State-of-the-art building approved for Oxford Science Park
A state-of-the-art laboratory building will be built at Oxford Science Park after city councillors gave it the go-ahead.The park secured planning permission for the four-storey building, which will be built close to the closed pub, The Priory, the Ozone Leisure Park and the Kassam Stadium, on Tuesday.The development will include 168 car parking spaces, electric charging points and just over 100 bike spaces.Yong Shen, the park's director, said the approval was "fantastic news" and will help it deliver more "world-class facilities in an established setting that promotes collaboration, sustainability and discovery".
The new building will sit on currently undeveloped land between the science park and the neighbouring cinema and bowling rink development.It will not involve any part of the Ozone Leisure Park, which is itself the subject of a different plan that could lead to its redevelopment.
You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
UK ministers delay AI regulation amid plans for more ‘comprehensive' bill
Proposals to regulate artificial intelligence have been delayed by at least a year as UK ministers plan a bumper bill to regulate the technology and its use of copyrighted material. Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, intends to introduce a 'comprehensive' AI bill in the next parliamentary session to address concerns about issues including safety and copyright. This will not be ready before the next king's speech, and is likely to trigger concerns about delays to regulating the technology. The date for the next king's speech has not been set but several sources said it could take place in May 2026. Labour had originally planned to introduce a short, narrowly-drafted AI bill within months of entering office that would have been focused on large language models, such as ChatGPT. The legislation would have required companies to hand over their models for testing by the UK's AI Security Institute. It was intended to address concerns that AI models could become so advanced that they posed a risk to humanity. This bill was delayed, with ministers choosing to wait and align with Donald Trump's administration in the US because of concerns that any regulation might weaken the UK's attractiveness to AI companies. Ministers now want to include copyright rules for AI companies as part of the AI bill. 'We feel we can use that vehicle to find a solution on copyright,' a government source said. 'We've been having meetings with both creators and tech people and there are interesting ideas on moving forward. That work will begin in earnest once the data bill passes.' The government is already locked in a standoff with the House of Lords over copyright rules in a separate data bill. It would allow AI companies to train their models using copyrighted material unless the rights holder opts out. It has caused a fierce backlash from the creative sector, with artists including Elton John, Paul McCartney and Kate Bush throwing their weight behind a campaign to oppose the changes. This week, peers backed an amendment to the data bill that would require AI companies to disclose if they were using copyrighted material to train their models, in an attempt to enforce current copyright law. Ministers have refused to back down, however, even though Kyle has expressed regret about the way the government has gone about the changes. The government insists the data bill is not the right vehicle for the copyright issue and has promised to publish an economic impact assessment and series of technical reports on copyright and AI issues. Beeban Kidron, the film director and crossbench peer who has been campaigning on behalf of the creative sector, said on Friday that ministers 'have shafted the creative industries, and they have proved willing to decimate the UK's second-biggest industrial sector'. Kyle told the Commons last month that AI and copyright should be dealt with as part of a separate 'comprehensive' bill. Most of the UK public (88%) believe the government should have the power to stop the use of an AI product if it is deemed to pose a serious risk, according to a survey published by the Ada Lovelace Institute and the Alan Turing Institute in March. More than 75% said the government or regulators should oversee AI safety rather than private companies alone.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Is this the world's toughest job... catching tiny ANTS at 1,700 sq-mile beauty spot?
IT'S a task that makes looking for a needle in a haystack seem easy – hunting down a tiny insect in a vast area of Scottish wilderness. Yet as part of a remarkable project to save one of the country's rarest creatures from extinction, trackers are now being challenged to scour the Cairngorms National Park in search of the narrow-headed ant. It may not have the same profile as other at-risk animals such as the rhino or panda, but conservationists believe the half-inch long ant deserves to be protected – as it plays a surprisingly large role in the well-being of our ancient pine forests. In Scotland, narrow-headed ants are known to nest in just a handful of places in the Cairngorms, while the UK's only other recognised population is found at a single site in Devon in the south-west of England. And despite previous conservation schemes, its numbers are declining at a worrying rate. Now the body which runs the 1,700 square-mile Cairngorms National Park wants to reverse the insect's fortunes by setting up a captive breeding programme. The park authority has set aside £50,000 to hire experts to carry out an 'ant captive rearing project' that will last for up to three years. The aim is to establish at least 50 'farmed' colonies and build up large populations of the creatures in captivity – before later releasing them into new sites in the wild. The first major hurdle, however, involves being able to track down and capture enough of the ants to start the breeding programme. Cairngorms conservation officer Hayley Wiswell said: 'This work is ground-breaking and could completely change the fate of the species in the UK. 'But finding the nests can be challenging. They're about the size of half a football, sometimes even as small as a fist. 'They're made with pine needles, twigs, heather, moss and grass, so they're really well camouflaged. 'And they're found in woodland among pine or birch trees, on lumpy, mossy ground with lots of hummocks, hollows and deep heather. Sometime you don't see them until you're on top of them.' To set up the colonies, the trackers will need to find queens and males from different nests. Ms Wiswell added: 'You have to sit by the nest early in the morning on a cloudy but mild day – and as they come out, you have to pick them off the surface really quickly. It's tricky because the queens in particular are really fast – you have to sneak up on them and grab them.' Caution is needed as the ants can deliver a sharp, pin-prick bite. The narrow-headed ant – scientific name Formica exsecta – is black and red, with a characteristic notch in the back of its head. It builds a distinctive domed nest typically containing around 1,000 individuals. Males are up to 10mm long while queens are slightly larger, at around 12mm. Queens and males from different nests will be put together in a netted cage to mate before being moved to 'ant modules' – purpose-made enclosures that replicate an underground nest's tunnels. The aim is for the queen to start producing eggs which will then seed the captive colony. The ants will be kept in their modules under close supervision for 12 months until they are self-sufficient enough to survive in the wild. Ms Wiswell added: 'Nobody's done this before – it's really experimental.' Despite the difficulties, she explained that the tiny ants offered huge benefits for the environment. 'They are a keystone species, doing all kinds of things in the ecosystem,' she said. 'They're highly predatory and prey on herbivorous insects like caterpillars which can defoliate plants. They also interact with the soil because their nests are largely subterranean – earthworms, for example, are significantly more prevalent around ant mounds. 'They also pick up and disperse plant seeds throughout the environment. And of course they provide a food source for lots of other animals, like badgers and pine martens.' Nests have been identified on the Mar Lodge Estate, a national nature reserve that covers 70,000 acres in the Cairngorms and is run by the National Trust for Scotland. The recruitment advert for trackers says: 'The species is considered to be vulnerable. Captive breeding is considered to be the next step to securing the future of this species at Mar Lodge Estate, near Braemar, and to expand the population on Deeside. 'This work is still very much experimental, and as such methods for captive rearing will need to be tested. ' Anyone taking on the task of tracking the narrow- headed ant is advised they should have access to a 4x4 vehicle, or be willing to mountain bike, walk and camp overnight in remote locations.
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Sky Q replacement update as new £6 a month TV service is launched to lure satellite viewers
IT'S taking Sky "much longer" than the company originally expected to shift satellite fans to streaming, a TV expert has revealed. Sky has been pushing ahead with TV that relies on the internet instead of a satellite dish since 2021. 1 Next week, yet another Sky Glass model goes on sale, while the beloved Sky Q satellite box hasn't seen a hardware update since 2016. Sky Glass Air is a thinner model without the built in soundbar that's cheaper than the previous models, in a bid to win people over. The firm says 90 per cent of new customers opt for Sky Glass or Sky Stream - but winning over Sky Q loyalists seems to be tricky. Paolo Pescatore, an expert for PP Foresight, previously told The Sun it is "highly unlikely" Sky will ever release a new satellite box. In an update, he says the arrival of a more affordable slimmer model "should strongly resonate with customers" but it "does show a clear razor sharp focus on new sales". "The majority of its existing subscribers are still on the tried and trusted Sky Q platform which relies on a satellite dish," he explained. "Converting this base is taking the company much longer than it originally expected. "On this basis Sky Glass has not been as successful as the company had anticipated. "Despite this, the move in general made sense given the direction of travel with what I'm calling the big TV switch off; likely to happen now in the 2030s and to defend against the rise and threat of streamers by allowing Sky to control the experience and manage customer relationships which it has successfully been able to do. "Also and more importantly, it has allowed Sky to secure retail distribution agreements for products like Sky Stream with others." Discover new features on Sky TV that make it even easier to find favourite shows He warned Sky is still "hugely reliant" on its core and lucrative Sky Q base which it "must avoid upsetting as there are a slew of cheaper alternative TV platforms and services in the market". Last year, Sky signed a contract extension with satellite operator SES that takes the service up to 2029. Sky Q's biggest difference is its ability to record on a box, whereas on Sky Glass it's recorded to the cloud. This means on Sky Q you will always have something to watch if there's ever an outage. And a limited number of programmes and movies can't be recorded to the cloud because of rights issues - whereas on Sky Q you can record what you want. The upside of Sky Glass and Sky Stream recording is that there is no storage limit unlike Sky Q. MY THOUGHTS ON SKY GLASS GEN 2 By Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun Sky Glass Gen 2 successfully improves from the previous model in three key areas: visuals, audio and set-up (I can't tell you enough how much easier it is to assemble that stand plate). The same wonderfully easy user interface continues to get better and better - not to mention Sky's unmatched content. But it's really not necessary or enough for users of the first Sky Glass to upgrade to this new model. Instead, this is very much aimed at those new to Sky Glass. I can't see many Sky Q subscribers being swayed due to the recording storage differences, among other things. Make no mistake - while Sky has assured that it is still committed to Sky Q, streaming is very much the future and will get the lion's share of new features in the years to come.
