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Brain Differences May Explain Why Some Children Struggle at Math

Differences in brain activity are linked to difficulties using and adapting math problem-solving strategies in children with developmental dyscalculia.

Choosing how to tackle a math problem can be a challenge of its own for children with developmental dyscalculia, a condition marked by persistent difficulty with math problem-solving.

A Stanford University study connects these struggles with differences in brain activity, offering clues to the processes behind a condition that remains poorly understood.

Researchers Borrow Chipmaking Technology To Build Better EV Batteries

Researchers used nanoscale manufacturing techniques from the semiconductor industry to design a copper current collector that helps lithium build up evenly during battery charging.

Electric vehicles could travel farther on a single charge if their batteries could store more energy without getting bigger or heavier. A promising alternative, known as an anode-free battery, eliminates materials such as graphite that normally store lithium during charging, saving weight and space.

Lithium instead deposits directly onto thin copper foil, where repeated charging and discharging can cause it to build up unevenly into sharp, branching spikes called dendrites. The protective layer over the lithium also becomes unstable, reducing battery performance and shortening its lifespan.

Scientists Capture a Fundamental Energy-Transfer Reaction in Remarkable Detail

Researchers captured how a molecule and its surrounding water reorganize together during a rapid energy-transfer reaction that plays a key role in nature.

A chemical process central to photosynthesis, metabolism, and other forms of energy conversion has now been captured in unusual detail, revealing how a molecule and the water around it change together as a proton and electron are transferred.

Using two complementary ultrafast X-ray techniques, researchers tracked changes inside a light-activated molecule while observing how the surrounding network of water molecules reorganized. Combined with advanced computer simulations, the measurements showed how gaining a proton reshaped the molecule’s electronic structure at specific sites while altering its surrounding environment.

Scientists Just Built the World’s Most Accurate Clock

Lutetium clocks have achieved record accuracy and comparison precision, making them promising candidates for future time standards and measurements of gravity.

An atomic clock built from the element lutetium at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has set a new benchmark for timekeeping accuracy. Results published in Nature on show that the clock measured its transition frequency to 19 decimal places, yielding an uncertainty of 1 × 10⁻¹⁹, the lowest reported for any optical atomic clock to date.

“I am confident that what we have now is the most accurate clock in the world,” says team leader Murray Barrett, a CQT Principal Investigator and Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the National University of Singapore.

Hackers Use NeedyMantis to Maintain Long-Term Access in Breached Networks

Hackers have used a malware family called NeedyMantis to maintain long-term access to networks they had already breached, Microsoft said in a technical analysis.

The malware has been seen in a small number of targeted intrusions at telecommunications organizations, universities, medical nonprofits, intergovernmental organizations, and government contractors. Its use goes back to at least October 2025.

Microsoft found NeedyMantis while following up on indicators from Kaspersky’s investigation into the supply chain attack on DAEMON Tools. In that attack, official, signed installers for the DAEMON Tools Lite disk image program carried malicious code from April 8, 2026. The developer replaced them with a clean version on May 5.

RatHat Android Malware Console Uses Gemini to Identify Higher-Value Victims

RatHat’s operators build and publish the Android banking trojan and control infected phones from a web console, according to security company Cleafy has traced nearly 100 deployments of that console since April 2026. It said this fits a malware-as-a-service model, in which each customer runs a separate copy.

The console stores what the malware collects from each phone, including text messages and passwords entered into fake login screens overlaid on banking apps.

Its latest version asks Google’s Gemini AI model to estimate each victim’s bank balance from those messages and sorts the phones into high-value and mid-value groups.

Carbonato Botnet Compromises Docker Hosts to Deploy Telegram-Controlled Hermes AI Agent

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new botnet malware called Carbonato that’s targeting exposed Docker daemons to deploy an open-source artificial intelligence (AI) agent framework called Hermes Agent.

“The implant installs the framework unchanged, then overwrites its SOUL.md persona file,” ThreatDown said. “The 39-line prompt directs it to execute tasks received through Telegram, maintain persistence, and collect credentials.”

At a high level, the botnet breaks into Docker daemons exposed without authentication on port 2,375 and scans neighboring networks every five minutes to propagate further. On each host, it installs Hermes Agent with instructions to follow operators’ Telegram commands.

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