Scientists have taken a fresh look at the Milky Way’s mysterious gamma-ray glow using machine learning and uncovered evidence that reshapes a long-running debate.
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X-pinch plasma achieves radial proton acceleration for crisp imaging
Plasma pinches: From pursuits of nuclear fusion to an attractive point source of accelerated protons for proton radiography.
Protons accelerated in a radial direction were discovered and used for the first time from pinch plasmas—current-carrying plasma columns compressed by their own magnetic field—according to a study led by the Czech Technical University in Prague and University of Michigan Engineering.
The researchers accelerated protons to 3 mega electron volts (MeV) on relatively small-scale devices operating at a 400-kiloampere (kA) peak current. This expands access to proton radiography, a technique for imaging the ultra-fast evolution of electric and magnetic fields in plasma, once limited to sophisticated, expensive and often massive laser facilities like the OMEGA and OMEGA-EP laser systems at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics.
Hackers exploit Roundcube flaw to spy on academic researchers
A China-linked threat cluster has been exploiting vulnerable Roundcube servers at U.S. and Canadian universities to steal credentials and deploy backdoor malware.
The campaign has been observed since May and focuses on physics and engineering departments, administrators and professors, as well as organizations involved in astrophysics, particle physics, or national security-related research.
Researchers at cybersecurity company Proofpoint are tracking the activity under the name ‘UNK_MassTraction’ and believe to be associated with a new threat cluster.
DuckDuckGo browser now blocks YouTube video ads
DuckDuckGo announced that its browser can now block most video ads on YouTube, including those shown before the video starts playing and during playback.
The feature is enabled by default in the latest versions of DuckDuckGo for iOS, Mac, and Windows, while Android users can enable it manually by going to Settings Ad Blocking.
YouTube is the world’s largest video platform, serving billions of users worldwide. Apart from YouTube Premium subscribers, free users are shown ads that help fund operational costs and creator payouts.