Lifeboat Foundation

A hacking group linked to the Russian government has been attempting to breach the U.S. power grid, Wired reports.

Security experts from the non-profit group the Electric Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) and security firm Dragos tracked the hackers — and warn that the group has been probing the grid for weaknesses, searching for ways that they could access U.S. systems.

Even though there are no signs that the group has succeeded in accessing the power grid, the attacks still have experts worried. And that’s partly because of the history of this particular hacking group: Xenotime, who created the infamous Triton malware. In late 2017, Triton attacked critical infrastructure such as the industrial control systems used in power plants, and it could have been used to cause massive destruction through tampering with power plant controls. That lead it to be labeled the “world’s most murderous malware.”

Gone are the days when a store’s security cameras only mattered to shoplifters.

Now, with the rising prevalence of surveillance systems constantly monitored by artificial intelligence, ubiquitous security systems can watch, learn about, and discriminate against shoppers more than ever before.

That’s the gist of a new ACLU report titled “The Dawn of Robot Surveillance,” about how emerging AI technology enables security companies to constantly monitor and collect data about people — opening new possibilities in which power is abused or underserved communities are overpoliced.

A green propellant alternative will be tested out in space for the first time.

The world’s most exciting festival of ideas and discovery London ExCeL October 10–13 2019.

A new gene therapy for a rare blood disorder will sell for €1.6 million ($1.8 million) in Europe, according to the maker of the recently approved treatment, whose sticker price is the latest indication that already high drug costs are continuing to climb.

After it goes on sale, the Zynteglo gene therapy from Bluebird Bio Inc. will be the second-most expensive drug in the world after Novartis’s $2.1 million Zolgensma gene therapy, which was recently approved for sale in the U.S.

The collaboration, its architects say, was designed to carefully address questions familiar to partnerships involving academic and industry scientists.

You may be familiar with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease. Did you know there’s a lesser-known—but similar—illness that affects deer, moose, and elk? It’s called chronic wasting disease, and like mad cow, it is also a brain disease, thought to be caused by a malformed, twisted protein called a prion. CWD leads to unusual behavior, and often results in the animals becoming gruesomely thin before they die. First discovered in 1967, CWD now has been detected in at least 26 states, three Canadian provinces, Norway, Sweden, and South Korea.

Rae Ellen Bichell, a reporter with the Mountain West News Bureau and KUNC, explored chronic wasting disease in a multipart series titled “ Bent Out Of Shape.” She joins Ira to talk about the disease, research into its origin and spread, and what’s known about the possible effects of human exposure to CWD.

Check out the full series.

Sheila Gujrathi has worked as a doctor, a McKinsey consultant, and at an up-and-coming biotech. Each role prepared her to be CEO in different ways.

New LulzBot bioprinting hardware coming 2019 with long term goal of printing real functional tissues.