Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Heat causes errors in the qubits that are the building blocks of a quantum computer, so quantum systems are typically kept inside refrigerators that keep the temperature just above absolute zero (−459 degrees Fahrenheit).

But quantum computers need to communicate with electronics outside the refrigerator, in a room-temperature environment. The metal cables that connect these electronics bring heat into the refrigerator, which has to work even harder and draw extra power to keep the system cold. Plus, more qubits require more cables, so the size of a quantum system is limited by how much heat the fridge can remove.

To overcome this challenge, an interdisciplinary team of MIT researchers has developed a that enables a quantum computer to send and receive data to and from electronics outside the refrigerator using high-speed .

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Google scientists said Wednesday they have passed a major milestone in their quest to develop effective quantum computing, with a new study showing they reduced the rate of errors – long an obstacle for the much-hyped technology.

Quantum computing has been touted as a revolutionary advance that uses our growing scientific understanding of the subatomic world to create a machine with powers far beyond those of today’s conventional computers.

However, the technology remains largely theoretical, with many thorny problems still standing in the way – including stubbornly high error rates.

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Already smarting from a breach that put partially encrypted login data into a threat actor’s hands, LastPass on Monday said that the same attacker hacked an employee’s home computer and obtained a decrypted vault available to only a handful of company developers.

Although an initial intrusion into LastPass ended on August 12, officials with the leading password manager said the threat actor “was actively engaged in a new series of reconnaissance, enumeration, and exfiltration activity” from August 12 to August 26. In the process, the unknown threat actor was able to steal valid credentials from a senior DevOps engineer and access the contents of a LastPass data vault. Among other things, the vault gave access to a shared cloud-storage environment that contained the encryption keys for customer vault backups stored in Amazon S3 buckets.

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Pierce, an artist whose work critically engages with weaponized emerging technologies, recently unveiled their latest ingenious project—an everyday hoodie retrofitted to include an array of infrared (IR) LEDs that, when activated, blinds any nearby night vision security cameras. Using mostly off-the-shelf components like LumiLED lights, an Adafruit microcontroller, and silicone wire, as well as we software Pierce that made open-source for interested DIYers, the privacy-boosting “Camera Shy Hoodie” is designed to enable citizens to safely engage in civic protests and demonstrations. Or, wearers can just simply opt-out of being tracked by unknown third-parties while walking down the street.

A DIY hack for hoodies emits infrared LEDs to obscure wearers’ faces from invasive surveillance camera tracking.

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Google scientists said Wednesday they have passed a major milestone in their quest to develop effective quantum computing, with a new study showing they reduced the rate of errors—long an obstacle for the much-hyped technology.

Quantum computing has been touted as a revolutionary advance that uses our growing scientific understanding of the subatomic world to create a machine with powers far beyond those of today’s conventional computers.

However the technology remains largely theoretical, with many thorny problems still standing in the way—including stubbornly high error rates.

Read more | >

A tumor’s necrotic core contains factors that appear to promote metastasis, or the seeding of tumors cells throughout the body, according to a new study in rats by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.

Researchers hope their findings, which will be published the week of Feb. 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lead to a better understanding of how to cure metastatic, or stage 4 cancers, which are treatable but not curable.

“Tumor necrotic cores are a fairly common phenomenon, but they haven’t been linked to cancer metastasis until recently,” said lead author Ami Yamamoto, a Fred Hutch graduate student working in the Cheung Lab. “Our research put together observations other people have made into the specific context of breast cancer metastasis. Our work shows a link between necrosis, circulating and cancer metastasis.”

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