Public Release: 13-May-2018 Durham University A Multiverse – where our Universe is only one of many – might not be as inhospitable to life as previously thought, according to new research. Questions about whether other universes might exist as part of a larger Multiverse, and if they could harbour life, are burning issues in modern…
PUBLIC RELEASE: 10-MAY-2018 FontCode embeds hidden information in ordinary text by imperceptibly changing the shapes of fonts in text. Method could prevent document tampering, protect copyrights, and embed QR codes and other metadata without altering the look or layout of a document COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE CAPTION Someone using FontCode would…
Public Release: 2-May-2018 Yale University IMAGE: Yale physicists looked for a signature of a discrete time crystal within a crystal of monoammonium phosphate. Credit: Michael Marsland/Yale University New Haven, Conn. – Yale physicists have uncovered hints of a time crystal — a form of matter that “ticks” when exposed to an electromagnetic pulse —…
Public Release: 25-Apr-2018 The elusive quantum mechanical phenomenon of entanglement has now been made a reality in objects almost macroscopic in size Aalto University Caption This is an illustration of the 15-micrometre-wide drumheads prepared on silicon chips used in the experiment. The drumheads vibrate at a high ultrasound frequency, and the peculiar quantum state predicted…
Public Release: 24-Apr-2018 RAND Corporation A new RAND Corporation paper finds that artificial intelligence has the potential to upend the foundations of nuclear deterrence by the year 2040. While AI-controlled doomsday machines are considered unlikely, the hazards of artificial intelligence for nuclear security lie instead in its potential to encourage humans to take potentially…
Public Release: 10-Apr-2018 FECYT – Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology IMAGE: Inside the Occator crater of the dwarf planet Ceres appears a strange structure, looking like a square inside a triangle. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech A well-known experiment with young people bouncing a ball showed that when an observer focuses on counting the passes,…
Public Release: 13-Mar-2018 Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology IMAGE: This is an image of asteroid destruction. A large team of Russian researchers from Rosatom, joined by three MIPT physicists, has modeled the impact of a nuclear explosion on an Earth-threatening asteroid. They manufactured miniature asteroids and blasted them with a laser. The modeling technique…
Public Release: 7-Mar-2018 First look at Jupiter’s poles show strange geometric arrays of storms University of Chicago Caption Five massive storms form a pentagon around a storm at the center of Jupiter’s south pole-the first look we’ve ever gotten at the gas giant’s poles, and a scientific mystery. Credit: NASA/SWRI/JPL/ASI/INAF/IAPS Jupiter’s got no…
Public Release: 6-Mar-2018 The emergence of inexpensive small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) that operate without a human pilot, commonly known as drones, has led to adversarial groups threatening deployed U.S. forces, especially infantry units. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine WASHINGTON – The emergence of inexpensive small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) that operate…
Public Release: 23-Feb-2018 New system patches security holes left open by web browsers’ private-browsing Massachusetts Institute of Technology CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Today, most web browsers have private-browsing modes, in which they temporarily desist from recording the user’s browsing history. But data accessed during private browsing sessions can still end up tucked away in a…
Public Release: 31-Jan-2018 UNIGE researchers show the limits of the precision of decoding brain activity, via modern machine learning techniques, particularly in processing speech sounds. Université de Genève For about the last ten years, researchers have been using artificial intelligence techniques called machine learning to decode human brain activity. Applied to neuroimaging data, these…
Public Release: 23-Jan-2018 University of Edinburgh Devices used to manage accounts on the innovative payment system Bitcoin could be improved to provide better protection against hackers, research suggests. Computer scientists have identified security weak spots in gadgets that manage personal accounts using Bitcoin – a form of digital currency that provides an alternative to conventional…
Public Release: 18-Jan-2018 University of Basel Ethicists from the University of Basel have outlined a new biosecurity framework specific to neurotechnology. While the researchers declare an outright ban of dual-use technology ethically unjustified, they call for regulations aimed at protecting the mental privacy and integrity of humans. The journal Neuron has published the study.…
Public Release: 11-Jan-2018 University College London A method of securely communicating between multiple quantum devices has been developed by a UCL-led team of scientists, bringing forward the reality of a large-scale, un- hackable quantum network. To date, communicating via quantum networks has only been possible between two devices of known provenance that have been…
Public Release: 26-Dec-2017 Nanyang Technological University Singapore, 26 Dec 2017 NTU study finds that hackers could guess your phone PIN using its sensor data Data from the physical sensors in a smart phone could be used by hackers to guesacs the security PIN and unlock it. Instruments in smart phones such as the accelerometer,…
