Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 1954

The threat actors behind the PikaBot malware have made significant changes to the malware in what has been described as a case of “devolution.”

“Although it appears to be in a new development cycle and testing phase, the developers have reduced the complexity of the code by removing advanced obfuscation techniques and changing the network communications,” Zscaler ThreatLabz researcher Nikolaos Pantazopoulos said.

PikaBot, first documented by the cybersecurity firm in May 2023, is a malware loader and a backdoor that can execute commands and inject payloads from a command-and-control (C2) server as well as allow the attacker to control the infected host.

Read more | >

With the upgraded GRAVITY-instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer of the European Southern Observatory, a team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has determined the mass of a black hole in a galaxy only 2 billion years after the Big Bang. With 300 million solar masses, the black hole is actually under-massive compared to the mass of its host galaxy. Researchers suspect what is happening here.

A paper on this work is published in the journal Nature.

In the more local universe, astronomers have observed tight relationships between the properties of galaxies and the mass of the supermassive black holes residing at their centers, suggesting that galaxies and black holes co-evolve. A crucial test would be to probe this relationship at early cosmic times, but for these far-away galaxies, traditional direct methods of measuring the black hole mass are either impossible or extremely difficult.

Read more | >

The automotive industry has experienced rapid advancements due to the integration of edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years. As vehicles continue developing self-driving capabilities, these technologies have become increasingly critical for effective decision-making and real-time reactions.

Edge computing processes data and commands locally within a vehicle’s systems, improving road safety and transportation efficiency. Combined with 5G, it enables real-time communication between vehicles and infrastructure, reducing latency and allowing autonomous vehicles to respond faster. AI algorithms enable cars to interpret visual data and make human-like driving decisions.

Edge computing and AI are transforming vehicles into true self-driving machines, filling any gaps in low-latency 5G tech and enabling companies to pioneer advanced autonomy.

Read more | >

In the realm of scientific innovation, the past decade has seen the CRISPR/Cas systems emerge as a groundbreaking tool in genome editing, boasting applications that span from enhancing crop yields to pioneering gene therapy.

The recent advent of CRISPR-COPIES by the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) marks a significant leap forward, refining CRISPR’s flexibility and user-friendliness.

CRISPR-COPIES represents a cutting-edge solution designed to swiftly pinpoint ideal chromosomal sites for genetic modification across any species.

Read more | >

The notion of time travel has fascinated humans for thousands of years, but it’s always been a work of fiction – until now.

Scientists have discovered evidence of time travel for real, albeit at a microscopic level. Till Bohmer and Thomas Blochowicz are the lead authors of a new study, Time reversibility during the ageing of materials, which is published in Nature Physics.

The research from the two researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany focuses on time effectively ‘shuffling’ in the structure of certain materials like glass.

Read more | >

This post is also available in: he עברית (Hebrew)

Some experts claim that there is no current evidence that AI can be controlled safely. And if so, should it even be developed?

AI Safety expert Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy explains in his book “AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable” that the problem of AI control is one of the most important problems facing humanity, but even so it remains poorly understood, poorly defined, and poorly researched.

Read more | >

An international research group has identified a novel state of matter, characterized by the presence of a quantum phenomenon known as chiral current.

These currents are generated on an atomic scale by a cooperative movement of electrons, unlike conventional magnetic materials whose properties originate from the quantum characteristic of an electron known as spin and their ordering in the crystal.

Read more | >

The team leveraged ground-state electron transfer to develop water-based conductive ink for use in flexible electronics.

A major trend in electronics has been the emergence of flexible electronics in devices such as solar cells and energy storage. The technology enabling these devices to be flexible and lightweight is organic electronics. However, concerns about the sustainability of producing organic electronics are growing.

Recently, researchers in Sweden tackled the sustainability challenges head-on by developing water-based conductive inks in organic electronics.

Read more | >