Tech and Science Daily | The Standard

Call of Duty hit by allegations of cheating in online tournaments, including the use of unfair ‘aimbots’, now a top player has very publicly quit its Warzone contest. WHO experts visit Wuhan animal disease centre in probe examining Covid-19 origins. Pandemic mental health alert: children as young as eight being treated by accident and emergency for self-harm. For wellbeing tips: childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk. Mask-wearing iPhone users will soon be able to unlock their screen using an Apple Watch. Shares app Robinhood raises $2.4 billion from venture capital amid Reddit amateur investor boom. Bomb-sniffing spinach programmed to send alerts to scientists. Passion killer...research finds traffic noise drowns out crickets’ courtship songs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wall Street silver rush as Reddit’s amateur investor army moves on precious metal to dent Wall Street after GameStop victory. Voice-changing headset aims to beat internet child predators as mother warns how abuser befriended and murdered her 14-year-old son. Megarocket has a new date for Nasa’s ‘hot fire’ test to check Moon-worthiness after launchpad fail. With just a word and a hashtag, Elon Musk sends Bitcoin rocketing amid claims cryptocurrency is ‘on the verge’ of mainstream. Doorbell surveillance row: Now 2,000 US police departments are linked into Amazon’s Ring network. The 48,000-year-old teeth revealing ancestral links between Neanderthals and modern humans after Natural History Museum research. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TikTok’s Dr_Will6, better known to Imperial College London colleagues as Dr Will Budd, has been educating the world about Covid vaccines on the social network – and he says ‘very happy” about the Novax injection shown to be 83.9 percent effective in trials, including against the ‘Kent’ and ‘South African’ variants. Plus, Apple boss Tim Cook hits out at those seeking to make a profit from personal data, PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal release date pushed back, and naked mole-rats found to speak in different dialects Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across most of America, GameStop is just a place to buy a video game. But on Wall Street the troubled retailer has become a battleground where swarms of smaller investors see themselves making an epic stand against the 1%. Plus, Apple is to roll out a new privacy feature to stop iPhone apps secretly shadowing users. Marking Data Privacy Day McAfee’s 2021 Consumer Security Mindset report shows how many had not used any cybersecurity solutions last year. Nintendo sued over ‘systemic problems’ with Switch controllers and, the Doomsday Clock remains at its closest point ever to midnight.Listen to our other podcasts:Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and MathsThe Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard' Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A leading scientist says another pandemic-causing ‘Disease X’ could be around the corner. Mark Woolhouse from the University of Edinburgh says it's a matter of when, not if and this pandemic might be a virus they don’t even know about yet. Plus, there were signals on Twitter that Covid-19 was circulating before it was officially announced, earning more than $75K a year could buy you happiness, and scientists have created two more embryos of the world’s most endangered mammal.Listen to our other podcasts:Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and MathsThe Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard' Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twitter is turning to its users to help combat fake news. The platform has launched Birdwatch, where people can flag tweets they believe to be misleading, provide evidence to the contrary and discuss them with others, on a separate site. Plus, Facebook News, featuring the Evening Standard, launches in the UK, regular naps are linked to better mental agility, and take a walk with Dolly Parton as Apple launches celebrity-guided workouts.Listen to our other podcasts:Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and MathsThe Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard' Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has launched a record 143 small satellites into a polar orbit from Florida, beating the previous record of 104. It's also the firm's first dedicated ‘rideshare’ mission, where it offers to transport packages to orbit for $1m. Plus, creators of humanoid robot Sophia plan to mass produce the AI robots by the end of the year, scientists believe there’s a new homegrown strain of Covid-19 in California, we speak to the professor working on a laser to remove cancers; and, Cyberpunk 2077's latest patch creates more problems for players. Listen to our other podcasts:Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and MathsThe Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard' Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Children’s charity the NSPCC is warning a move to encrypt Facebook Messenger and Instagram chats will mask online predators. Security expert Brian Higgins on malware discovered inside government-issued laptops used by children to home-school during Covid-19 pandemic, which reportedly connected to Russian servers. SpaceX now has a ‘constellation’ of 1,000 internet-beaming satellites orbiting Earth after launching 60 at once. Lockdown loneliness: Neuroscientist Dr Byron Creese talks about a University Exeter and King’s College London study revealing how over-50s are suffering anxiety and depression. And, a Black Mirror-style chatbot being developed by Microsoft aims to digitally resurrect deceased loved ones.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twitter’s admitting it didn’t move fast enough to quell conspiracy theories that sparked the Capitol riots. QAnon’s hoards are being urged to “go back to your lives” after Trumpian reckoning did not materialise. A Call of Duty champion gamer is retiring at 25 years old with thumb problems caused by too much time playing on consoles. Are ‘sniper bots’ snapping up new PS5 consoles before you can get your hands on one? Meet the AI expert preparing young people to beat the robots in the workplace of tomorrow. Satellites are helping count elephants and beat the poachers from hundreds of miles above Earth  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Washington DC is in tech lockdown for inauguration day as cybersecurity experts reveal behind-the-scenes artificial intelligence strategies to stop repeat of Capitol violence. Nasa Moon shot faces delay after hydraulics problems found to cause ‘megarocket’ misfire. Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon and now the 91-year-old astronaut gets his Covid-19 jab. Beware the passive-aggressive Zoom eye roll because new software lets bosses scans people’s emotions and tiny expressions for ‘biosurveillance’ software. Netflix Tiger King star Joe Exotic misses out on Trump pardon...he had a limo waiting outside prison. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.