Lifeboat Foundation

SparklingGoblin is the name given to a Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) group with connections to the Winnti umbrella (aka APT41, Barium, Earth Baku, or Wicked Panda). It’s primarily known for its attacks targeting various entities in East and Southeast Asia at least since 2019, with a specific focus on the academic sector.

In August 2021, ESET unearthed a new piece of custom Windows malware codenamed SideWalk (aka ScrambleCross) that was exclusively leveraged by the actor to strike an unnamed computer retail company based in the U.S.

Subsequent findings from Symantec, part of Broadcom software, have linked the use of SideWalk to an espionage attack group it tracks under the moniker Grayfly, while pointing out the malware’s similarities to that of Crosswalk.

There was once a time, not so long ago, when scientists like Casey Holliday needed scalpels, scissors and even their own hands to conduct anatomical research. But now, with recent advances in technology, Holliday and his colleagues at the University of Missouri are using artificial intelligence (AI) to see inside an animal or a person—down to a single muscle fiber—without ever making a cut.

Holliday, an associate professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, said his lab in the MU School of Medicine is one of only a handful of labs in the world currently using this high-tech approach.

AI can teach computer programs to identify a muscle fiber in an image, such as a CAT scan. Then, researchers can use that data to develop detailed 3D computer models of muscles to better understand how they work together in the body for motor control, Holliday said.

Recent advancements in the development of machine learning and optimization techniques have opened new and exciting possibilities for identifying suitable molecular designs, compounds, and chemical candidates for different applications. Optimization techniques, some of which are based on machine learning algorithms, are powerful tools that can be used to select optimal solutions for a given problem among a typically large set of possibilities.

Researchers at Colorado State University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have been applying state-of-the-art molecular optimization models to different real-world problems that entail identifying new and promising molecular designs. In their most recent study, featured in Nature Machine Intelligence, they specifically applied a newly developed, open-source optimization framework to the task of identifying viable organic radicals for aqueous redox flow batteries, energy devices that convert chemical energy into electricity.

“Our project was funded by an ARPA-E program that was looking to shorten how long it takes to develop new energy materials using machine learning techniques,” Peter C. St. John, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. “Finding new candidates for redox flow batteries was an interesting extension of some of our previous work, including a paper published in Nature Communications and another in Scientific Data, both looking at organic radicals.”

No matter how good our measurement devices get, certain quantum properties always possess an inherent uncertainty. Can we figure out why?

AS man and machine get ever closer, the world of sex tech seems to get a little stranger.

We’ve rounded up some of the most bizarre sex tech inventions that are in the works, including an exoskeleton could let humans make love in the metaverse.

Humans may rely on exoskeletons to have realistic sex in the metaverse, one sex tech expert has revealed.

Some of Solar Orbiter’s instruments had to be turned off during the event.

There’s one spacecraft that will be very well placed to capture that increasing activity: Solar Orbiter is currently 25 percent of the way through its 10-year mission of observing the Sun. By 2025, it will be closer than ever to our parent star, and it has already started observing some fantastic phenomena from our Sun.

Continue reading “Europe’s Sun probe just survived a potentially world-ruining solar storm” »

What if death isn’t the end? NDEs may complicate what science teaches us about death and consciousness.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=EEqHir0YFnU

These 15 robots may demonstrate that the concept is viable.

Personal robots have been a common trope in sci-fi for many decades. Their apparent plausibility has made many sci-fi enthusiasts wonder when they may become a reality.

Continue reading “Where are all the personal robots we were promised?” »

Have you ever looked at something and been creeped out by it’s almost, but not quite, human-like appearance? Be honest — does the Sophia robot creep you out?People find things that are human like, but not quite human, to be creepy. The feeling of creepiness can range from robots, to CGI animation, animatronics like you see at theme parks, dolls or even digital assistants. This concept is called the “uncanny valley”. And, believe it or not, is actually a particularly significant reason why many AI projects are failing.

The uncanny valley is the relationship between the degree of an object’s resemblance to being human and then humans emotional response to that object.

Why is AI so creepy sometimes?

Continue reading “The Creepy Problem Killing AI Projects” »