Lifeboat Foundation

Phishing attacks are cyber-attacks through which criminals trick users into sending them money and sensitive information, or into installing malware on their computer, by sending them deceptive emails or messages. As these attacks have become increasingly widespread, developers have been trying to develop more advanced tools to detect them and protect potential victims.

Researchers at Monash University and CSIRO’s Data61 in Australia have recently developed a machine learning-based approach that could help users to identify phishing emails, so that they don’t inadvertently install malware or send sensitive data to cyber-criminals. This model was introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv and set to be presented at AsiaCCS 2022, a cyber-security conference.

“We have identified a gap in current phishing research, namely realizing that existing literature focuses on rigorous ‘black and white’ methods to classify whether something is a phishing email or not,” Tingmin (Tina) Wu, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore.

Rats afflicted with liver cancer have demonstrated the efficacy of a fascinating, non-invasive treatment.

Using focused ultrasound, scientists have managed to destroy up to 75 percent of the volume of a liver tumor. The treatment also seems to trigger the rats’ immune systems into taking over and clearing the rest.

In 80 percent of the animals, the cancer seemed to be destroyed, with no sign of metastases or recurrence in the three months they were monitored for, the researchers said.

One of the ways we can fully realize the potential of quantum computers is by basing them on both light and matter – this way, information can be stored and processed, but also travel at the speed of light.

Scientists have just taken a step closer to this goal, by successfully producing the largest hybrid particles of light and matter ever created.

These quasiparticles, known as Rydberg polaritons, were made with the help of a piece of stone containing cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) crystals from an ancient deposit in Namibia, one of the few places in the world where cuprous oxide has been found in gemstone quality.

The CMS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has performed the most accurate ever measurement of the mass of the top quark—the heaviest known elementary particle. The latest CMS result estimates the value of the top-quark mass with an accuracy of about 0.22%. The substantial gain in accuracy comes from new analysis methods and improved procedures to consistently and simultaneously treat different uncertainties in the measurement.

The precise knowledge of the top-quark mass is of paramount importance to understand our world at the smallest scale. Knowing this heaviest elementary particle as intimately as possible is crucial because it allows testing of the internal consistency of the mathematical description of all elementary particles, called the Standard Model.

For example, if the masses of the W boson and Higgs boson are known accurately, the top-quark mass can be predicted by the Standard Model. Likewise, using the top-quark and Higgs-boson masses, the W-boson mass can be predicted. Interestingly, despite much progress, the theoretical-physics definition of mass, which has to do with the effect of quantum-physics corrections, is still tough to pin down for the top quark.

Researchers at Dartmouth College have built the world’s first superfluid circuit that uses pairs of ultracold electron-like atoms, according to a study published in Physical Review Letters.

The laboratory test bed gives physicists control over the strength of interactions between atoms, providing a new way to explore the phenomena behind exotic materials such as superconductors.

“Much of modern technology revolves around controlling the flow of electrons around circuits,” said Kevin Wright, assistant professor of physics at Dartmouth and senior researcher of the study. “By using electron-like atoms we can test theories in ways that were not possible before.”

An analysis of the genetic material in the ocean has identified thousands of previously unknown RNA viruses and doubled the number of phyla, or biological groups, of viruses thought to exist, according to a new study our team of researchers has published in the journal Science.

RNA viruses are best known for the diseases they cause in people, ranging from the common cold to COVID-19. They also infect plants and animals important to people.

These viruses carry their genetic information in RNA, rather than DNA. RNA viruses evolve at much quicker rates than DNA viruses do. While scientists have cataloged hundreds of thousands of DNA viruses in their natural ecosystems, RNA viruses have been relatively unstudied.

There’s never been a house call quite like this. In a first for telepresence communication, a NASA flight surgeon was ‘holoported’ to the International Space Station (ISS), appearing and conversing as a virtual presence in real time, hundreds of miles above the surface of Earth.

If it sounds like Star Trek, you’re not too far off. (after all, Star Trek: Voyager did feature an artificial physician who was a holographic projection.)

But this isn’t science fiction. When NASA flight surgeon Josef Schmid was beamed up to the ISS in October of last year, the illusion was made possible thanks to Microsoft’s ‘holoportation’ technology, which lets users interact with 3D representations of remote participants in real time.

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A controversial theory suggesting that quantum effects in the brain could explain consciousness may hold more weight than scientists originally thought.