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Jul 16, 2020

New BlackRock Android malware can steal passwords and card data from 337 apps

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, finance, robotics/AI

Android apps targeted by this new trojan include banking, dating, social media, and instant messaging apps.

Jul 16, 2020

Scientists discover heavy element chemistry can change at high pressures

Posted by in categories: chemistry, particle physics

New research shows that one of the heaviest known elements can be manipulated to a greater degree than previously thought, potentially paving the way for new strategies to recycle nuclear fuel and better long-term storage of radioactive elements.

An international team of researchers has demonstrated how curium—element 96 in the periodic table and one of the last that can be seen with the naked eye—responds to the application of high pressure created by squeezing a sample between two diamonds.

Led by Florida State University Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt and collaborators at the University at Buffalo and Aachen University, the team found that the behavior of curium’s outer electrons—which influence its ability to bond with other elements—can be altered by shortening the distance between it and surrounding lighter atoms. The findings are published in the journal Nature.

Jul 16, 2020

Pakistan Navy Keeps Silent On Mystery Submarine But New Details Emerge

Posted by in category: futurism

On July 3 the Director General Public Relations for the Pakistani Navy shared a video of a Special Forces parade. In the background was the unmistakable outline of a submarine.

Jul 16, 2020

Artficial black hole engine: “Quasar drive”

Posted by in categories: cosmology, space travel

The birthchild of Isaac Arthur, the genius of futurism and
second only to Carl Sagan introduces the idea of
’Quasar drives’.

Small artificially created black holes can be used to harness
incredible amounts of energy.

Continue reading “Artficial black hole engine: ‘Quasar drive’” »

Jul 16, 2020

Japanese Submarines To Counter Chinese Navy Incursions

Posted by in category: military

With China appearing to flex its muscles in almost all of its territorial disputes, a new underwater dimension may emerge. Chinese submarines could be on a collision course with the Japanese Navy. Known as the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), they possess one of the most potent anti-submarine capabilities of any Navy. In particular Japanese submarine technology is highly regarded. But there seems to be acceptance that they will have to beef up to meet the emerging threat from China. A newly published white paper hints at ways the JMSDF is responding.

The threat of Chinese submarine incursions is seen as very real. Last month, to track a submerged submarine near its waters, the JMSDF scrambled one of its helicopter carriers, two destroyers and several maritime patrol aircraft. Although Japan has not declared the nationality of the submarine, it is widely believed to have been Chinese.

According to a press release (in Japanese) the submarine was detected on June 18 northeast of Amami Oshima, which is one of the islands running between Japan and Taiwan. These islands are known as the first island chain and form a natural barrier between China and the Pacific. The submarine was tracked for several days.

Jul 16, 2020

Scientists Pinpoint Onocogene that Drives Deadly Brain Cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of cancer that begins with the brain and develops from astrocytes, star-shaped brain cells that help protect the brain from diseases in the blood and provide the brain’s neurons with nutrients, with around 12,000 cases diagnosed in the United States each year. Glioblastoma cells have more genetic abnormalities than the cells of other types of astrocytoma brain cancer. Now researchers from the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine report they have identified an oncogene responsible for this deadly cancer.

Their study, “A cytoskeleton regulator AVIL drives tumorigenesis in glioblastoma,” is published in Nature Communications and led by Hui Li, PhD, associate professor, pathology, at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the UVA Cancer Center.

“Glioblastoma is a deadly cancer, with no effective therapies. Better understanding and identification of selective targets are urgently needed. We found that advillin (AVIL) is overexpressed in all the glioblastomas we tested including glioblastoma stem/initiating cells, but hardly detectable in non-neoplastic astrocytes, neural stem cells or normal brain,” the researchers wrote.

Jul 16, 2020

Geologists Continue Study Of Vast Fissure 8 Lava Flow

Posted by in category: futurism

“This photo shows the channel wall in the braided channel region of the flow,” HVO says. “Note the small ferns growing on the upper channel wall.” USGS photo by M. Patrick.

(BIVN) – Geologists visited the lower East Rift Zone lava flow field in Puna this past week “to make continued measurements and observations, to better understand and reconstruct the dynamics of the Fissure 8 lava flow,” reports the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The lava flow, active two years ago this month, changed the landscape of Puna and destroyed the entire seaside-village of Kapoho.

HVO posted photos of the trip to its website on July 13.

Jul 16, 2020

Solar Orbiter Returns First Data, Snaps Closest Pictures of the Sun

Posted by in category: space

The first images from the Solar and Heliospheric Imager, or SoloHI instrument, reveal the zodiacal light (the bright blob of light on the right protruding towards the center). Mercury is also visible as a bright dot on the image left. The straight bright feature on the very edge of the image is a baffle illuminated by reflections from the spacecraft’s solar array.

Credits: Solar Orbiter/SoloHI team (ESA & NASA), NRL

Images from the Polar and Helioseismic Imager, or PHI, showed it is also primed for later observations. PHI maps the Sun’s magnetic field, with a special focus on its poles. It will have its heyday later in the mission as Solar Orbiter gradually tilts its orbit to 24 degrees above the plane of the planets, giving it an unprecedented view of the Sun’s poles.

Jul 16, 2020

The UAE’s Hope Mars orbiter launch delayed to next week due to bad weather

Posted by in category: space

The launch of the United Arab Emirates’ Hope Mars mission has been further delayed by bad weather at the launch site.

Jul 16, 2020

Supercomputer reveals atmospheric impact of gigantic planetary collisions

Posted by in categories: space, supercomputing

The giant impacts that dominate late stages of planet formation have a wide range of consequences for young planets and their atmospheres, according to new research.

Research led by Durham University and involving the University of Glasgow, both UK, has developed a way of revealing the scale of atmosphere loss during planetary collisions based on 3D supercomputer simulations.

The simulations show how Earth-like planets with thin atmospheres might have evolved in an depending on how they are impacted by other objects.