Research & Development news

• UK to invest £100m in 'world first' AI Biosecurity Lab

  24-10-2026 02:05 via BBC News
  
  The chancellor will unveil AI spending aimed at shoring up the UK's defences in Wednesday's Budget.
  
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• The Download: testing six tech promises and biotech’s blind spots

  23-10-2026 14:10 via MIT Technology Review
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.Are we there yet? A reality check on six big tech promisesSome seemingly impossible feats are too good to give up on. Decoding a pet’s yowls and yips? Absolutely. Scrubbing the world of forever chemicals? Yes, please. Rocketing to Mars in a fraction of the time? Sounds great, but how close are we, really?In the new Impossible issue of MIT Technology Revie
  
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• 'It's been relentless' say IT workers on frontline of PHP cyber-security scramble

  23-10-2026 14:00 via BBC News
  
  IT and cyber experts have told the BBC about their struggles in the last 48 hours to update their systems.
  
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• In the biotech world, you can’t see everything

  23-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Earlier this week, I attended a screening of You Can See Everything, the buzzy new documentary about the disgraced former biotech CEO Elizabeth Holmes. I went in not really knowing what to expect. I’d avoided spoilers (and won’t be giving anything away here, either!). I was wondering what new information this film could reveal, given how familiar many of us are with the Theranos story thanks to years of media coverage, the best-selling book Bad Blood, and the Hulu series The Dropout, starr
  
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• The Indian workers filming their work to train AI

  23-10-2026 10:04 via BBC News
  
  Indian workers are being paid to film themselves at work and the footage is used to train AI.
  
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• Designing an AI serving harness built to last

  22-10-2026 23:17 via MIT Technology Review
  
  The next competitive advantage in enterprise AI has less to do with which model you choose than with what you build around it.That’s an important shift. For the past several years, much of the AI conversation has centered on model capability: bigger models, better reasoning, larger context windows, higher benchmark scores. Those advances have been extraordinary. But as AI moves from experimentation to production, the question facing enterprise leaders has changed—it’s no longer, “what ca
  
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• The Foundations of Scalable AI

  22-10-2026 20:48 via MIT Technology Review
  
  A scalable AI system requires a strong foundation. Data, engineering, platforms, operating models, and governance must converge to work as one. This session from MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Future conference explores what it takes to build that foundation in a highly regulated environment and how a responsible, trustworthy implementation can turn emerging capabilities, including agentic systems, into lasting value for investors.About the speakerJing Wang, Principal, Center for AI and Insig
  
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• Zuckerberg wins Meta deal to help him foot bill for possible California billionaire tax

  22-10-2026 20:26 via BBC News
  
  The Meta boss had said he would exit the state over a wealth tax that has not yet come into force.
  
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• Race to update services' computer systems after cyber-security flaw found

  22-10-2026 19:12 via BBC News
  
  Websites were taken offline after the developers of programming language PHP said "critical vulnerabilities" had been discovered.
  
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• The Download: computing’s next leap and permafrost’s climate threat

  22-10-2026 14:10 via MIT Technology Review
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.How far can we push computing?On a December evening in 1959, the physicist Richard Feynman gave a lecture called “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” There is no physical law stopping us from writing the entire Encyclopædia Britannica on the head of a pin, he argued. We simply had not built the tools yet.He was right, and for decades, computing to
  
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• What is PHP and why did it spark a global cyber-security scramble?

  22-10-2026 13:15 via BBC News
  
  AI uncovered long-hidden programming flaws, triggering a rare global cyber-security response.
  
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• Zoe Kleinman: PHP is the cyber equivalent of an unexploded bomb

  22-10-2026 12:17 via BBC News
  
  It has been a dramatic, public and global response, but the cyber event hasn't happened yet.
  
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• '500 new vulnerabilities' found in government, says AI minister

  22-10-2026 12:08 via BBC News
  
  '500 new vulnerabilities' found in government, says AI minister
  
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• Three things you should know about permafrost

  22-10-2026 12:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  How much do you know about permafrost?Maybe, like me, you’ve been aware that this layer of frozen soil is thawing, that it’s important in the global puzzle of climate change … and that’s about the extent of it.  The great news for both of us is that my colleague James Temple just published two in-depth stories about permafrost. His reporting took him to the boreal forests of Alaska, where he helicoptered into the wilderness to learn more about how this material could affect our climat
  
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• Making the case for context-aware AI

  22-10-2026 12:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Enterprise AI can generate recommendations, automate tasks, and help organizations make decisions faster. But without an understanding of how a business actually operates, even powerful models can miss the constraints and relationships that determine whether a decision is the right one. As companies look to move AI from experimentation into everyday operations, the challenge ahead is giving technology the context to act usefully within complex business processes.For Devavrat Shah, chief scientis
  
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• AI’s hidden storage bill: What inference leaves behind

  22-10-2026 10:41 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Ask most executives to picture the cost of AI and they’ll likely see GPUs—racks of accelerators with gigawatts of power—and a waitlist for silicon. But that picture leaves something out: Data storage costs.What happens to data after a model responds? Much of the back-end data that’s generated—from billions of daily prompts, images, and videos—needs to be stored. But data storage is one of the harder infrastructure costs to plan for, and it’s often overlooked in initial AI infrastru
  
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• UK working to identify exposure after global cyber-security warning

  22-10-2026 10:23 via BBC News
  
  Governments and companies are scrambling to protect their websites, as Amazon says it experienced attacks before the warning was made public.
  
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• Trump's green card curbs test Indian tech workers' American dream

  22-10-2026 01:06 via BBC News
  
  With immigration curbs and tech firms cutting foreign hiring, US residency is becoming a distant dream for many Indians.
  
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• Why is Elon Musk plotting a mega-merger of SpaceX and Tesla?

  22-10-2026 01:04 via BBC News
  
  Musk says there's "a lot to be gained" by combining the firms in what would be the biggest merger in history.
  
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• Websites taken down worldwide as critical cyber-security update issued

  21-10-2026 21:54 via BBC News
  
  The vulnerabilities with PHP, a programming language widely used across the internet, have been described as the most significant ever found by AI.
  
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• Just Eat apologises for AI food mistakes after social media ridicule

  21-10-2026 19:04 via BBC News
  
  A spokesperson said it was removing inaccurate AI images and pausing the rollout of the tool.
  
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• The Download: introducing the Impossible issue

  21-10-2026 14:10 via MIT Technology Review
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.Introducing: the Impossible issueWe wanted our last print edition of 2026 to include a slate of stories that check in on impossible ideas. Why? Because it’s fun to dream about living on other planets or uploading our brains. But also because scientists and engineers who won’t give up on daring endeavors remind us what technology is suppo
  
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• We can do impossible things

  21-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  I’d wager everyone has a rehearsed response to what’s absolutely one of the world’s worst interview questions: “What’s your biggest weakness?” Whenever I’ve gotten it, I take a slow—even pensive—breath and rattle off my line: “I say no to myself too much.” I won’t lie. It’s a bit shameless—a definite humblebrag. I’m a systems thinker: When an idea pops up, I immediately spin up a feasibility assessment
  
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• Solid-state batteries

  21-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  The rise of the lithium-ion battery, which powers everything from the smallest personal electronics to gargantuan energy storage systems, has been nothing short of revolutionary. But as anyone who’s boarded a plane in the last decade could tell you, storing and pumping out energy by moving charged lithium ions through a liquid electrolyte soup has its drawbacks, not least that the batteries have a troubling tendency to catch fire. Enter the solid-state battery, which swaps liquid for a sol
  
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• Nuclear-powered spaceships

  21-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Just before the Artemis II crew began its historic slingshot around the moon this past April, NASA announced plans to build Space Reactor-1 Freedom. SR-1, the first-ever nuclear-reactor-­powered interplanetary spacecraft, is meant to fly an uncrewed mission to Mars by the end of 2028, arriving in 2029. A successful mission would herald a new era of more efficient, potentially faster spaceflight—saving astronauts time and cutting their exposure to harmful cosmic radiation as they travel
  
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• Interspecies communication

  21-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Humans are far from the only species with a gift for gab, and our furry, feathered, and finned friends could have a lot to tell us. Decoding how animals communicate with one another could offer a window into the inner lives of other species and help humans realize that “animals are sentient creatures who think, who have hopes and dreams of their own,” says Con Slobodchikoff, the founder of Zoolingua, a company working on dog-to-human speech.The sticking pointsTeasing all this out is
  
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• Exercise in a pill

  21-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  We all know exercise is good for us. It builds muscle, strengthens bones, lowers blood pressure, and boosts mood. By deciphering how movement benefits the body, researchers hope to develop medicines that can offer some of the same perks—without the workout. The idea isn’t to replace exercise but to bring its upsides to people who struggle with frailty, disability, or chronic illness. The sticking pointsIt will take a lot of experimentation to untangle the myriad pathways by whic
  
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• Eliminating traffic deaths

  21-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Every year, traffic crashes kill more than one million people, and they’re the leading cause of death for children and young adults. In the US, 100 people a day lose their lives this way, in many cases not on highways but on rural and local streets. “Traffic deaths are a leading cause of preventable death, yet we treat it like it’s inevitable,” says Leah Shahum, founder and director of the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit focused on making streets less deadly. The st
  
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• Cleaning up PFAS

  21-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Scrubbing Earth of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—a.k.a. PFAS or forever chemicals—could eliminate a list of woes for people and planet. Used for decades in everything from nonstick pans to firefighting foams, PFAS have been linked to increased risks of fertility challenges, developmental delays, cancer, and reduced immune response. They are known for a strong bond between carbon and fluorine, which the environment struggles to break down. The sticking pointsPFAS are everyw
  
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• Elon Musk confirms he is considering merging Tesla and SpaceX

  21-10-2026 10:42 via BBC News
  
  Musk says special committees within both companies have been formed to look at a possible mega-merger.
  
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• The tech helping crack decades-old cold cases

  21-10-2026 01:13 via BBC News
  
  Investigative genetic genealogy can help hunt down criminals but raises worries over privacy.
  
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• Taking a swing at a pickleball startup

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  In corporate America, Stanley Anderson ’79 says, executives often assume that their peers grew up in privileged circumstances. He did not.“I spent my early years trying not to get recruited into gangs, getting shot at, watching my friends get murdered, and thinking that if I don’t leave, I will die,” says Anderson, who was raised in Chicago. “I was fortunate to survive.”But he thrived, building an impressive career at the likes of HP, Intel, and the Palo
  
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• Robotic therapy for stroke patients

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Strokes leave 5 million people with long-term impairments each year, and a growing shortage of physical therapists makes it hard for them to get the care they need. A new approach tries to solve that problem by combining artificial intelligence and human therapy. Johannes Lachner, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at Purdue University, and Noah Geiger, a former visiting student at MIT, developed a robotic system that uses generative AI and real-time force feedback to le
  
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• Nebraska native explores galaxies far, far away

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Growing up on a small farm in Nebraska, Megan Donahue ’85 discovered the wider world by reading her way through her local library. Today, she is learning how the wider universe works by studying galaxy clusters.Donahue discovered her passion for physics in that library at age 12 and started her path into astronomy thanks to “a providential interaction.” Through MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, she got introduced to cutting-edge x-ray imaging—work
  
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• Melt it, spin it, use it again

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  The average American throws out around 81 pounds of clothing each year, and there are few options for recycling it. MIT engineers hope to cut down on that textile waste with a new type of yarn. The thermoplastic yarn mimics the properties of conventional elastic yarns, which typically combine spandex with polyester or nylon. Those fibers would have to be separated for recycling—a process that isn’t practical. But the MIT team found a way to create a similarly stretchy yarn from
  
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• It’s a bird, it’s a plane … it’s a robo-puffin?

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Given that water is 1,000 times denser than air, moving through those two mediums requires very different mechanics—or so one might assume. Yet birds like gulls and puffins can plunge into the sea, swim underwater, and leap back into the air to fly away. And now engineers at MIT and EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have designed a robot that can do likewise. The “flapping-wing aerial-aquatic vehicle,” or FAAV, weighs less than 300 grams (about half a pound) and is equipped w
  
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• Here’s the tea

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  When Tristan Brown, an associate professor of history at MIT, first examined a Chinese tea chest label displayed at Old South Meeting House, he had no reason to doubt its story. Descendants of the Boston blacksmith Thomas Wells had donated the label in 1987, saying it had been recovered after colonial protesters threw tea into Boston Harbor in 1773. But after a year of research, Brown reached a different conclusion: The label was made nearly a century later. The decisive clue came when he r
  
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• A reason to eat carbs

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  A high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet can help some people lose weight, and some research has shown that it may protect against colon cancer. But a new study suggests that such a ketogenic diet may also increase the risk of cancer in the small intestine.This type of diet forces the body to burn fatty acids instead of carbohydrates for fuel, producing by-products called ketone bodies. One of these, BHB, was thought to be responsible for the protective effect observed against colon cancer.Omer Yilmaz,
  
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• A good TA: priceless

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  These are images of quizzes I took in 3.091, Introduction to Solid-State Chemistry, in the fall of 1980.One is my very first exam at MIT, and getting 49 out of 100 was a soul-crushing experience. I can still picture the TA, Leszek Pawlowicz, PhD ’87, returning my paper. He had a big smile on his face, and he said something to the effect of “I expect to see you double your score on the next quiz!” Well, I got the message. Studying at MIT was not like studying in high school
  
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• A cleaner path to rare earth metals

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Tomás Villalón Jr. ’14 was raised in San Antonio, Texas, but vividly remembers smog hanging over the city his family came from—Monterrey, Mexico, a steel manufacturing and metal fabrication hub. Even as a child, he realized it was problematic to breathe that air. “I’m motivated because I’ve seen what metal-making does,” says Villalón, who majored in materials science and engineering. He started thinking about sustainable metallurgy se
  
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• A champion for brain injury patients

  20-10-2026 23:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Alissa Totman ’13 was a sophomore when she joined MIT BrainTrust, a student-run organization that connects Institute undergraduates and people with brain injuries for support and socializing. “That group was a great way to learn about the human experience of what people go through when they experience a brain injury,” she says. And it laid the foundation for her life’s work.Today, Totman is a physician specializing in brain injury medicine at the University of Pittsburgh
  
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• Astrolab’s upcoming rover will run the first LLMs on the moon

  20-10-2026 22:07 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Large language models are set to go lunar. A computer capable of running AI software is one of the payloads aboard Astrolab’s FLIP lunar rover, which is slated to head to Earth’s celestial companion as early as November 2026.The 480-kilogram FLIP rover, short for “FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform,” is the first in a series of vehicles NASA’s contracted from Astrolab, including future buggies that will move Artemis astronauts across the moon’s surface. Fitted wit
  
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• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wins dismissal of sister's lawsuit

  20-10-2026 21:42 via BBC News
  
  A US district judge dismissed the case after Ann Altman had refused to attend an independent medical examination.
  
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• Google resolves cloud outage affecting UK banks and websites

  20-10-2026 20:03 via BBC News
  
  Revolut was one of the hardest hit, with banking services going down for many customers.
  
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• The new economics of enterprise AI

  20-10-2026 17:20 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Imagine your company just discovered electricity. At first only a few machines run on it, and nobody worries about efficiency — consumption is low and the value is obvious. But once electricity becomes infrastructure, every process depends on it, and the question changes from “can we use it?” to “how efficiently are we using it?”Enterprise AI is going through the same shift. What began as isolated chatbot and copilot experiments is becoming a foundational layer of t
  
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• UK asks Apple to widen access to its payment tech

  20-10-2026 14:29 via BBC News
  
  Proposed changes could lead to new digital wallets and keys as well as ticketing apps, the regulator says.
  
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• The Download: the claim shaking up AI and the internet’s agent problem

  20-10-2026 14:10 via MIT Technology Review
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.“We were looking at it wrong”: The explosive claim that’s upended the AI world“I think I have good news about the nature of neural networks.” With those simple words of optimism, Nick Cammarata, a researcher at AI startup Goodfire, kicked off a 26,000-word blog post that has knocked the AI world on its head, sparking wi
  
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• AI adoption by industry shows what other sectors can learn

  20-10-2026 14:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  The current narrative around artificial intelligence in the workplace is largely driven by Silicon Valley. But treating the tech sector as an island misses the actual trends in technology adoption–tech is just the first industry in line.As generative AI and automation tools mature, the shifts currently reshaping software engineering and product management will inevitably filter into healthcare, education, retail, and manufacturing. The variation in adoption rates today isn’t a sign t
  
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• How to study a swiftly melting climate disaster

  20-10-2026 12:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  Andrew Haverdink, a tall grad student in a rain bib and rubber boots, wrenched a double-handed drill from the frozen soil that underlies much of Alaska’s Denali National Park and then unclipped the hollow barrel from the end of the bit. He knelt in front of a blue tarp, lined the barrel up with a plastic tray, and pushed a rod through the opposite end. A perfect solid, cylindrical core of ancient soil emerged—dark, rich permafrost at least a foot long.On that late morning in ea
  
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• These startups hope “blended” food will cut our appetite for red meat 

  20-10-2026 11:00 via MIT Technology Review
  
  In the fall of 2025, Jeff Dodge set up a six-foot folding table in the cafeteria of Cane Bay High School in Summerville, South Carolina, to conduct a taste test. When the first rush of about 150 hungry students hit, he was waiting with slow cookers filled with steaming marinara sauce and meatballs. Kids love a taste test, but they’re also discerning, and Dodge wasn’t sure what they would make of his product, a blend featuring both meat and mushrooms. As students swarmed the tabl
  
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