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upstart writes:

Your data may be in danger if you use a spellchecker:

If you like to be thorough and use an advanced spellchecker, we have some bad news — your personal information could be in danger.

Using the extended spellcheck in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge transmits everything you input in order for it to be checked. Unfortunately, this includes information that should be strictly encrypted, such as passwords.

This issue, first reported by JavaScript security firm otto-js, was discovered accidentally while the company was testing its script behaviors detection. Josh Summitt, co-founder and CTO of otto-js, explains that pretty much everything you enter in form fields with advanced spellchecker enabled is later transmitted to Google and Microsoft.

“If you click on ‘show password,’ the enhanced spellcheck even sends your password, essentially spell-jacking your data,” said otto-js in its report. “Some of the largest websites in the world have exposure to sending Google and Microsoft sensitive user PII [personally identifiable information], including username, email, and passwords, when users are logging in or filling out forms. An even more significant concern for companies is the exposure this presents to the company’s enterprise credentials to internal assets like databases and cloud infrastructure.”

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has detected its highest concentrations yet of organic molecules, in a potential signal of ancient microbes that scientists are eager to confirm when the rock samples are eventually brought to Earth.

While organic matter has been found on the Red Planet before, the new discovery is seen as especially promising because it came from an area where sediment and salts were deposited into a lake—conditions where life could have arisen.

"It is very fair to say that these are going to be, these already are, the most valuable rock samples that have ever been collected," David Shuster, a Perseverance return sample scientist, told reporters during a briefing.

[...] Further analysis and conclusions will have to wait for the Mars Sample Return mission—a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to bring back the rocks that is set for 2033.

[...] The results showed a class of organic molecules called aromatics, which play a key role in biochemistry.

"This is a treasure hunt for potential signs of life on another planet," NASA astrobiologist Sunanda Sharma said.

"Organic matter is a clue and we're getting stronger and stronger clues...I personally find these results so moving because it feels like we're in the right place, with the right tools, at a very pivotal moment."

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hubie writes:

A new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows that lettuce can take up nanoplastics from the soil and transfer them into the food chain:

The concern about plastic pollution has become widespread after it was realised that mismanaged plastics in the environment break down into smaller pieces known as microplastics and nanoplastics. It is likely that nanoplastics, due to their small size, can pass through physiological barriers and enter organisms.

Despite the growing body of evidence on the potential toxicity of nanoplastics to plants, invertebrates and vertebrates, our understanding of plastic transfer in food webs is limited. For instance, little is known about nanoplastics in soil ecosystems and their uptake by soil organisms, despite the fact that agricultural soil is potentially receiving nanoplastics from different sources such as atmospheric deposition, irrigation with wastewater, application of sewage sludge for agricultural purposes, and use of mulching film. [...]

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have developed a novel, metallic fingerprint-based technique to detect and measure nanoplastics in organisms and, in this new study, they applied it to a model food chain consisting of three trophic levels, i.e., lettuce as a primary producer, black soldier fly larvae as a primary consumer, and the insectivorous fish (roach) as a secondary consumer. The researchers used commonly found plastic waste in the environment, including polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) nanoplastics.

Lettuce plants were exposed to nanoplastics for 14 days via contaminated soil, after which they were harvested and fed to insects (black soldier fly larvae, which are used as a source of proteins in many countries). After five days of feeding with lettuce, the insects were fed to the fish for five days.

Using scanning electron microscopy, the researchers analysed the dissected plants, larvae and fish. The images showed that nanoplastics were taken up by the roots of the plants and accumulate in the leaves. Then, nanoplastics were transferred from the contaminated lettuce to the insects. [...] When the fish fed on the contaminated insects, particles were detected in the gills, liver and intestine tissues of the fish, whereas no particles were found in the brain tissue.

Journal Reference:
Fazel Abdolahpur Monikh, Sille Holm, Raine Kortet, et al. Quantifying the trophic transfer of sub-micron plastics in an assembled food chain [open]. Nano Today, 46, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.nantod.2022.101611

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upstart writes:

Boom's supersonic jet is facing a lack of interest from engine suppliers:

Boom recently lost its jet engine partner for the Overture supersonic jet, and other major engine manufacturers aren't interested in the project either, Insider has reported. After Boom signed an "engagement agreement" with Rolls-Royce for supersonic jet engines back in 2020, the latter announced last week that it had left the project. Now, other major jet engine manufacturers including Pratt & Whitney, GE Aviation, Honeywell and Safran Aircraft Engines have told FlightGlobal they're not currently interested in supersonic aircraft.

Boom said that the project is still on track, though, and that it will soon announce an engine partner. "We can reconfirm our intention to announce Boom's selected engine partner and transformational approach for reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable supersonic flight, later this year." Boom told Insider. The company has 20 airplanes on order from American Airlines and 15 from United. It plans to build build a factory in California and start flying passengers by 2029.

For its part, Rolls-Royce said that "after careful consideration... [we] have determined that the commercial aviation supersonic market is not currently a priority for us and, therefore, will not pursue further work on the program at this time."

Previously: Airlines are Trying to Resurrect the Concorde Era

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upstart writes:

YouTube caught drowning viewers in unskippable ads:

YouTube has been serving viewers unskippable ads for years, but recent reports claim that they are becoming longer and more frequent.

Complaining about YouTube ads is a fairly common practice online, but the volume of those complaints has been ticking up lately. For example, last week, a user on Twitter complained to the official YouTube account about the frequency of ads:

YouTube's support team responded, explaining that "this may happen with a certain type of ad format called bumper ads, since they're only up to 6 seconds long." They also suggested that the user send feedback via YouTube's feedback tool.

The implication seems to be that because the bumper ads last six seconds or less, YouTube can force you to watch several of them in a row. Only longer ads, typically those that last 15 to 30 seconds or more, give viewers the option to skip.

[...] As it turns out, this was really an experiment that has since concluded. Here's the statement a YouTube spokesperson sent 9to5Google on Friday:

At YouTube, we're focused on helping brands connect with audiences around the world, and we're always testing new ways to surface ads that enhance the viewer experience. We ran a small experiment globally that served multiple ads in an ad pod when viewers watched longer videos on connected TVs. The goal is to build a better experience for viewers by reducing ad breaks. We have concluded this small experiment.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has detected its highest concentrations yet of organic molecules, in a potential signal of ancient microbes that scientists are eager to confirm when the rock samples are eventually brought to Earth.

While organic matter has been found on the Red Planet before, the new discovery is seen as especially promising because it came from an area where sediment and salts were deposited into a lake—conditions where life could have arisen.

"It is very fair to say that these are going to be, these already are, the most valuable rock samples that have ever been collected," David Shuster, a Perseverance return sample scientist, told reporters during a briefing.

Organic molecules— compounds made primarily of carbon that usually include hydrogen and oxygen, but also at times other elements—are not always created by biological processes.

Further analysis and conclusions will have to wait for the Mars Sample Return mission—a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to bring back the rocks that is set for 2033.

[...] While methane is a digestive by-product of microbes here on Earth, it can also be generated by geothermal reactions where no biology is at play.

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upstart writes:

News and Advice on the World's Latest Innovations:

The Rust in Linux debate is over. The implementation has begun. In an email conversation, Linux's creator Linus Torvalds, told me, "Unless something odd happens, it [Rust] will make it into 6.1."

The Rust programming language entering the Linux kernel has been coming for some time. At the 2020 Linux Plumbers Conference, developers started considering using the Rust language for new Linux inline code. Google, which supports Rust for developing Android -- itself a Linux distro -- began pushing for Rust in the Linux kernel in April 2021.

As Wedson Almeida Filho of Google's Android Team said at the time, "We feel that Rust is now ready to join C as a practical language for implementing the kernel. It can help us reduce the number of potential bugs and security vulnerabilities in privileged code while playing nicely with the core kernel and preserving its performance characteristics."

It took a while to convince the top Linux kernel developers of this. There were concerns about non-standard Rust extensions being needed to get it to work in Linux. For instance, with the new Rust Linux NVMe driver, over 70 extensions needed to be made to Rust to get it working. But, Torvalds had told me in an earlier interview, "We've been using exceptions to standard C for decades."

This was still an issue at the invitation-only Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit. But, in the end, it was decided that Rust is well enough supported in the Clang -- the C language family compiler front end -- to move forward. Besides, as Torvalds had said earlier, "Clang does work, so merging Rust would probably help and not hurt the kernel."

[...] Now, Torvalds warns in this first release, Rust will "just have the core infrastructure (i.e. no serious use case yet)." But, still, this is a major first step for Rust and Linux.

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upstart writes:

First light at the most powerful laser in the US:

The laser that will be the most powerful in the United States is preparing to send its first pulses into an experimental target at the University of Michigan.

Called ZEUS, the Zetawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System, it will explore the physics of the quantum universe as well as outer space, and it is expected to contribute to new technologies in medicine, electronics and national security.

"ZEUS will be the highest peak power laser in the U.S. and among the most powerful laser systems in the world. We're looking forward to growing the research community and bringing in people with new ideas for experiments and applications," said Karl Krushelnick, director of the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, which houses ZEUS, and the Henry J. Gomberg Collegiate Professor of Engineering.

[...] In this first run, the ZEUS team is starting at a power of 30 terawatts (30 trillion watts), about 3% of the current most powerful lasers in the U.S. and 1% of ZEUS's eventual maximum power.

"During the experiment here, we'll put the first light through to the target chamber and develop towards that 300 terawatt level," said John Nees, a research scientist in electrical and computer engineering.

[...] "Magnetars, which are neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields around them, and objects like active galactic nuclei surrounded by very hot plasma—we can recreate the microphysics of hot plasma in extremely strong fields in the laboratory," said Louise Willingale, associate director of ZEUS and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Accompanying explanatory video

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upstart writes:

SEC Charges VMware with Misleading Investors by Obscuring Financial Performance:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday it has charged cloud computing company VMware Inc. with misleading investors by obscuring its financial performance.

The company was charged with misleading investors about its order backlog management practices, which the agency said enabled it to push revenue into future quarters by delaying product deliveries to customers, thereby concealing the company's slowing performance relative to its projections.

Without admitting or denying the findings in the SEC's order, VMware consented to a cease-and-desist order and will pay an $8 million penalty, the SEC said. VMware confirmed in a statement of its own that it reached a settlement with the SEC and agreed to pay the penalty without admitting or denying the SEC's findings.

[...] "The SEC Staff has confirmed that it does not intend to recommend enforcement action against any current or former VMware officers or other member of management in connection with the investigation, and this settlement concludes the matter," VMware said in its statement on Monday.

See also: Broadcom to Acquire VMware in Massive $61B Deal

Original Submission

hubie writes:

New study shows a fast transition to clean energy is cheaper than slow or no transition:

Transitioning to a decarbonised energy system by around 2050 is expected to save the world at least $12 trillion, compared to continuing our current levels of fossil fuel use, according to a peer-reviewed study today by Oxford University researchers, published in the journal Joule.

The research shows a win-win-win scenario, in which rapidly transitioning to clean energy results in lower energy system costs than a fossil fuel system, while providing more energy to the global economy, and expanding energy access to more people internationally.

The study's 'Fast Transition' scenario, shows a realistic possible future for a fossil-free energy system by around 2050, providing 55% more energy services globally than today, by ramping up solar, wind, batteries, electric vehicles, and clean fuels such as green hydrogen (made from renewable electricity).

[...] 'There is a pervasive misconception that switching to clean, green energy will be painful, costly and mean sacrifices for us all – but that's just wrong,' says Doyne Farmer, the Professor of Mathematics who leads the team that conducted the study at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. 'Renewable costs have been trending down for decades. They are already cheaper than fossil fuels, in many situations, and our research shows they will become cheaper than fossil fuels across almost all applications in the years to come. And, if we accelerate the transition, they will become cheaper faster. Completely replacing fossil fuels with clean energy by 2050 will save us trillions.'

[...] Professor Farmer continues, 'The world is facing a simultaneous inflation crisis, national security crisis, and climate crisis, all caused by our dependence on high cost, insecure, polluting, fossil fuels with volatile prices. This study shows ambitious policies to accelerate dramatically the transition to a clean energy future, as quickly as possible, are not only urgently needed for climate reasons, but can save the world trillions in future energy costs, giving us a cleaner, cheaper, more energy secure future.'

Journal Reference:
Rupert Way, Matthew C. Ives, Penny Mealy, J. Doyne Farmer, Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition [open], Joule, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2022.08.009

Original Submission

takyon writes:

There will be no more Pentium, Pentium Gold, Pentium Silver, Celeron, etc. branded mobile/laptop CPUs starting in 2023:

"Intel Processor" Replaces Pentium & Celeron Brands

The new "Intel Processor" branding is intended to "simplify" their offerings for users. Intel's premium Core, Evo, and vPro branding, among others will remain. But for the basic CPUs, they will now be known as Intel Procesor.

The change may also apply to desktop and embedded product lines, but Intel hasn't announced that yet.

Over at Team Red: AMD's new naming scheme for its mobile CPUs seems purposefully confusing

AMD has announced that next year's mobile processors will use a new naming scheme. The new system is difficult to understand and may confuse customers - maybe on purpose.

[...] So now, there will be the new Mendocino series, which are 2020's Zen2 chips brought back to life as Ryzen 7x20. Barcelo (Ryzen 7x30) and Rembrandt (Ryzen 7x35) will also continue on. Zen4, the hotly anticipated new CPUs, are relegated to the high-end as Ryzen 7x40 (Phoenix) and Ryzen 7x45 (Dragon Range).

The problem: The most important part of the model number, the CPU generation, is the third digit. Logically, the first two digits in a four digit number should be the most important ones.

AMD has not announced any concrete model numbers yet, but it is easy to imagine how confusing these number-games can be for regular consumers. For example, a customer may have the choice between a Ryzen 7 7730U and a Ryzen 7 7740U - one is based on Zen3 from 2021 and is still paired with old Vega-GPUs, while the other is a chip of the newest Zen4 generation, even though only the third digit of the model number is different. Transparent for customers? Not at all!

Some processor names had already leaked before the naming scheme announcement, such as the AMD Athlon Gold 7220U, which would be a "Mendocino" APU using the Zen 2 microarchitecture.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Oldest vertebrate fossil heart ever found tells a 380 million-year-old story of evolution:

In the limestone ranges of Western Australia's Kimberley region, near the town of Fitzroy Crossing, you'll find one of the world's best-preserved ancient reef complexes.

Here lie the remnants of myriad prehistoric marine animals, including placoderms, a prehistoric class of fish that represents some of our earliest jawed ancestors.

Placoderms were the rulers of the ancient seas, rivers and lakes. They were the most abundant and diverse fishes of the Devonian Period (419–359 million years ago)—but died out at the end in a mass extinction event.

Studying placoderms is important as they provide insight into the origins of the jawed vertebrate body plan (vertebrates are animals with backbones). For instance, placoderms have revealed when the first jaws, teeth, paired skull bones and paired limbs evolved. They've also taught us about the origins of internal fertilization and live birth in vertebrate evolution.

Now, in a paper published in Science, we detail our findings of the oldest three-dimensionally preserved heart from a vertebrate—in this case a jawed vertebrate. This placoderm heart is about 380 million years old, and 250 million years older than the previous oldest vertebrate heart.

upstart writes:

Russia May Have Just Put Elon Musk's Starlink On Notice:

It seems like Elon Musk's Starlink initiative might have been given a stern warning by Russia in a statement that could come with grave implications. The Starlink map shows that its coverage had spread out to most parts of the globe, with support in some countries already planned for years ahead. However, Russia appears to be the biggest country not on Starlink's waiting list, and that might not change any time soon. In March, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov asked Musk to give his country access to Starlink's services amid the ongoing Russian invasion.

The SpaceX founder later responded to Ukraine's pleas in an expeditious and amicable manner. Within just two days, Ukraine received satellite internet access, but not without Musk warning users of the potential dangers of utilizing Starlink in wartime. While this might not have directly placed SpaceX in Russia's crosshairs, Musk's swift compliance might have exacerbated the issue even further. The question now is, does Russia see Musk's indirect involvement in aiding its opposition as somewhat of a military threat that needs to be addressed, or is it all simply water under the bridge?

Now, it appears that the Russian Delegation is giving SpaceX a similar treatment by addressing its actions indirectly in a warning against the use of private satellites and their intervention. In a translated statement earlier this week, the Russian Delegation spoke out regarding the "extremely dangerous trend" of using civilian and commercial space technologies for military purposes, claiming that this had "become apparent during the events in Ukraine." Although the statement didn't mention any space company in particular, it did remind the "United States and its allies" about the repercussions of having the privatize sector involved in the country's military activities.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Intel Accidentally Confirms Specs of Raptor Lake Launch CPUs - ExtremeTech:

So far, all the information we've received about Intel's 13th generation Raptor Lake CPUs has been through leaks. An engineering sample benchmark here, a leaked sales deck there, and so on. Now Intel has joined in on the fun by leaking the specs for its launch CPUs, though it didn't mean to. [...]

The slip-up was caught by noted Twitter leaker Momomo_us, who snapped a screenshot (below). If you go to the page where it was found, Intel has swapped the info out with specs for its Alder Lake CPUs. There are no big surprises in Intel's slip-up. However, it does confirm the info in the leaked sales decks from a few days ago. It'll be launching with three CPUs, and the boost clocks are confirmed as well. [...]

[...] So overall, nothing mind-blowing here, but at least we have confirmation. Intel will launch Raptor Lake with six SKUs total, as previously reported. Each CPU will be offered in both K and KF variants, with the latter lacking an integrated GPU. Intel is holding an "Innovation" event on Sept. 27 and 28, according to PCMag, so we assume the CPUs will debut there. That's also the same day AMD's Zen 4 CPUs will be available to the public, so it seems these two companies are at it again. Also, since AMD has already released its pricing for Zen 4, it'll be very interesting to see how Intel responds. We also wonder if it'll use the event to launch its Arc GPUs. After all, it said a week ago the launch would be "very soon."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Nasa reveals bursting habitat that created boom in Houston in July

On 9 July, a loud boom resounded around the Houston Texas area around Johnson Space Center, and Nasa has now released footage of the test that caused the sound.

In a post on the social media network Twitter, Johnson Space Center revealed footage of a burst pressure test of an inflatable habitat prototype, an armoured membrane that could be inflated in Earth orbit to serve as a space station module, or on the Moon as part of a future Moon base.

In a burst pressure test, engineers inflate a pressure vessel to the point where it bursts. This helps them understand both the extreme safety limits of the pressure vessel and may help in the design process.

In this case, the pressure vessel was a prototype of the Large Integrated Flexible Environment, or Life habitat being developed by Colorado-based Sierra Space. Life habitats are constructed of the same tough, Vectran fibers used in the landing airbags for Nasa's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, and at 27-feet in diameter, offer about 984 cubic feet of interior volume[*], according to the Sierra Space Website.

During the July pressure burst test, a one-third scale Life habit was inflated to an internal pressure of 192 pounds per square inch (PSI), according to a Sierra Space tweet about the test. That exceeded the safety requirement of 182.4 PSI, the company noted.

[*] 300 cubic meters of pressurized volume (about 1/3 the pressurized volume on the international space station)

Original Submission