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Feb 7, 2024

Critical vulnerability affecting most Linux distros allows for bootkits

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, internet

Linux developers are in the process of patching a high-severity vulnerability that, in certain cases, allows the installation of malware that runs at the firmware level, giving infections access to the deepest parts of a device where they’re hard to detect or remove.

The vulnerability resides in shim, which in the context of Linux is a small component that runs in the firmware early in the boot process before the operating system has started. More specifically, the shim accompanying virtually all Linux distributions plays a crucial role in secure boot, a protection built into most modern computing devices to ensure every link in the boot process comes from a verified, trusted supplier. Successful exploitation of the vulnerability allows attackers to neutralize this mechanism by executing malicious firmware at the earliest stages of the boot process before the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface firmware has loaded and handed off control to the operating system.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023–40547, is what’s known as a buffer overflow, a coding bug that allows attackers to execute code of their choice. It resides in a part of the shim that processes booting up from a central server on a network using the same HTTP that the Internet is based on. Attackers can exploit the code-execution vulnerability in various scenarios, virtually all following some form of successful compromise of either the targeted device or the server or network the device boots from.

Feb 7, 2024

Nanomedicine advancement shows potential for personalized point-of-care therapeutics

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering

Stefan Wilhelm, an associate professor in the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, and several students in his Biomedical Nano-Engineering Lab have recently published an article in the journal Nano Letters (“Toward the Scalable, Rapid, Reproducible, and Cost-Effective Synthesis of Personalized Nanomedicines at the Point of Care”) that outlines their recent important nanomedicine advancement.

The group examined how to create tools that produce nanomedicines, such as vaccine formulations, directly at the point of care. In doing so, the large centralized facilities, shipping challenges, and extreme cold storage challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic would no longer limit vaccine distribution.

Wilhelm, with student researchers such as Hamilton Young, a senior biomedical engineering student, and Yuxin He, a biomedical engineering graduate research assistant, used 3D printer parts to mix fluid streams together containing the building blocks of nanomedicines and their payloads in a T-mixer format.

Feb 6, 2024

This ‘Satan’ Spider Turned Out to Be a Real Teddy Bear

Posted by in category: futurism

In Ecuador, Satanas the tarantula—named for his feisty attitude—became both teacher and friend to researchers.

Feb 6, 2024

There’s nowhere left on Earth free of space pollution

Posted by in category: futurism

When we look at the night sky, we may see junk instead of stars.

Feb 6, 2024

Odors may prompt certain brain cells to make decisions

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered that odors stimulate specific brain cells that may play a role in rapid “go/no-go” decision-making.

The study was published online Tuesday (Feb. 6) in the journal Current Biology.

The scientists focused on the , an area of the brain crucial to memory and learning. They knew that so-called “time ” played a major role in hippocampal function, but didn’t know their role in associative learning.

Feb 6, 2024

Singularity Vs. Daoist Robots

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, singularity

Is there another path than accelerated Western modernization?

Feb 6, 2024

Genes Aren’t Actually the Blueprint of Life, Experts Say

Posted by in category: futurism

For decades, most people have believed that genes are the blueprint for life — but that perception, a pair of experts argue, falls short.

Feb 6, 2024

Artificial kidney aces test in pigs

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Even with dialysis, life expectancy is significantly shortened. With a kidney transplant, patients can expect to live 10 to 15 years longer.

The problem is that there aren’t enough donor kidneys to meet demand. If a person is lucky enough to find a matching donor, they still have to take immunosuppressants for the rest of their lives. While the drugs ensure their body won’t reject the organ, they also increase the risk of serious infections.

Continue reading “Artificial kidney aces test in pigs” »

Feb 6, 2024

A One-and-Done Injection to Slow Aging? New Study in Mice Opens the Possibility

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A preventative anti-aging therapy seems like wishful thinking.

Yet a new study led by Dr. Corina Amor Vegas at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory describes a treatment that brings the dream to life—at least for mice. Given a single injection in young adulthood, they aged more slowly compared to their peers.

By the equivalent of roughly 65 years of age in humans, the mice were slimmer, could better regulate blood sugar and insulin levels, and had lower inflammation and a more youthful metabolic profile. They even kept up their love for running, whereas untreated seniors turned into couch potatoes.

Feb 6, 2024

IBM and IonQ Researchers Design Classical Algorithm to Tackle Recent Harvard-Led Study’s Computational Task

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, quantum physics

Despite the Harvard 48 logical #qubits paper is perhaps the biggest leap in #quantum technologies, still the final circuit is classically simulable.


Politics makes strange bedfellows, apparently so does quantum benchmarking.

In a surprising development, IBM Quantum and IonQ researchers teamed up to reveal an alternative classical simulation algorithm for an impressive error correction study conducted by a Harvard and QuEra team and published recently in Nature. IBM is a leader in superconducting quantum computers, while IonQ is noted as a pioneer in trapped ion devices.

Continue reading “IBM and IonQ Researchers Design Classical Algorithm to Tackle Recent Harvard-Led Study’s Computational Task” »