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Feb 28, 2023

Google Reaches a Major ‘Milestone’ in Making Quantum Computing Usable

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Google scientists said Wednesday they have passed a major milestone in their quest to develop effective quantum computing, with a new study showing they reduced the rate of errors – long an obstacle for the much-hyped technology.

Quantum computing has been touted as a revolutionary advance that uses our growing scientific understanding of the subatomic world to create a machine with powers far beyond those of today’s conventional computers.

However, the technology remains largely theoretical, with many thorny problems still standing in the way – including stubbornly high error rates.

Feb 28, 2023

LastPass says employee’s home computer was hacked and corporate vault taken

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, encryption

Already smarting from a breach that put partially encrypted login data into a threat actor’s hands, LastPass on Monday said that the same attacker hacked an employee’s home computer and obtained a decrypted vault available to only a handful of company developers.

Although an initial intrusion into LastPass ended on August 12, officials with the leading password manager said the threat actor “was actively engaged in a new series of reconnaissance, enumeration, and exfiltration activity” from August 12 to August 26. In the process, the unknown threat actor was able to steal valid credentials from a senior DevOps engineer and access the contents of a LastPass data vault. Among other things, the vault gave access to a shared cloud-storage environment that contained the encryption keys for customer vault backups stored in Amazon S3 buckets.

Feb 28, 2023

Scientists Are Creating Something Wild: Organoid Intelligence

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Get ready for biocomputers powered by human brain cells.

Feb 28, 2023

A simple DIY hoodie can fool security cameras

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, surveillance

Pierce, an artist whose work critically engages with weaponized emerging technologies, recently unveiled their latest ingenious project—an everyday hoodie retrofitted to include an array of infrared (IR) LEDs that, when activated, blinds any nearby night vision security cameras. Using mostly off-the-shelf components like LumiLED lights, an Adafruit microcontroller, and silicone wire, as well as we software Pierce that made open-source for interested DIYers, the privacy-boosting “Camera Shy Hoodie” is designed to enable citizens to safely engage in civic protests and demonstrations. Or, wearers can just simply opt-out of being tracked by unknown third-parties while walking down the street.


A DIY hack for hoodies emits infrared LEDs to obscure wearers’ faces from invasive surveillance camera tracking.

Feb 28, 2023

Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away if You Miss Payments

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Ford’s proposed system would allow your car to lock itself, disable certain features, and even drive itself autonomously to an impound lot.

Feb 28, 2023

Vascular dementia: Could a blood biomarker aid early diagnosis?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

A recent study suggests that heightened levels of a biomarker called placental growth factor (PlGF) in a person’s blood may help diagnose vascular dementia in its early stages.

Feb 28, 2023

Precise multimodal optical control of neural ensemble activity

Posted by in categories: genetics, neuroscience

The authors present a new approach to create and edit custom spatiotemporal neural activity patterns in awake, behaving animals with extremely high spatial and temporal precision. They present novel opsins optimized for multiphoton optogenetics.

Feb 28, 2023

Google hails ‘key milestone’ in quantum computing

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Google scientists said Wednesday they have passed a major milestone in their quest to develop effective quantum computing, with a new study showing they reduced the rate of errors—long an obstacle for the much-hyped technology.

Quantum computing has been touted as a revolutionary advance that uses our growing scientific understanding of the subatomic world to create a machine with powers far beyond those of today’s conventional computers.

However the technology remains largely theoretical, with many thorny problems still standing in the way—including stubbornly high error rates.

Feb 28, 2023

‘Dead zone’ within tumor promotes cancer spread, helped by a protein secreted by cancer cells

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A tumor’s necrotic core contains factors that appear to promote metastasis, or the seeding of tumors cells throughout the body, according to a new study in rats by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.

Researchers hope their findings, which will be published the week of Feb. 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lead to a better understanding of how to cure metastatic, or stage 4 cancers, which are treatable but not curable.

Continue reading “‘Dead zone’ within tumor promotes cancer spread, helped by a protein secreted by cancer cells” »

Feb 28, 2023

Will future computers run on human brain cells?

Posted by in categories: health, robotics/AI

A “biocomputer” powered by human brain cells could be developed within our lifetime, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers who expect such technology to exponentially expand the capabilities of modern computing and create novel fields of study.

The team outlines their plan for “organoid intelligence” today in the journal Frontiers in Science.

“Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution but they are reaching a ceiling,” said Thomas Hartung, a professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Whiting School of Engineering who is spearheading the work. “Biocomputing is an enormous effort of compacting and increasing its efficiency to push past our current technological limits.”