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Submission + - Arch Linux isnâ(TM)t immune: Malware found hiding in AUR packages (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Arch Linux just reminded us all of an uncomfortable truth: Linux isnâ(TM)t bulletproof when it comes to malware.

Earlier this week, three malicious AUR packages slipped into the ecosystem. The names might look familiar: firefox-patch-bin, librewolf-fix-bin, and zen-browser-patched-bin. Each one was quietly laced with a script that fetched a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) from a GitHub repository.

The packages were uploaded by the same user and lingered on the AUR for roughly two days. Arch acted quickly once the issue came to light. As of today, the bad packages have been fully removed from the AUR. But if you installed any of them, the damage might already be done.

Submission + - Intel kills Clear Linux OS as support ends without warning (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Intel has quietly pulled the plug on Clear Linux OS, officially ending support for the once-promising Linux distribution that it had backed for nearly a decade. Effective immediately, the company says it will no longer provide any updates, security patches, or maintenance for the operating system. In a final blow, the Clear Linux OS GitHub repository is now archived in read-only mode.

The move was announced with little fanfare, and for users still relying on Clear Linux OS, thereâ(TM)s no sugarcoating it⦠you need to move on. Intel is urging everyone to migrate to an actively maintained Linux distribution as soon as possible to avoid running unpatched software.

Submission + - Scientists Make 'Magic State' Breakthrough After 20 Years (livescience.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a world first, scientists have demonstrated an enigmatic phenomenon in quantum computing that could pave the way for fault-tolerant machines that are far more powerful than any supercomputer. The process, called "magic state distillation," was first proposed 20 years ago, but its use in logical qubits has eluded scientists ever since. It has long been considered crucial for producing the high-quality resources, known as "magic states," needed to fulfill the full potential of quantum computers. [...] Now, however, scientists with QuEra say they have demonstrated magic state distillation in practice for the first time on logical qubits. They outlined their findings in a new study published July 14 in the journal Nature.

In the study, using the Gemini neutral-atom quantum computer, the scientists distilled five imperfect magic states into a single, cleaner magic state. They performed this separately on a Distance-3 and a Distance-5 logical qubit, demonstrating that it scales with the quality of the logical qubit. "A greater distance means better logical qubits. A Distance-2, for instance, means that you can detect an error but not correct it. Distance-3 means that you can detect and correct a single error. Distance-5 would mean that you can detect and correct up to two errors, and so on, and so on," Boger explained. "So the greater the distance, the higher fidelity of the qubit is — and we liken it to distilling crude oil into a jet fuel."

As a result of the distillation process, the fidelity of the final magic state exceeded that of any input. This proved that fault-tolerant magic state distillation worked in practice, the scientists said. This means that a quantum computer that uses both logical qubits and high-quality magic states to run non-Clifford gates is now possible. "We're seeing sort of a shift from a few years ago," Boger said. "The challenge was: can quantum computers be built at all? Then it was: can errors be detected and corrected? Us and Google and others have shown that, yes, that can be done. Now it's about: can we make these computers truly useful? And to make one computer truly useful, other than making them larger, you want them to be able to run programs that cannot be simulated on classical computers."

Submission + - DuckDuckGo Now Lets You Hide AI-Generated Images In Search Results (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo is rolling out a new setting that lets users filter out AI images in search results. The company says it’s launching the feature in response to feedback from users who said AI images can get in the way of finding what they’re looking for.

Users can access the new setting by conducting a search on DuckDuckGo and heading to the Images tab. From there, they will see a new dropdown menu titled “AI images.” Users can then choose whether or not they want to see AI content by selecting “show” or “hide.” Users can also turn on the filter in their search settings by tapping the “Hide AI-Generated Images” option.

Submission + - Exhausted Man Defeats AI Model In World Coding Championship (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Polish programmer running on fumes recently accomplished what may soon become impossible: beating an advanced AI model from OpenAI in a head-to-head coding competition. The 10-hour marathon left him "completely exhausted." On Wednesday, programmer Przemysaw Dbiak (known as "Psyho"), a former OpenAI employee, narrowly defeated the custom AI model in the AtCoder World Tour Finals 2025 Heuristic contest in Tokyo. AtCoder, a Japanese platform that hosts competitive programming contests and maintains global rankings, held what may be the first contest where an AI model competed directly against top human programmers in a major onsite world championship. During the event, the maker of ChatGPT participated as a sponsor and entered an AI model in a special exhibition match titled "Humans vs AI." Despite the tireless nature of silicon, the company walked away with second place.

The competition required contestants to solve a single complex optimization problem over 600 minutes. The contest echoes the American folk tale of John Henry, the steel-driving man who raced against a steam-powered drilling machine in the 1870s. Like Henry's legendary battle against industrial automation, Dbiak's victory represents a human expert pushing themselves to their physical limits to prove that human skill still matters in an age of advancing AI. Both stories feature exhausting endurance contests—Henry drove steel spikes for hours until his heart gave out, while Dbiak coded for 10 hours on minimal sleep. The parallel extends to the bittersweet nature of both victories: Henry won his race but died from the effort, symbolizing the inevitable march of automation, while Dbiak's acknowledgment that humanity prevailed "for now" suggests he recognizes this may be a temporary triumph against increasingly capable machines.

While Dbiak won 500,000 yen and survived his ordeal better than the legendary steel driver, the AtCoder World Tour Finals pushes humans and AI models to their limits through complex optimization challenges that have no perfect solution—only incrementally better ones. ss against AI and more alongside it—or not at all.

Submission + - Why do we need sleep? Researchers find the answer may lie in mitochondria (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Sleep may not just be rest for the mind—it may be essential maintenance for the body's power supply. A new study by University of Oxford researchers, published in Nature, reveals that the pressure to sleep arises from a build-up of electrical stress in the tiny energy generators inside brain cells.

Submission + - CRISPR uncovers gene that supercharges vitamin D—and stops tumors in their (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: A gene called SDR42E1 has been identified as a key player in how our bodies absorb and process vitamin D. Researchers found that disabling this gene in colorectal cancer cells not only crippled their survival but also disrupted thousands of other genes tied to cancer and metabolism. This opens the door to highly targeted cancer therapies—by either cutting off vitamin D supply to tumors or enhancing the gene’s activity to boost health.

Submission + - First Electronic–Photonic Quantum Chip Created in Commercial Foundry (bu.edu)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: Scientists from Boston University, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern University have reported the world’s first electronic–photonic–quantum system on a chip, according to a study published in Nature Electronics.

The system combines quantum light sources and stabilizing electronics using a standard 45-nanometer semiconductor manufacturing process to produce reliable streams of correlated photon pairs (particles of light)—a key resource for emerging quantum technologies. The advance paves the way for mass-producible “quantum light factory” chips and large-scale quantum systems built from many such chips working together.

Generating quantum states of light on chip requires precisely engineered photonic devices—specifically, microring resonators (the same devices recently identified by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as being integral to Nvidia’s future scaling of its AI compute hardware via optical interconnection). To generate streams of quantum light, in the form of correlated pairs of photons, the resonators must be tuned in sync with incoming laser light that powers each quantum light factory on the chip (and is used as fuel for the generation process). But those devices are extremely sensitive to temperature and fabrication variations which can push them out of sync and disrupt the steady generation of quantum light.

To address this challenge, the team built an integrated system that actively stabilizes quantum light sources on chip—specifically, the silicon microring resonators that generate the streams of correlated photons. Each chip contains twelve such sources operable in parallel, and each resonator must stay in sync with its incoming laser light even in the presence of temperature drift and interference from nearby devices—including the other eleven photon-pair sources on the chip.

Submission + - Fujitsu outage crashes Post Office Horizon system

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Japanese IT giant’s time serving the Post Office is due to end next year, but problems persist

Post Office branches were unable to do business for hours today following a major outage at a Fujitsu datacentre.

The nationwide outage meant subpostmasters were unable to use the Horizon computer system on which they run their businesses.

Subpostmasters received a message from the Post Office which read: “There is a major outage within the Fujitsu datacentre causing branches to lose connectivity and the ability to trade.”

Submission + - Google Hides Secret Message In Name List of 3,295 AI Researchers (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: How many Google AI researchers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A recent research paper detailing the technical core behind Google's Gemini AI assistant may suggest an answer, listing an eye-popping 3,295 authors. It's a number that recently caught the attention of machine learning researcher David Ha (known as "hardmaru" online), who revealed on X that the first 43 names also contain a hidden message. "There’s a secret code if you observe the authors’ first initials in the order of authorship," Ha wrote, relaying the Easter egg: "GEMINI MODELS CAN THINK AND GET BACK TO YOU IN A FLASH."

The paper, titled "Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilities," describes Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 2.5 Flash AI models, which were released in March. These large language models, which power Google's chatbot AI assistant, feature simulated reasoning capabilities that produce a string of "thinking out loud" text before generating responses in an attempt to help them solve more difficult problems. That explains "think" and "flash" in the hidden text. But clever Easter egg aside, the sheer scale of authorship tells its own story about modern AI development. Just seeing the massive list made us wonder: Is 3,295 authors unprecedented? Why so many?

Submission + - Shedding new light on invisible forces: Hidden magnetic clues in everyday metals (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: A team of scientists has developed a powerful new way to detect subtle magnetic signals in common metals like copper, gold, and aluminum—using nothing more than light and a clever technique. Their research, recently published in Nature Communications, could pave the way for advances in everything from smartphones to quantum computing.

Submission + - Ireland tries kites instead of windmills (www.rte.ie)

Submitted by piojo
piojo writes: Tired of windmills? Kitepower has deployed 60 square meter kites to harvest wind energy on the western coast of Ireland. The giant kites fly in a figure 8 pattern, unspooling a tether to rotate a drum with 2.4-4 tons of force. When the tether has played out, the configuration of the kite is shifted to catch less wind and the tether is reeled back in.

This mobile system fits in a 20 foot container and is targeted at remote locations.

Submission + - Stellantis Abandons Hydrogen Fuel Cell Development (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For some years now, detractors of battery electric vehicles have held up hydrogen as a clean fuel panacea. That sometimes refers to hydrogen combustion engines, but more often, it's hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, or FCEVs. Both promise motoring with only water emitted from the vehicles' exhausts. It's just that hydrogen actually kinda sucks as a fuel, and automaker Stellantis announced today that it is ending the development of its light-, medium- and heavy-duty FCEVs, which were meant to go into production later this year.

Hydrogen's main selling point is that it's faster to fill a tank with the stuff than it is to recharge a lithium-ion battery. So it's a seductive alternative that suggests a driver can keep all the convenience of their gasoline engine with none of the climate change-causing side effects. But in reality, that's pretty far from true. [...] Between the high development costs and the fact that FCEVs only sell with strong incentives, the decision was made to cancel the production of hydrogen vans in France and Poland. Stellantis says there will be no job losses at its factories and that R&D staff will be put to work on other projects.

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