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Mar 9, 2021

What Is Life? Its Vast Diversity Defies Easy Definition

Posted by in category: futurism

Scientists have struggled to formulate a universal definition of life. Is it possible they don’t need one?

Mar 9, 2021

Elevators, Space Edition

Posted by in categories: business, government, military, space

Free conference covering the upcoming MOON ELEVATOR project: 9–11 March. Bringing together government, military, private industry, academia and others, this three day event is sure to be an eye opener on where we are and where we are going in the coming 5–10 years. Don’t miss out! Get your tickets free today.


- Gravitational Elevators (Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure)

- Centripetal Elevators (Space Elevators from Earth).

Continue reading “Elevators, Space Edition” »

Mar 8, 2021

In Cryptic Tweet, Elon Musk Refers to Antimatter-Powered Rockets

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

SpaceX’s Starship is powered by methane. Its Falcon 9 runs on highly refined kerosene known as RP-1.

But if a new tweet means anything, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk already has his eyes set on a much higher-tech rocket fuel: antimatter.

In a reply to a post about antimatter rockets — hypothetical spacecraft that would be powered by antimatter — Musk tweeted just two words: “Ultimately, yes.”

Mar 8, 2021

Malware Can Exploit New Flaw in Intel CPUs to Launch Side-Channel Attacks

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Researchers exploit ring interconnect to develop new side-channel attacks on intel cpus.

Mar 8, 2021

China Plans to Defeat US Supremacy in AI, Quantum Computing With Five-Year Plan

Posted by in categories: government, quantum physics, robotics/AI

Another call for the US government to declare a National Initiative for the USA to reach AGI by 2025.

“China Plans to Defeat US Supremacy in AI, Quantum Computing With Five-Year Plan”


Huawei and ZTE would lead the country in battling tech with tech!

Continue reading “China Plans to Defeat US Supremacy in AI, Quantum Computing With Five-Year Plan” »

Mar 8, 2021

SN4KE: A lightweight and scalable framework for binary mutation testing

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

When developers deliver software to their clients, they often also provide what is known as a ‘test suite.’ A test suite is a tool that allows users to test software, unveil any bugs it might have and give developers a chance to fix these bugs or other potential issues.

In addition to evaluating , therefore, developers also need to ascertain the efficacy of a suite in identifying bugs and errors. One way to run test suite evaluations is via , a technique that generates several ‘mutants’ of a program by slightly modifying its original code. While mutation testing tools have proved to be incredibly helpful, most of them cannot be applied to software that is only available in binary code (a way of representing texts or instructions for computers using two symbols, generally ‘0’ and ‘1’).

Researchers at Arizona State University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Minnesota have recently developed SN4KE, a framework that can be used to carry out mutation analyses at a binary level. This framework, presented at the Binary Analysis Research (BAR) NDSS symposium ‘21 in February, is a new tool to efficiently test suites for software based on binary codes.

Mar 8, 2021

A new type of supply-chain attack with serious consequences is flourishing

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, robotics/AI, transportation

A new type of supply chain attack unveiled last month is targeting more and more companies, with new rounds this week taking aim at Microsoft, Amazon, Slack, Lyft, Zillow, and an unknown number of others. In weeks past, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and 32 other companies were targeted by a similar attack that allowed a security researcher to execute unauthorized code inside their networks.

The latest attack against Microsoft was also carried out as a proof-of-concept by a researcher. Attacks targeting Amazon, Slack, Lyft, and Zillow, by contrast, were malicious, but it’s not clear if they succeeded in executing the malware inside their networks. The npm and PyPi open source code repositories, meanwhile, have been flooded with more than 5000 proof-of-concept packages, according to Sonatype, a firm that helps customers secure the applications they develop.

“Given the daily volume of suspicious npm packages being picked up by Sonatype’s automated malware detection systems, we only expect this trend to increase, with adversaries abusing dependency confusion to conduct even more sinister activities,” Sonatype researcher Ax Sharma wrote earlier this week.

Mar 8, 2021

Headphones without headphones: We test Lucyd Lyte Bluetooth sunglasses

Posted by in category: futurism

Bluetooth sunglasses are a great idea—but these aren’t quite good enough.

Mar 8, 2021

Autonomous Materials: Researchers Design Patterns in Self-Propelling Liquid Crystals

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Materials capable of performing complex functions in response to changes in the environment could form the basis for exciting new technologies. Think of a capsule implanted in your body that automatically releases antibodies in response to a virus, a surface that releases an antibacterial agent when exposed to dangerous bacteria, a material that adapts its shape when it needs to sustain a particular weight, or clothing that senses and captures toxic contaminants from the air.

Scientists and engineers have already taken the first step toward these types of autonomous materials by developing “active” materials that have the ability to move on their own. Now, researchers at the University of Chicago have taken the next step by showing that the movement in one such active material—liquid crystals—can be harnessed and directed.

This proof-of-concept research, published on February 182021, in the journal Nature Materials, is the result of three years of collaborative work by the groups of Juan de Pablo, Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering, and Margaret Gardel, Horace B. Horton Professor of Physics and Molecular Engineering, along with Vincenzo Vitelli, professor of physics, and Aaron Dinner, professor of chemistry.

Mar 8, 2021

Bacteria Reprogrammed to Make Designer Molecule Used in Pharmaceutical Drugs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, engineering, genetics

Envisioning an animal-free drug supply, scientists have — for the first time — reprogrammed a common bacterium to make a designer polysaccharide molecule used in pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. Published on March 22021, in Nature Communications, the researchers modified E. coli to produce chondroitin sulfate, a drug best known as a dietary supplement to treat arthritis that is currently sourced from cow trachea.

Genetically engineered E. coli is used to make a long list of medicinal proteins, but it took years to coax the bacteria into producing even the simplest in this class of linked sugar molecules — called sulfated glycosaminoglycans — that are often used as drugs and nutraceuticals…

“It’s a challenge to engineer E. coli to produce these molecules, and we had to make many changes and balance those changes so that the bacteria will grow well,” said Mattheos Koffas, lead researcher and a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “But this work shows that it is possible to produce these polysaccharides using E. coli in animal-free fashion, and the procedure can be extended to produce other sulfated glycosaminoglycans.”