Cellular communication between neurons within our brain is complex and busy, much like a USPS mailroom.
To keep things running smoothly, the brain uses specialized molecules, termed alpha-2-delta (α2δ) proteins, to coordinate the sending and receival of signals between nerve cells in the brain.
Genetic variations in these types of proteins can impact important brain messaging and function, resulting in chronic pain, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, migraines, and other conditions.
Researchers have demonstrated a new way of attacking artificial intelligence computer vision systems, allowing them to control what the AI “sees.” The research shows that the new technique, called RisingAttacK, is effective at manipulating all of the most widely used AI computer vision systems.
At issue are so-called “adversarial attacks,” in which someone manipulates the data being fed into an AI system to control what the system sees, or does not see, in an image. For example, someone might manipulate an AI’s ability to detect traffic signals, pedestrians or other cars—which would cause problems for autonomous vehicles. Or a hacker could install code on an X-ray machine that causes an AI system to make inaccurate diagnoses.
“We wanted to find an effective way of hacking AI vision systems because these vision systems are often used in contexts that can affect human health and safety—from autonomous vehicles to health technologies to security applications,” says Tianfu Wu, co-corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University.
Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) in Jena, Germany, together with international collaborators, have developed two complementary methods that could make quantum communication via fiber optics practical outside the lab.
One approach significantly increases the amount of information that can be encoded in a single photon; the other improves the stability of the quantum signal over long distances. Both methods rely on standard telecom components—offering a realistic path to secure data transmission through existing fiber networks.
From hospitals to government agencies and industrial facilities—anywhere sensitive data must be kept secure—quantum communication could one day play a key role. Instead of transmitting electrical signals, this technology uses individual particles of light—photons—encoded in delicate quantum states. One of its key advantages: any attempt to intercept or tamper with the signal disturbs the quantum state, making eavesdropping not only detectable but inherently limited.
“The current operating mode, in which a beam of protons collides with a beam of oxygen ions, is the most challenging,” points out Roderik Bruce, an LHC ion specialist. “This is because the electromagnetic field inside the accelerator affects protons and oxygen ions differently, due to their different charge-to-mass ratios. In other words, without corrections the two beams would collide in different places at each turn.”
To overcome this problem, the engineers are carefully adjusting the frequency of revolution and the momentum of each beam, so that the collisions take place right at the heart of the LHC’s four main experiments: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb.
But these four experiments are not the only ones to be involved in this special campaign. Last week, the LHCf experiment, which studies cosmic rays using the small-angle particles created during collisions, installed a detector along the LHC beamline, 140 meters from the ATLAS experiment’s collision point, which it will use for proton–oxygen run. This detector will later be removed and replaced by a calorimeter, which will provide additional data during the oxygen–oxygen and neon–neon collisions.
A team of researchers has developed a novel method for using cholesteric liquid crystals in optical microcavities. The platform created by the researchers enables the formation and dynamic tuning of photonic crystals with integrated spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and controlled laser emission. The results of this research have been published in the journal Laser & Photonics Reviews. The team is from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, the Military University of Technology, and the Institut Pascal at Université Clermont Auvergne.
“A uniform lying helix (ULH) structure of a cholesteric phase liquid crystal is arranged in the optical cavity. The self-organized helix structure with the axis lying in the plane of the cavity acts as a one-dimensional periodic photonic lattice. This is possible due to the unique properties of liquid crystals, which are elongated molecules that resemble a pencil,” explains Prof. Jacek Szczytko from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, where research on novel optical microcavities is being conducted.
A cholesteric structure is a spiral structure made up of layers of almost parallel oriented molecules lying in a single plane. From layer to layer, the orientation of the molecules is gently twisted, which altogether builds up a helical structure reminiscent of DNA helixes or ‘piggyback’ noodles. The direction perpendicular to the layers of molecules determines the axis of the helix formed.
Cybersecurity researchers have flagged the tactical similarities between the threat actors behind the RomCom RAT and a cluster that has been observed delivering a loader dubbed TransferLoader.
Enterprise security firm Proofpoint is tracking the activity associated with TransferLoader to a group dubbed UNK_GreenSec and the RomCom RAT actors under the moniker TA829. The latter is also known by the names CIGAR, Nebulous Mantis, Storm-0978, Tropical Scorpius, UAC-0180, UAT-5647, UNC2596, and Void Rabisu.
The company said it discovered UNK_GreenSec as part of its investigation into TA829, describing it as using an “unusual amount of similar infrastructure, delivery tactics, landing pages, and email lure themes.”
