Even moderate amounts of walking may help protect brain function and slow changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease. New research reveals a modest amount of daily movement may help protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease, but the apparent benefit does not involve the biological target researchers expected. Using pedometers, researchers followed nearly 300 older adults with [...]As the UK prepares for the third heatwave of 2026, most people will be hoping to try and keep cool at home.
Building regulations to protect homes from overheating were introduced in 2022. These require all new homes to be checked at the design stage to see if they might be at risk of overheating. If the overheating risk is high, the architect has to make changes to the design.
Given that the UK government plans to build 1.5 million homes by 2029 and the climate is predicted to continue to warm, reducing overheating in new homes is essential. Around 4.6 million bedrooms (19% of the stock) and 3.6 million living rooms (15%) in homes in England were found to have overheated during the summer of 2018.
At Loughborough University we have been experimenting with a pair of semi-detached houses, each fitted with different shading devices, to see what might work to reduce overheating. A lot more needs to be done to make sure UK homes are able to cope with the high temperatures they are likely to experience more often in the future.
If you live in the UK, count the number of window shades you can see on a street. While these were previously quite common in the Victorian period, for instance, most new homes don’t have external shading. But they are one of the most effective passive cooling measures (methods to lower indoor temperatures without air conditioning), as well as being relatively cheap to install.
Ongoing experiments in our pair of test houses have shown that external shading can reduce indoor temperatures by over 6°C, which can make a meaningful improvement to people’s health and wellbeing at home. Other research is looking at how acceptable and affordable shading devices, like awnings, are to householders.
If included at design-stage, some form of external window shading could be applied to almost any new home – even high-rise flats, which are at highest risk of overheating. Tall blocks of flats in countries like France and Italy often incorporate shading on balconies.
Some people believe that higher levels of insulation are increasing overheating risk – but this is not correct. Research shows that energy efficiency measures do not increase overheating. They do make rooms warmer, but not so much that they cause overheating discomfort or health risks to people. Increased temperatures from internal wall insulation can be counteracted with ventilation through windows.
Insulation works to ensure that heat does not flow in either direction – in or out of a building. A large national survey of homes in England found that loft insulation reduces overheating, probably because it protects the room below from the high temperatures that can be experienced in loft spaces. Higher levels of airtightness reduces infiltration of hot air from outside during heatwaves.
Building regulations in the past have only focused on reducing wintertime heating demand and for good reason – in the last 25 years, 77 times more people died due to cold homes than hot homes. But combined with new regulations for overheating which limits the sun’s heat entering through windows, high levels of insulation and airtightness can be a positive thing for our buildings all year round.
Research in our test houses also investigated the effect of behaviour on overheating. To do this we used synthetic occupants – these are automated devices which can open windows, doors, curtains, and blinds. These controlled tests showed that the way people use windows and shading affects how much their home overheats. I spent a lot of time during recent heatwaves advising people when to open or close their windows. But this ignores the fact that poor building design is often the cause of overheating in many cases – no matter when you open your windows.
If homes could incorporate a cheap and simple temperature sensor which connects to the internet and tells you when to open or close a window it could significantly reduce indoor temperatures. Placed in multiple rooms, they could encourage householders to use cross-ventilation (opening windows on opposite sides of the building) or stack-ventilation (opening ground and first-floor windows), if available.
The issue remains that people are unwilling or unable to open their windows at night or in polluted, noisy areas near main roads. Instead we need a secure means of ventilation which encourages people to keep windows open at night without worrying about security or being woken up by noise.
Fans don’t cool the air, but they reduce the skin’s surface temperature by increasing sweat evaporation and carrying away heat. They also use considerably less electricity compared to air-conditioning.
Ceiling fans are effective at reducing people’s core body temperature and could be installed in all new-build homes. Building regulations on overheating require any window coverings used to pass the assessment to be installed during construction. Ceiling fans should be installed at the same time.
If new-build homes are to incorporate ceiling fans, ceiling heights may need to increase, which adds to building costs. Ceiling heights in UK homes have dropped over time. In Victorian homes, ceilings were often three metres from the floor, but in newly built UK homes they are commonly 2.4 metres, with 2.3 metres being the standard minimum.
Having a cool room to retreat to in your home can help. In two-storey houses this might be a ground floor or north-facing room. New-build homes could incorporate such a space – highly shaded, on the north-side of the home, and perhaps built with high thermal mass (such as stone walls which keep cool longer during the day).
Mechanically cooling whole houses in the UK should be avoided due to high electricity prices. It also creates pressure on the electricity grid, and creates greenhouse gases. But the Committee on Climate Change, a UK body that advises the government, recently suggested creating one cool room with active cooling (air-conditioning) for use during long heatwaves could be an option.
As more heatwaves hit the UK, residents will increasingly want more information about how to stay cool. Retrofits can be expensive. We need to create housing that works in these increasingly high temperatures to best protect people and avoid expensive energy bills.
Ben Roberts receives funding from UK Government, UKRI, and the British Blind & Shutter Association.
Researchers found that an Alzheimer’s-related biomarker may influence how hormone therapy affects dementia risk. Hormone therapy is commonly used to ease menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes and night sweats. Whether it affects the risk of dementia has remained a long-running question. A new study offers another clue. It suggests that an Alzheimer’s biomarker could help [...]
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 fast, convenient and feel secure. Unlike a password, you can’t forget your face. But that doesn’t mean they are without risk.
Biometrics fall into two broad families: physiological (fingerprints, faces, irises, even nailbed patterns) and behavioural (how you walk or type, the rhythm of your speech, the angle you hold your phone).
Both forms are already being widely used – you just may not realise it. Many banks and retailers now monitor how you interact with your device – from swipes, taps and scrolls to the angle you hold your phone, the rhythm of how you move between fields, and the pressure of your touch. If someone else picks up your unlocked phone and tries to access your banking app, this can automatically trigger a fraud alert.
My research with colleagues even shows it’s possible to infer a user’s name and native language from the timing patterns of their keystrokes.
The graphic below shows the full extent of biometric technologies. Those marked dark green are in widespread commercial and government use today – including less-familiar examples such as the veins in your hand and other bodily vein patterns.
Physiological and behavioural biometric systems:
Gait analysis – reading how you walk – is already used for security and surveillance purposes, from venue access to detecting potentially suspicious behaviour. You can wear a mask, pull up a hood, avoid looking at a camera – but you can’t easily change how you walk.
China’s authorities have been using this technology for nearly a decade. And in 2023, the UK’s Biometrics and Forensic Ethics Group flagged gait recognition for ethical guidance. This is usually a sign that operational use isn’t far behind.
A number of other biometric technologies (marked light green), ranging from skin texture and ear shape to micro-expressions and hand-grip patterns, are being actively researched for use in the near future. A further group (marked red) have so far only been demonstrated in the laboratory. But even body odour and breath signatures are further along than their novelty might suggest.
What once felt like science fiction is now embedded in our everyday lives. You can’t always see this technology, and you can’t always opt out. But knowing it exists is the first step to understanding how much of yourself you’re already sharing.
In April 2026, financial security expert Li Chang showed Chinese TV viewers how AI tools could extract a celebrity’s fingerprints from a single selfie. The culprit? The classic V-sign, finger pads pointed straight at the lens.
This built on work by Japan’s National Institute of Informatics which in 2017 showed that usable fingerprints could be lifted from photos taken up to three metres away. And phone camera technology has only got better since then.
In the UK, police have made at least two arrests based on fingerprints lifted from photos: one from a WhatsApp image of a hand holding ecstasy pills, the other when a drug dealer was identified from a photo of him holding a block of Stilton cheese.
This technology can work in the other direction too. In the Chinese city of Hangzhou in July 2025, criminals reportedly tried to unlock a smart door using a photo the homeowner had posted online with his fingers visible. The attempt failed but the intent was clear.
While this kind of targeted, technically demanding attack is still unusual, there are some precautions I would advise taking as the use of biometric technology grows.
First, be selective about when you agree to share biometric data – fingerprints, face, iris, voice, all of it.
Most modern smartphones store biometric templates in a secure chip that never leaves the device. But third-party apps and workplace systems rarely offer the same guarantee.
In July 2024, US tech giant Meta paid the state of Texas US$1.4 billion (£1.1bn) after running facial recognition on users without consent. This followed a class-action settlement with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance in Illinois for US$92 million over similar allegations.
So, try to keep track of which apps have access to your camera and microphone. On both iOS and Android, this takes about two minutes. And don’t use biometrics as the only layer of security – make sure there’s a second step.
Voice: This is probably the most casually surrendered biometric. AI voice cloning requires only seconds of audio to produce a convincing replica, and it’s being used in fraud calls impersonating family members. This is a far more realistic – and terrifying – version of the virtual kidnapping scam that’s been around for years. Establishing a safe word with the people closest to you for any unexpected financial request is a simple and underrated defence.
Eyes: Iris recognition is considered robust because this coloured eye muscle has around 250 measurable features – far more than a fingerprint – and remains stable throughout your life. But the quiet expansion of eye-tracking data collected through VR headsets, for example, is going unnoticed. Check the privacy settings on any VR device you use, and be aware that gaze data is increasingly treated as a commercial asset by platforms that collect it.
Fingerprints: Beyond being careful what you point at the camera, know where you’ve enrolled your fingerprint. Workplace access systems and payment terminals vary widely in how they store and protect data – and unlike your phone, they’re not legally required to tell you.
None of this means biometric systems are broken. For most purposes, they are more secure than the passwords they are replacing. The question is not whether to engage with these systems – they’re already too embedded to avoid. It’s whether we’re engaging with our eyes open – eyes that are, of course, already regularly being scanned.
Oli Buckley receives funding from UKRI (including EPSRC and ESRC).
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