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upstart writes:

‘Master Faces’ That Can Bypass Over 40% Of Facial ID Authentication Systems:

Researchers from Israel have developed a neural network capable of generating ‘master’ faces – facial images that are each capable of impersonating multiple IDs. The work suggests that it’s possible to generate such ‘master keys’ for more than 40% of the population using only 9 faces synthesized by the StyleGAN Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), via three leading face recognition systems.

The paper is a collaboration between the Blavatnik School of Computer Science and the school of Electrical Engineering, both at Tel Aviv.

Testing the system, the researchers found that a single generated face could unlock 20% of all identities in the University of Massachusetts’ Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) open source database, a common repository used for development and testing of facial ID systems, and the benchmark database for the Israeli system.

upstart writes:

Researchers discover fresh water in the Mediterranean Sea:

"Our discovery is based on an oceanographic expedition we conducted in 2018," explains Dr. Amir Haroon, from GEOMAR, lead author of the study. "We used geophysical methods, called reflection seismics, combined with novel electromagnetic techniques to detect these deposits," Haroon continues. "Our data suggest that the groundwater occurs as an isolated body in limestone formations three kilometres from the coast," the scientist explains.

[...] The water body was probably formed there during the last ice age 20,000 years ago, when the sea level was lower than today.

Journal Reference:
Amir Haroon, Aaron Micallef, Marion Jegen, et al. Electrical Resistivity Anomalies Offshore a Carbonate Coastline: Evidence for Freshened Groundwater? [open], Geophysical Research Letters (DOI: 10.1029/2020GL091909)

Original Submission

Anti-aristarchus writes:

Geological analysis explains durability of Stonehenge megaliths:

Aug 4 (Reuters) - The first comprehensive scientific analysis of Stonehenge's imposing megaliths has revealed some of the traits that made them an exemplary building material for the famed monument in southern England including their stout resistance to weathering.

Researchers on Wednesday described a battery of examinations that provided a glimpse inside one of Stonehenge's 52 sandstone megaliths, known as sarsens, gaining insight into its geology and chemistry.

They studied a core sample extracted from one of the sarsens, called Stone 58, during 1950s conservation work. It was kept in the United States for decades before being returned to Britain for research in 2018.

The sarsens are made of stone called silcrete that formed gradually within a few yards (meters) of the ground surface as a result of groundwater washing through buried sediment.

The examination clarified Stone 58's internal structure. It showed that the silcrete is comprised of mainly sand-sized quartz grains cemented tightly together by an interlocking mosaic of quartz crystals. Quartz is extremely durable and does not easily crumble or erode even when exposed to eons of wind and weather.

"This explains the stone's resistance to weathering and why it made an ideal material for monument-building," said University of Brighton geomorphologist David Nash, who led the study published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Also at Phys.org

Journal Refrence:
David J. Nash, et al. Petrological and geochemical characterisation of the sarsen stones at Stonehenge, PLOS ONE (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254760)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

‘It could feed the world’: amaranth, a health trend 8,000 years old that survived colonization:

Just over 10 years ago, a small group of Indigenous Guatemalan farmers visited Beata Tsosie-Peña’s stucco home in northern New Mexico. In the arid heat, the visitors, mostly Maya Achì women from the forested Guatemalan town of Rabinal, showed Tsosie-Peña how to plant the offering they had brought with them: amaranth seeds.

Back then, Tsosie-Peña had just recently [be]come interested in environmental justice amid frustration at the ecological challenges facing her native Santa Clara Pueblo – an Indigenous North American community just outside the New Mexico town of Española, which is downwind from the nuclear facilities that built the atomic bomb. Tsosie-Peña had begun studying permaculture and other Indigenous agricultural techniques. Today, she coordinates the environmental health and justice program at Tewa Women United, where she maintains a hillside public garden that’s home to the descendants of those first amaranth seeds she was given more than a decade ago.

They are now six-foot-tall perennials with flowering red plumes and chard-like leaves. But during that first visit in 2009, the plants were just pinhead-size seeds. Tsosie-Peña and her guests spent the day planting, winnowing, cooking and eating them – toasting the seeds in a skillet to be served over milk or mixed into honey – and talking about their shared histories: how colonization had separated them from their traditional foods and how they were reclaiming their relationship with the land.

Since the 1970s, amaranth has become a billion-dollar food – and cosmetic – product. Health conscious shoppers embracing ancient grains will find it in growing numbers of grocery stores in the US, or in snack bars across Mexico, and, increasingly, in Europe and the Asia Pacific. As a complete protein with all nine essential amino acids, amaranth is a highly nutritious source of manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and antioxidants that may improve brain function and reduce inflammation.

“This is a plant that could feed the world,” said Tsosie-Peña.

---

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Fast-Growing Mini-Forests Spring up in Europe to Aid Climate:

Tiny, dense forests are springing up around Europe as part of a movement aimed at restoring biodiversity and fighting the climate crisis.

Often sited in schoolyards or alongside roads, the forests can be as small as a tennis court. They are based on the work of the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who has planted more than 1,000 such forests in Japan, Malaysia and elsewhere.

Advocates for the method say the miniature forests grow 10 times faster and become 30 times denser and 100 times more biodiverse than those planted by conventional methods. This result is achieved by planting saplings close together, three per square metre, using native varieties adapted to local conditions. A wide variety of species – ideally 30 or more – are planted to recreate the layers of a natural forest.

Scientists say such ecosystems are key to meeting climate goals, estimating that natural forests can store 40 times more carbon than single-species plantations. The Miyawaki forests are designed to regenerate land in far less time than the 70-plus years it takes a forest to recover on its own.

takyon writes:

2 Red Objects Were Found in the Asteroid Belt. They Shouldn't Be There.

Scientists led by Sunao Hasegawa from JAXA, the Japanese space agency, reported in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Monday that two objects spotted in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter appear to have originated beyond Neptune. The discoveries could one day provide direct evidence of the chaos that existed in the early solar system.

[...] [203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia] orbit at about 2.7 and 2.6 times the Earth-sun distance, well within the asteroid belt. 203 Pompeja, at about 70 miles across, appears to be structurally intact, whereas 269 Justitia, only 35 miles or so, is likely a fragment of a previous collision. Both have stable circular orbits, meaning they must have settled into this space long ago.

Both also have an unusual color. Objects in the inner solar system tend to reflect more blue light because they are devoid of organic material — things like carbon and methane — whereas objects in the outer solar system are redder because they have a lot of organics, perhaps the building blocks of life on Earth.

"In order to have these organics, you need to initially have a lot of ice at the surface," said Michaël Marsset from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a co-author on the paper. "So they must have formed in a very cold environment. Then the solar irradiation of the ice creates those complex organics."

These two rocks, as it turns out, are extremely red — more red than anything else seen in the asteroid belt. While tentative hints of other red asteroids have been found, these two appear to be special.

Also at Universe Today.

Journal Reference:
Sunao Hasegawa, Michaël Marsset, Francesca E. DeMeo, et al. Discovery of Two TNO-like Bodies in the Asteroid Belt - IOPscience, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac0f05)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

28,000-year-old cave lion cub found in perfect condition:

A study published in the journal Quaternary details the discovery of two mummified baby cave lions in the Siberian Arctic by local mammoth tusk collectors in 2017 and 2018. The extinct cave lions were widely spread throughout eastern Siberia in the late Pleistocene period and were a bigger relative of the African lions that live today.

Researchers initially thought the two cubs, believed to be 1 or 2 months old when they died, were siblings as they were discovered just dozens of feet from one another. But the new study found they differ in age by around 15,000 years.

One female cub nicknamed "Sparta" dates back about 28,000 years ago while "Boris," a male,  is more than 43,000 years old, according to radiocarbon dating.

Journal Reference:
Gennady G. Boeskorov, Valery V. Plotnikov, Albert V. Protopopov, et al. The Preliminary Analysis of Cave Lion Cubs Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) from the Permafrost of Siberia, Quaternary (DOI: 10.3390/quat4030024)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Leaked Document Says Google Fired Dozens of Employees for Data Misuse:

Google fired dozens of employees between 2018 and 2020 for abusing their access to the company's tools or data, with some workers potentially facing allegations of accessing Google user or employee data, according to an internal Google document obtained by Motherboard.

The document provides concrete figures on an often delicate part of a tech giant's operations: investigations into how the company's own employees leverage their positions to steal, leak, or abuse data they may have access to. Insider abuse is a problem across the tech industry. Motherboard previously uncovered instances at Facebook, Snapchat, and MySpace, with employees in some cases using their access to stalk or otherwise spy on users.

The document says that Google terminated 36 employees in 2020 for security-related issues. Eighty-six percent of all security-related allegations against employees included mishandling of confidential information, such as the transfer of internal-only information to outside parties.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

30th Anniversary of the World Wide Web:

In 1989 the world's largest physics laboratory, CERN, was a hive of ideas and information stored on multiple incompatible computers. Sir Tim Berners-Lee envisioned a unifying structure for linking information across different computers, and wrote a proposal in March 1989 called "Information Management: A Proposal". By 1991 this vision of universal connectivity had become the World Wide Web.

To celebrate 30 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee's proposal and to kick-start a series of celebrations worldwide, CERN hosted a 30th Anniversary event in the morning of 12 March 2019 in partnership with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and with the World Wide Web Foundation.

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

Peloton treadmill owners will be able to run again without a subscription:

After a spate of accidents on its Tread+ treadmill, Peloton temporarily moved the basic running mode of Tread+ behind a paywall so non-authorized users couldn't gain access. Now, all users will be able to use the "Just Run" feature without a subscription [...]

[...] after several reports of injuries and one death. The company subsequently released a software update that required a passcode to use the basic running mode, but the feature was only available to subscribers.

[...] The Tread Lock feature locks the device if you haven't used the treadmill in 45 seconds and aren't in a class. You then need to input a four-digit code before it can be used again.

[...] While the update was inconvenient for non-subscribers who purchased the $4,000+ devices, Peloton did make it possible to do basic running without paying.

Putting the primary function of an expensive product behind a paywall is a way to prevent accidents.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Apple plans to scan US iPhones for child abuse imagery:

Apple intends to install software on American iPhones to scan for child abuse imagery, according to people briefed on its plans, raising alarm among security researchers who warn that it could open the door to surveillance of millions of people's personal devices.

Apple detailed its proposed system—known as "neuralMatch"—to some US academics earlier this week, according to two security researchers briefed on the virtual meeting. The plans could be publicized more widely as soon as this week, they said.

The automated system would proactively alert a team of human reviewers if it believes illegal imagery is detected, who would then contact law enforcement if the material can be verified. The scheme will initially roll out only in the US.

[...] Security researchers, while supportive of efforts to combat child abuse, are concerned that Apple risks enabling governments around the world to seek access to their citizens' personal data, potentially far beyond its original intent.

"It is an absolutely appalling idea, because it is going to lead to distributed bulk surveillance of . . . our phones and laptops," said Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge.

upstart writes:

Fasting may help ward off infections, study in mice suggests:

Fasting decreased the signs of bacterial infection compared to fed mice, including nearly eliminating all intestinal tissue damage and inflammation. When fasted animals were re-fed for a day after their fast, there was a dramatic increase in Salmonella numbers and invasion into the intestinal walls, although the associated inflammation was still attenuated compared to normal. The results did not hold true when mice were exposed to Salmonella intravenously instead of orally, and analyses of the microbiomes of mice showed significant changes associated with fasting and protection against infection. Moreover, fasting did not fully protect germ-free mice -- bred to lack a normal microbiome -- from Salmonella, suggesting that some of the protection was due to fasting's effect on the microbiome. Experiments using the bacteria Campylobacter jejuni confirmed that the effect of fasting was not limited to Salmonella, with similar results seen.

[...] "Our research highlights the important role that food plays in regulating interactions between the host, enteric pathogens and the gut microbiome. When food is limited, the microbiome appears to sequester the nutrients that remain, preventing pathogens from acquiring the energy they need to infect the host. While more research is needed, fasting or otherwise adjusting food intake could be exploited therapeutically to modulate infectious diseases in the future."

Journal Reference:
Franziska A. Graef, Larissa S. Celiberto, Joannie M. Allaire, et al. Fasting increases microbiome-based colonization resistance and reduces host inflammatory responses during an enteric bacterial infection, PLOS Pathogens (DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009719)

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

Climate crisis: Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse:

Climate scientists have detected warning signs of the collapse of the Gulf Stream, one of the planet's main potential tipping points.

The research found "an almost complete loss of stability over the last century" of the currents that researchers call the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The currents are already at their slowest point in at least 1,600 years, but the new analysis shows they may be nearing a shutdown.

[....] The complexity of the AMOC system and uncertainty over levels of future global heating make it impossible to forecast the date of any collapse for now. It could be within a decade or two, or several centuries away. But the colossal impact it would have means it must never be allowed to happen, the scientists said.

[....] Scientists are increasingly concerned about tipping points – large, fast and irreversible changes to the climate. Boers and his colleagues reported in May that a significant part of the Greenland ice sheet is on the brink, threatening a big rise in global sea level. Others have shown recently that the Amazon rainforest is now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs, and that the 2020 Siberian heatwave led to worrying releases of methane.

The world may already have crossed a series of tipping points, according to a 2019 analysis, resulting in "an existential threat to civilisation". A major report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due on Monday, is expected to set out the worsening state of the climate crisis.

Hopefully people will warm up to the danger of global warming.

See also:

A critical ocean system may be heading for collapse due to climate change, study finds

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The State Department and 3 other US agencies earn a D for cybersecurity:

Cybersecurity at eight federal agencies is so poor that four of them earned grades of D, three got Cs, and only one received a B in a report issued Tuesday by a US Senate Committee.

"It is clear that the data entrusted to these eight key agencies remains at risk," the 47-page report stated. "As hackers, both state-sponsored and otherwise, become increasingly sophisticated and persistent, Congress and the executive branch cannot continue to allow PII and national security secrets to remain vulnerable."

The report, issued by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, comes two years after a separate report found systemic failures by the same eight federal agencies in complying with federal cybersecurity standards. The earlier report found that during the decade spanning 2008 to 2018, the agencies failed to properly protect personally identifiable information, maintain a list of all hardware and software used on agency networks, and install vendor-supplied security patches in a timely manner.

The 2019 report also highlighted that the agencies were operating legacy systems that were costly to maintain and hard to secure. All eight agencies—including the Social Security Administration and the Departments of Homeland Security, State, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Education—failed to protect sensitive information they stored or maintained.

upstart writes:

Please, no Moore: 'Law' that defined how chips have been made for decades has run itself into a cul-de-sac:

Feature In 1965, Gordon Moore published a short informal paper, Cramming more components onto integrated circuits.

In it, he noted [PDF] that in three years, the optimal cost per component on a chip had dropped by a factor of 10, while the optimal number had increased by the same factor, from 10 to 100. Based on not much more but these few data points and his knowledge of silicon chip development – he was head of R&D at Fairchild Semiconductors, the company that was to seed Silicon Valley – he said that for the next decade, component counts by area could double every year. By 1975, as far as he would look, up to 65,000 components such as transistors could fit on a single chip costing no more than the 100-component chips at the time of publishing.

He was right. Furthermore, as transistors shrank they used less power and worked faster, leading to stupendous sustained cost/performance improvements. In 1975, eight years after leaving Fairchild to co-found Intel, Moore revised his "law", actually just an observation, to a doubling every two years. But the other predictions in his original paper of revolutions in computing, communication and general electronics had taken hold. The chip industry had the perfect metric to aim for a rolling, virtuous milestone like no other.

Since then, according to Professor Erica Fuchs of Carnegie Mellon University, "half of economic growth in the US and worldwide has also been attributed to this trend and the innovations it enabled throughout the economy." Virtually all of industry, science, medicine, and every aspect of daily life now depends on computers that are ever faster, cheaper, and more widely spread.