Science & Technology — October 18, 2026

Leap second abolished. Governments voted to end the leap second, replacing it with a far-off leap hour and closing out a timekeeping practice that has glitched computer systems since 1972.

According to Wired, the vote caps decades of contention among the world's timekeeping authorities over whether to keep the practice. Since its introduction, the adjustment has been applied periodically to keep clocks aligned, and each insertion has created opportunities for computer failures. The successor mechanism would not take effect for a long time, meaning systems will no longer face the recurring disruptions tied to the old approach in the interim.

Wired · Read more →

Smart glasses recorded audio without consent. A now-fixed bug caused Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to record audio without wearers' consent, confirming a long-standing privacy fear about always-on wearables.

Ars Technica · Read more →

Websites block AI agents. A growing number of sites are blocking autonomous agents from OpenAI, Meta, and Google that browse and transact on users' behalf, setting up a fight over the open web.

The Verge · Read more →

Deep sleep tied to growth hormone. Researchers found a two-way relationship between deep sleep and growth hormone. The finding shows how the brain balances physical recovery with wakefulness -- and points to treatments for sleep and metabolic disorders.

Science Daily · Read more →