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Chimpanzees use a variant of the “scientific method,” allowing them to abandon their previous beliefs and change their minds when compelling new evidence emerges, according to a new study.When chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were given the task of finding a tasty treat hidden in one of two boxes, they evaluated several pieces of evidence. And when new and contradictory evidence emerged, they switched their choices, the study found.This finding is evidence that chimpanzees use metacognition, or thinking about thinking, to weigh evidence and plan accordingly. you may like “When they revise their beliefs, they are actually articulating the evidence they have…
This week’s hottest science news revolves around the Sun, with some surprising new research published about our star and a fascinating interstellar comet currently passing close to the Sun.First, scientists have discovered a clue as to why the sun is much hotter on its outer surface than inside its core. New research reveals that magnetic waves – theorized since the 1940s but only now detected – carry energy from the sun’s inner furnace to its outer corona.The Sun’s magnetic field is so powerful that it occasionally twists, twists, and breaks, releasing huge flares with torrents of charged particles that can…
This week, the four co-founders of Bending Spoons joined the ranks of billionaires. CEO Luca Ferrari’s stake in the Milan-based technology conglomerate is now reportedly worth $1.4 billion, while co-founders Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella and Francesco Patarnello each hold shares worth $1.3 billion, according to Forbes estimates based on shareholder data published by the Italian Business Register. The valuation follows Bending Spoons’ latest funding round, which saw $270 million from investors including T. Rowe Price and previous backers Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners and Fidelity, plus $440 million in secondary stake sales from existing shareholders. It is unclear…
A new study using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals that comet 3I/ATLAS is extremely irradiated by billions of years of cosmic ray bombardment.The comet absorbed so much galactic cosmic rays during its interstellar journey through the Milky Way that it developed a deep irradiated crust that no longer resembles the material of its home star system, a new study suggests.Using JWST observations and computer simulations, researchers determined that the comet’s “extreme” levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) enrichment ever recorded are due to cosmic radiation absorbed over its estimated 7 billion-year lifetime, according to the study posted…
Social network Bluesky, which announced a new milestone of 40 million users on Friday, will soon begin testing “dislikes” as a way to improve personalization in places like the main Discover feed. This news was shared along with a number of other conversation controls updates and changes, including small adjustments to replies, improved detection of harmful comments, and other ways to prioritize conversations that are more relevant to individual users. With the “dislike” beta rolling out soon, Bluesky plans to take new signals into account to improve user personalization. When a user “dislikes” a post, the system learns the type…
October 31, 2025Ravi LakshmananArtificial intelligence/code security OpenAI has announced the launch of an “Agent Security Researcher” that leverages the GPT-5 Large-Scale Language Model (LLM) and is programmed to emulate human experts who can scan, understand, and patch code. The artificial intelligence (AI) company, called Aardvark, said the autonomous agent is designed to help developers and security teams report and fix security vulnerabilities at scale. Currently available as a private beta. “Aardvark continuously analyzes source code repositories to identify vulnerabilities, assess exploitability, prioritize severity, and recommend targeted patches,” OpenAI said. It works by embedding itself into the software development pipeline, monitoring…
US telecommunications giant Ribbon has admitted in an official document that government-backed hackers had access to its network for almost a year before being arrested. The major telecommunications company said in its 10th quarter disclosure document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week that in December 2024, “a suspected nation-state actor had access to its IT network.” Ribbon has notified law enforcement and said it believes the hacker is no longer within its network. Headquartered in Texas, Ribbon provides telephone, networking and Internet services to businesses, businesses and critical infrastructure organizations such as energy and transportation systems.…
October 31, 2025Ravi LakshmananMalware/Browser Security A suspected nation-state threat actor is believed to be involved in distributing a new malware called Airstalk as part of a supply chain attack. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said it is tracking the cluster, designated CL-STA-1009. “CL” stands for cluster, and “STA” stands for state-backed motives. “Airstalk exploits the AirWatch API for mobile device management (MDM), now called Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management,” security researchers Kristopher Russo and Chema Garcia wrote in their analysis. “Using APIs to establish covert command and control (C2) channels primarily through AirWatch functionality and manage custom device attributes and…
On Dec. 31, 2019, the first reports emerged about a mysterious pneumonia of unknown cause circulating in China. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.On March 16, the first COVID-19 vaccine entered clinical trials.And by Dec. 14, members of the American public were getting the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines outside of trials. You may like The first coronavirus vaccines were paradigm-shifting because they went from conceptualization to mass production in mere months. But they were also unique because they used a new way to stimulate the immune system — one that had been thoroughly…
AI search startup Perplexity has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Getty Images, giving it permission to display Getty images across its AI-powered search and discovery tools. The deal marks a notable change for the company, which has been hit by allegations of content scraping and plagiarism, and signals an effort to establish more formal content partnerships. Perplexity and Getty have been working together for more than a year, a person familiar with the deal told TechCrunch. Although it was never announced, Getty was participating in Perplexity’s Publishers Program and planned to share ad revenue with publishers when their content…