The National Institute of Standards and Technology has revealed the next generation of algorithms that will keep our private data safe from snoopers
Charting the landscape at MIT
Norman Magnuson’s MIT career — culminating in his role as manager of grounds services in the Department of Facilities for the past 20 years — started in 1974 with a summer job. Fresh out of high school and unsure of his next step, Magnuson’s father, Norman Sr., a housing manager at MIT, encouraged him to […]
Ancient African smelting technique sparks anew at MIT
The plumes of smoke that rose from East Campus one sunny May day could easily have been mistaken for a barbecue taking place in the courtyard. And indeed, burgers were on the grill. But the smoke was coming from a much rarer sight on MIT’s campus — or, in fact, anywhere outside West Africa: a […]
Physicists see electron whirlpools for the first time
Though they are discrete particles, water molecules flow collectively as liquids, producing streams, waves, whirlpools, and other classic fluid phenomena. Not so with electricity. While an electric current is also a construct of distinct particles — in this case, electrons — the particles are so small that any collective behavior among them is drowned out […]
You’re Working More. Here’s How to Talk to Your Partner About It.
Four research-backed strategies to help you balance going the extra mile at work and being a good partner at home.
Designing Learning Programs for a Hybrid Workplace
Done well, virtual learning can be even more impactful than in-person learning.
What Skeptics Get Wrong About Crypto’s Volatility
Price swings signal important information to investors — and build previously unseen levels of transparency into the system.
This Covid-19 Rapid Test Hit Its Lowest Price Ever on Amazon
Stock up with these iHealth at-home antigen tests.
The Best USB-C Cables for Your Phone, Tablet, or Laptop
Unravel the tangled world of cords and find the ones you need to charge your gadgets and transfer data.
The Infamous 1972 Report That Warned of Civilization’s Collapse
The Limits to Growth argued that rampant pollution and resource extraction were pushing Earth to the brink. How does it hold up 50 years later?
The UK’s CMA launches an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition, setting a September 1 deadline for its initial decision (Ryan Browne/CNBC)
Ryan Browne / CNBC: The UK’s CMA launches an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition, setting a September 1 deadline for its initial decision — – It marks one of the first probes by a major antitrust enforcer into the $68.7 billion deal, which was announced in January.
As crypto markets tumbled, strict US regulatory rules on risky bank assets largely insulated Wall Street from the chaos, while retail investors were hit hard (Emily Flitter/New York Times)
Emily Flitter / New York Times: As crypto markets tumbled, strict US regulatory rules on risky bank assets largely insulated Wall Street from the chaos, while retail investors were hit hard — As cryptocurrency prices plunged and funds failed, strict rules on risky assets helped Wall Street companies sidestep the worst.
The UK’s CMA opens an investigation into whether Amazon distorts competition by favoring its own retail business and sellers using its Prime services (Sky News)
Sky News: The UK’s CMA opens an investigation into whether Amazon distorts competition by favoring its own retail business and sellers using its Prime services — Amazon is being investigated by Britain’s antitrust watchdog over concerns that some of its practices in the UK may be anticompetitive and result in a worse deal for customers.
How a shape-shifting receptor influences cell growth
Receptors found on cell surfaces bind to hormones, proteins, and other molecules, helping cells respond to their environment. MIT chemists have now discovered how one of these receptors changes its shape when it binds to its target, and how those changes trigger cells to grow and proliferate. This receptor, known as epidermal growth factor receptor […]
Startup lets doctors classify skin conditions with the snap of a picture
At the age of 22, when Susan Conover wanted to get a strange-looking mole checked out, she was told it would take three months to see a dermatologist. When the mole was finally removed and biopsied, doctors determined it was cancerous. At the time, no one could be sure the cancer hadn’t spread to other […]
Autonomous Drones Could Soon Run the UK’s Energy Grid
The National Grid is testing computer-manned drones that can save millions in maintenance work.
Crypto’s Free Rein May Be Coming to a Close
Lawmakers in the US and Europe are considering ways to regulate crypto and crack down on money-laundering and other illicit activities.
Transport Apps Promised to Eliminate Friction. But at What Cost?
Cities of the future will likely be even more segregated by income, hostile to pedestrians, and designed to line the pockets of tech giants.
Sources: the US is lobbying the Netherlands to ban ASML from selling some of its older deep ultraviolet lithography systems to China (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg: Sources: the US is lobbying the Netherlands to ban ASML from selling some of its older deep ultraviolet lithography systems to China — The US is pushing the Netherlands to ban ASML Holding NV from selling to China mainstream technology essential in making a large chunk of the world’s chips …
The Senate Intelligence Committee asks the FTC to investigate whether TikTok misled lawmakers about China-based ByteDance employees accessing American user data (Emily Baker-White/Forbes)
Emily Baker-White / Forbes: The Senate Intelligence Committee asks the FTC to investigate whether TikTok misled lawmakers about China-based ByteDance employees accessing American user data — China-based employees at TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, repeatedly accessed sensitive U.S. user data …
NIST selects four encryption algorithms designed to withstand future quantum computing hacking threats to be part of its post-quantum cryptographic standard (Derek B. Johnson/SC Media)
Derek B. Johnson / SC Media: NIST selects four encryption algorithms designed to withstand future quantum computing hacking threats to be part of its post-quantum cryptographic standard — For years, the National Institute for Standards and Technology have been working on a project to identify and vet a handful …
US will choose encryption tools to protect us from quantum computers
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is about to reveal the next generation of algorithms that will keep our private data safe from snoopers
Getting the carbon out of India’s heavy industries
The world’s third largest carbon emitter after China and the United States, India ranks seventh in a major climate risk index. Unless India, along with the nearly 200 other signatory nations of the Paris Agreement, takes aggressive action to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius relative to preindustrial levels, physical and financial losses […]
Intensive visiting nurse program doesn’t impact birth outcomes, says ongoing study
A new paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), a prenatal and early child home visiting program, did not improve birth outcomes for low-income mothers in South Carolina. In the coming years, researchers will continue to evaluate other outcomes related to child health and development and the spacing […]
Companies Must Be Robust in Six Key Areas to Cope with Uncertainty – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ROLAND BERGER
Sponsor content from Roland Berger.
Sad, Mad, Anxious? How to Work Through Your ‘Big Feelings’
Tips for managing emotions and staying focused even when the news is terrible.
Your Corporate Purpose Changed. Has Your Strategy Kept Up?
With the shift towards stakeholder capitalism, companies have to redefine what success looks like — and how to achieve it.
End-to-End Encryption’s Central Role in Modern Self-Defense
With abortion set to be criminalized in more than half the US, encryption has never been more important for protection—and civil disobedience.
Genetic Screening Now Lets Parents Pick the Healthiest Embryos
Those using IVF can see which embryo is least likely to develop cancer and other diseases. But can protecting your child slip into playing God?
Climate Change Breaks Plant Immune Systems. Can They Be Rebooted?
When temperatures rise, plants mysteriously lose their ability to defend against invading pathogens—but there may be a fix.
EU lawmakers pass the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, seeking to regulate US tech giants, but enforcement could be hamstrung by limited resources (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: EU lawmakers pass the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, seeking to regulate US tech giants, but enforcement could be hamstrung by limited resources — EU lawmakers gave the thumbs up on Tuesday to landmark rules to rein in the power of tech giants such as Alphabet (GOOGL.O) …
China is rapidly censoring news of the alleged Shanghai police data breach that exposed over 1B records; “data leak” and other terms are banned on Weibo (Financial Times)
Financial Times: China is rapidly censoring news of the alleged Shanghai police data breach that exposed over 1B records; “data leak” and other terms are banned on Weibo — Purported leak of personal information of more than 1bn people offered for sale for $200,000
FIFA will introduce semi-automated offside technology at the 2022 World Cup, using 12 cameras and a custom soccer ball to track players and make offside calls (Paul MacInnes/The Guardian)
Paul MacInnes / The Guardian: FIFA will introduce semi-automated offside technology at the 2022 World Cup, using 12 cameras and a custom soccer ball to track players and make offside calls — – Sensor in ball will send out location data 500 times per second — Fifa claim average decision time will fall from 70sec […]
Design work starts on European commercial fusion power station
The EuroFusion consortium hopes its DEMOnstration Power Plant will take fusion power from the lab to commercial electricity supply by 2054
The 36 Best Fourth of July Deals on Kitchen Gizmos and Tech
Independence Day is here, and so are the savings. We’ve rounded up plenty of sales on air purifiers, office chairs, massage guns, and more.
Sharing Music Rescued My Relationship With My Teenager
I texted her Joni Mitchell, she sent me songs of her own. Slowly, my daughter began to open up to me again.
Which Amazon Fire Tablet Is Best for You?
Whether you need a travel-friendly slate or something affordable for the kids, we tested every model to find the right one for everybody.
Google releases a Chrome update for Windows to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability exploited in the wild, its fourth Chrome zero-day patch in 2022 (Sergiu Gatlan/BleepingComputer)
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: Google releases a Chrome update for Windows to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability exploited in the wild, its fourth Chrome zero-day patch in 2022 — Google has released Chrome 103.0.5060.114 for Windows users to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability exploited by attackers in the wild …
After a pandemic frenzy to buy laptops and other gadgets, Intel, Nvidia, Micron, and others suggest crypto mining, PC gaming, and smartphone demand is weakening (Asa Fitch/Wall Street Journal)
Asa Fitch / Wall Street Journal: After a pandemic frenzy to buy laptops and other gadgets, Intel, Nvidia, Micron, and others suggest crypto mining, PC gaming, and smartphone demand is weakening — Intel and Nvidia are among the semiconductor makers warning of rockier times ahead after two years of surging demand
Crypto lender and exchange Vauld pauses withdrawals, trading, and deposits and says it’s exploring a restructuring, after users withdrew $197.7M+ since June 12 (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)
Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Crypto lender and exchange Vauld pauses withdrawals, trading, and deposits and says it’s exploring a restructuring, after users withdrew $197.7M+ since June 12 — Vauld, a Singapore-headquartered crypto lending and exchange startup, has suspended withdrawals, trading and deposits …
‘Fair’ AI could help redress bias against Black US homebuyers
Pioneering reparations programmes meant to address decades of US housing discrimination against Black homebuyers could get a boost from AI decision making
DeepMind’s AI develops popular policy for distributing public money
DeepMind researchers have trained an AI system to find a popular policy for distributing public funds in an online game – but they also warn against “AI government”
What Makes a Great Executive Retreat
Three strategies to ensure yours isn’t an expensive waste of time.
It’s Time to Reimagine Employee Retention
Three ways to increase the chance that top talent sticks around.
How a Group of Murderers Became Skyrim’s Most Beloved Faction
With friends like these, you definitely won’t need enemies. Or the main story campaign, for that matter.
TikTok’s Latest Cringe Trend: Gen Z Critiques Their Former Selves
The first generation to grow up on Instagram and Snapchat is already taking stock.
Scientists Are Trying to Grow Crops in the Dark
Powering plant growth with solar panels instead of photosynthesis could be a more efficient way of using the Sun’s energy for food. But it’s not all good news.
The UK Army confirms its Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised on July 3 and used to promote cryptocurrency giveaway scams before being restored (Jane Clinton/Guardian)
Jane Clinton / Guardian: The UK Army confirms its Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised on July 3 and used to promote cryptocurrency giveaway scams before being restored — Investigation under way after interview with Elon Musk uploaded to video channel and picture of cartoon monkey seen on Twitter
Amazon launches a “micromobility” hub in Hackney, London with a fleet of e-cargo bikes and on-foot delivery staff to replace thousands of van deliveries (Sarah Butler/The Guardian)
Sarah Butler / The Guardian: Amazon launches a “micromobility” hub in Hackney, London with a fleet of e-cargo bikes and on-foot delivery staff to replace thousands of van deliveries — Online retailer opening ‘micromobility’ hub in Hackney as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions
Chainalysis: NFT sales totaled just over $1B in June 2022, a 12-month low since June 2021 when sales were $648M; sales reached a peak of $12.6B in January 2022 (Dan Milmo/The Guardian)
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: Chainalysis: NFT sales totaled just over $1B in June 2022, a 12-month low since June 2021 when sales were $648M; sales reached a peak of $12.6B in January 2022 — Sales of non-fungible tokens totalled just over $1bn in June, compared with peak of $12.6bn in January