Harold Freeman, Who Helped Remove Barriers to Cancer Treatment, Dies at 93

15 September 2026 at 16:08

He developed a program that became a model for hospitals around the world, making it easier for poor Black patients to navigate an onerous bureaucratic system.

World’s Rarest Pasta Is Made From Just 3 Ingredients but Almost Nobody Can Make It

ZME Science

By: Rupendra Brahambhatt

15 September 2026 at 13:21

Only a few human hands can make this 256-strand pasta.

Digital ID comes of age as pubs and bars get go-ahead for biometric scan tech

The Guardian - Technology

By: Robert Booth UK technology editor

15 September 2026 at 05:00

New laws coming into force this week aim to streamline age checks although old-style plastic IDs will still be allowed

Younger drinkers in England and Wales will be able to prove their age with a digital ID starting this week as new laws give pubs, off-licences, nightclubs and restaurants the right to use biometric scanning technology to check customers are over 18.

Customers will be able to download software that scans their faces into their own phone to generate a QR code proving their age based on a stored proof of age. Other tech under consideration as part of the government push to digitise age verification for alcohol sales include a device which scans the veins in a drinker’s finger to verify their age. That system has not yet been approved for use.

The wilting rose emoji: what its rise and fall tells us about gen Alpha

The Guardian - Technology

By: Lucy Knight

15 September 2026 at 05:00

It was the fastest-growing emoji in 2025 – but if you’re older than 16, it has probably passed you by. Now, just as twentysomethings are catching up, it’s over

In the 2025 hit Netflix show Adolescence, DI Luke Bascombe’s 13-year-old son, Adam, has to explain to his father the way his generation use heart emojis. “Red means love, purple: horny, yellow: ‘I’m interested, are you interested?’, pink: ‘I’m interested but not in sex,’ orange: ‘You’re going to be fine,’” he explains. “It all has a meaning. Everything has a meaning.”

And those meanings are constantly evolving. Take the skull (), for example, which has come to be used as a reaction for finding something funny – a visual shorthand for the slang phrase: “I’m dead.” Or the wilting rose () which was, according to Google data analysed by the New York Times, the fastest-growing emoji in terms of popularity in 2025 – and was the 93rd most used. That the previously obscure wilting rose is now in the top 100 emojis is thanks to generation Alpha (those born between 2010 and 2024), who use it in place of the broken heart emoji () to signify sadness, or ironically, to suggest mock-heartbreak.

Can you futureproof your career by choosing an AI-resistant degree?

The Guardian - Technology

By: Sally Weale

14 September 2026 at 06:00

Humans will have to compete with AI-powered virtual employees in the near future. Here are our tips for the last human holdouts

Futureproofing your career with an AI-resistant degree is a tough ask, says Charlie Ball, an expert on graduate employment for Jisc, the UK’s higher education digital, data and technology agency.

“What you’re trying to do is futureproof a 45-year career in a time of rapid technological change – and that’s really quite hard to do. What’s likely is that jobs that hinge a lot on human, face-to-face interaction are unlikely to be replaced.”

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