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Aussie definitely not Satoshi Nakamoto, faces £6M legal bill and possible perjury trial

Australian Craig Wright has finally admitted he is not the inventor of Bitcoin after losing several cases in the High Court of England and Wales, whose judge has suggested he be investigated for perjury.…

Otestovali jsme novou týmovou střílečku od studia Firewalk. Opravdu je to jen kopírka hry Overwatch, nebo toho v sobě Concord skrývá o něco víc?

The infamous cybercrime group known as Scattered Spider has incorporated ransomware strains such as RansomHub and Qilin into its arsenal, Microsoft has revealed. Scattered Spider is the designation given to a threat actor that's known for its sophisticated social engineering schemes to breach targets and establish persistence for follow-on exploitation and data theft. It also has a history of

The infamous cybercrime group known as Scattered Spider has incorporated ransomware strains such as RansomHub and Qilin into its arsenal, Microsoft has revealed. Scattered Spider is the designation given to a threat actor that's known for its sophisticated social engineering schemes to breach targets and establish persistence for follow-on exploitation and data theft. It also has a history of Newsroomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Arrow Lake nebude znamenat konec 7nm procesorů Intelu. Naopak, na rok 2025 se chystají ještě další dvě řady…

Threat actors are actively exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting Apache HugeGraph-Server that could lead to remote code execution attacks. Tracked as CVE-2024-27348 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability impacts all versions of the software before 1.3.0. It has been described as a remote command execution flaw in the Gremlin graph traversal language API. "Users are

Threat actors are actively exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting Apache HugeGraph-Server that could lead to remote code execution attacks. Tracked as CVE-2024-27348 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability impacts all versions of the software before 1.3.0. It has been described as a remote command execution flaw in the Gremlin graph traversal language API. "Users are Newsroomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

India, Turkey, also being targeted by campaign that relies on corporate email compromise

MuddyWater, an Iranian government-backed cyber espionage crew, has upgraded its malware with a custom backdoor, which it's used to target Israeli organizations.…

Svobodná webová platforma pro sdílení a přehrávání videí PeerTube (Wikipedie) byla vydána v nové verzi 6.2. Přehled novinek i s náhledy v oficiálním oznámení a na GitHubu.

Byla vydána nová stabilní verze 3.6 svobodného multiplatformního softwaru pro editování a nahrávání zvukových souborů Audacity (Wikipedie). Přehled novinek také na YouTube. Ke stažení je oficiální AppImage. Zatím starší verze Audacity lze instalovat také z Flathubu a Snapcraftu.

Po necelých 4 měsících vývoje od vydání verze 6.5 byla vydána nová verze 6.6 svobodného open source redakčního systému WordPress. Kódové jméno Dorsey bylo vybráno na počest amerického jazzového trombonisty, trumpetisty, skladatele a dirigenta big band éry Tommyho Dorseyho (YouTube).

3D software Blender byl vydán ve verzi 4.2 s prodlouženou podporou. Podrobnosti v poznámkách k vydání.

Jaké druhy odměn vyplácí zaměstnavatel? Které následně po započítání do průměrného výdělku zvyšují náhradu mzdy za nemoc, za dovolenou, nebo odstupné?

Cítili jste někdy nostalgii nad starými operačními systémy? Podíváme se na to, jak v moderním linuxovém prostředí spustit DOS a vrátit se do světa, kde vás neotravovaly stovky aplikací a mohli jste pracovat.

Sonda do světa otevřeného softwaru. Dnes si vyzkoušíme chatovací platformu s umělou inteligencí, vytvoříme si kartičky pro trénování paměti, uděláme si pořádek v projektech a úkolech a trochu si projdeme luxy, kandely a lumeny.

Tachyony svou nadsvětelnou rychlostí dráždí každého, kdo jen lehce zavadil o fyziku. Výzkumný tým vedený známým rebelem Andrzejem Draganem tvrdí, že se jim povedlo vyřešit zásadní problémy, jimiž tachyony dělaly ve fyzice zmatek. Že by nakonec došlo k uzavření příměří v nějaké univerzitní hospodě?

…aneb Aktuální statistika ke 200. výročí objevu dinosaurů

Začátkem zimy nepřímo potvrdil David McAfee z AMD, že socket AM5 bude podporován i v roce 2026. Ve skutečnosti však bude v permanenci podstatně déle, s novinkami pro něj se počítá i v roce 2027…

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (DMA) on Tuesday announced the start of an inquiry into Microsoft’s hiring of employees from Inflection for its consumer AI group, and its approximately $650 million payment to license the company’s technology.

Inflection cofounders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan, along with a number of other colleagues, joined Microsoft in March; Suleyman became executive vice president and CEO of the newly-formed Microsoft AI, Simonyan joined as chief scientist for the group.

[ Related: Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI facing antitrust probes, says report ]

At issue is whether Microsoft’s actions constituted what the CMA called “a relevant merger situation,” and if so, whether the moves will substantially lessen competition in the UK.

The inquiry begins July 17, with a decision on whether to proceed with further investigation to be announced Sept. 11.

“Regulators are right to challenge these practices, as they can potentially stifle innovation and competition,” said Phil Brunkard, executive counselor at Info-Tech Research Group, UK. “Start-ups thrive on the creativity and vision of their founders and the unique ideas they bring to the table.

“Competition is essential for fostering creativity and innovation, and we should encourage start-ups to grow independently, allowing competition to develop naturally,” he said. “This ensures that investment is based on merit, rather than allowing dominant players to define the rules of competition on their own terms.”

UK regulators aren’t the only ones to call the activities into question. In June, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an investigation to determine whether there actually was an undisclosed acquisition through the hiring of key personnel and the licensing agreement.

The European Union is also closely monitoring developments. Reuters reported in April that EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager was watching to see whether other companies emulate Microsoft’s strategy of a talent and technology transfer in place of a formal merger. If it becomes a trend that circumvents the rules around mergers and competition, she told Reuters, she might act.

With half their skulls replaced by translucent 3D-printed implants, the mice looked straight out of a science fiction movie. Yet they nosed around, ferociously ate their chow, and groomed as usual. Meanwhile, sensors spread across half their brains recorded electrical chatter.

Brain implants have revolutionized neuroscience. Our perception, thoughts, emotions, and memories all rely on electrical signals spreading across networks of neurons. Implants tap into these signals and—often with the help of AI—can rapidly decipher seemingly random electrical activity into intent or movement.

So-called “mind reading” devices translate brain signals related to speech into text, allowing people who’ve lost their ability to speak to communicate directly with loved ones with their minds. Others tap into motor regions of the brain or nerves in the spinal cord and help people with severe paralysis to walk again. Neural signals, alone or combined with eye movements, can even control cursors on a computer screen, re-opening the digital world to paralyzed people for texting, Googling, and scrolling through social media.

These devices are beginning to transform lives for the better. But all rely on the answer to one critical question: How does the brain support those functions? So far, each implant has focused on a small brain region underlying a given capability—controlling vision or movement.

But many of the brain’s functions rely on signals, or brain waves, that spread across multiple regions and synchronize electrical activity. The height and frequency of the waves—some come fast and low, others slow and high—change the brain’s overall function.

Scientists can measure these waves, but like a camera with low resolution, they can’t explain how the waves are generated, propagate, and eventually die down.

In a new study, the custom-fitted transparent implant described above replaces the skull in mice, offering a way to, literally, peek into the brain in search of answers.

The Evolution of Brain Probes

Neural implants have been around since the 1980s. The idea is simple. The brain uses electrical and chemical signals to process information. Electrodes can tap into the electrical communications. Sophisticated software then deciphers the neural code, potentially allowing us to reprogram it and tackle neurological symptoms when the code breaks down.

There are a few ways to make it work. One is to directly record individual neurons—often in rodents—to see which activate when challenging a mouse to a task. Another technology records large-scale brain activity from beneath the skull. This approach sacrifices resolution—we no longer know how each individual neuron behaves—but paints a broader picture.

The challenge is how to combine resolution and scale. A previous attempt relied on multiple high-density electrodes inserted into the brain. Called Neuropixels, each implant is a powerhouse with over 5,000 recording sites packed in a tiny, durable package. “Extremely large numbers of individual neurons could…be followed and tracked with the same probe for weeks and occasionally months,” the authors of a paper about the implant wrote at the time.

But to measure brain-wide activity, scientists have to place multiple Neuropixel devices across the brain. Each requires drilling through the skull and could harm the plastic-wrap-like structure, known as the blood-brain barrier, that protects the brain. Damage from these surgeries often compounds, triggering inflammation that could change how the brain works for weeks with an increasing risk of infection.

So far, scientists have inserted up to eight implants to record activity in mice as they went about their lives or participated in experiments. While they gained news insights, scientists struggled to keep the mice healthy after multiple surgeries. In other words, it wasn’t the Neuropixel implants causing problems—it was all the brain surgeries.

Might there be an alternative?

A 3D Replacement

To avoid multiple surgeries, the Allen Institute team behind the new study developed an implant that covers nearly half a mouse’s brain.

Called SHIELD, the implant looks a bit like molded Swiss cheese. The scaffold is carefully contoured into a shape that perfectly mimics the skulls of young mice.

Then comes the customization. The SHIELD scaffold can accommodate up to 21 small insertion holes for Neuropixels. Scientists can strategically choose where to put the holes to record from multiple brain regions of interest. The implant is then printed with resin, a viscous liquid often used in everyday 3D printing.

“The SHIELD implant is straightforward to fabricate in-house, using a commercially available and relatively low-cost 3D printer,” wrote the team.

Once printed, each hole is temporarily filled with transparent silicon rubber. Like a flexible windshield, the rubber protects delicate brain tissue during implantation. The SHIELD then replaces half of the skull in a single surgery.

It sounds traumatic, but the team made sure the procedure didn’t harm the mice’s health or brains. Images of their brains at multiple time points over two months after surgery showed little damage in most mice, who went about their merry business after a short recovery period. Brain inflammation levels also stayed low during the study.

Here’s how it went. The mice watched one of eight photos flash before them continuously and then learned to lick a treat when the photo switched. During the test, six Neuropixel implants recorded brain activity related to the task. The position of the implants changed every day for four days, altogether collecting neural signals from roughly 25 different brain areas.

Another test dug into the potential underpinnings of brain waves first discovered in the 1920s. These neural oscillations, called alpha waves, are associated with restful and meditative states. In humans, brain waves are usually monitored using a beanie-like cap covered in electrodes that can record most brain regions. With the help of AI, Neuropixel recordings from across the brain homed in on signals resembling alpha waves.

Overall, the team made stable, high-quality recordings from 25 mice, with 467 probe insertions across nearly 90 different experiments.

“Thus, this work goes beyond mere proof of concept,” instead providing a solid recipe for recording across dozens of brain regions and thousands of neurons over multiple days with a single initial surgery, wrote the team.

And there’s a final perk. Because SHIELD is translucent, scientists can tweak brain activity using light. This approach, called optogenetics, alters brain activity with flashes of light—either amping it up or turning it down—giving scientists insight into the neural underpinnings of thoughts, emotions, and memories.

The authors shared 3D printing files of the scaffold for other scientists to design their own custom implants.

Image Credit: Ralph / Pixabay