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Dec 9, 2022

Meet the dearMoon Crew!

Posted by in category: space travel

Meet the crew joining Yusaku Maezawa on this lunar mission aboard SpaceX’s Starship.

Dec 9, 2022

Transcranial photobiomodulation enhances visual working memory capacity in humans

Posted by in category: futurism

Transcranial photobiomodulation (at 1,064 nm) applied to the right prefrontal cortex improves visual working memory capacity.

Dec 9, 2022

Simple alloy claims crown of toughest material ever recorded

Posted by in category: materials

A simple alloy has claimed the crown for toughest material ever recorded. In a new study, a team led by researchers at Berkeley Lab ran the alloy through a series of tests and discovered not only its incredible toughness, but high strength and ductility that actually improve in colder temperatures, unlike most known materials.

The alloy in question contains chromium, cobalt and nickel (CrCoNi), and it belongs to a class of metals called high entropy alloys (HEAs). Most alloys are made up of one dominant element with smaller amounts of others added in, but HEAs contain equal amounts of each element. This can give them some impressive properties, such as high strength-to-weight ratios, an elastic modulus that rises with the temperature, or ultra strength and ductility.

In previous work, the researchers found that CrCoNi showed high strength and toughness at low temperatures of around −196 °C (−321 °F). For the new study, the team investigated how it would hold up at even colder temperatures of −253 °C (−424 °F), at which helium exists as a liquid. And sure enough, its toughness hit new heights in preventing cracks propagating.

Dec 9, 2022

Alzheimer’s tied to cholesterol, abnormal nerve insulation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Earlier research by Dr. Li-Huei Tsai of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others found that APOE4 might raise Alzheimer’s risk by altering lipid metabolism in certain brain cells. But the underlying details of the process remained unclear.

To build on these findings, the team conducted a multi-pronged study that assessed gene activity of all major cell types in post-mortem human brain tissue from 32 men and women who had one, two, or no copies of the APOE4 gene. Results were published in Nature on November 24, 2022.

The researchers found that APOE4 affected gene expression across all measured cell types. The team then took a closer look at genes related to cholesterol and other lipids. Cholesterol-manufacturing genes were overly expressed, and cholesterol-transporting genes dysregulated, in brain cells called oligodendrocytes with the APOE4 gene. Oligodendrocytes are found in the brain and spinal cord. They make and maintain a fatty substance called myelin that surrounds and insulates long nerve fibers. The abnormalities were more extreme in oligodendrocytes with two copies of APOE4 rather than one.

Dec 9, 2022

Competition-level code generation with AlphaCode

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

AI gradually taking over coding. Coders tryin to circle the wagons, but its already too late. AI coders will be best in world in probably mid 2025.


Modern machine learning systems can achieve average human-level performance in popular competitive programming contests.

Dec 8, 2022

Double embryo transfer in assisted reproduction found to increase the risk of complications in single births

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The risk of complications in assisted reproduction is higher when two embryos are transferred, instead of one embryo. This has been shown in a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, which included all births in Sweden 2007–2017.

Fertility treatments using assisted reproduction in Sweden are among the safest in the world regarding risks for the mother and children. A national recommendation to only transfer one embryo in assisted reproduction was introduced in 2003, aiming to decrease the risk of multiple pregnancies and their related complications during and delivery.

In certain cases, two are still transferred in order to increase the chance of pregnancy while the risk of multiple pregnancy remains low. Thus, many of the treatments with double embryo transfer result in single pregnancies. Many patients wish to have two embryos transferred to increase their chances of pregnancy, but there is a lack of data on potential risks with transferring two embryos when the treatment results in the of a single child.

Dec 8, 2022

North Korea executes 2 minors for watching, distributing K-dramas

Posted by in category: entertainment

They only wanted to watch some k-dramas. 😢


Two teenagers in North Korea have been killed by a firing squad for watching and selling movies from neighbouring South Korea.

Dec 8, 2022

Automated dark web markets sell corporate email accounts for $2

Posted by in categories: business, cybercrime/malcode

Cybercrime marketplaces are increasingly selling stolen corporate email addresses for as low as $2 to fill a growing demand by hackers who use them for business email compromise and phishing attacks or initial access to networks.

Analysts at Israeli cyber-intelligence firm KELA have closely followed this trend, reporting at least 225,000 email accounts for sale on underground markets.

The largest webmail shops are Xleet and Lufix, claiming to offer access to over 100k breached corporate email accounts, with prices ranging between $2 and $30, if not more, for highly-desirable organizations.

Dec 8, 2022

Bad news! The platform certificates of many phone manufactures have been hacked. These are used to sign trusted apps on Android phones. Now these certificates are being used to certify malicious Android applications

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, mobile phones

Data security — information security newspaper | hacking news.

Dec 8, 2022

Flipping the switch: Scientists shed new light on genetic changes that turn ‘on’ cancer genes

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Cancer, caused by abnormal overgrowth of cells, is the second-leading cause of death in the world. Researchers from the Salk Institute have zeroed in on specific mechanisms that activate oncogenes, which are altered genes that can cause normal cells to become cancer cells.

Cancer can be caused by , yet the impact of specific types such as structural variants that break and rejoin DNA, can vary widely. The findings, published in Nature on December 7, 2022, show that the activity of those mutations depends on the distance between a particular gene and the sequences that regulate the gene, as well as on the level of activity of the regulatory sequences involved.

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