August 2022 – Lifeboat News: The Blog https://lifeboat.com/blog Safeguarding Humanity Thu, 01 Sep 2022 03:23:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 Research leads to new control over quantum dot qubits https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/research-leads-to-new-control-over-quantum-dot-qubits Thu, 01 Sep 2022 03:23:49 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/research-leads-to-new-control-over-quantum-dot-qubits

Qubits are the building blocks of quantum computers, which have the potential to revolutionize many fields of research by solving problems that classical computers can’t.

But creating qubits that have the perfect quality necessary for quantum computing can be challenging.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, HRL Laboratories LLC, and University of New South Wales (UNSW) collaborated on a project to better control silicon quantum dot qubits, allowing for higher-quality fabrication and use in wider applications. All three institutions are affiliated with the Chicago Quantum Exchange.

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Malicious Chrome Extensions Plague 1.4M Users https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/malicious-chrome-extensions-plague-1-4m-users Thu, 01 Sep 2022 03:23:29 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/malicious-chrome-extensions-plague-1-4m-users

Analysts find five cookie-stuffing extensions, including one that’s Netflix-themed, that track victim browsing and insert rogue IDs into e-commerce sites to rack up fake affiliate payments.

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Scientists Want to Know If Earth Once Harbored a Pre-Human Industrial Civilization https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/scientists-want-to-know-if-earth-once-harbored-a-pre-human-industrial-civilization Thu, 01 Sep 2022 03:23:04 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/scientists-want-to-know-if-earth-once-harbored-a-pre-human-industrial-civilization

Astrobiologists wonder if we’re not the first advanced civilization on Earth. It might seem like pure speculation, but it’s an important thought experiment.

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An AI-Generated Artwork Won First Place at a State Fair Fine Arts Competition, and Artists Are Pissed https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/an-ai-generated-artwork-won-first-place-at-a-state-fair-fine-arts-competition-and-artists-are-pissed Thu, 01 Sep 2022 03:22:53 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/an-ai-generated-artwork-won-first-place-at-a-state-fair-fine-arts-competition-and-artists-are-pissed

Jason Allen’s AI-generated work “Thé tre D’opéra Spatial” took first place in the digital category at the Colorado State Fair.

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Small Device Currently on Mars Is Generating as Much Oxygen as a Tree, Scientists Reveal https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/small-device-currently-on-mars-is-generating-as-much-oxygen-as-a-tree-scientists-reveal Thu, 01 Sep 2022 03:22:29 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/small-device-currently-on-mars-is-generating-as-much-oxygen-as-a-tree-scientists-reveal

The MOXIE experiment has proven that a lunchbox-sized device can reliably produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.

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Canada’s New All-Electric Train-Plane Hybrid Travels Faster Than a Jet https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/canadas-new-all-electric-train-plane-hybrid-travels-faster-than-a-jet Thu, 01 Sep 2022 03:22:19 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/canadas-new-all-electric-train-plane-hybrid-travels-faster-than-a-jet

The new FluxJet will be quicker than a private jet and cheaper, too.

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Leaked Docs Show Spyware Firm Offering iOS, Android Hacking Services for $8 Million https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/leaked-docs-show-spyware-firm-offering-ios-android-hacking-services-for-8-million Thu, 01 Sep 2022 01:26:19 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/leaked-docs-show-spyware-firm-offering-ios-android-hacking-services-for-8-million

Leaked documents appear to show a little-known spyware company offering services that include Android and iOS device exploits for €8 million (roughly $8 million).

Exploit brokers and mercenary spyware providers have been in the spotlight recently, mainly due to revelations surrounding the use of the controversial Pegasus solution of Israeli company NSO Group.

One of NSO’s fairly new competitors is Intellexa, a company founded by Israeli entrepreneur Tal Dilian. The company claims on its website that it’s offering technologies that empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies to ‘help protect communities’. The company says it’s based in the EU and regulated, with six sites and R&D labs in Europe.

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Helium’s chilling journey to cool a particle accelerator https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/heliums-chilling-journey-to-cool-a-particle-accelerator Thu, 01 Sep 2022 01:25:54 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/heliums-chilling-journey-to-cool-a-particle-accelerator

Today it only takes one and a half hours to make a superconducting particle accelerator at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory colder than outer space.

“Now you click a button and the machine gets from 4.5 Kelvin down to 2 Kelvin,” said Eric Fauve, director of the Cryogenic team at SLAC.

While the process is fully automated now, getting this accelerator, called LCLS-II, to 2 Kelvin, or minus 456 degrees Fahrenheit, took six years of designing, building, installing, and starting up an intricate system.

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Study finds tiny brain area controls work for rewards https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/study-finds-tiny-brain-area-controls-work-for-rewards Thu, 01 Sep 2022 01:25:46 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/study-finds-tiny-brain-area-controls-work-for-rewards

A tiny but important area in the middle of the brain acts as a switch that determines when an animal is willing to work for a reward and when it stops working, according to a study published Aug. 31 in the journal Current Biology.

“The study changes how we think about this particular region,” said senior author Melissa Warden, assistant professor and Miriam M. Salpeter Fellow in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, which is shared between the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“It has implications for psychiatric disorders, particularly depression and anxiety,” Warden said.

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Cross-institutional collaboration leads to new control over quantum dot qubits https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/cross-institutional-collaboration-leads-to-new-control-over-quantum-dot-qubits Thu, 01 Sep 2022 01:25:38 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/08/cross-institutional-collaboration-leads-to-new-control-over-quantum-dot-qubits

Qubits are the building blocks of quantum computers, which have the potential to revolutionize many fields of research by solving problems that classical computers can’t.

But creating that have the perfect quality necessary for can be challenging.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, HRL Laboratories LLC, and University of New South Wales (UNSW) collaborated on a project to better control silicon quantum dot qubits, allowing for higher-quality fabrication and use in wider applications. All three institutions are affiliated with the Chicago Quantum Exchange. The work was published in Physical Review Letters, and the lead author, J. P. Dodson, has recently transitioned from UW–Madison to HRL.

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