Category: Technology

An EFF analysis of millions of searches of Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) data by police has uncovered a troubling pattern: in the absence of a warrant requirement to search ALPR databases, law enforcement agencies have moved beyond specific investigations to use these surveillance networks for virtually any whim. Our findings suggest that […]

GoldenDayz/Shutterstock You unlock your phone with your face, your fingerprint sends your laptop whirring into action, you pass airport security by glancing at a camera. Biometric technology has become so woven into the daily routine that for many people, it barely registers any more. That invisibility is part of the point. These systems are usually […]

How was iron produced 2,000 years ago in Senegal? A recent study at the Didé West 1 archaeological site, in the Falémé Valley in eastern Senegal, sheds light on an ancient iron production technique. Passed down from generation to generation for nearly eight centuries, this technology appears to have been developed to meet local needs. […]

Each of us tells a story about who we are, often tracing our identity back through an imagined line of ancestors. Though identity is fundamentally cultural, we tend to anchor it in biology – in the idea of a stable genetic inheritance passed down through generations. Population genomics has exposed a history far more complex, […]

A red mason bee seeking pollen. Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH/Shutterstock There is not yet much research on the effects of heatwaves on bees. What little there is focuses on super extremes of weather that would kill an adult bee. However, my new research with colleagues shows that UK populations of solitary bees may be much more […]

In the first landmark publication of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV has addressed recent advances in artificial intelligence by focusing on the threat it poses to workers, social justice and “the dignity of persons”. Presenting his first papal encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (“Magnificent Humanity”), at the Vatican on May 25, Leo declared: “Artificial intelligence needs to […]

Mahir Asadli / Shutterstock The world we live in today runs on batteries. But the lithium ion batteries that dominate the market are expensive and environmentally demanding to extract. The raw materials for lithium ion batteries are scarce and concentrated in a few geographical regions. This places continued pressure on supply chains. Sodium-ion batteries are […]

An Irish Air Corps helicopter extinguishing a wildfire in Howth, Dublin, in 2023. Thomas Halpin/Shutterstock The most destructive wildfire season on record in Europe was in 2025, with more than one million hectares burned and tens of thousands of people displaced by fires across the continent. For people in Ireland and Britain, the type of […]

All-female animal groups including the Amazon molly fish, Komodo dragon and hammerhead shark. LifeonWhite/sketchify/EllesRijsdijk/MikhailRudenko/rockptarmigan/Nigel Marsh/KenGriffiths(Canva); GriffinGillespie x2 (Shutterstock) It may sound too bizarre to be true but the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa), a fish that inhabits rivers, lakes and swamps in Mexico and Texas, exists over much of its range in populations that are 100% […]

Corona Borealis Studio / Shutterstock Society depends on chemistry far more than we consciously realise, from medicines to energy to electronics. However, chemistry is viewed with as much apprehension as gratitude, because of the pollution and health problems that some chemicals cause. There is a strong desire to have all the benefits of chemistry, but […]