Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China(USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed an ultra-cold atom quantum simulator to study the relationship between the non-equilibrium thermalization process and quantum criticality in lattice gauge field theories. The research was led by Pan Jianwei and Yuan Zhensheng, in collaboration with Zhai Hui from Tsinghua University and Yao Zhiyuan from Lanzhou University.

Their findings reveal that multi-body systems possessing gauge symmetry tend to thermalize to an equilibrium state more easily when situated in a quantum phase transition critical region. The results were published in Physical Review Letters.

Gauge theory and statistical mechanics are two foundational theories of physics. From the Maxwell’s equations of classical electromagnetism to quantum electrodynamics and the Standard Model, which describe the interactions of fundamental particles, all adhere to specific gauge symmetries. On the other hand, statistical mechanics connects the microscopic states of large ensembles of particles (such as atoms and molecules) to their macroscopic statistical behaviors, based on the principle of maximum entropy proposed by Boltzmann and others. It elucidates, for instance, how the energy distribution of microscopic particles affects macroscopic quantities like pressure, volume, or temperature.

A previously unknown threat actor dubbed ‘Sandman’ targets telecommunication service providers in the Middle East, Western Europe, and South Asia, using a modular info-stealing malware named ‘LuaDream.’

This malicious activity was discovered by SentinelLabs in collaboration with QGroup GmbH in August 2023, who named the threat actor and malware after the backdoor’s internal name of ‘DreamLand client.’

The operational style of Sandman is to keep a low profile to evade detection while performing lateral movement and maintaining long-term access to breached systems to maximize its cyberespionage operations.

The developers of Free Download Manager (FDM) have published a script to check if a Linux device was infected through a recently reported supply chain attack.

Free Download Manager is a popular cross-platform download manager that offers torrenting, proxying, and online video downloads through a user-friendly interface.

Last week, Kaspersky revealed that the project’s website was compromised at some point in 2020, redirecting a portion of Linux users who attempted to download the software to a malicious site.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) disclosed a cyberattack on Tuesday after discovering last week that its systems had been breached.

“At the end of last week, the International Criminal Court’s services detected anomalous activity affecting its information systems,” the ICC said.

“Immediate measures were adopted to respond to this cybersecurity incident and to mitigate its impact.”

Amazon moves to stop people from posting AI-generated books on its marketplace, though a three-books-per-day limit still seems high given how long it takes to write an actual book.

Renewable energy generation, from sources like wind and solar, is rapidly growing. However, some of the energy generated needs to be stored for when weather conditions are unfavourable for wind and sun. One promising way to do this is to save the energy in the form of hydrogen, which can be stored and transported for later use.

To do this, the renewable energy is used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, with the energy stored in the hydrogen atoms. This uses platinum catalysts to spur a reaction that splits the water molecule, which is called electrolysis. However, although platinum is an excellent catalyst for this reaction, it is expensive and rare, so minimising its use is important to reduce system cost and limit platinum extraction.

Now, in a study published this week in Nature, the team have designed and tested a catalyst that uses as little platinum as possible to produce an efficient but cost-effective platform for water splitting.

Continue reading “Cheap and efficient catalyst could boost renewable energy storage” »

This is the third part in a series on deep brain stimulation for depression. Read from the beginning.

Early in the morning on August 22, 2022, Jon’s medical team told him that neurologist Helen Mayberg would check in with him just before his deep brain stimulation surgery.

As if being Earth’s largest sphere and having giant LED screens inside and out wasn’t enough, the MSG Sphere has announced its next plan to take Las Vegas to the future with robots.

Sphere Entertainment introduced the world to Aura, the world’s most advanced humanoid robot, that will permanently reside at the arena when it launches this month.

Continue reading “‘Hello, humans’: Meet Aura, the Las Vegas Sphere’s humanoid robots designed to help guests” »

We are entering a new era of AI, one that is fundamentally changing how we relate to and benefit from technology. With the convergence of chat interfaces and large language models you can now ask for what you want in natural language and the technology is smart enough to answer, create it or take action. At Microsoft, we think about this as having a copilot to help navigate any task. We have been building AI-powered copilots into our most used and loved products – making coding more efficient with GitHub, transforming productivity at work with Microsoft 365, redefining search with Bing and Edge and delivering contextual value that works across your apps and PC with Windows.

Today we take the next step to unify these capabilities into a single experience we call Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion. Copilot will uniquely incorporate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data and what you are doing in the moment on your PC to provide better assistance – with your privacy and security at the forefront. It will be a simple and seamless experience, available in Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and in our web browser with Edge and Bing. It will work as an app or reveal itself when you need it with a right click. We will continue to add capabilities and connections to Copilot across to our most-used applications over time in service of our vision to have one experience that works across your whole life.

Continue reading “Announcing Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion” »