🤖 Tech & Computer Science

Elon Musk’s AI photo tool is generating realistic, fake images of Trump, Harris and Biden

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok, which allows users to create AI-generated images from text prompts, was quickly used to flood X (formerly Twitter) with fake images of political figures, including Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and Musk himself. Some images depicted these public figures in disturbing, false scenarios, such as participating in the 9/11 attacks.

Loss of plasticity in deep continual learning

Standard deep-learning methods lose plasticity in continual learning, leading to reduced performance. Sustained learning requires adding random diversity, like in a continual backpropagation algorithm, to maintain adaptability. Gradient descent alone is insufficient.

⚛️ Physics and Chemistry

Vacuum-sealed tubes could form the backbone of a long-distance quantum network

A proposed vacuum-sealed tube network, inspired by the LIGO detector, could enable a future quantum Internet with communication rates of up to 10¹³ qubits per second, far surpassing current quantum channels. While promising, implementing the design will be challenging.

Freeze-frame: Researchers develop world's fastest microscope that can see electrons in motion

Researchers at the University of Arizona have developed the world's fastest electron microscope, capable of capturing freeze-frame images of moving electrons. This breakthrough could lead to significant advancements in physics, chemistry, bioengineering, and materials science.

Scratch-resistant metal oxide films made with simple printing technique

A new method allows printing metal oxide inks at ambient temperatures, simplifying the production of ultrathin metal oxide films used in gas sensors and electronic devices.

🧬 Biology & Medicine

Large Share of US Cancer Cases and Deaths May Be Preventable

A recent analysis by the American Cancer Society found that about 4 in 10 cancer cases and nearly half of cancer-related deaths in U.S. adults are linked to modifiable risk factors such as smoking, excess body weight, alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity. The study, using 2019 federal data, estimated the impact of these factors on 30 cancer types among adults aged 30 and older.

Leukemia cells depend on P-bodies for growth and survival

An international research team discovered that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells sustain their growth by isolating mRNAs that encode growth-suppressing proteins within structures called P-bodies, preventing their synthesis. This finding, published in Nature Cell Biology, provides new insights into AML survival mechanisms and potential anti-cancer therapies.

🔭 Space & Astronomy

This startup wants to mine water on the moon

Starpath, a startup, aims to enable human life on Mars by building robots to autonomously mine liquid oxygen from the moon. This oxygen could be used as fuel, allowing for extended space travel. Despite the boldness of this plan—no entity has harvested lunar water ice yet—Starpath raised $12 million in seed funding and an $800,000 NASA grant. Founder Saurav Shroff believes that producing liquid oxygen on the moon could make a million-person city on Mars possible.

SpaceX shows off Dragon capsules for Polaris Dawn, Crew-9 astronaut missions (photos)

SpaceX revealed the Crew Dragon capsules for the upcoming Polaris Dawn and Crew-9 astronaut missions, scheduled to launch on August 26 and September 24, respectively. The company shared photos of the capsules side by side in a Florida processing facility in a post on August 21.

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