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Cells Remember Too: Challenging the Definition of Memory

2025-08-05

Cells Remember Too: Challenging the Definition of Memory

Neuroscientist Nikolay Kukushkin at NYU has found that both nerve and kidney cells can differentiate patterns of neurotransmitter bursts and form memories lasting up to a day. This suggests that even non-neural cells can perform pattern recognition and memory, challenging the traditional neuroscientific definition of memory. The research indicates that the formation of cellular memory is related to the spacing of stimuli; spaced stimuli more easily form lasting memories, similar to the mechanisms of memory formation in animals. The study also reveals long-standing biases in the scientific community, limiting memory to observable behavioral changes and ignoring cellular-level memory mechanisms.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Tech cellular memory

Meta Blocks Apple Intelligence in its iOS Apps

2025-04-17

Meta Blocks Apple Intelligence in its iOS Apps

Apple's Apple Intelligence, introduced with iOS 18.1, is facing limitations due to Meta's refusal to integrate it into its apps. Features like Writing Tools and Genmoji are unavailable in Meta apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Threads. Speculation points to Meta promoting its own Meta AI as the reason. A previous partnership discussion between Apple and Meta to integrate Meta's Llama language model into Apple Intelligence failed due to disagreements over privacy policies. This leaves iOS users without access to Apple Intelligence's convenient features within Meta's popular apps.

(9to5mac.com)

Tech

Delta Air Lines Partners with YouTube Premium for In-Flight Entertainment

2025-01-09

Delta Air Lines Partners with YouTube Premium for In-Flight Entertainment

Delta Air Lines has partnered with YouTube to offer free YouTube Premium and YouTube Music to its SkyMiles members on flights. This exclusive deal includes curated content from top YouTube creators and is part of Delta's broader strategy to enhance the in-flight experience and attract entertainment industry travelers. The airline is also rolling out an AI-powered personal assistant, Delta Concierge, and a new in-flight series hosted by Tom Brady focused on wellness travel tips.

(variety.com)

Tech Airlines

WordPress.com's AI Website Builder: Minutes to a Site, But with Quirks

2025-04-09

WordPress.com's AI Website Builder: Minutes to a Site, But with Quirks

WordPress.com launched an AI-powered website builder in early access. Users provide prompts to generate websites with text, layouts, and images in minutes. While impressive for its speed, it currently can't handle e-commerce or complex integrations. A WordPress.com account and paid hosting ($18+/month) are required. Testing revealed a somewhat quirky experience; for example, AI-generated images were sometimes oddly paired with unrelated content (Christmas cookies with a gaming event).

(www.theverge.com)

Development

The Misunderstood 'Vibe Coding': A Missed Opportunity

2025-05-01

The Misunderstood 'Vibe Coding': A Missed Opportunity

Two publishers and three authors have fundamentally misinterpreted the meaning of 'vibe coding,' confusing it with AI-assisted programming. The author argues that true vibe coding, as defined by Andrej Karpathy, involves using AI to generate code without focusing on the code's specifics; it's a low-code approach for non-programmers. The author expresses disappointment that the publishers and authors didn't fully grasp Karpathy's definition, missing a huge opportunity to create a valuable book on empowering non-programmers to build custom software using AI without learning traditional coding.

(simonwillison.net)

AI

My Used 2023 Nissan Leaf: A Budget EV Experience

2025-09-05

In 2025, the author bought a used 2023 Nissan Leaf, his first 'new' car in 15 years. The article details his decision-making process, weighing the Leaf's affordability and practicality against competitors like Tesla. He highlights the Leaf's advantages, such as one-pedal driving, peppy torque, and lower maintenance, but also its drawbacks: inconsistent charging infrastructure, lack of standardization, and some design quirks. Ultimately, the author finds the Leaf suitable for his short-commute needs, but concludes that EVs still face significant price and infrastructure barriers for most car owners.

(www.jeffgeerling.com)

Tech Nissan Leaf Used Car

TSMC Bets on MicroLED Optical Interconnects for AI Data Centers

2025-05-26

TSMC Bets on MicroLED Optical Interconnects for AI Data Centers

In the race to build all-optical AI data centers, TSMC is partnering with Avicena to leverage microLED-based interconnects. This innovative approach replaces traditional copper wires with a cost-effective, energy-efficient optical solution to address the exploding bandwidth demands of AI clusters. Avicena's LightBundle platform uses hundreds of blue microLEDs and imaging fibers, bypassing the complexity and high power consumption of laser-based solutions. By utilizing mature LED, camera, and display technologies, this approach promises higher reliability and scalability, potentially overcoming the bottlenecks in AI data center optical interconnects and enabling faster, lower-latency data transfer for demanding applications like large language models.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech optical interconnect AI data center

Gen Z Demands Stricter Social Media Regulation

2025-03-07

Gen Z Demands Stricter Social Media Regulation

A new study reveals that over 60% of 16-to-24-year-olds in the UK believe social media does more harm than good, advocating for stricter regulations to safeguard young people's mental health. The research identifies social media as the most significant negative influence on teens' mental wellbeing, with many expressing regret over excessive phone use during their upbringing. This study fuels the upcoming parliamentary debate on a bill aiming to enhance children's smartphone safety, urging government intervention to protect children from the detrimental effects of social media.

(www.lbc.co.uk)

Tech

AO3: A Fan-Driven Fanfiction Archive with Brilliant Architecture

2025-02-25

AO3: A Fan-Driven Fanfiction Archive with Brilliant Architecture

Among this year's Hugo Award nominees is an unusual contender: Archive of Our Own (AO3), a fanfiction archive containing nearly 5 million fanworks—a size comparable to the English Wikipedia. But AO3's value lies not just in its massive content, but in its clever website architecture. In a time when the internet strives for human-centered sustainability, AO3 offers a lesson for the tech industry: how it elegantly solves the problem of tag proliferation, avoiding both the chaos of a completely laissez-faire approach and the inflexibility of rigid tagging systems. AO3 strikes a balance, allowing flexible tagging while using clever algorithms and community mechanisms to manage and organize tags, providing a more efficient and precise search experience for users.

(www.wired.com)

Tech fanfiction website architecture tagging system

Half of US Drinking Water Contaminated with 'Forever Chemicals'

2025-03-28

Half of US Drinking Water Contaminated with 'Forever Chemicals'

The EPA's latest data reveals that nearly half of Americans have drinking water contaminated with PFAS, also known as 'forever chemicals'. These compounds, found in numerous products, persist in the environment and are linked to serious health issues like cancer and immune deficiencies. While the EPA has implemented regulations, millions remain at risk, highlighting the urgent need for widespread testing and remediation efforts.

(www.scientificamerican.com)

Tech drinking water safety

Nepal Blocks Facebook, X, and YouTube Over Registration Failure

2025-09-05

Nepal Blocks Facebook, X, and YouTube Over Registration Failure

Nepal's government has blocked major social media platforms, including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube, for failing to comply with registration regulations. The government claims repeated notices were ignored. While some platforms like TikTok and Viber, having registered, remain operational, the move has sparked concerns over freedom of speech and accusations that the accompanying bill is a tool for censorship and suppressing dissent.

(apnews.com)

Tech Nepal

Slime: The Forgotten Wonder at the Heart of Life

2025-05-23

Slime: The Forgotten Wonder at the Heart of Life

This article recounts the author's quest to find a specimen of 'primordial slime' collected by the HMS Challenger, leading to a profound exploration of slime itself. Far from being mere filth, slime is revealed as a crucial component of life's evolution, underpinning the functions of organisms from microbes to humans. The article delves into slime's vital roles in biology, physics, environmental science, and medicine, alongside humanity's complex emotional relationship with it, ranging from disgust to awe. The author ultimately locates the Challenger specimen at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, only to find it largely decomposed—a symbolic end to the 'primordial slime' theory, yet a highlight of slime's understated importance in nature.

(granta.com)

Tech slime life's origin

Critical Apache Parquet RCE Vulnerability Discovered (CVE-2025-30065)

2025-04-06

Critical Apache Parquet RCE Vulnerability Discovered (CVE-2025-30065)

A critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability (CVE-2025-30065), with a CVSS score of 10.0, has been found in Apache Parquet versions up to and including 1.15.0. Attackers can exploit this flaw by using specially crafted Parquet files to gain control of systems. This affects a wide range of big data platforms, including Hadoop, AWS, and is used by companies like Netflix and Uber. Version 1.15.1 patches this issue; immediate upgrade is recommended. While no active exploitation has been reported, the risk is high due to the severity and widespread use of Parquet.

(www.bleepingcomputer.com)

Tech RCE vulnerability Big Data Security

Winning the Auction, Losing the Game: When to Trust (and When to Defy) the Crowd

2025-04-28

This article explores the interplay between individual decision-making and the wisdom of the crowds. Using the example of an auction for a box, it demonstrates that even with accurate individual judgment, winning a bid doesn't guarantee a correct decision, as you might have outbid a more risk-averse crowd. The author cites Galton's ox weight estimation experiment, highlighting the accuracy of average group judgment. However, individuals can outperform the crowd under specific conditions: possessing an informational advantage, differing preferences, or unique circumstances. The article concludes by emphasizing that decisions should consider both individual judgment and group behavior, cautioning against acting in isolation.

(www.withentropy.com)

Misc wisdom of crowds decision making

World Models: The Illusion and Reality of AGI

2025-09-03

World Models: The Illusion and Reality of AGI

The latest pursuit in AI research, especially in AGI labs, is the creation of a "world model" – a simplified representation of the environment within an AI system, like a computational snow globe. Leading figures like Yann LeCun, Demis Hassabis, and Yoshua Bengio believe world models are crucial for truly intelligent, scientific, and safe AI. However, the specifics of world models are debated: are they innate or learned? How do we detect their presence? The article traces the concept's history, revealing that current generative AI may rely not on complete world models, but on numerous disconnected heuristics. While effective for specific tasks, these lack robustness. Building complete world models remains crucial, promising solutions to AI hallucinations, improved reasoning, and greater interpretability, ultimately driving progress towards AGI.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

AI

2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year: Stunning Views From Earth and Space

2025-06-10

2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year: Stunning Views From Earth and Space

The 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year contest, hosted by Capture the Atlas, has announced its winners, selecting from over 6,000 submissions worldwide. This year's winning photos showcase the breathtaking Milky Way from diverse locations, including Easter Island's Moai statues, Taiwan's Hehuan Mountain, and Yemen's remote Socotra Island. Remarkably, there's even a stunning shot from the International Space Station, captured by astronaut Don Pettit, featuring both the Earth and the Milky Way. These photos stand out for their diverse geographies, approaches, and techniques, all united by the awe-inspiring celestial spectacle.

(www.thisiscolossal.com)

Misc

GPT-2 in Your Browser: A WebGL2 Inference Demo

2025-05-02

GPT-2 in Your Browser: A WebGL2 Inference Demo

This impressive project brings the full forward pass of the GPT-2 small model (117M parameters) to the browser using WebGL2. Leveraging WebGL2 shaders for GPU computation and js-tiktoken for BPE tokenization (no WASM needed), it runs GPT-2 directly in the browser. A Python script downloads pretrained weights, and the front-end is built with Vite for hot module replacement. This is a fantastic example of bringing advanced AI models to the browser, showcasing the cutting-edge capabilities of web technologies.

(github.com)

AI

arXivLabs: Experimental Projects with Community Collaborators

2025-05-13

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved uphold arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only partners with those who share them. Got an idea for a project that will benefit the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

AI-Driven Job Cuts: 41% of Companies Plan Workforce Reductions by 2030

2025-01-09

AI-Driven Job Cuts: 41% of Companies Plan Workforce Reductions by 2030

A World Economic Forum report reveals that 41% of companies globally intend to reduce their workforce by 2030 due to AI-driven automation. While many companies plan to reskill their existing employees, unlike previous reports, this one doesn't predict a net positive job creation from AI. Jobs like postal clerks, executive secretaries, and payroll clerks are projected to decline rapidly, while demand for AI-related skills skyrockets. Although the report highlights AI's potential to augment human skills, some tech firms have already laid off employees due to AI, signaling a significant transformation of the future labor market.

(edition.cnn.com)

Tech Job Market Layoffs

Windows 10 Remains Dominant Despite Impending Support End

2025-01-03

Windows 10 Remains Dominant Despite Impending Support End

With only 10 months until support for Windows 10 ends, its market share has surprisingly risen to 62.7%, while Windows 11 lags behind at 34.12%. Statcounter data reveals that many users, after trying Windows 11, reverted back to Windows 10. Enterprises and government institutions are also sticking with Windows 10 due to compatibility issues and stability concerns. Windows 11's hardware requirements and the prevalence of pre-installed Windows 10 devices contribute to this trend. Microsoft appears to have yet to find a solution, and the promotion of Windows 11 still faces significant challenges.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

Cold War Emergency: Two F-14s Diverted to the USS Midway

2025-01-26

Cold War Emergency: Two F-14s Diverted to the USS Midway

In 1982, two F-14 Tomcats from the USS Enterprise, facing heavy fog and dwindling fuel after a Soviet flight alert, made an emergency landing on the USS Midway—a carrier not designed to handle their size and weight. Despite the Midway's unsuitable infrastructure, both jets successfully landed and later launched. This incredible feat highlights the skill of the pilots, the bravery of a tanker crew, and the extraordinary teamwork of the Midway's personnel, becoming a legendary Cold War tale.

(theaviationgeekclub.com)

Military F-14 Tomcat USS Midway

30% Faster Bitonic Sort on CUDA: Leveraging Warp Shuffle

2025-05-06

This blog post details a CUDA implementation of the Bitonic sorting algorithm, achieving a 30% performance boost by cleverly using the `__shfl_sync` instruction. The author explains the principles of Bitonic sort, SIMD programming, and CUDA implementation specifics. The key optimization lies in replacing traditional shared memory communication with `__shfl_sync`, eliminating synchronization overhead and significantly improving efficiency. The post also hints at the potential for using this accelerated 32-element sort to speed up sorting of larger sequences, promising a follow-up on optimizing 32-way merging.

(winwang.blog)

Development Bitonic Sort Parallel Algorithm

Botan: A Modern C++ Cryptography Toolkit

2024-12-19

Botan: A Modern C++ Cryptography Toolkit

Botan is a powerful, open-source C++ cryptography library released under the permissive Simplified BSD license. It aims to be the best option for cryptography in C++, offering tools for implementing various systems like TLS, X.509 certificates, modern AEAD ciphers, PKCS#11 and TPM hardware support, password hashing, and post-quantum crypto schemes. A Python binding is included, with other language bindings available. A feature-rich command-line interface is also provided. Botan 3.6.1 is the latest release and is available through many distributions including Fedora, Debian, Arch, and Homebrew.

(github.com)

Development Cryptography

AI is Breeding a Generation of Illiterate Programmers

2025-01-24

A seasoned programmer, after a ChatGPT outage, discovered his coding skills had severely deteriorated due to over-reliance on AI. He no longer reads documentation, debugs effectively, or even examines error messages, instead directly copy-pasting AI-generated solutions. This has robbed him of the joy and ability to deeply understand code, diminishing his programming passion. He urges programmers to use AI moderately, practicing regular AI-free coding sessions to avoid becoming dependent on AI and losing the ability to solve problems independently. The article warns that while AI enhances efficiency, it can also lead to skill degradation; a balance must be maintained to stay competitive in the age of AI. Try a day without AI; the results might surprise you.

(nmn.gl)

Development developers

Fields Medalist Huh Jun-Young: From Poetry to Proving Rota's Conjecture

2025-05-07

Fields Medalist Huh Jun-Young: From Poetry to Proving Rota's Conjecture

Jun-Young Huh, initially a poet, found a deeper beauty in mathematics. Overcoming an unremarkable undergraduate record, he solved Read's conjecture, a 40-year-old problem in graph theory, during his PhD studies in the US. His groundbreaking work, culminating in a proof of Rota's conjecture and a Fields Medal, elegantly connects algebraic geometry and combinatorics, demonstrating that geometry can exist beyond physical space. His journey showcases the unexpected pathways of genius and the power of relentless curiosity.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Development Fields Medal Algebraic Geometry

GEM: The Forgotten Graphical Desktop Pioneer

2025-09-18

GEM: The Forgotten Graphical Desktop Pioneer

This article recounts the legendary story of the GEM graphical desktop environment. Inspired by the Xerox Star, the Digital Research team, led by Lee Jay Lorenzen, overcame many obstacles to create the iconic interface for the Atari ST. GEM competed with Apple's Macintosh and was forced to modify due to “copying” accusations, ultimately failing in the commercial competition and becoming a forgotten part of computing history.

(nemanjatrifunovic.substack.com)

Tech graphical user interface

Real Thinking vs. Fake Thinking: Staying Awake in the Age of AI

2025-02-03

Real Thinking vs. Fake Thinking: Staying Awake in the Age of AI

This essay explores the difference between 'real thinking' and 'fake thinking.' The author argues that 'real thinking' isn't simply thinking about concrete things, but a deeper, more insightful way of thinking that focuses on truly understanding the world, rather than remaining trapped in abstract concepts or pre-existing frameworks. Using examples like AI risk, philosophy, and competitive debate, the essay outlines several dimensions of 'real thinking' and suggests methods for cultivating this ability, such as slowing down, following curiosity, and paying attention to the motivations behind thinking. The author calls for staying awake in the age of AI, avoiding the traps of 'fake thinking,' and truly understanding and responding to the changes ahead.

(joecarlsmith.com)

AI real thinking cognition

Deep-Sea Bacterial Teamwork: Unlocking the Secrets of Efficient Organic Matter Degradation

2025-03-12

Deep-Sea Bacterial Teamwork: Unlocking the Secrets of Efficient Organic Matter Degradation

Researchers from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, have discovered that a family of bacteria called Desulfobacteraceae are globally distributed in marine environments, efficiently breaking down diverse organic matter via a modular metabolic system and playing a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. These bacteria thrive in anaerobic conditions, using sulfate for respiration, and while less efficient than aerobic bacteria, their vast numbers and collaborative efforts make them dominant in organic matter decomposition in marine sediments. Analysis of their proteome and genome revealed the molecular mechanisms behind their efficient degradation, highlighting their potentially increasing importance under future climate change scenarios.

(phys.org)

Tech carbon cycle

Insanely Difficult Color Puzzle Game

2025-09-21

This puzzle game, called 'Color Game', boasts an insane difficulty level. Players must click on numbers to change the color of cells, aiming to have at least one green cell in each row. The game cleverly uses positive and negative numbers and incorporates a warning system that highlights rows at risk. The hardest difficulty, however, is truly punishing, warning the player of entirely red rows, testing strategy and patience to the limit.

(www.cril.univ-artois.fr)

Game color game

The Obscure Interact Model One Home Computer and its Surprisingly Deep Adventure Game

2025-04-07

The Obscure Interact Model One Home Computer and its Surprisingly Deep Adventure Game

This article delves into the story of the Interact Model One, a low-cost personal computer from 1978 that aimed to compete with giants like the Commodore PET but ultimately failed in the US market. However, its successor, the Victor Lambda, found success in France, leading to the development of games such as the surprisingly complex adventure game, *Troll Hole Adventure*. This 8-bit game, despite its limitations in memory and resolution, boasts a challenging puzzle design and deep gameplay, showcasing the ingenuity of early game developers working with constrained resources. The article follows the journey of the computer's creator, Ken Lochner, from his work on Dartmouth's time-sharing system to his foray into the personal computer market, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of this forgotten piece of computing history.

(bluerenga.blog)

Game Personal Computer History 8-bit Games

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