Science & Technology

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. Stewart Brand has spent decades thinking big, thinking long, and shaping perspectives on the future. His focus keyword is “maintenance,” a concept he now explores with the same intensity as space exploration and computing. The 87-year-old visionary first gained fame with the Whole Earth Catalog, which encouraged readers to think expansively about tools, ideas, and life itself. Brand’s...

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. Meta’s artificial intelligence software is flooding US child abuse investigators with low-quality tips, officials claim. Investigators from the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforce warn that the volume of unviable reports from Meta is draining resources and slowing investigations, creating serious operational challenges. Special Agent Benjamin Zwiebel, testifying in New Mexico last week, said the tips often amount...

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. A recent phase II trial suggests that dimethyltryptamine, known as DMT, may offer a promising new treatment for depression. DMT is a psychoactive component traditionally found in the Amazonian psychedelic brew ayahuasca, which has long been used in ceremonial practices for emotional and spiritual healing. The trial, sponsored by the psychedelic pharmaceutical company Small Pharma, now operating as...

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. New research on ancient Scottish rocks has challenged the long-standing “snowball Earth” theory. For decades, scientists believed that about 700 million years ago, Earth was entirely frozen, and seasonal variations like spring, summer, autumn, and winter had completely ceased. During this period, the planet’s surface was thought to be encased in ice, leaving little room for climate fluctuations...

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. Chronic ocean heating is driving a rapid and unprecedented loss of marine life worldwide, researchers have confirmed. Scientists found fish populations fell by 7.2% for every 0.1C of decadal warming, a pattern that could accelerate as temperatures rise. The study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, examined more than 33,000 populations across the northern hemisphere between 1993 and...

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. Toxic e-waste from electronic screens is accumulating in endangered dolphins, raising global concern over environmental safety. Recent research conducted in the South China Sea has revealed significant levels of hazardous chemicals from televisions, laptops, and smartphones in the tissues of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and finless porpoises. These chemicals, known as liquid crystal monomers (LCMs), are synthetic compounds designed...

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. Australians are preparing to receive loud smartphone alerts as the new emergency system launches. The focus keyword for this report is AusAlert. The federal government is introducing AusAlert to replace state-based text messages, aiming to warn citizens of bushfires, floods, biosecurity threats, and serious public safety incidents. Officials say the alerts will appear on home screens in designated...

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. The UK anti-slavery watchdog has urged urgent reform of adult sexual services websites to prevent exploitation. These sites, widely used for advertising sexual services, can unintentionally accelerate risks for sex workers, the report found. Eleanor Lyons, the independent anti-slavery commissioner, led the investigation, focusing on women who reported coercion and abuse while engaging online. Her research analysed data...

Published: 26 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. The government’s ambitious Treasury AI strategy has drawn both praise and sharp criticism this week. Ministers have turned to senior figures from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and leading technology firms for advice on embedding artificial intelligence across public services. The move signals a bold attempt to accelerate reform, yet it has also triggered warnings about...

Published: 24 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. A senior police AI chief has acknowledged that crime-fighting artificial intelligence carries inherent bias risks. The focus on AI comes as law enforcement across England and Wales considers expanding its use to tackle modern criminal threats more efficiently. Alex Murray, director of threat leadership at the National Crime Agency and national lead for AI, confirmed that a new...