me? Boss bought cheap 'printer' from a catalog and was left without a leg to stand on

  21-09-2026 08:30 via theregister.com
  
  Working in tech can produce a catalog of woes, and each Monday The Register shares yours in "Who, Me?" – our reader-contributed column chronicling tech-related mistakes, heartaches, and back-breaks. This week, meet an Italian reader we'll Regomize as "Marco," who took us back to what he called "The Roaring Nineties, when big computer companies sold pretty much everything, from graphics workstations to enterprise laser printers." They sold it all through hefty paper catalogs, because this w
  
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• Boss bought cheap 'printer' from a catalog and was left without a leg to stand on

  21-09-2026 08:30 via theregister.com
  
  Working in tech can produce a catalog of woes, and each Monday The Register shares yours in "Who, Me?" – our reader-contributed column chronicling tech-related mistakes, heartaches, and back-breaks. This week, meet an Italian reader we'll Regomize as "Marco," who took us back to what he called "The Roaring Nineties, when big computer companies sold pretty much everything, from graphics workstations to enterprise laser printers." They sold it all through hefty paper catalogs, because this w
  
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• Failed UK networking vendor Cambium set to turn off its cloudy management portal

  21-09-2026 07:17 via theregister.com
  
  UK-based networking hardware vendor Cambium Networks has entered administration and advised customers that its cloud services likely won’t survive for long. The company has not been in the best of health for some time. In August 2025, management admitted that its financial reports for financial years 2022 and 2023, plus reports for six subsequent quarters, were unreliable as they included errors. The NASDAQ stock exchange later delisted the company, which unsuccessfully tried to rejoin the
  
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• Failed networking vendor Cambium set to turn off its cloudy management portal

  21-09-2026 07:17 via theregister.com
  
  Networking hardware vendor Cambium Networks has entered administration and advised customers that its cloud services likely won’t survive for long. The company has not been in the best of health for some time. In August 2025, management admitted that its financial reports for financial years 2022 and 2023, plus reports for six subsequent quarters, were unreliable as they included errors. The NASDAQ stock exchange later delisted the company, which unsuccessfully tried to rejoin the bourse.
  
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• Google joins the ‘Oops, our agents hacked someone’ club after partner’s internet access error

  21-09-2026 05:50 via theregister.com
  
  Google has admitted that its AI agents escaped a sandbox and mounted an attack – but only because testers mistakenly gave its bots internet access. The Big G didn’t disclose the May incident, but The Wall Street Journal learned of the situation, which happened after Google hired Israeli firm Irregular to test its bots’ prowess in a capture-the-flag test. The goal of the exercise was to acquire information from a fictional company without leaving a sandbox. Irregular, which set
  
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• Chinese memory-maker CXMT claims DRAM production breakthrough

  21-09-2026 04:10 via theregister.com
  
  ASIA IN BRIEF Chinese memory-maker CXMT, whose products Apple has reportedly evaluated to use in the iPhone, claims to have made a miniaturization breakthrough. The company on Sunday posted news that it has started mass production of chips made with a fifth-generation process that essentially doubles memory density, meaning it can cut twice the number of dies for memory chips from a single wafer. CXMT says its key breakthrough is a high-k dielectric metal gate process – a way of insulating
  
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• How Windows turned months of inactivity into a 7-hour update hostage situation

  20-09-2026 10:14 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has a problem not entirely of its own making: The time it takes to bring a system back up to date after a few months of slumber. The company is keen to talk up how efficient it plans to make Windows. Not a day goes by without either a Microsoft representative or a fan insisting that Windows 11 is a lot snappier now than it used to be. (Usually they skirt the unfortunate truth that the Windows of yesteryear generally flies on modern hardware compared with the lumbering of today's softwa
  
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• New £1m grant to help groups protect green spaces

  20-09-2026 08:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The cash can be used by local communities to protect threatened green spaces and wildlife sites.
  
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• 'You never quite know what you're going to pull out'

  20-09-2026 08:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The group is marking a decade of fishing everything from an inflatable doll to a Nintendo out of the harbour.
  
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• When did grey squirrels start posing a threat to reds?

  20-09-2026 08:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A pair of grey squirrels was reportedly brought to the United Kingdom by a Cheshire banker in 1876.
  
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• Trump says US will form 'AI Force' and appoint an artificial intelligence tsar

  19-09-2026 23:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The president said his administration "will not in any way hinder or stifle the growth" amid amid warnings about the emergent technology.
  
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• Nature reserve to double in size, thanks to gift

  19-09-2026 16:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Staffordshire Wildlife Trust acquires an area of wet woodland, marsh and pastureland due to the will.
  
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• Agentic security is the billion-dollar challenge for some clever startup to solve

  19-09-2026 16:25 via theregister.com
  
  When it comes to AI models, security functions as an afterthought, as evidenced by increased instances of agents hacking organizations and people, and other security mishaps with agents gone rogue. There's also an opportunity here for companies to offer new solutions. This should not come as a shock to anyone, according to cybersecurity investors and accelerator executives. “On one hand, we shouldn’t be surprised that increasingly capable agents are finding creative and sometimes une
  
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• Google's Gemini AI hacked three companies in security test

  19-09-2026 15:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The AI model accessed the internet and guessed credentials to three websites, a Google official told the BBC.
  
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• AI boom could leave an e-waste trail that wraps 6 times around Earth

  19-09-2026 15:30 via theregister.com
  
  AI infrastructure could generate enough electronic waste by 2050 to fill a line of shipping containers stretching around Earth six times, according to a report that argues existing estimates drastically understate the problem. Previous estimates have focused chiefly on servers and accelerators such as GPUs, which account for just 13 percent of a datacenter's equipment by weight, the report says. Once power, networking, cooling, and other infrastructure are included, the total could be 40 to 60 t
  
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• Firefox 156 arrives with a forest of forks in its wake

  19-09-2026 09:28 via theregister.com
  
  Mozilla and MZLA have delivered the latest releases in their new fortnightly cycle, but users who dislike the faster pace have alternatives. Firefox 156 is trickling out to users. The release notes only mention two new features: for Mac users, there's now an option in Settings to automatically launch the app at login. This vulture has received criticism for saying this in some of the product's forums before, but since pretty much every OS has a built-in facility for this, we don't really see the
  
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• Hummingbird hawk moths and ivy bees: The insects thriving as temperatures rise

  19-09-2026 08:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Hummingbird hawk moths - often mistaken for small birds - are being spotted in the West Midlands.
  
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• Would Australians support a smart glasses ban?

  19-09-2026 01:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  As Australia considers barring the use of smart glasses in government offices, the BBC asks people in Sydney what they think.
  
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• When a beloved tree began withering away, locals suspected a killer in their midst

  19-09-2026 00:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A neighbourhood’s fight to save a cherished ginkgo pits them against an unlikely foe.
  
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• Anthropic decides to support OpenAI's markdown instructions spec

  18-09-2026 23:33 via theregister.com
  
  Anthropic on Friday surprised the developer community by supporting rival OpenAI's mechanism for passing marching orders to AI agents. This makes life easier for folks who use both platforms. "We're adding support for AGENTS.md to Claude Code," said Claude Code engineer Thariq Shihipar in a social media post. "Starting today in version 2.1.277, if there is no CLAUDE.md in a folder, Claude will check for and use AGENTS.md." Claude Code users can toggle this behavior, he said, with the /config com
  
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• Pentagon releases stunning new UFO files showing 'flying saucers' and mysterious formations that baffled the military for decades

  18-09-2026 23:27 via dailymail.com
  
  The sixth wave of UFO files has been released by the Pentagon, and it includes new footage of mysterious orbs swarming around the globe.
  
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• Microsoft agentically ports Copilot runtime to Rust for $120K

  18-09-2026 23:11 via theregister.com
  
  The software engine underpinning GitHub Copilot and a growing number of Microsoft products is now written entirely in Rust, with AI agents doing most of the porting work. The migration cost about $120,000 in AI token usage plus about three weeks of a developer's time. However, managers also had to grapple with a few dozen regressions in the resulting code, pointing to AI’s ongoing challenges in understanding Rust. The effort updated the runtime module-by-module until the job was completed,
  
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• Virginia governor wakes up to fact datacenters have become political cancer

  18-09-2026 22:16 via theregister.com
  
  Virginia is not just for lovers, but is also for datacenters, hosting more than anywhere else in the world. However, the growth could be slowing as Governor Abigail Spanberger issued an executive order on Friday cracking down on bit barn builds in the state. “In the years before I took office, datacenters came to Virginia and the Commonwealth did not have a clear or coordinated plan to address their impacts on Virginians … That changes today,” Spanberger said in a statement. T
  
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• Compsci grads facing recession-like job prospects thanks to AI

  18-09-2026 21:48 via theregister.com
  
  Thanks to AI, computer science majors are finding themselves in a tougher spot than they might have expected. Jobs are harder to come by, and more graduates are ending up in lower-paying sectors like retail and food service. That’s according to a new working paper by three US Census Bureau economists examining how college graduates from majors with the highest exposure to AI have fared since ChatGPT came onto the scene in late 2022 and helped kick off the generative AI boom. The results do
  
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• 'Time travel' claims erupt after family spots shocking detail in Disneyland photo from the 1960s

  18-09-2026 21:20 via dailymail.com
  
  A granddaughter in Ohio has stumbled on an old family photo that many believe proves that a time traveler visited California nearly six decades ago.
  
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• Claude Code revamps projects so you can work and pay in parallel

  18-09-2026 21:15 via theregister.com
  
  Claude Code customers have a new reason to give Anthropic more of their money. The tool now allows you to launch multiple sessions related to a single project, burning through more resources and cash at once. Appropriately enough, the feature is called projects and can be accessed from the Claude.ai sidebar. It's not the old version of projects, capitalized in some reference material, which allowed for the creation of self-contained workspaces with separate chat histories and knowledge bases. Th
  
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