New deployable structures could help astronauts maintain muscle mass in space
From muscle atrophy to bone loss, astronauts face a number of health risks while in space. ⌘ Read more
Non-harmonic two-color femtosecond lasers achieve 1,000-fold enhancement of white-light output in water
Scientists at Japan’s Institute for Molecular Science have achieved a 1,000-fold enhancement in white-light generation inside water by using non-harmonic two-color femtosecond laser excitation. This previously unexplored approach in liquids unlocks new nonlinear optical pathways, enabling a dramatic boost in supercontinuum generation. The breakthrough lays a foundation for next-generation b … ⌘ Read more
New study shows AI enhances teacher development
Research from the Manchester Institute of Education offers vital early insights into how AI tools can be responsibly and effectively embedded into teacher training. The preliminary findings from year 1 of the three-year longitudinal pioneering research project explore the integration of generative AI in primary teacher education, centered on the use of TeachMateAI (TMAI) within the University of Manchester’s Primary PGCE program. ⌘ Read more
Cancerous tumors less common in rapidly-evolving animals, study finds
Species that evolved rapidly in body size—such as the greater kudu and bighorn sheep—have fewer cancerous tumors, but the same is not true for non-cancerous tumors, according to new research. ⌘ Read more
This new robot has a clever spin on lunar mining
Work continues on designs for robots that can help assist the first human explorers on the moon in over half a century. One of the most important aspects of that future trip will be utilizing the resources available on the moon’s surface, known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). This would give the explorers access to materials like water, structural metals, and propellant, but only if they can recover it from the rock and regolith that make up the moon’s surfa … ⌘ Read more
UK Secondary Schools Pivoting From Narrowly Focused CS Curriculum To AI Literacy
Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: The UK Department for Education is “replacing its narrowly focused computer science GCSE with a broader, future-facing computing GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] and exploring a new qualification in data science and AI for 16-18-year-olds.” The move aims to … ⌘ Read more
China’s CO2 Emissions Have Been Flat Or Falling For Past 18 Months, Analysis Finds
China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months, “adding evidence to the hope that the world’s biggest polluter has managed to hit its target of peak CO2 emissions well ahead of schedule,” reports the Guardian. From the report: Rapid increases in the deployment of solar and wind power generation – … ⌘ Read more
Friedrich Merz feiert Geburtstag: Machen Sie einen Neustart!
Der Bundeskanzler wird am 11. November 70 Jahre. Unser Kolumnist gratuliert, aber hätte da auch ein paar Wünsche. mehr… ⌘ Read more
How continents peel from below to trigger oceanic volcanoes
Earth scientists have discovered how continents are slowly peeled from beneath, fueling volcanic activity in an unexpected place: the oceans. ⌘ Read more
Bacterial Rtc repair system provides new target in fight against resistant infections
The discovery of a new mechanism of resistance to common antibiotics could pave the way for improved treatments for harmful bacterial infections, a study suggests. Targeting this defense mechanism could aid efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the world’s most urgent health challenges, researchers say. ⌘ Read more
Saudi Arabia’s Dystopian Futuristic City Project Is Crashing and Burning
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: It appears that Neom – Saudi Arabia’s hugely expensive, architecturally bizarre urban development project – is floundering and close to collapse. A new report from the Financial Times cites high-level sources within the project to paint a picture of dysfunction and failure at the h … ⌘ Read more
A Jailed Hacking Kingpin Reveals All About Cybercrime Gang
Slashdot reader alternative_right shares an exclusive BBC interview with Vyacheslav “Tank” Penchukov, once a top-tier cyber-crime boss behind Jabber Zeus, IcedID, and major ransomware campaigns. His story traces the evolution of modern cybercrime from early bank-theft malware to today’s lucrative ransomware ecosystem, marked by shifting alliances, Russian sec … ⌘ Read more
As it happened: Brisbane on Tuesday, November 11
For today’s news updates as they happen in Brisbane and beyond, follow us here. ⌘ Read more
EU Eyes Banning Huawei, ZTE Corp From Mobile Networks of Member Countries
The European Commission is considering turning its non-binding 2020 guidance on “high-risk vendors” into a legal requirement that would effectively force EU member states to phase out Huawei and ZTE from mobile and fixed-line networks. Bloomberg reports: Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen wants to convert the European Co … ⌘ Read more
The Linux Kernel Looks To ‘Bite the Bullet’ In Enabling Microsoft C Extensions
Linux kernel developers are moving toward enabling Microsoft C Extensions (-fms-extensions) by default in Linux 6.19, with Linus Torvalds signaling no objection. While some dislike relying on Microsoft-style behavior, the patches in kbuild-next suggest the project is ready to “bite the bullet” and adopt the extensi … ⌘ Read more
The Dismissal: How ‘the most tumultuous day in Australian political history’ unfolded
Power, principle, politics; all three collided to expose the fragility of our democracy. Watch what led to November 11, 1975, and how it changed the way we operated. ⌘ Read more
Critics Call Proposed Changes To Landmark EU Privacy Law ‘Death By a Thousand Cuts’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Privacy activists say proposed changes to Europe’s landmark privacy law, including making it easier for Big Tech to harvest Europeans’ personal data for AI training, would flout EU case law and gut the legislation. The changes proposed by the European Commission … ⌘ Read more
PDF Will Support JPEG XL Format As ‘Preferred Solution’
The PDF Association is adding JPEG XL (JXL) support to the PDF specification, giving the advanced image format a new path to relevance despite Google’s decision to declare it obsolete and remove it from Chromium. The Register reports: Peter Wyatt, CTO of the PDF Association, said: “We need to adopt a new image [format] that can support HDR [High Dynamic Range] c … ⌘ Read more
Meta Is Killing Off the External Facebook Like Button
Meta is retiring Facebook’s external Like and Share buttons for third-party websites on February 10, 2026, officially closing the book on a once-dominant traffic driver as usage declines and Facebook’s role within Meta continues to shrink.Engadget reports: The blog post from Meta explains that site admins shouldn’t have to take any additional steps as a result of the … ⌘ Read more
New Project Brings Strong Linux Compatibility To More Classic Windows Games
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For years now, Valve has been slowly improving the capabilities of the Proton compatibility layer that lets thousands of Windows games work seamlessly on the Linux-based SteamOS. But Valve’s Windows-to-Linux compatibility layer generally only extends back to games writt … ⌘ Read more
Wikipedia Urges AI Companies To Use Its Paid API, and Stop Scraping
Wikipedia on Monday laid out a simple plan to ensure its website continues to be supported in the AI era, despite its declining traffic. From a report: In a blog post, the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that runs the popular online encyclopedia, called on AI developers to use its content “responsibly” by ensuring its contributions are … ⌘ Read more
The PHP Foundation Is Seeking a New Executive Director
New submitter benramsey writes: The PHP Foundation has launched a search for its next executive director.
The Executive Director serves as the operational leader of the PHP Foundation, defining its strategic vision and translating it into reality while managing day-to-day operations and serving as the primary bridge between the Board, staff, community, and sp … ⌘ Read more
A universal law explains the chaotic motion of chromosomes
Researchers from Skoltech, the University of Potsdam, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a fundamental physical law that governs the seemingly chaotic motion of chromosomes inside a living cell. This discovery helps solve a long-standing biological mystery of how two-meter-long DNA molecules, packed into dense chromosomes, remain mobile enough for vital processes such as turning genes on and off. ⌘ Read more
World’s First Green Fuel Levy To Add Almost $32 To Air Fares
Air passengers departing Singapore will pay a green fuel levy of as much as S$41.60 ($31.95) from next year as the city-state locks in a key step in its effort to cut the aviation industry’s emissions. From a report: Travelers flying in economy and premium economy, as well as those on short-haul routes, will be charged far less. Those customers will pay an … ⌘ Read more
Apple Delays Release of Next iPhone Air Amid Weak Sales
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple is delaying the release of next year’s version of the iPhone Air, its thinnest smartphone, after the first model sold below expectations, according to three people involved in the project.
Although the length of the delay remains uncertain, the product won’t be released in fall 2026 as previously planned, they said. App … ⌘ Read more
How HR Took Over the World
Human-resources departments in American companies employed 1.3 million professionals in 2024, a 64% increase over ten years. Overall employment grew 14% in the same period. Professional-services and technology firms saw the number of HR workers double since 2014. Similar patterns have emerged in Australia, Britain and Germany.
Chief human-resources officers also gained ground financially. Their total compensation, which stoo … ⌘ Read more
Africa Finally Has Its Own Drug-Regulation Agency
After more than a decade of planning, the launch of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) is being celebrated in Mombasa, Kenya, this week at the Seventh Biennial Scientific Conference on Medical Products Regulation in Africa. From a report: The agency’s establishment marks a pivotal moment in Africa’s public health, at a time when the need for biomedical research conducted i … ⌘ Read more
The Algorithm Failed Music
An anonymous reader shares a report: Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world. While its algorithmic recommendations aren’t necessarily the reason, its reach has meant that hundreds of millions of people are being fed a steady diet of music curated by a machine. Spotify’s goal is to keep you listening no matter what. In her book Mood Machine, journalist Liz Pelly recounts a story told to … ⌘ Read more
Data Centers in Nvidia’s Hometown Stand Empty Awaiting Power
Two of the world’s biggest data center developers have projects in Nvidia’s hometown that may sit empty for years because the local utility isn’t ready to supply electricity. From a report: In Santa Clara, California, where the world’s biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust applied in 2019 to build a data cent … ⌘ Read more
Tim Berners-Lee Says AI Will Not Destroy the Web
Tim Berners-Lee thinks AI will help the web, not destroy it. The inventor of the World Wide Web has spent years warning about platform concentration and social media’s corrosive effects, but he views AI differently. AI has accomplished what his Semantic Web project could not. The technology extracts structured data from websites regardless of how the information was formatted. … ⌘ Read more
Subsea Cable Investment Set To Double As Tech Giants Accelerate AI Buildout
Investment in subsea cable projects is expected to reach around $13 billion between 2025 and 2027, almost twice the amount invested between 2022 and 2024, according to telecommunications data provider TeleGeography. Tech giants Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft now represent about 50% of the overall market, up from a neglig … ⌘ Read more
Microsoft Bets on Influencers To Close the Gap With ChatGPT
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft, eager to boost downloads of its Copilot chatbot, has recruited some of the most popular influencers in America to push a message to young consumers that might be summed up as: Our AI assistant is as cool as ChatGPT. Microsoft could use the help. The company recently said its family of Copilot assistants attracts 1 … ⌘ Read more
Dataset reveals the factors affecting retail and charitable food supplies after Hurricane Harvey
Texas and Louisiana withstood the worst of Hurricane Harvey, which unleashed cataclysmic rain in August of 2017 that killed over 100 people from flooding. After the flood, grocery stores and pantries struggled not only to remain open but to keep fresh food on the shelves. ⌘ Read more
Visa and Mastercard Near Deal With Merchants That Would Change Rewards Landscape
Visa and Mastercard are nearing a settlement with merchants that aims to end a 20-year-old legal dispute by lowering fees stores pay and giving them more power to reject certain credit cards, WSJ reports, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: Under terms being discussed, Visa and Mastercard would lowe … ⌘ Read more
Superquiz, Tuesday, November 11
Trivia buffs, test your knowledge with today’s interactive superquiz. ⌘ Read more
What’s the Best Ways for Humans to Explore Space?
Should we leave space exploration to robots — or prioritize human spaceflight, making us a multiplanetary species?
Harvard professor Robin Wordsworth, who’s researched the evolution and habitability of terrestrial-type planets, shares his thoughts:
In space, as on Earth, industrial structures degrade with time, and a truly sustainable life support system must have the capa … ⌘ Read more
DOJ tells Republicans that Epstein files even worse for Trump than they thought: report
Carl Gibson, Staff Writer - AlterNet
_Stephan: We do not have a functioning Congress in large measure because the Republican members are trying to protect “king” Trump from what the release of the complete Epstein files will reveal about him. That’s why Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz), has yet to be sworn into office. Over 800,000 citizens in A … ⌘ Read more
How the Trump Administration Is Giving Even More Tax Breaks to the Wealthy
Jesse Drucker, Investigative Tax Reporter - The New York Times
Stephan: The federal minimum wage for 2025 remains at $7.25 per hour. Elon Musk just got a one trillion dollar pay deal, a number so large most Americans could not even write it – $1,000,000,000,000, (one followed by 12 zeros).
_Why? Because the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) minimum has not changed since 20 … ⌘ Read more
‘Not gonna happen!’ Trump official says Thanksgiving travel about to ‘slow to a trickle’
Alexander Willis, Staff Writer - Raw Story
_Stephan: I have been thinking about what is coming in Thanksgiving, unless major good news changes occur in the next few days. Families will not be able to gather together because air travel, as described in this article, declines “to a trickle.” And what where will millions of Americans get the food for a c … ⌘ Read more
Trump’s dollar delusion: how trade war risks ending the US’s ‘exorbitant privilege’
Eduardo Porter, Contributing Economic Analyst - The Guardian (U.K.)
_Stephan: For as long as you have been alive the U.S. dollar has been the world’s benchmark currency. Now, some in “king” Trump’s administration seem to want that to end. This report in The Guardian, a British publication, describes what is going on, and is almost entirely being missed or not d … ⌘ Read more
NVIDIA Connects AI GPUs to Early Quantum Processors
“Quantum computing is still years away, but Nvidia just built the bridge that will bring it closer…” argues investment site The Motley Fool, “by linking today’s fastest AI GPUs with early quantum processors…”
NVIDIA’s new hybrid system strengthens communication at microsecond speeds — orders of magnitude faster than before — “allowing AI to stabilize and train qu … ⌘ Read more
Precision genetic engineering points to a future of sustainable agriculture
As Earth’s climate warms and changes, sustainable agricultural practices are critical for feeding a rapidly growing population. Can we genetically engineer crops to adapt to drought and other effects of a warming climate? ⌘ Read more
Totally-eclipsing binary UZ Draconis inspected with TESS
Astronomers from Keele University in the UK have utilized NASA’s planet-hunting TESS telescope to investigate a totally-eclipsing binary known as UZ Draconis. Results of the new observations, published October 31 on the arXiv pre-print server, put more constraints on the properties of this system. ⌘ Read more
Rust Foundation Announces ‘Maintainers Fund’ to Ensure Continuity and Support Long-Term Roles
The Rust Foundation has a responsibility to “shed light on the impact of supporting the often unseen work” that keeps the Rust Project running. So this week they announced a new initiative “to provide consistent, transparent, and long term support for the developers who make the Rust p … ⌘ Read more
Typhoon exposes centuries-old shipwreck off Vietnam port
Severe coastal erosion caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi exposed a centuries-old shipwreck in Vietnam, providing a narrow window to salvage what experts say could be a historically significant find. ⌘ Read more
Bezos’s Blue Origin postpones rocket launch over weather
Blue Origin, the space company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced Sunday to postpone the anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket due to unfavorable weather conditions. ⌘ Read more