The Almighty Squabble Over Who Gets to Name Microbes

The Almighty Squabble Over Who Gets to Name Microbes

Baker named the group of deep-sea microbes collected in 2009 Helarchaeota—after the Norse goddess of the underworld.Officially speaking, Helarchaeota falls into a category called Candidatus—a designation reserved for microbes that haven’t earned a proper scientific name yet.“We are finding new kinds of life right and left,” says Karen Lloyd, a microbial ecologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

The Amazon Rainforest May Be Nearing a Point of No Return

The Amazon Rainforest May Be Nearing a Point of No Return

For a forest, one way to track resiliency is through a satellite measurement called vegetation optical depth, or VOD, which penetrates through the canopy and detects how much woody biomass there is.

The Quest to Trap Carbon in Stone—and Beat Climate Change

The Quest to Trap Carbon in Stone—and Beat Climate Change

“Thirty years down the road, this can be one of the largest industries on the planet,” enthused Gebald (slightly broader, curly brown hair).A nearby geothermal plant provides clean power to Climeworks' carbon capture facility.

David Attenborough’s Unending Mission to Save Our Planet

David Attenborough’s Unending Mission to Save Our Planet

And right now, in the year of COP26, The Green Planet hopes to do for plants what Attenborough has done for oceans and animals … create understanding and encourage us to care.

Apple's iOS 15 Is Here—These Are All the Top New Features

Apple's iOS 15 Is Here—These Are All the Top New Features

When you open the Photos app and go to the For You tab, you'll be greeted with a new version of Memories—this feature automatically generates a mini-movie of specific trips or events and automatically chooses a relevant song from Apple Music (but only if you have a subscription to the music service).

A Mathematician's Guided Tour Through Higher Dimensions

A Mathematician's Guided Tour Through Higher Dimensions

When we sweep the segment in a perpendicular direction, we obtain a square.Likewise, we obtain a tesseract by sweeping the cube in a fourth direction.By sweeping the blue shapes through to the purple ones, we can visualize cubes of various dimensions, including a tesseract.

No, Lovecraft Country Didn't Need a Second Season

No, Lovecraft Country Didn't Need a Second Season

In the seventh episode of Lovecraft Country , a Black woman, surrounded by a sea of glowing equations, scribbles frantically as she works out the fix for a machine that will soon warp her across dimensions of space and time.

Mass Effect Is Kind of a Utopia for the Chronically Ill

Mass Effect Is Kind of a Utopia for the Chronically Ill

Sher adds that, especially now, in this time of Covid and mask-shaming, seeing immunocompromised heroes like Tali, and ones with respiratory illnesses, like Mass Effect 2’s wayward assassin Thane Krios, “helps to raise awareness and acceptance and create more empathy in others.”.

It’s Hard to Play a Character Who’s a Dick—but It’s Worth It

It’s Hard to Play a Character Who’s a Dick—but It’s Worth It

It’s clear from the start that Kratos’ wife was the nurturer, and Kratos himself was the sullen, withholding, and emotionally distant father, because when the game begins, he’s downright cruel to Atreus.

Reforestation Is Great! But We're Running Out of Seeds

Reforestation Is Great! But We're Running Out of Seeds

“Over the years, I’ve built up a network of people in the different collecting areas who helped me with seed collection,” Swift said.But while there’s a huge focus on planting trees, there’s little on where those seedlings will come from.

Game of Thrones on Broadway? This, I Don't Need

Game of Thrones on Broadway? This, I Don't Need

The Thrones play isn’t scheduled to hit the stage until 2023, but even then there will likely still be a lot of pent-up demand following the Broadway's dark year and half.

The Dark Web Is Teeming With Vaccine Listings Right Now

The Dark Web Is Teeming With Vaccine Listings Right Now

Last week, Check Point researchers based in Israel attempted to buy the Sinopharm vaccine from one vendor, said Ekram Ahmed, a spokesperson for the company.Dark web vendors are probably doing better business selling falsified vaccine cards and negative test results.

The Atlanta Shootings Made Me Stop Gaslighting Myself

The Atlanta Shootings Made Me Stop Gaslighting Myself

When a white man murdered six Asian women and two other people because he had a “bad day,” I knew I had gaslighted myself—a revolting feeling of both vindication that I was not crazy and horror that my worst suspicions had been confirmed.

How to Find a Covid-19 Vaccine Appointment in Your Area

How to Find a Covid-19 Vaccine Appointment in Your Area

It will send you phone notifications to fill out an easy survey in the days andweeks after getting your vaccine, asking about any symptoms you've experienced and notifying you when you should get your second dose.Check if your local or state health department offer a standby list for extra vaccinations.

NFTs Boom as Collectors Shell Out to ‘Own’ Digital Art

NFTs Boom as Collectors Shell Out to ‘Own’ Digital Art

Each image was associated with a unique string of digits—a cryptocurrency “non-fungible token,” or NFT—that could be traded on the Ethereum blockchain platform as a title deed granting the holder ownership of a particular kitty.

China Hijacked an NSA Hacking Tool in 2014—and Used It for Years

China Hijacked an NSA Hacking Tool in 2014—and Used It for Years

More than four years after a mysterious group of hackers known as the Shadow Brokers began wantonly leaking secret NSA hacking tools onto the internet, the question that debacle raised—whether any intelligence agency can prevent its "zero-day" stockpile from falling into the wrong hands —still haunts the security community.

Your Body, Your Self, Your Surgeon, His Instagram

Your Body, Your Self, Your Surgeon, His Instagram

On Instagram, Laura had scrolled by posts extolling the mastery of a plastic surgeon named Martin Jugenburg, whose clinic, the Toronto Cosmetic Surgery Institute, was located on two floors of the Royal York.

Ex-CISA Head Chris Krebs: ‘Impeachment Is the Right Mechanism’

Ex-CISA Head Chris Krebs: ‘Impeachment Is the Right Mechanism’

As the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Krebs oversaw the country's election preparedness , grappling not only with potential foreign hacking threats but a firehose of disinformation from President Donald Trump and his associates.

After 2020, Live Events Might Not Look the Same. Good!

After 2020, Live Events Might Not Look the Same. Good!

Back in January, the filmmaker got married on the opening day of the Sundance Film Festival , where she headed the documentary program for six years.Jackson watched as other festivals in Toronto and New York went (mostly) online and tried to reengineer what Sundance would look like in a pandemic.

Two Global Efforts Try to Trace the Origin of the Covid Virus

Two Global Efforts Try to Trace the Origin of the Covid Virus

“This is not a simple case of going to a market and picking up samples and testing,” says Peter Daszak, the president of the nonprofit research organization EcoHealth Alliance, who leads the Lancet commission task force.

The New Demon's Souls Remake Tries Too Hard to Be Realistic

The New Demon's Souls Remake Tries Too Hard to Be Realistic

In the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One era, when Shadow of the Colossus was remade, it often meant lovingly rendered wilderness, technological advances allowing game consoles to produce stunning trees, grass, and leaves.

16 Stress-Relieving Gifts to Make 2020 More Bearable

16 Stress-Relieving Gifts to Make 2020 More Bearable

Photograph: Amazon Lemome Cork Bullet Journal Notebook for $13: Bullet journaling can be a meditative experience to help make sense of all the thoughts, desires, and accomplishments that swirl in the head.

A Possible Covid Vaccine Means It's Time to Fix Cold Chains

A Possible Covid Vaccine Means It's Time to Fix Cold Chains

But turn the challenges on their head and, given that most of the technologies deployed today will still be in operation for years to come, the Covid-19 global immunization effort could offer us a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to create sustainable and resilient health cold-chain systems, including for ultra-low temperatures.

Reddit Bots Are Hunting Down Racists, One Post at a Time

Reddit Bots Are Hunting Down Racists, One Post at a Time

Improving the bot so that it could respond to comments almost instantly, keep a database of all the users it investigated and comments it replied to, and run on a server for months at a time without crashing took much more learning and effort,” says the creator.

BlackBerry Is Planning a Comeback. For Some, It Never Left

BlackBerry Is Planning a Comeback. For Some, It Never Left

Matlock, whose favorite BB device is the Classic and who most recently used a KEY2 LE (2018) , also alludes to the inconveniences and basic user issues BlackBerry fans have had to put up with over the past few years: “We need Blackberry to get on the same page and give us a phone that works, that we don’t have to compromise on, like we have in the past.

You Hate The Legend of Korra for All the Wrong Reasons

You Hate The Legend of Korra for All the Wrong Reasons

The first thing any fan of The Legend of Korra will tell you is this: To enjoy it, you must not compare it to its predecessor, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

An Alexa Bug Could Have Exposed Your Voice History to Hackers

An Alexa Bug Could Have Exposed Your Voice History to Hackers

Check Point also suggests that a hacker might be able to access banking data history through the attack, but Amazon disputes this, saying that information is redacted in Alexa's responses.

Over a Billion Android Devices Are at Risk of Data Theft

Over a Billion Android Devices Are at Risk of Data Theft

“While DSP chips provide a relatively economical solution that allows mobile phones to provide end users with more functionality and enable innovative features—they do come with a cost,” researchers from security firm Check Point wrote in a brief report of the vulnerabilities they discovered.

What Does It Mean to Say a New Drug ‘Works’?

What Does It Mean to Say a New Drug ‘Works’?

It’s right there in the name.“But when we were thinking of end points, we thought a mortality study would need 3,000 or 4,000 people,” says Beigel, associate director for clinical research in NIAID’s Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Microsoft Warns of a 17-Year-Old ‘Wormable’ Bug

Microsoft Warns of a 17-Year-Old ‘Wormable’ Bug

On top of all of that, says Check Point's head of vulnerability research Omri Herscovici, the Windows DNS bug can in some cases be exploited with no action on the part of the target user, creating a seamless and powerful attack.