The focus is on K-12 education, but the draft order says, “Our Nation must also make resources available for lifelong learners to develop new skills for a changing workforce.”
Category: robotics/AI – Page 282
Unlocking the secrets of salt crystal formation at the nanoscale
In nature and technology, crystallization plays a pivotal role, from forming snowflakes and pharmaceuticals to creating advanced batteries and desalination membranes. Despite its importance, crystallization at the nanoscale is poorly understood, mainly because observing the process directly at this scale is exceptionally challenging. My research overcame this hurdle by employing state-of-the-art computational methods, allowing them to visualize atomic interactions in unprecedented detail.
Published in Chemical Science, my research has uncovered new details about how salt crystals form in tiny nanometer-sized spaces, which could pave the way for advanced materials and improved electrochemical technologies.
This research used sophisticated molecular dynamics simulations enhanced by cutting-edge machine learning techniques to study how sodium chloride (NaCl), common table salt, crystallizes when confined between two graphene sheets separated by just a few billionths of a meter. These extreme conditions, known as nano-confinement, drastically alter how molecules behave compared to bulk, everyday conditions.
They Mapped Every Neuron in a Grain of Brain — And Revealed How We See
A massive, multi-year project led by over 150 scientists has produced the most detailed map yet of how visual information travels through the brain – revealing more than 500 million connections in a speck of mouse brain tissue.
Using glowing neurons, high-powered electron microscopes, and deep learning, researchers captured both the physical wiring and real-time electrical activity of over 200,000 brain cells. The resulting 1.6-petabyte dataset is not just a technological marvel – it brings us closer to answering age-old questions about how our brains turn light into vision and how brain disorders might arise when this system breaks.
Unraveling the Brain’s Visual Code.
SuperCard X Android Malware Enables Contactless ATM and PoS Fraud via NFC Relay Attacks
At the core of the operation is a previously undocumented NFC relay technique that enables threat actors to fraudulently authorize point-of-sale (PoS) payments and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) withdrawals by intercepting and relaying NFC communications from infected devices.
To do this, the attackers urge the victims to bring their debit or credit card in close physical proximity to their mobile device, which then allows the SuperCard X malware to stealthily capture the transmitted card details and relay them to an external server. The harvested card information is then utilized on a threat actor-controlled device to conduct unauthorized transactions.
The application that’s distributed to victims for capturing NFC card data is called a Reader. A similar app known as Tapper is installed on the threat actor’s device to receive the card information. Communication between the Reader and Tapper is carried out using HTTP for command-and-control (C2) and requires cybercriminals to be logged in.
WordPress ad-fraud plugins generated 1.4 billion ad requests per day
A large-scale ad fraud operation called ‘Scallywag’ is monetizing pirating and URL shortening sites through specially crafted WordPress plugins that generate billions of daily fraudulent requests.
Scallywag was uncovered by bot and fraud detection firm HUMAN, which mapped a network of 407 domains supporting the operation that peaked at 1.4 billion fraudulent ad requests per day.
HUMAN’s efforts to block and report Scallywag traffic have resulted in its shrinking by 95%, although the threat actors have shown resilience by rotating domains and moving to other monetization models.
