Menu

Blog

Page 8

Dec 2, 2024

3D-printed particles propel themselves across the surface of a fluid

Posted by in category: particle physics

A small team of physicists at the University of Amsterdam has demonstrated the ability of 3D-printed particles to propel themselves across the surface of a fluid, given the right fuel. The group has posted a paper describing their particles on the arXiv preprint server.

Prior research has shown that droplets with a surface tension lower than the of surrounding fluid will spread rather than mixing, a phenomenon known as the Marangoni effect. A drop of alcohol in a cup of water, for example, will spread across the surface rather than mix with the water and it remains until it evaporates. In this new effort, the research team used this effect to create self-propelling particles.

The particles were 3D printed into a shape like a hockey puck—each was approximately 1 centimeter in diameter. The particles were hollow, making them buoyant. The researchers described the hollow part of the puck as a into which they poured a small amount of alcohol. They also poked a tiny pinhole in the puck to allow the alcohol to slowly escape when it was placed in a cup of water. Due to the Marangoni effect, the alcohol tried to spread, carrying the puck along with it.

Dec 2, 2024

Eavesdropping on underwater signals from the air

Posted by in category: security

“This work shows that sensitive information can be leaked in ways that previously haven’t been considered,” said Poorya Mollahosseini, a graduate student at Princeton and the paper’s co-lead author with Sayed Saad Afzal, a graduate student at MIT.

How are underwater communications protected?

The security of underwater communications relies heavily on the inability of sound traveling underwater to penetrate the surface, the researchers said. Signals that carry information are transmitted underwater as sound waves. Because water and air have very different densities, the water’s surface acts as a barrier for sound. When underwater sound waves hit the surface, they mostly just bounce off.

Dec 2, 2024

Cybercriminals Exploit Popular Game Engine Godot to Distribute Cross-Platform Malware

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Hackers misuse Godot Engine in the GodLoader campaign, infecting 17,000+ systems undetected via GitHub.

Dec 2, 2024

INTERPOL Arrests 5,500 in Global Cybercrime Crackdown, Seizes Over $400 Million

Posted by in categories: business, cybercrime/malcode, finance

“The effects of cyber-enabled crime can be devastating – people losing their life savings, businesses crippled, and trust in digital and financial systems undermined,” INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement.

“The borderless nature of cybercrime means international police cooperation is essential, and the success of this operation supported by INTERPOL shows what results can be achieved when countries work together. It’s only through united efforts that we can make the real and digital worlds safer.”

As part of HAECHI-V, INTERPOL said Korean and Beijing authorities jointly dismantled a widespread voice phishing syndicate responsible for financial losses totaling $1.1 billion and affecting over 1,900 victims.

Dec 2, 2024

Phishing-as-a-Service “Rockstar 2FA” Targets Microsoft 365 Users with AiTM Attacks

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Rockstar 2FA phishing kit bypasses MFA, stealing Microsoft 365 credentials via AitM attacks and trusted platforms.

Dec 2, 2024

Zimbabwe’s climate migration is a sign of what’s to come

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

Climate change will force tens of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa to migrate by 2050. In Zimbabwe, it’s already started.

Dec 2, 2024

Hybrid direct drive with a two-sided ultraviolet laser

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

This paper presents a “hybrid” approach to direct drive inertial confinement fusion that can exploit a high-energy gas laser with two opposed beams. The target and driver are asymmetric, much like experiments performed on the National Ignition Facility, but have been designed to benefit from scale and their particular compatibility with a fusion power plant. The imploded masses (and areal densities) are increased by a factor of 12 relative to findings by Abu-Shawareb et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 75,001 (2022)] and provide a path to high-gain implosions that robustly ignite. The design also mitigates common concerns such as laser imprint and cross-beam energy transfer. We discuss the rationales for a hybrid target, the methods used to control implosion symmetry, and the implication(s) for inertial fusion energy.

Dec 2, 2024

Millions of smartphones monitor Earth’s ever-changing ionosphere

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, satellites

A plan to use millions of smartphones to map out real-time variations in Earth’s ionosphere has been tested by researchers in the US. Developed by Brian Williams and colleagues at Google Research in California, the system could improve the accuracy of global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) such as GPS and provide new insights into the ionosphere.

\r \r.

A GNSS uses a network of satellites to broadcast radio signals to ground-based receivers. Each receiver calculates its position based on the arrival times of signals from several satellites. These signals first pass through Earth’s ionosphere, which is a layer of weakly-ionized plasma about 50–1500 km above Earth’s surface. As a GNSS signal travels through the ionosphere, it interacts with free electrons and this slows down the signals slightly – an effect that depends on the frequency of the signal.

Dec 1, 2024

Gut transit time and pH shape microbiome individuality and dietary responses

Posted by in category: futurism

🧬🩺🥗


Scientists reveal gut transit time and pH as key drivers of microbiome and metabolic individuality, paving the way for personalized dietary strategies.

Dec 1, 2024

Traffic lights were invented before stop signs

Posted by in category: futurism

Surprisingly, the complex signaling system predated the idea of a simple stop sign by nearly 30 years.

Page 8 of 12,098First56789101112Last