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EU Justice Ministers Claims Cyber Attackers are terrorists. I wouldn’t say all of them are terrorists. Those who attack hospitals, attack government infrastructures, threaten markets, etc, are terrorists. The next door neighbor’s 13 yr old kid hacking to use your wireless internet service; not a terrorist.

European Union justice ministers on March 11th adopted a general approach on the directive on combatting terrorism, including serious cyber crimes, informs LETA/BNS.

On Friday the council greed its negotiating position on the proposal for a directive on combatting terrorism. The proposed directive strengthens the EU’s legal framework in preventing terrorist attacks by criminalising preparatory acts such as training and travel abroad for terrorist purposes – hence addressing the issue of foreign fighters – as well as aiding and abetting, inciting or attempting such acts. It also reinforce rules on the rights for the victims of terrorism, the Ministry of Justice said.

Estonian Justice Minister Urmas Reinsalu said in a speech at the Justice and Home Affairs Council that for Estonia it is very important that justice ministers were able to agree on defining serious terrorist cyber attacks as terrorist crimes. This gives the EU additional legal tools in such situations as the cyber attacks that followed the so-called Bronze Night riots that took place in Tallinn in April 2007, he added.

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Barclay Simpson, a leading Corporate Governance recruitment consultancy, has released its annual Security & Resilience market report which suggests that demand continues to rise for cyber security skills as an arms race develops between cyber criminals and those looking to secure systems and data from increasingly complex cyber attacks. With increased prominence and board attention, 68% of managers do not believe their security departments are sufficiently resourced given the demands that are made on them (down from 76%) whilst 69% have recruited or attempted to recruit in the last 6 months.

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Chipset maker Qualcomm Technologies has introduced a virtual reality (VR) software development kit (SDK) targeting VR-capable Android smartphone and headset makers.

The Snapdragon VR SDK offers access to optimized VR features, to simplify development and to help developers with attain improved VR performance and power efficiency with the Snapdragon 820 for Android smartphones and upcoming VR headsets.

Qualcomm will be offering the SDK in the second quarter of 2016 through the Qualcomm Developer Network.

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“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the dusty surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, it was a victory for NASA and a victory for science.

Backed by billions and led by NASA, the Apollo project is hardly the only government-organized science initiative to change the world. Two decades earlier, the Manhattan Project produced the first atomic bomb and restructured modern warfare; three decades later, the Human Genome Project published the blueprint to our DNA, heralding the dawn of population genomics and personalized medicine.

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Another great invention by the folks from Australia.

Researchers said they developed the new thinnest lens in the world. Made from a crystal called molybdenum disulphide, the new lens is 2,000 thinner than a human hair and can revolutionize the field of nanotechnology. (Photo : Gerd Altmann | Pixabay)

A team of Australian scientists said they have developed the thinnest lens in the world. The new 6.3-nanometer lens, which is 2,000 times thinner than a human hair, can lead to novel advances in medicine and science which could revolutionize nanotechnology.

Putting that in perspective, the previous thinnest lens was 50 nanometers thick. The new world’s thinnest lens was created by a team of scientists lead by The Australian National University’s Dr. Yuerui ‘Larry’ Lu.

Continue reading “World’s Thinnest Lens Could Revolutionize Nanotechnology” | >

Abstract: Since the 17th century, science was intrigued by the nature of light. Isaac Newton was certain that it consists of a stream of particles. His contemporary Christiaan Huygens, however, argued that light is a wave. Modern quantum physics says that both were right. Light can be observed both as particles and as waves — depending which characteristic is measured in an experiment, it presents itself more as one or the other. This so-called wave-particle dualism is one of the foundational principles of quantum physics. This questions our common sense: can one and the same indeed be of two contradictory natures at the same time?

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Lens regeneration in monkeys after minimally invasive surgery. Slit-lamp microscopy showed regenerating lens tissue grew from the peripheral to the central lens in a circular symmetrical pattern 2–3 months after surgery, reaching the center at 5 months post-surgery; direct illumination showed that the visual axis remained translucent. (credit: Haotian Lin et al./Nature)

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Shiley Eye Institute, with colleagues in China, have developed an eye lens restoration treatment that has been tested in monkeys and in a small human clinical trial. It produced much fewer surgical complications than the current standard-of-care and resulted in regenerated lenses with superior visual function in all 12 of the pediatric cataract patients who received the new surgery.

Congenital cataracts — lens clouding that occurs at birth or shortly thereafter — is a significant cause of blindness in children.

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