Websites for a Russian-linked ransomware gang blamed for attacks on hundreds of businesses worldwide have gone offline, the BBC reports. Monitors say a payment website and a blog run by the REvil group became suddenly unreachable on Tuesday. The reason behind the disappearance is unknown, but has sparked speculation that the group may have been targeted by authorities. The timing of the outage has sparked speculation that either U.S. or Russian officials may have taken action against...
Scientists at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., have developed a hydrogel integrated with zirconium-based robust metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that rapidly degrades organophosphate-based nerve agents used in chemical warfare, reports Phys.org. Unlike existing powdered MOF adsorbents, this hydrogel composite does not require added water and may be easily scaled up for use in protective masks or clothing. "Organophosphate-based nerve agents are among the most toxic chemicals known to humanity," says senior author Omar Farha, a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University....
Perhaps being the boss of the world's #1 electric vehicle manufacturer is not all that it's cracked up to be. "I rather hate it, and I would much prefer to spend my time on design and engineering," Musk told a U.S. court. The Tesla founder was speaking at the start of a trial in which he is accused of pressuring the firm's board members into a $2.6-billion deal to buy a solar panel firm. Shareholders claim the...
A new wearable device turns the touch of a finger into a source of power for small electronics and sensors – even when the wearer is sleeping, reports Tech Xplore. Engineers at the University of California San Diego developed a thin, flexible strip that can be worn on a fingertip and generate small amounts of electricity when a person's finger sweats or presses on the strip. It generates power even while asleep or sitting...
To address limitations associated with the astronomical amount of data required to explore and catalogue the universe, a team of researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is investigating self-supervised representation learning, reports Tech Xplore. Like unsupervised learning, self-supervised learning eliminates the need for training labels, instead attempting to learn by comparison. By introducing certain data augmentations, self-supervised algorithms can be used to build "representations" – low-dimensional versions of images that preserve their inherent...
In an in-depth interview with the BBC, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai warns that free and open internet is under attack, and addresses controversies around tax, privacy, and data. He argues that artificial intelligence is more profound than fire, electricity, or the internet. This article helps us get to know one of the most influential (yet understated) business leaders in the world. If you are like me, you will breathe a little easier,...
Early in the COVID-19 crisis, doctors desperate for an answer to the virus began reviewing whether any drugs already available could be used as effective treatment. Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic, was administered to some patients across the globe with seemingly positive effects. However, some health officials have challenged the effectiveness of the drug to treat COVID-19. On one side, there are doctors who say ivermectin can help end the pandemic if used globally. On the other...
A research team co-led by University College London has solved a decades-old mystery as to how Jupiter steadily produces spectacular bursts of X-rays, reports Phys.org. The X-rays are part of Jupiter's aurora – bursts of visible and invisible light that occur when charged particles interact with the planet's atmosphere. A similar phenomenon occurs on Earth, creating the northern lights, but Jupiter's is much more powerful, releasing hundreds of gigawatts of energy, enough to briefly power...
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a method for secure communication that uses quantum mechanics to encrypt information. While the security of QKD is unbreakable in principle, if it is incorrectly implemented, vital information could still be stolen by attackers. These are known as side-channel attacks, where the attackers exploit weaknesses in the setup of the information system to eavesdrop on the exchange of secret keys. Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed...
A material engineered by University of Queensland researchers could herald the next generation of electronics with more memory, faster speeds, and advanced features, reports Tech Xplore. The carbon-based material could contribute to a growing nanoelectronics market predicted to be worth $162 billion by 2027. Professor Debra Bernhardt from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences said potential applications include telecommunications, automatic access systems, and medical equipment. "Graphene has...
