215 articles from FRIDAY 5.2.2021
The battle of algorithms: Uncovering offensive AI
As machine-learning applications move into the mainstream, a new era of cyber threat is emerging—one that uses offensive artificial intelligence (AI) to supercharge attack campaigns. Offensive AI allows attackers to automate reconnaissance, craft tailored impersonation attacks, and even self-propagate to avoid detection. Security teams can prepare by turning to defensive AI to fight back—using...
Fungi in the gut prime immunity against infection
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:58
Common fungi, often present in the gut, teach the immune system how to respond to their more dangerous relatives, according to new research. Breakdowns in this process can leave people susceptible to deadly fungal infections.
Study identifies 'Achilles heel' of bacteria linked to Crohn's disease
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:58
The discovery of an 'Achilles heel' in a type of gut bacteria that causes intestinal inflammation in patients with Crohn's disease may lead to more targeted therapies for the difficult to treat disease, according to investigators.
New research sheds light on vision loss in Batten disease
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:58
Progressive vision loss, and eventually blindness, are the hallmarks of juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) or CLN3-Batten disease. New research shows how the mutation associated with the disease could potentially lead to degeneration of light sensing photoreceptor cells in the retina, and subsequent vision loss.
Me, myself and I: Little words may signal a big breakup is coming — long before you know it
New research suggests that long before a relationship comes crashing down, our word use shifts in subtle ways that may signal the end is near and we may not even know...
Out of this world: Shepard put golf on moon 50 years ago
Fifty years later, it remains the most impressive bunker shot in the history of golf, mainly because of the location.
Breakthrough in quantum photonics promises a new era in optical circuits
The modern world is powered by electrical circuitry on a "chip"—the semiconductor chip underpinning computers, cell phones, the internet, and other applications. In the year 2025, humans are expected to be creating 175 zettabytes (175 trillion gigabytes) of new data. How can we ensure the security of sensitive data at such a high volume? And how can we address grand-challenge-like problems, from...
Underwater Noise Pollution Is Disrupting Ocean Life—But We Can Fix It
The ocean soundtrack of the popular imagination is a largely silent one, interrupted only by the mournful aria of migrating whales or the acapella vocalizations of dolphin pods.
In fact, the underwater realm sounds more like an orchestra warming up, the cetaceans hitting their high notes while other marine mammals clear their throats against a background of breaking waves. A distant downpour...
New microscopy concept enters into force
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
The first demonstration of an approach that inverts the standard paradigm of scanning probe microscopy raises the prospect of force sensing at the fundamental limit.
New drug targets for childhood cancer neuroblastoma identified
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
The largest single cell study to date of the childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, has discovered that all neuroblastomas arise from a single type of embryonic cell called sympathoblasts.
Civil engineers find link between hospitals and schools key to community resilience
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
Health care and education systems are two main pillars of a community's stability. How well and how quickly a community recovers following a natural disaster depends on the resilience of these essential social services. New research has found hospitals and schools are interdependent, suggesting their collective recovery must be considered in order to restore a community in the wake of disaster.
Breakthrough in quantum photonics promises a new era in optical circuits
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
Researchers have shown that single photons can be emitted in a uniform way from quantum dots arranged in a precise pattern. The team has used such methods to create single-quantum dots, with their remarkable single-photon emission characteristics. It is expected that the ability to precisely align uniformly-emitting quantum dots will enable the production of optical circuits, potentially leading...
New way to power up nanomaterials for electronic applications
- ScienceDaily
- 21/2/5 21:01
Materials scientists have discovered that perovskites, a class of promising materials that could be used for low-cost, high-performance solar cells and LEDs, have a previously unutilized molecular component that can further tune the electronic property of perovskites.
Women's voices in the media still outnumbered by those of men: study
New research from Simon Fraser University shows that women's voices continue to be underrepresented in the media, despite having prominent female leaders across Canada and internationally. Researchers in SFU's Discourse Processing Lab found that men outnumber women quoted in Canadian news media about three to one. The findings from the team's Gender Gap Tracker study were published this week in...