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Blog – Page 251

The Spanish police, working with colleagues in Peru, conducted a simultaneous crackdown on a large-scale voice phishing (vishing) scam ring in the two countries, arresting 83 individuals.

Thirty-five of the arrested people were located across Spain, including in Madrid, Barcelona, Mallorca, Salamanca, and Vigo, and another 48 were arrested in Peru.

The leader of the ring was also apprehended in Spain during the 29 simultaneous raids conducted by the cooperating police forces, which also seized cash, mobile phones, computers, and documents.

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Russian telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor has blocked the Viber encrypted messaging app, used by hundreds of millions worldwide, for violating the country’s legislation.

“Access to the Viber service is restricted due to the violation of the requirements of Russian legislation for organizers of information dissemination,” Russia’s internet regulator said in a press statement.

“Compliance with the requirements is necessary to prevent threats of using the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, recruiting citizens to commit them, selling drugs, as well as in connection with the posting of illegal information.”

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For human researchers, it takes many years of work to discover new super-resolution microscopy techniques. The number of possible optical configurations of a microscope—for example, where to place mirrors or lenses—is enormous.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) framework which autonomously discovers new experimental designs in microscopy. The framework, called XLuminA, performs optimizations 10,000 times faster than well-established methods.

The researchers’ work is published in Nature Communications.

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Recent studies have successfully observed magnetic shockwaves in the cosmic web by examining radio emissions between galaxy clusters.

This achievement, confirmed by comparing polarized light patterns with advanced simulations, opens new avenues for understanding cosmic magnetic fields and their role in the Universe’s structure.

Understanding the Cosmic Web.

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A research team led by Prof. Wang Haoyi from the Institute of Zoology (IOZ) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell exhaustion model and a functional screening platform for identifying compounds that can rejuvenate exhausted T cells.

Using this innovative platform, the team identified the small-molecule compound miltefosine, which significantly enhances the tumor-killing activity of CAR-T cells. This study was published in Cell Reports Medicine on December 9.

T cell exhaustion is a differentiation state that arises when T cells are exposed to persistent antigen stimulation. This state is characterized by a progressive loss of effector functions, sustained expression of inhibitory receptors, impaired proliferation, and compromised mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis capacity.

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Scientists have discovered that cosmic filaments, the largest known structures in the universe, are rotating. These massive, twisting filaments of dark matter and galaxies stretch across hundreds of millions of light-years and play a crucial role in channeling matter to galaxy clusters. The finding challenges existing theories, as it was previously believed that rotation could not occur on such large scales. The research was confirmed through both computer simulations and real-world data, and it opens up new questions about how these giant structures acquire their spin.

After reading the article, a Reddit user named Kane gained more than 100 upvotes with this comment: “What if galaxy clusters are like neuron and glial clusters in a brain. And dark matter is basically the equivalent of a synapse. It connects galaxies and matter together and is responsible for sending quantum information back and forth like a signal chain.”

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Though Elon Musk’s Neuralink put wireless brain implants in the spotlight — in early 2024, Musk announced his company’s first implant was successful — the research and development of these devices has spanned decades. The BrainGate clinical trials have been underway for 20 years, and the consortium’s wireless implant marks the first time a person has used an implant with high bandwidth capabilities.

Wireless technologies are opening doors in neuroscience, enabling new capabilities in communication, treatment, and research. Because wireless implants can monitor the brain for long periods of time, they offer a unique opportunity to examine neural dynamics, increasing our understanding of the human mind. Their cord-free design also benefits people hoping to use these devices outside a research setting and improve their quality of life.

The first brain implant is credited to neurologist Phil Kennedy, who had the device surgically affixed to his brain. Today, wired implants are less invasive and widely used. They can help prevent seizures, manage OCD symptoms, and treat movement disorders.

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When you stare for long enough into the heart of a galaxy to try to catch a glimpse of the black hole that lurks therein, that may not be all you catch.

When a huge collaboration directed telescopes around the world to the heart of galaxy M87 in 2018 in an ultimately successful effort to capture detail of its supermassive black hole, they also managed to observe some of the wild shenanigans such a black hole engages in.

Now, astronomers discovered that one of those shenanigans was a colossal belch – a gamma-ray eruption from one of the powerful jets of plasma launched from the black hole’s poles as it feeds.

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