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Nov 14, 2024

You Can Lock Your Social Security Number After a Data Breach. Here’s How

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, employment

Your Social Security number is essential for finding employment, filing taxes and applying for credit. It can also be a nightmare to recover if thieves get a hold of your SSN and use it to apply for jobs, open accounts in your name and steal your tax refund.

Blocking electronic access to your SSN may feel extreme — it’s certainly inconvenient. But if you’ve been a victim of identity theft or your personal identifiable information was compromised in a recent data breach, like the hacks of Change Healthcare or National Public Data, where hundreds of millions of people were impacted, locking your SSN may protect you from future harm.

Blocking access or “locking” your SSN will make it extremely difficult for an identity thief to use your SSN for malicious actions. This, coupled with a credit freeze, can help stop identity thieves in their tracks.

Nov 14, 2024

ChatGPT can ‘draw’ your life: Viral AI trend sparks fun, raises privacy concerns

Posted by in categories: humor, privacy, robotics/AI

If you’ve recently scrolled through Instagram, you’ve probably noticed it: users posting AI-generated images of their lives or chuckling over a brutal feed roast by ChatGPT. What started as an innocent prompt – “Ask ChatGPT to draw what your life looks like based on what it knows about you” – has gone viral, inviting friends, followers, and even ChatGPT itself to get a peek into our most personal details. It’s fun, often eerily accurate, and, yes, a little unnerving.

The trend that started it all

A while ago, Instagram’s “Add Yours” sticker spurred the popular trend “Ask ChatGPT to roast your feed in one paragraph.” What followed were thousands of users clamouring to see the AI’s take on their profiles. ChatGPT didn’t disappoint – delivering razor-sharp observations on everything from overused vacation spots to the endless brunch photos and quirky captions, blending humour with a dash of truth. The playful roasting felt oddly familiar, almost like a best friend’s inside joke.

Nov 14, 2024

Experiment supports existence of a new type of superconductor

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

A Yale-led team has found the strongest evidence yet of a novel type of superconducting material, a fundamental science breakthrough that may open the door to coaxing superconductivity—the flow of electric current without a loss of energy—in a new way.

Nov 14, 2024

Metagenomic profiling method with enhanced precision uses fewer computing resources

Posted by in category: computing

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Toronto have developed a new k-mer sketching metagenomic profiler, called sylph, that allows scientists to analyze genomic data more quickly and precisely than other profilers.

Nov 14, 2024

The last two decades saw software transform nearly every industry

Posted by in categories: finance, food, robotics/AI, transportation

“The last two decades saw software transform nearly every industry, a trend famously captured by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s phrase ” software is eating the world.

Software became the backbone of industries like retail, transportation, finance, and entertainment, leading to a world where digital tools and applications are integral to daily life.

Looking forward, many experts believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will play a similarly transformative role over the next 20 years.

Nov 14, 2024

Meteorite contains evidence of liquid water on Mars 742 million years ago

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

An asteroid struck Mars 11 million years ago and sent pieces of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these chunks of Mars eventually crashed into the Earth somewhere near Purdue University and is one of the few meteorites that can be traced directly to Mars. This meteorite was rediscovered in a drawer at Purdue University in 1931 and named the Lafayette Meteorite.

Nov 14, 2024

Scientists identify flaw in astrophysics models of massive stars and supernovae

Posted by in categories: physics, space

An international team of researchers has uncovered evidence that astrophysics models of massive stars and supernovae are inconsistent with observational gamma-ray astronomy.

Nov 14, 2024

Indicators of an aging brain: A 20-year study

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience

Johns Hopkins University-led researchers, working with the Biomarkers for Older Controls at Risk for Dementia (BIOCARD) cohort, have found that certain factors are linked to faster brain shrinkage and quicker progression from normal thinking abilities to mild cognitive impairment (MCI). People with type 2 diabetes and low levels of specific proteins in their cerebrospinal fluid showed more rapid brain changes and developed MCI sooner than others.

Long-term studies tracking changes over many years are rare but valuable. Previous research mostly provided snapshots in time, which can’t show how individual brains change over the years. By following participants for up to 27 years (20-year median), this study offers new insights into how health conditions might speed up brain aging.

In a study, “Acceleration of Brain Atrophy and Progression From Normal Cognition to Mild Cognitive Impairment,” published in JAMA Network Open, researchers used the BIOCARD cohort to examine associated with the acceleration of brain atrophy and progression from normal cognition to MCI. An Invited Commentary is also available.

Nov 14, 2024

Minimally invasive neural interface allows brain access without skull opening

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

A team of researchers led by Rice University’s Jacob Robinson and the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Peter Kan has developed a technique for diagnosing, managing and treating neurological disorders with minimal surgical risks. The team’s findings were published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

While traditional approaches for interfacing with the nervous system often require creating a hole in the skull to with the brain, the researchers have developed an innovative method known as endocisternal interfaces (ECI), allowing for electrical recording and stimulation of neural structures, including the brain and , through (CSF).

“Using ECI, we can access multiple brain and spinal cord structures simultaneously without ever opening up the skull, reducing the risk of complications associated with traditional surgical techniques,” said Robinson, professor of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering.

Nov 14, 2024

Unique magnetic properties of 2D triangular lattice materials have potential applications for quantum computing

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Researchers from a large international team, including ANSTO, have investigated the magnetic properties of two unique 2D triangular lattice antiferromagnetic materials (2D-TLHAF) using various neutron scattering techniques.

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