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Light reads electron spins inside porous crystals, opening path to quantum chemical sensors

University of Glasgow researchers are part of an international collaboration that could lead to a new generation of quantum sensors. The team, which included researchers from the University of Tokyo, University of Glasgow, University of Sheffield and Kobe University, has for the first time used light to read out the magnetic spin of electrons trapped inside a porous crystalline material known as a metal-organic framework (MOF).

The team’s work builds on previous research into a method of detecting electron spins using light called optically detected magnetic resonance, or ODMR. The technique has attracted attention as a useful method for reading out spin qubits in quantum sensing.

The development marks an important step toward using MOFs, which have been regarded as promising materials for quantum sensing applications, to detect chemical substances with extraordinary sensitivity in future sensing devices.

Scientists Uncover Two Hidden Forms of Disorder in Next-Generation Semiconductors

A study of twisted two-dimensional semiconductors reveals how subtle material disorder can emerge at different spatial scales.

Two distinct forms of hidden disorder may influence how ultrathin semiconductors emit light. One extends across relatively large areas of the material, while the other is concentrated around tiny defects. A new theoretical approach offers a way to identify these patterns by analyzing changes in light emission rather than attempting to separate individual spectral signals.

Developed by Katsunori Wakabayashi at the Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), part of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), the framework could provide a more reliable way to investigate imperfections in materials used for advanced optical and quantum devices.

Biofluorescence Discovered in Fire Salamanders for the First Time

Researchers have discovered that fire salamanders can produce a striking cyan-green fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet light.

Fire salamanders are famous for their vivid yellow and black warning colors, but part of their appearance remains invisible to human eyes. Researchers have found that when ultraviolet light strikes the animals, their skin and defensive secretions emit a cyan-green fluorescence that may persist for more than 24 hours after the secretions are released.

The fluorescence is strongest in the salamanders’ yellow underside and along the sides of the body. It originates mainly from skin glands and the substances they produce, suggesting that the phenomenon is closely connected to the same tissues involved in the animal’s chemical defenses.

Credential-Stealing GitHub Actions Workflows Planted in Tens of Thousands of Repositories

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of an ongoing credential-theft campaign that has compromised two high-profile open-source maintainer accounts to push a malicious workflow into over 340 repositories.

“Using the account of Takashi Kitao, author of the 18,400-star game engine pyxel, the attacker pushed a malicious workflow to 27 repositories starting at 13:20 UTC,” StepSecurity said. “Eight hours later, the account of Henry Wu (henrywoo), the original author of Uber’s athenadriver, was used to push the same workflow to 318 repositories in a 16-minute window, 21:10–21:26 UTC.”

As of October 9, 2026, Socket said it has identified more than 500 GitHub accounts that committed the malicious workflow to tens of thousands of repositories since October 7, 2026.

Researchers Publish Working Exploit for Pre-Auth AnyDesk Linux Flaw That Gives Root Access

The exploit, called AnyPwn, targets a heap buffer overflow in AnyDesk’s session protocol, a remote desktop tool. The code was released on GitHub on October 8.

Administrators should update AnyDesk Linux to at least version 8.0.3. The latest release is 8.1.0.

The published exploit works only over direct TCP connections on port 7070.

Joscha Bach on AI, Cosmology, Existence and the Bible

“Intelligence is the ability to dream in a very focused way.”

Joscha Bach told me that in June 2022. ChatGPT was still five months away.

Rewatching our conversation now, what strikes me isn’t his prediction. It’s the questions he was already asking. What is a model, really? Do we live in a learnable universe, or did we just get lucky? And if you could ask one question of God, or an Artificial Superintelligence, what would it be?

We also take on the critics of #AI, from Gary Marcus to Marvin Minsky to Noam Chomsky, and then the conversation goes somewhere most tech interviews never dare: evolution, the hive mind, cosmology, the Bible, and the strange line between existence and non-existence.

Joscha is one of the rare minds who can move from #CognitiveScience to theology without changing gears. Two hours, and I’d gladly have taken two more.

Since then, large language models have gone from curiosity to infrastructure. So here’s what I keep wondering: was Joscha describing the machines we were about to build, or the minds we already have?

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