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South Africa and China set up a quantum communication link: How we did it and why it’s historic

A major breakthrough in quantum technology was achieved in October 2024: the first-ever quantum satellite communication link between China and South Africa. The connection spanned a remarkable 12,900 km: the longest intercontinental quantum communication link established to date. The longest before this was 7,600 km and within the northern hemisphere only.

It was achieved with quantum , a method for a sender and receiver to share a secure key that they can use to safely send messages. Any interception during transmission leaves traces that can be detected. It involves sending single photons (tiny particles of light).

If someone tries to intercept the photons, the photons get disturbed because of quantum physics. Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level. Sender and receiver use only undisturbed photons, making the key to the message ultra secure. The key can be sent via optical fiber or free-space, including satellites.

Using geometry and physics to explain feature learning in deep neural networks

Deep neural networks (DNNs), the machine learning algorithms underpinning the functioning of large language models (LLMs) and other artificial intelligence (AI) models, learn to make accurate predictions by analyzing large amounts of data. These networks are structured in layers, each of which transforms input data into ‘features’ that guide the analysis of the next layer.

The process through which DNNs learn features has been the topic of numerous research studies and is ultimately the key to these models’ good performance on a variety of tasks. Recently, some computer scientists have started exploring the possibility of modeling feature learning in DNNs using frameworks and approaches rooted in physics.

Researchers at the University of Basel and the University of Science and Technology of China discovered a , a graph resembling those used in thermodynamics to delineate liquid, gaseous and solid phases of water, that represents how DNNs learn features under various conditions. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, models a DNN as a spring-block chain, a simple mechanical system that is often used to study interactions between linear (spring) and nonlinear (friction) forces.

Unexpected Resonances Could Boost NMR’s Potency

A radio-frequency field can be resonant with nuclear spins in a sample even if its frequency does not match a spectroscopic transition—a result that could enable new forms of NMR spectroscopy.

Physical systems often have characteristic frequencies. When excited at such a frequency, they start to resonate. The Broughton Suspension Bridge incident on April 12, 1831, showed how this can go wrong. A detachment of 74 riflemen marched in step over the bridge, accidentally matching its resonance frequency. Before they had crossed, the bridge collapsed. At the much-smaller scale of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, resonant excitation is less dramatic yet very useful. Typically, NMR relies on secular resonance, which occurs when the energy of the radio-frequency photons used in a measurement matches the energy required for flipping the magnetic moment of a nucleus in a static magnetic field. This secular resonance occurs at the so-called Larmor frequency. Structure determination of chemical compounds, experimental observation of protein dynamics, and magnetic resonance imaging rely on this matching.

Researchers Spot Surge in Erlang/OTP SSH RCE Exploits, 70% Target OT Firewalls

Malicious actors have been observed exploiting a now-patched critical security flaw impacting Erlang/Open Telecom Platform (OTP) SSH as early as beginning of May 2025, with about 70% of detections originating from firewalls protecting operational technology (OT) networks.

The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025–32433 (CVSS score: 10.0), a missing authentication issue that could be abused by an attacker with network access to an Erlang/OTP SSH server to execute arbitrary code. It was patched in April 2025 with versions OTP-27.3.3, OTP-26.2.5.11, and OTP-25.3.2.20.

Then in June 2025, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.

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