The US Treasury Department has sanctioned a Chinese cybersecurity company, Sichuan Silence Information Technology, and one of its researchers, Guan Tianfeng, for a 2020 cyberattack that targeted 81,000 firewalls worldwide, including 23,000 in the US. The malware was designed to steal data and deploy ransomware, potentially causing serious injury or loss of human life. The…
Researchers at Aoyama Gakuin University and the University of Tokyo have made a groundbreaking discovery in understanding the behavior of squishy particles, which can deform by more than 10% of their size. By studying the flow and jamming of these particles, the team has developed a new model that explains how they respond to external…
Google has announced the release of Gemini 2.0 Flash, a next-generation AI model capable of generating text, images, and audio. This new model is designed to compete with OpenAI’s offerings and is expected to have a significant impact on various industries, including content creation, education, and entertainment. Gemini 2.0 Flash will be available through the…
Mathematicians Ben Green and Mehtaab Sawhney have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of number theory, proving that there are infinitely many prime numbers that can be written as the sum of squares of other prime numbers. This breakthrough, which uses a powerful tool called the Gowers norm, has significant implications for our understanding…
A recent study by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) collaboration has confirmed the existence of a “cooling break” in the energy spectrum of cosmic ray electrons and positrons at around 1 TeV. The research, published in Physical Review Letters, suggests that the origins of these particles are still hotly debated, with possible explanations including…
Physicists at the Niels Bohr Institute and Peking University have made a groundbreaking discovery in particle physics, revealing that xenon nuclei change shape as they collide. Using simulations of experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, the researchers found that the nuclei transform from soft, oval-shaped particles to rigid, spherical ones. This finding could lead to…
The tech industry has been hit with a wave of layoffs in 2024, with over 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies. Major players like Tesla, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all conducted significant layoffs, while smaller startups have also been impacted. The layoffs are a result of a combination of factors, including economic uncertainty, increased…
Ranga Dias, a prominent superconductivity researcher, has been fired from the University of Rochester after an investigation revealed extensive misconduct, including data fabrication. Dias’s research had claimed breakthroughs in high-pressure superconductors, but his findings were later retracted due to concerns about their validity. The scandal has cast a shadow over the field of high-pressure superconductivity…
A new biography, “Ingenious,” sheds light on Benjamin Franklin’s scientific contributions, dispelling common misconceptions about his famous kite experiment and highlighting his approach to science as a joyful and humble pursuit. The book explores Franklin’s diverse interests, from electricity to geology, and his role as a founding father of the United States. As we reflect…
Anthropic, a leading AI startup, has secured an additional $4 billion from Amazon, solidifying their partnership and cementing Amazon’s position as a minority investor. The deal requires Anthropic to train its flagship generative AI models primarily on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division. This strategic move is expected to accelerate the development of…
