Lifeboat Foundation

They called it the God particle – a particle so ’goddamn’ elusive, it took nearly 40 years and a $4.75 billion machine to detect, all in the hopes of closing one chapter in physics and opening a new one.

Yet for all its promise, it’s possible the Higgs boson might not be the window to a new age of science.

On including previously neglected corrections to data-driven models of the Higgs boson’s creation, physicists from the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Max-Planck Institute for Physics, and the RWTH Aachen University in Germany have failed to find evidence of ‘hidden’ laws lurking in the particle’s shadow.

Major study backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman shows unconditional cash has benefits that have nothing to do with AI.

One of the largest-ever studies on basic income in the US suggests it can benefit people with low incomes, even if AI doesn’t steal anyone’s job.

A project supported by OpenAI’s founder tested the impact of monthly $1,000 payments to low-income individuals. It found increased flexibility and autonomy for recipients.

An exciting overview of progress made by the startup Tome Biosciences towards clinical application of the PASTE technology, a way of using CRISPR and integrases (or ligases) to programmably insert very long DNA sequences into the human genome.

Each year, Nature Biotechnology highlights companies that have received sizeable early-stage funding in the previous year. Tome Biosciences inserts large DNA sequences into precise genomic locations, overcoming limitations of base and prime editing.

ICYMI, Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne (BS ’62) reached across history, physics, and astronomy to highlight characters and discoveries that changed humanity’s understanding of space and time.

His talk was the 100th in Caltech Astro’s Stargazing Lecture Series.

Several studies have indicated that interrupted epigenetic reprogramming using Yamanaka transcription factors (OSKM) can rejuvenate cells from old laboratory animals and humans. However, the potential of OSKM-induced rejuvenation in brain tissue has been less explored. Here, we aimed to restore cognitive performance in 25.3-month-old female Sprague–Dawley rats using OSKM gene therapy for 39 days. Their progress was then compared with the cognitive performance of untreated 3.5-month-old rats as well as old control rats treated with a placebo adenovector. The Barnes maze test, used to assess cognitive performance, demonstrated enhanced cognitive abilities in old rats treated with OSKM compared to old control animals. In the treated old rats, there was a noticeable trend towards improved spatial memory relative to the old controls.

Arid Viper launches mobile espionage campaign using trojanized Android apps to deliver AridSpy spyware, targeting Middle East users via fake messaging.

A Chinese organized crime syndicate with links to money laundering and human trafficking across Southeast Asia has been using an advanced “technology suite” that runs the whole cybercrime supply chain spectrum to spearhead its operations.

Infoblox is tracking the proprietor and maintainer under the moniker Vigorish Viper, noting that it’s developed by the Yabo Group (aka Yabo Sports), which has been linked to illegal gambling operations and pig butchering scams in the past. In late 2022, it rebranded as Kaiyun Sports and has since been absorbed into another newly formed entity called Ponymuah.

The suite, marketed in China as “baowang” (“包网,” meaning full package) encompasses several components such as Domain Name System (DNS) configurations, website hosting, payment mechanisms, advertising, and mobile apps. It also hosts thousands of domain names and numerous brands in an infrastructure that’s tied to Hong Kong and China.

Play ransomware’s new Linux variant targets VMWare ESXi, expanding its reach. US leads in victims, with manufacturing and services most affected.