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upstart writes:

If you think a password prevents scanning in the cloud, think again:

Microsoft cloud services are scanning for malware by peeking inside users' zip files, even when they're protected by a password, several users reported on Mastodon on Monday.

Compressing file contents into archived zip files has long been a tactic threat actors use to conceal malware spreading through email or downloads. Eventually, some threat actors adapted by protecting their malicious zip files with a password the end user must type when converting the file back to its original form. Microsoft is one-upping this move by attempting to bypass password protection in zip files and, when successful, scanning them for malicious code.

While analysis of password-protected files in Microsoft cloud environments is well-known to some people, it came as a surprise to Andrew Brandt. The security researcher has long archived malware inside password-protected zip files before exchanging them with other researchers through SharePoint. On Monday, he took to Mastodon to report that the Microsoft collaboration tool had recently flagged a zip file, which had been protected with the password "infected."

[...] Fellow researcher Kevin Beaumont joined the discussion to say that Microsoft has multiple methods for scanning the contents of password-protected zip files and uses them not just on files stored in SharePoint but all its 365 cloud services. One way is to extract any possible passwords from the bodies of an email or the name of the file itself. Another is by testing the file to see if it's protected with one of the passwords contained in a list.

"If you mail yourself something and type something like 'ZIP password is Soph0s', ZIP up EICAR and ZIP password it with Soph0s, it'll find (the) password, extract and find (and feed MS detection)," he wrote.

upstart writes:

Rectangular chamber was probably the tomb of a wealthy individual or family:

The ruins of the ancient necropolis of Neapolis lie some 10 meters (about 33 feet) below modern-day Naples, Italy. But the site is in a densely populated urban district, making it challenging to undertake careful archaeological excavations of those ruins. So a team of scientists turned to cosmic rays for help—specifically an imaging technique called muography, or muon tomography—and discovered a previously hidden underground burial chamber, according to a recent paper published in the Scientific Reports journal.

[...] In 2016, scientists using muon imaging picked up signals indicating a hidden corridor behind the famous chevron blocks on the north face of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The following year, the same team detected a mysterious void in another area of the pyramid, believing it could be a hidden chamber, which was subsequently mapped out using two different muon imaging methods.

There are many variations of muon imaging, but they all typically involve gas-filled chambers. As muons zip through the gas, they collide with the gas particles and emit a telltale flash of light, which is recorded by the detector, allowing scientists to calculate the particle's energy and trajectory. It's similar to X-ray imaging or ground-penetrating radar, except with naturally occurring high-energy muons rather than X-rays or radio waves. That higher energy makes it possible to image thick, dense substances like the stones used to build pyramids. The denser the imaged object, the more muons are blocked, casting a telltale shadow. Hidden chambers would appear in the final image because they blocked fewer particles.

Neapolis was a Hellenistic city in a hilly area rich in volcanic tuff rock. That made it soft enough to sculpt out tombs, worship spaces, or caves for housing. The necropolis in what is now the Sanita district of Naples was one such creation, used for burials from the late fourth century BCE to early first century CE. The site was buried in sediment over time by a series of natural disasters, most notably flooding by the lava dei vergini ("lava of the virgins"). Unlike the volcanic lava that famously engulfed Pompeii, this "lava" was made up of mud and rocks that came loose from the hills during heavy rains.

Journal Reference:
Tioukov, V., Morishima, K., Leggieri, C. et al. Hidden chamber discovery in the underground Hellenistic necropolis of Neapolis by muography. Sci Rep 13, 5438 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-32626-0

Original Submission

hubie writes:

New Findings Indicate Gene-Edited Rice Might Survive in Martian Soil:

As outlined in the team's abstract, Rice Can Grow and Survive in Martian Regolith with Challenges That Could be Overcome Through Control of Stress-Related Genes, one of the biggest challenges to growing food on Mars is the presence of perchlorate salts, which have been detected in the planet's soil and are generally considered to be toxic for plants.

The team was able to simulate Martian soil using basaltic rich soil mined from the Mojave Desert, called the Mojave Mars Simulant, or MMS, which was developed by scientists from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The teams then grew three varieties of rice, including one wild-type and two gene-edited lines with genetic mutations that better enable them to respond to stress, such as drought, sugar starvation or salinity. These varieties were grown in the MMS, as well as a regular potted mix and a hybrid of the two. While plants were able to grow in the Martian simulant, they were not as developed as those grown in the potting soil and hybrid mix. Replacing just a quarter of the Martian simulant with potting soil resulted in improved development.

The team also experimented with the amount of perchlorate in the soil, finding that 3 grams per kilogram was the threshold beyond which nothing would grow, while mutant strains could still root in 1 gram per kilogram.

Their findings suggest that there might be a way forward for genetically modified rice to find purchase in Martian soil.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The newly emerging fungal pathogen is often misidentified in common lab tests:

A dermatologist in New York City has reported the country's first known cases of highly contagious ringworm infections that are resistant to common anti-fungal treatments—and caused by a newly emerging fungus that is rapidly outstripping other infectious fungi around the world.

In February, the dermatologist reported two cases to health officials in the state, which are described in a brief case study published Thursday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

[...] Ringworm—aka tineas, dermatophytosis, jock itch, and athlete's foot—is a superficial fungal infection of the skin that causes red, itchy, sometimes scaly circular rashes. There are more than 40 different species of fungi that can cause the infection, which spreads from infected people and animals and also lurks in environments and on common household items, like towels. Ringworm is extremely common and can strike anyone. Usually, it's treatable with over-the-counter creams.

[...] While alarming, the identification of cases in the US is not surprising. The fungus behind the infections is Trichophyton indotineae (previously described as Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VIII), which is a newly emerging fungus globally. Though genetic studies date isolates back to at least 2008 in Australia, a multidrug-resistant lineage seemed to erupt in India between 2017 and 2018. Since then, it has reached epidemic proportions in the subcontinent, replacing other common causes of ringworm, and the pathogen has rapidly emerged in many countries throughout Asia and Europe, and Canada.

[...] The rise of T. indotineae is linked to the abuse of topical treatments that contain egregiously large combinations of steroids and antifungal/antibacterial agents, spurring the development of resistance. This is particularly a problem in India.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Lead Vocal Tracks in Popular Music Go Quiet:

A general rule of music production involves mixing various soundtracks so the lead singer's voice is in the foreground. But it is unclear how such track mixing – and closely related lyric intelligibility – has changed over the years.

Scientists from the University of Oldenburg in Germany carried out an analysis of hundreds of popular song recordings from 1946 to 2020 to determine the lead vocal to accompaniment ratio, or LAR. Their results appear in JASA Express Letters, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, and show that, contrary to expectations, the LAR for popular music decreased over the decades in question. This means that, relative to their bands, lead singers are getting quieter.

An earlier study suggested that lead vocals were mixed at a higher level than other instruments, but it looked at songs that were not fully representative of popular Western music. The current study rectified this by considering the four highest-ranked songs from the Billboard Hot 100 chart for each year from 1946 to 2020.

[...] "Our analysis showed a significant downward trend in the LAR from about 5 decibels in 1946 to approximately 1 decibel in 1975, after which time the LAR remained constant," Gerdes said.

The investigators wished to determine whether LAR values changed over time to improve the intelligibility of lyrics or if changes in music technology were involved. Electrical amplification of instruments might, for example, be a factor, as could multitrack and stereophonic recording technology. They found that changes in music technology appear to be behind the observed decrease in LAR until 1975.

"Another possibility involves the stylistic evolution within popular music," author Kai Siedenburg said.

Journal Reference:
Karsten Gerdes; Kai Siedenburg; Lead-vocal level in recordings of popular music 1946–2020 [open], JASA Express Lett 3, 043201 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0017773

Original Submission

upstart writes:

CEO Elon Musk said the plant will protect against a future "choke point" on battery-grade lithium availability:

In a first among United States automakers, Tesla will begin refining its own lithium, a critical material for electric vehicle batteries.

The company broke ground on a $375 million lithium refining plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, this week, which CEO Elon Musk said will process enough lithium for 1 million vehicles annually.

"We thought it was important to address ... a fundamental choke point in the advancement of electric vehicles, [which] is the availability of battery-grade lithium," Musk said at the groundbreaking ceremony on Monday.

[...] Over the last year, the Biden administration has directed billions of dollars to automakers, materials processors, and start-up companies to help address this gap in domestic battery manufacturing. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last August, also adjusted the Clean Vehicle Tax Credit so that eligible vehicles must meet certain battery sourcing requirements, with materials largely coming from the U.S. or free-trade-agreement partners.

Tesla processing its own lithium will help ensure the company's vehicles qualify for those credits and will protect it from supply chain fluctuations and geopolitical disruptions. While it is the only U.S. automaker with a plan to refine its own lithium so far, General Motors announced in January that it would invest $650 million in the Thacker Pass lithium mining project in Nevada.

Tesla claims its refining process is more environmentally friendly and will consume 20 percent less energy than conventional methods. It will also produce less-toxic byproducts that could be repurposed in construction materials, the company said. "We end up as a net environmentally very neutral site," said Turner Caldwell, senior manager of battery minerals and metals at Tesla. The company estimates construction on the Texas plant will conclude in 2025.

[...] Caldwell said that while the Texas facility's lithium will originally come from hardrock mines, the process is designed to be "feed flexible," meaning it could in the future refine lithium from recycled sources, such as manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Technologist David Bombal has a one-hour interview with Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton. The interview covers a range of topics, starting with the big questions about unit availability and when more stock will be available.

00:00 - Intro: Tough Environment
00:07 - Intro: Eben Upton hacked the network as a kid
00:40 - Raspberry Pi shortage (stock availability)
07:22 - People say that you're not looking after hobbyists!
10:12 - Raspberry Pi OS is backwards compatible
12:37 - The pain affecting all of us
16:33 - The origin of the Raspberry Pi // How it started
23:16 - Eben hacked the school network // Creating an environment for young hackers
32:05 - Changing the Cambridge and the World
35:00 - African growth and plans
40:03 - General purpose Computer vs iPhone vs Chromebook
43:28 - Possible IPO and Raspberry Pi Foundation
44:50 - The Raspberry Pi RP2040
48:33 - How is Raspberry Pi funded?
49:10 - How is the next product decided?
50:22 - Raspberry Pi Foundation sticking to its roots
51:17 - Advice for the youth or anyone new
56:01 - Changing roles // From tech to business
57:08 - Do you need to go to university? // Do you need degrees?
01:00:05 - Learning from experiences
01:01:44 - Creating opportunities
01:05:05 - Conclusion

No transcript is available and Eben does speak very quickly. Also published on YouTube if you do not have the obligatory LBRY account to block the algorithmic "recommendations".

upstart writes:

The pangenome includes the genetic instruction books of 47 people:

More than 20 years after people got a peek at the first draft of the human genome, our genetic instruction book, researchers have unlocked the next level: the human pangenome.

In four studies published May 10 in Nature, researchers describe the achievement, how the pangenome was built and some of the new biology scientists are learning from it.

The more complete reference book, which includes almost all the DNA of 47 people, will allow researchers to explore types of variation that could never be examined before, such as large chunks of duplicated, lost or rearranged DNA. That work could possibly reveal more details about the genetic underpinnings of heart diseases, schizophrenia and various other diseases and disorders.

The pangenome adds 119 million DNA bases — the information-carrying units of DNA — not present in the existing human genome, called the reference genome. Much of that DNA is in never-before-explored parts of the genome containing multiple copies of genes that are duplicated from originals elsewhere in the DNA.

[...] Some of these duplicated regions include ones implicated in humans' large brains relative to other species and other traits that set humans apart from other primates. Others have been implicated in certain traits or diseases.

[...] But perhaps the biggest achievement of the pangenome project is that it is finally giving researchers a more complete look at the full spectrum of human genetic diversity.

upstart writes:

Companies are still hiring savvy Linux and open source staffers:

There might be lots of news stories about job losses in tech right now but research suggests there are still plenty of openings in open source and Linux to go around.

As Hillary Carter, SVP of research and communications at the Linux Foundation, said in her keynote speech at Open Source Summit North America in Vancouver, Canada: "In spite of what the headlines are saying, the facts are 57% of organizations are adding workers this year."

[...] Other research also points to brighter signs in tech employment trends. CompTIA's recent analysis of the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data suggests the tech unemployment rate climbed by just 2.3% in April. In fact, more organizations plan to increase their technical staff levels rather than decrease.

The demand for skilled tech talent remains strong, particularly in fast-developing areas, such as cloud and containers, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

So, what do these all areas of technology have in common? The answer is they're all heavily dependent on open source and Linux technologies.

[...] In their search for the right people, many companies are also looking to certification and pre-employment testing to verify candidate skills. So, while you might think certifications are pointless, research suggests 80% of HR professionals rely on certifications to make hiring decisions.

Looking further ahead, it appears that taking specific technical classes and getting certified is a really smart move to help you land your next tech job. Interestingly, a college degree is no longer seen as such a huge benefit. Businesses responding to the Linux Foundation's research felt upskilling (91%) and certifications (77%) are more important than a university education (58%) when it comes to addressing technology needs.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

US fishing policy is boosting fish populations, not constraining most fisheries, finds research:

Commercial fishing employs 1.2 million Americans and generates more than $165 billion annually. Yet warming waters are threatening fish populations and disrupting fisheries around the world—a challenge set to worsen as climate change advances.

Despite the importance of sustaining fisheries, the reauthorization of the cornerstone policy protecting them in the United States—the Magnuson-Stevens Act—has been stalled in Congress for a decade. The holdup? Some blame the policy for being too stringent and leading to what they call "underfishing," while others argue the policy is not doing enough to rebuild depleted fish populations. Others go so far as to argue that fish populations would have rebounded without any policy.

A pair of studies finds these concerns to be largely unsubstantiated. In analyzing the policy's impact on fish populations, fishing, and industry revenue, they find that it is working essentially as it should. It is rebuilding fish populations, and in most cases it is not unduly holding back fishers from making their catch.

[...] In their study published in Science, Frank, Oremus and their other co-authors first examine the assertion of critics of U.S. fishing policy that it is too stringent and unnecessarily leaving too many fish in the water. They find that the main reason about half of the fish stocks considered "underfished" in this way is due to pure economics.

Fishers are not harvesting the fish because there is not enough demand for them. Other healthy fish stocks are being left in the water because they could not be profitably caught without also catching other fish species that are depleted. Just four fish species make up the majority of the revenue of those "underfished." And, of those, the majority of the revenue came from just one species: the walleye pollock, the catch of which is not constrained by our federal fisheries law.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/openai-peeks-into-the-black-box-of-neural-networks-with-new-research/

On Tuesday, OpenAI published a new research paper detailing a technique that uses its GPT-4 language model to write explanations for the behavior of neurons in its older GPT-2 model, albeit imperfectly. It's a step forward for "interpretability," which is a field of AI that seeks to explain why neural networks create the outputs they do.
[...]
In the first sentence of OpenAI's paper, the authors write, "Language models have become more capable and more widely deployed, but we do not understand how they work."

For outsiders, that likely sounds like a stunning admission from a company that not only depends on revenue from LLMs but also hopes to accelerate them to beyond-human levels of reasoning ability.

But this property of "not knowing" exactly how a neural network's individual neurons work together to produce its outputs has a well-known name: the black box. You feed the network inputs (like a question), and you get outputs (like an answer), but whatever happens in between (inside the "black box") is a mystery.

My thoughts were always that you didn't get to look into the black box of goodies. As opposed to no one even knows how this magic things works. As the kids say, YOLO, because "hold my beer" is old fashioned?

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Study reveals that some coping strategies only make the problem worse:

Five billion people spend almost half of their waking hours online. According to a new study from Aalto University, browser clutter is a serious problem for one in four of them. The results will be presented on April 27 at CHI 2023, the leading conference for human-computer interaction research.

'We began exploring which challenges make users feel overwhelmed when browsing the internet. We also mapped the behaviors that cause the clutter and how users react to the stress,' says Associate Professor and Head of Department Janne Lindqvist.

Browsing habits play a major role in cluttering up a browser. Using interviews and an online survey, the researchers found that clutter-related stress goes up when users keep a large number of tabs and browser windows open, as well as because of interactive elements like ads and pop-up windows.

Multitasking adds to the problem, and it gets worse if users are hesitant to close tabs or are dealing with complex tasks. Clutter also accumulates when users have tabs open related to different online activities – for example, if they're managing a travel reservation in one tab and chatting with friends or colleagues in another.

[...] The study found that many users react to stress by trying to change either their behavior or their attitude towards the clutter. Only the former, problem-focused solutions, proved helpful in solving the issue. An example solution would be to consciously minimize clutter by deciding on an upper limit to the number of tabs you have open.

upstart writes:

San Francisco airport will monitor plane waste for COVID-19 variants:

International travelers can now contribute valuable data to COVID-19 surveillance efforts in the United States from above the clouds.

San Francisco International Airport has launched a new program to test airplane wastewater for variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, the airport announced May 9. The program is the first in the country to continuously monitor sewage from airplanes, after previous studies demonstrated the potential value of this work.

Airplane wastewater is a key source for COVID-19 surveillance because international travelers frequently bring new variants into the country, experts say. As fewer people get their noses swabbed in health care facilities, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking for new ways to keep tabs on how the coronavirus mutates. Searching for genetic material in airplane bathroom waste can help fill that data gap — and even provide early warnings for future health crises.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

300,000-year-old snapshot: Oldest human footprints from Germany found:

In a study published today in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, an international research team led by scientists from the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment presents the earliest human footprints known from Germany. The tracks were discovered in the roughly 300,000-year-old Schöningen Paleolithic site complex in Lower Saxony. The footprints, presumably from Homo heidelbergensis, are surrounded by several animal tracks—collectively, they present a picture of the ecosystem at that time.

[...] The various tracks at Schöningen offer a snapshot of a family's daily life and may provide information about the behavior and social composition of hominin groups as well as spatial interactions and coexistence with elephant herds and other, smaller mammals, according to the study. "Based on the tracks, including those of children and juveniles, this was probably a family outing rather than a group of adult hunters," says the archaeologist and expert on fossil footprints.

In addition to the human tracks, the team analyzed a series of elephant tracks attributable to the extinct species Palaeoloxodon antiquus—an elephant with straight tusks that was the largest land animal at the time and whose adult bulls reached a body weight of up to 13 tons.

Journal Reference:
Flavio Altamura, Jens Lehmann, Bárbara Rodríguez-Álvarez, et al. Fossil footprints at the late lower Paleolithic site of Schöningen (Germany): A new line of research to reconstruct animal and hominin paleoecology , Quaternary Science Reviews (DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108094)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Mediterranean diet's cellular effects revealed:

People who follow the Mediterranean diet—rich in fats from olive oil and nuts—tend to live longer, healthier lives than others who chow down primarily on fast food, meat and dairy. But it hasn't been clear on a cellular level exactly why the diet is so beneficial.

Now researchers led by the Stanford School of Medicine have found one of the first cellular connections between healthy fats—known as monounsaturated fatty acids—and lifespan in laboratory worms. The finding hints at a complex relationship between diet, fats and longevity.

"Fats are generally thought to be detrimental to health," said professor of genetics Anne Brunet, Ph.D. "But some studies have shown that specific types of fats, or lipids, can be beneficial."

The researchers learned that one of the fats in the Mediterranean diet, oleic acid, increases the number of two key cellular structures, or organelles, and protects cellular membranes from damage by a chemical reaction called oxidation. This protective effect has a big payoff: Worms fed food rich in oleic acid lived about 35% longer than those consigned to standard worm rations, the researchers found.

Journal Reference:
Papsdorf, Katharina, Miklas, Jason W., Hosseini, Amir, et al. Lipid droplets and peroxisomes are co-regulated to drive lifespan extension in response to mono-unsaturated fatty acids [open], Nature Cell Biology (DOI: 10.1038/s41556-023-01136-6)

Original Submission