Lifeboat Foundation

The promise of artificial intelligence for cybersecurity is that it will free security professionals at government agencies from menial tasks and allow them to focus on threat hunting and higher-level work. Another benefit that might get lost in the shuffle, but is no less important, is that automation in cybersecurity can actually lead to enhanced security for agencies.

Five governments are testing that proposition. Last month, the states of Arizona, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Texas, along with Maricopa County, Ariz., announced a partnership with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) to pilot a cybersecurity automation program.

The agencies will be using security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) tools, which “enable organizations to collect security-threat data through multiple sources and perform triage response actions significantly faster than with manual processes,” according to a Johns Hopkins press release. The hope is that it will enable the agencies to “quickly and broadly share information — in near real time — and leverage automation to prevent or respond to cyberattacks,” the release states.

First photonic quantum computer on the cloud.

Astronauts lose bone and muscle mass on long-duration missions, but a new treatment administered to mice in space could prevent that from happening, a new study finds.

Even quantum computers make mistakes. Their computing ability is extraordinary, exceeding that of classical computers by far. This is because circuits in quantum computers are based on qubits that can represent not only zeroes or ones, but also superpositions of both states by using the principles of quantum mechanics. Despite their great potential, qubits are extremely fragile and prone to errors due to the interactions with the external environment.

To solve this crucial issue, an international research group developed and implemented a new protocol that protects fragile quantum information and corrects errors due to qubit loss. This research group published the results of their study in Nature.

“Developing a fully functioning quantum processor still represents a great challenge for scientists across the world,” explains Davide Vodola who is one of the authors of the study as well as a researcher at the University of Bologna. “This research allowed us, for the first time, to implement a protocol that can detect and, at the same time, correct errors due to qubit loss. This ability could prove to be essential for the future development of large-scale quantum computers.”

People who were children when their parents were divorced showed lower levels of oxytocin — the so-called “love hormone” — when they were adults than those whose parents remained married, according to a study led by Baylor University. That lower level may play a role in having trouble forming attachments when they are grown.

Oxytocin — secreted in the brain and released during bonding experiences such as delivery of a baby or sexual interaction or nursing, even being hugged by a romantic partner — has been shown in previous research to be important for social behavior and emotional attachments in early life. The oxytocin system also has been linked to parenting, attachment and anxiety.

The new study, published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, delves into an area that has not been well researched — a link between oxytocin, early experience and adult outcomes.

Continue reading “People who were children when their parents divorced have less ‘love hormone’” »

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Stanford University have pinpointed the circuit in the brain that is responsible for sleepless nights in times of stress—and it turns out that circuit does more than make you toss and turn. Their study, done in mice, ties the same neuronal connections that trigger insomnia to stress-induced changes in the immune system, which weaken the body’s defenses against a host of threats.

The study, reported September 9, 2020, in the journal Science Advances, connects and explains two familiar problems, says CSHL Assistant Professor Jeremy Borniger. “This sort of stress-induced insomnia is well known among anybody that’s tried to get to sleep with a looming deadline or something the next day,” he says. “And in the clinical world, it’s been known for a long time that chronically stressed patients typically do worse on a variety of different treatments and across a variety of different diseases.”

Like many aspects of the body’s stress response, these effects are thought to be driven by the stress hormone cortisol. Working in the Stanford lab of Luis de Lecea, where Borniger completed a postdoctoral fellowship prior to joining CSHL, the research team found a direct connection between stress-sensitive neurons in the brain that trigger cortisol’s release and nearby neurons that promote insomnia.

Continue reading “The neurons that connect stress, insomnia, and the immune system” »

Lucid has finally fully unveiled the production version of its first car: the Lucid Air, a luxury electric sedan.

For those of you who have been following our coverage over the past few months, there won’t be many surprises since Lucid has gradually leaked the most important information. But it’s still worth diving a little deeper with all the final details.

As you get older, key genes that maintain life are no longer activated. George Church is focused on turning youth-boosting genes back on.

His company, Rejuvenate Bio, has begun clinical trials in old dogs. This will help us determine which ages of humans would best benefit. George believes they will be able to help people who are already quite old and show signs of decline. They are looking at extending absolute lifespan. Extending human lifespan will take years to get reliable results.

They have published results on three genes. Those genes already helped reverse osteoarthritis, high-fat obesity and diabetes, heart damage, and kidney disease. They will soon add cancer and neurodegenerative diseases to the list of reversible conditions.

O,.o circa 2018.

Characteristics of mysterious time crystals have been found in the most unexpected place you’d ever think to look — a compound found in fertiliser and those crystal-growing kits you can buy for kids.

That compound is monoammonium phosphate (MAP), and the physicists from Yale who made the discovery are now scratching their heads, because this raises questions about how time crystals even form in the first place.

Continue reading “Physicists Just Found Time Crystals in a Common Item You Can Buy at The Toy Store” »