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The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, analyzed data from the Firefighter Cancer Cohort Study, one of the largest efforts to investigate long-term health risks in the fire service. The results of this study provide important directions for reducing exposure to chemicals in occupations that already pose significant health risks. Why PFAS exposure matters to firefighters Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS, are a large group of industrial chemicals that are evaluated for their resistance to heat, water, and oil. They are widely used in firefighting foams, protective equipment, and numerous…
Ravi LakshmananFebruary 3, 2026Artificial intelligence / privacy Mozilla on Monday announced a new control section in the Firefox desktop browser settings that allows users to completely turn off the Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) feature. “This provides a single place to block current and future generative AI features in Firefox,” said Firefox head Ajit Varma. “If you choose to use AI features, you can also review and manage individual AI features. This allows you to use Firefox without AI while we continue to develop AI features for users who need them.” Mozilla first announced plans to integrate AI into Firefox in…
Ravi LakshmananFebruary 3, 2026Malware / Open Source A recently discovered compromise of the infrastructure hosting Notepad++ is believed with medium confidence to be the work of a China-affiliated actor known as Lotus Blossom. The attack allowed a state-sponsored hacker group to distribute a previously undocumented backdoor codenamed “Chrysalis” to users of the open-source editor, according to new findings from Rapid7. This development comes shortly after Notepad++ administrator Don Ho said that a breach at the hosting provider level allowed attackers to hijack update traffic starting in June 2025 and exploit poor update validation controls that existed in older versions of…
Now, Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” list is infamous in no small part for the number of participants who have been indicted for fraud. Notable alumni include FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried, Frank CEO Charlie Jarvis, AI startup AllHere Education founder Joanna Smith-Griffin, and “pharma buddy” Martin Shkreli. Another member of the list is currently facing federal charges. Gökçe Guven, a 26-year-old Turkish national and founder and CEO of fintech startup Calder, was indicted last week on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud and aggravated identity theft. A New York-based fintech startup — the company says it “pays.”…
SpaceX has acquired Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI, creating the world’s most valuable private company, the spaceflight company announced Monday. Musk, who is also SpaceX’s CEO, said in a memo posted on the rocket company’s website that the merger is primarily about creating a space-based data center, an idea he has been fixating on in recent months. “Current AI advances rely on large terrestrial data centers that require enormous amounts of power and cooling. The global power demand for AI cannot be met by terrestrial solutions without imposing hardship on local communities and the environment, even in the short…
One of the design features that has become synonymous with Tesla has been banned in China. Door handles on cars sold in the country must have mechanical releases under new safety regulations announced by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday. The new rules, which go into effect on January 1, 2027, will ban the electronically operated hidden door handles popularized by Tesla and now installed in many other electric cars in China. The new regulations state that each door (excluding the tailgate) must be equipped with a mechanically released external door handle. The vehicle must have a…
As Adobe ramps up its investment in AI, the company has decided to retire its 2D animation software Adobe Animate. On Monday, Adobe issued an update to its support site and emailed existing customers announcing that Adobe Animate will be retired on March 1, 2026. Enterprise customers will continue to receive technical support through March 1, 2029 to ease the transition. Other customers will also receive support until March next year, the company said. This decision sparked distrust, disappointment, and anger among Adobe Animate users who were concerned that there were no alternatives that mirrored Animate’s capabilities. One customer posted…
Although humans have found lead useful for thousands of years, the toxic effects of this metal were not well known until the 20th century. Now, researchers use historical hair samples to show that regulations targeting heavy metal pollution are highly effective at reducing public exposure to lead once its dangers are known.”We have hair samples spanning approximately 100 years,” study co-author Ken Smith, a demographer at the University of Utah, said in a statement. The study focused on people living in Utah.”Before regulations, lead levels were about 100 times higher than after regulations,” Smith said. you may like In a…
Cloud data company Snowflake signed a $200 million multi-year AI contract with OpenAI on Monday, the latest sign that enterprise AI competition continues to heat up. The deal gives Snowflake’s 12,600 customers access to OpenAI models from all three major cloud providers. Snowflake employees also have access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise. The companies are also partnering to build new AI agents and other AI products. Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said in a press release: “By bringing OpenAI models to enterprise data, Snowflake enables organizations to build and deploy AI on top of their most valuable assets using a secure, governed…
The developer of Notepad++, a popular open-source text editor, confirmed that hackers took over the software in 2025 and distributed malicious updates to users over several months. In a blog post published on Monday, Notepad++ developer Dong Ho said the cyberattack was likely carried out by Chinese government-affiliated hackers between June and December 2025, citing multiple analyzes by security experts who examined the malware’s payload and attack pattern. Ho said this “would explain the very selective targeting” seen during the campaign. Rapid7, which investigated the incident, said the hack was the work of Lotus Blossom, a long-running spy group known…