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Dr Shubhi Sharma, Research Scientist at the CHEM Trust, believes the UK needs to address the widespread PFAS contamination crisis, highlighting the cost of inaction and the importance of adopting new regulatory measures. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of synthetic chemicals that are often referred to as “permanent chemicals” because they can persist in the environment for generations. Certain PFAS have been linked to human health problems such as hormonal disorders, immune and reproductive system damage, and even some types of cancer. PFAS contamination is widespread in the UK. The Environment Agency estimates there are more than…
A new study has identified a way to predict resistance to a type of chemotherapy commonly used to treat advanced prostate cancer. Using samples from more than 200 men with advanced prostate cancer, researchers found a significant association between chromosomal instability in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) (cells released into the bloodstream from the primary tumor) and worse treatment outcomes with cabazitaxel. In this study, researchers showed that assessment of chromosomal instability in CTCs is feasible and can predict clinical outcomes such as survival and tumor response. This simple marker can help doctors identify patients with advanced prostate cancer who are…
simple factsWhere is it? Chile, Atacama DesertWhat is in the photo? One of the driest places on earth, covered in parts by rare snowflakesWhich satellite took the photo?Landsat 9When was it taken? July 10, 2025This striking satellite photo captured a rare sight as “one of the driest places on Earth” was hit by a rare snowstorm earlier this year. The anomaly temporarily turned the barren, rocky landscape white and temporarily shut down one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes.The Atacama Desert is an approximately 40,500 square mile (105,000 square kilometer) non-polar desert located in a 1,000 mile (1,600 km)…
December 23, 2025Ravi LakshmananVulnerability/Workflow Automation A critical security vulnerability has been disclosed in the n8n workflow automation platform that, if successfully exploited, could lead to arbitrary code execution under certain circumstances. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2025-68613 and has a CVSS score of 9.9 out of a maximum of 10.0. According to npm statistics, this package is downloaded approximately 57,000 times each week. “Under certain conditions, expressions provided by an authenticated user during workflow configuration may be evaluated in an execution context that is not sufficiently isolated from the underlying runtime,” the npm package maintainer said. “An authenticated attacker could…
Milestone: ‘Town Child’ skull revealedDate: December 23, 1924Location: South Africa, TownPeople: Raymond Dart’s Anthropology TeamIn late 1924, anthropologists began chipping away at the rock around ancient primate skulls, rewriting the story of human evolution.This tiny skull, about the size of a coffee mug, clearly belonged to a creature very different from us, and even different from other apes and monkeys.However, its discoverer, Raymond Dart, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, had never actually excavated the skull. you may like Rather, it was passed on to Dart because his student brought another skull…
December 23, 2025Ravi LakshmananCybersecurity/Surveillance The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday announced a ban on all foreign-made drones and critical components, citing national security concerns. To this end, the agency has added foreign-manufactured unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and critical components of UAS, as well as all communications and video surveillance equipment and services, to the Target List under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2025 (NDAA). The move will keep Chinese-made drones from companies like DJI and Autel Robotics out of the U.S. market. The FCC said that while drones offer the potential to enhance public safety and technological innovation,…
One thing remains constant when it comes to cybersecurity. That means the threat landscape continues to evolve rapidly. To strengthen organizational resiliency, defenders need proactive visibility and tools across endpoints, developer environments, and cryptographic stacks to stay several steps ahead of attackers. In this webinar, experts from the Zscaler Internet Access Product team discuss the following key security challenges and how enterprises can best address them. “Living off the Land” attacks: Today’s attackers use a combination of malware and legitimate system tools such as PowerShell, WMI, and RDP. File-based detection alone misses threats embedded in trusted processes. Learn how and…
OpenAI is working to harden its Atlas AI browser against cyberattacks and acknowledges that prompt injection is a type of attack that manipulates an AI agent to follow malicious instructions hidden in web pages or emails. This is a risk that isn’t going away anytime soon, raising questions about how securely AI agents can operate on the open web. “As with fraud and social engineering on the web, instant attacks are unlikely to be fully ‘solved’,” OpenAI said in a blog post on Monday, detailing how the company is hardening Atlas’ defenses to counter the constant attacks. The company acknowledged…
Two volunteer archaeologists discovered what they believe to be two of the oldest Celtic coins ever discovered in the country while exploring a bog in Switzerland. These may have been offerings to ancient gods.The two gold coins were minted around 2,300 years ago, around the mid-3rd century B.C. “This makes them part of a very small group of just over 20 known oldest Celtic coins found in Switzerland,” Swiss archaeologists said in a translated version of a statement released on December 18.One coin has a stator weighing 0.28 ounces (7.8 grams) and the other has a quarter stator weighing 0.06…
The final frontier is an endlessly beautiful expanse full of unimaginable wonders, the perfect sandbox for photographers, observatories, and space telescopes to capture stunning images that we can hardly imagine. 2025 was no exception.This year, we feature a variety of surprising space images, from eye-catching portraits of alien comets and planetary parades to Vera C. Rubin’s first photographs and otherworldly animal lookalikes. Here are 10 of our absolute favorites.Alien visitor transforms into a “cosmic rainbow” New time-lapse photos turn 3I/ATLAS into a giant “cosmic rainbow”. (Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaiian)Image processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF…