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CES has always been a celebration of robots, and this year’s event announced a number of significant robotic developments, including the production-ready new debut of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid Atlas. And there are robots on every showroom floor, and bots often serve as great marketing for the companies involved. It’s not always a completely accurate representation of where commercial development stands at the moment, but it does give visitors a glimpse of where it’s headed. And of course, it’s fun to watch. This week I spent quite a bit of time poring over the bots on display. Here are some of…
A former SandboxAQ executive filed a wrongful termination lawsuit last month containing scandalous allegations against the company’s illustrious CEO Jack Hydary, with the plaintiff himself redacting the most salacious details. The company’s lawyers issued a blistering rebuttal Friday, calling the former employee a “serial liar” and saying his lawsuit “alleges false claims for an unfair and outrageous purpose.” Even the visible portion of the lawsuit, obtained by TechCrunch, contains claims that would raise eyebrows if a court deems them justified. (A copy of the lawsuit is available here.) The case provides a valuable inside perspective on how employee litigation can…
China’s fusion reactor, dubbed the “artificial sun,” has significantly surpassed the fusion limit by firing plasma beyond its normal operating range, advancing humanity’s slow progress toward near-limitless clean energy.According to a statement released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Advanced Superconducting Tokamak Experimental Device (EAST) has stabilized plasma, the high-energy fourth state of matter, at an extremely high density, which was seen as a major obstacle to nuclear fusion development.”Our results suggest a practical and scalable route to extend the density limits of tokamaks and next-generation combustion plasma fusion devices,” study co-lead author Ping Zhu, a professor at the…
This new solid-state EV battery can be fully charged in just 5 minutes We stopped by the exhibit of Donut Lab, a Finnish startup specializing in electric mobility. The company (which takes its name from its flagship product, the donut-shaped in-wheel EV motor) announced at CES the launch of what it calls the first solid-state battery for vehicle production. Solid-state batteries differ from lithium-ion batteries (used in most EVs) in that they use a solid electrolyte rather than a liquid electrolyte. They offer much higher energy density (more bang for the buck, so to speak), better safety, and are thought…
Meta today announced three contracts to supply nuclear power to its data centers. One contract is with a start-up, one with a small energy company, and one with a large company that already operates multiple nuclear reactors in the United States. Oklo and TerraPower, two small modular reactor (SMR) developers, each have contracts with Meta to build multiple reactors, while Vistra sells capacity from existing power plants. As AI ambitions grow, nuclear power has become the preferred source for technology companies to provide reliable power 24/7. Startups and established reactors have benefited from the competition for data center power, albeit…
January 9, 2026Ravi LakshmananVirtualization/Vulnerability Chinese-speaking attackers are suspected of using compromised SonicWall VPN appliances as an initial access vector to deploy a VMware ESXi exploit that may have been developed in February 2024. Cybersecurity firm Huntress, which observed the activity in December 2025 and stopped it before it could reach its final stage, said it may have triggered a ransomware attack. Most notably, this attack exploits three VMware vulnerabilities that were disclosed as zero-days by Broadcom in March 2025: CVE-2025-22224 (CVSS score: 9.3), CVE-2025-22225 (CVSS score: 8.2), and CVE-2025-22226 (CVSS score: 7.1) It is believed that this was misused. Successful…
Early ancestral members of the human lineage may have left Africa earlier than widely thought, a new study of fossil teeth suggests.Modern humans, Homo sapiens, are the only extant member of the genus Homo, which is thought to have originated in Africa about 2 to 3 million years ago and first left the African continent several hundred thousand years ago. But many other extinct human species have roamed the Earth in the past, including Homo habilis, suspected of being one of the first stone tool makers, and Homo erectus, the first to regularly store stone tools they made.Scientists examined fossils…
A record-breaking study of the giant sunspot that caused Earth’s largest geomagnetic storm in more than two decades has revealed surprising new details about the explosive dark region. This monster sunspot triggered nearly 1,000 solar flares in just over three months, and may have discreetly triggered the most powerful explosion of the current solar cycle.Back in April 2024, astronomers discovered a group of sunspots growing on the sun’s surface. This new active region (AR), named AR 13664, rapidly expanded in size, eventually reaching 15 times the diameter of Earth by early May. Then a rapid barrage of X-class solar flares,…
In 2024, scientists announced the discovery of a new species of anaconda in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Now, in a new nature series, filmmakers have released shocking, never-before-seen footage of a snake encounter in the wild.The film transports viewers to the Vaihueri Huaorani region of the Amazon rainforest. There, in 2022, researchers were sampling anacondas for a snake genetics study. In this video, poison expert Brian Fry and actor Will Smith travel by boat along the banks of a murky river with an indigenous Huaorani guide. In a small clearing, the group discovers a giant anaconda, which the guides manage to…
January 9, 2026Ravi LakshmananEmail Security/Threat Intelligence Russian state-sponsored threat actors have been implicated in a series of new credential harvesting attacks targeting individuals associated with Turkey’s Energy and Nuclear Research Institute, as well as staff affiliated with European think tanks and organizations in North Macedonia and Uzbekistan. This activity is believed to be by APT28 (also known as BlueDelta) and is believed to be the result of an “ongoing” credential harvesting campaign targeting users of UKR.[.]last month’s net. APT28 coordinates with the main directorates of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU). Recorded Future’s Insict…