2016年10月31日 星期一

Google's AI creates its own inhuman encryption



Image for the news result
Google's AI creates its own inhuman encryption
TechCrunch - 3 days ago
What happens when you tell two smart computers to talk to each other in secret and task ...
Google's AI Taught Itself To Encrypt Messages
Popular Mechanics - 2 days ago

現在 Google 做出了 2 個能夠自行演進出加密算法的人工智慧,進而避免其溝通資訊被第 3 方竊聽——這是全世界從零開始學會安全通訊的前兩個 AI。

2016年10月28日 星期五

A weird phenomenon is happening high above the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas

A weird phenomenon is happening high above the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas that could prove to be an atmospheric nightmare. (from Scientific American magazine)

Pollutants that gather from India and China in the lowlands around the…
PBS.ORG

2016年10月27日 星期四

Tumor DNA test aims to improve survival by focusing on the genes of immune cells

“Oncologists had been trying to figure out how to coopt the immune system to help kill cancer for 40 years, and finally they’re finding success.”
A new test is changing cancer treatment and has implications for other illnesses, too.
TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM|由 ARLENE WEINTRAUB 上傳

2016年10月25日 星期二

腦、IQ、Flynn effect、智慧、樂器、文化


The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world from roughly 1930 to the present day.

Flynn effect - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
推薦此篇:.......換句話說,人類的智商或已高出一籌,但智慧卻並未因此增加分毫。「時值20世紀,想要將我們智商的增量化成有價值的東西並讓它們和政治掛上鉤,閱讀文學和歷史是唯一的途徑。」對此,你或許欣然贊同,或許不以為然,但要知道,並非只有弗林懷有這種擔憂:正如威廉·龐德斯通(William Poundstone)在其最新力作《異想天開》(Head In The Clouds)中所展現的,如今,人們對愚昧無知習以為常,而這一點正影響著大家的決策方式,令生活中的諸多方面都發生變化。.....
人類智商分數在過去一世紀中提升了至少30分,但智商提高並沒有讓現代人變得更聰明,其中原因何在?
http://bbc.in/2eqyL32

請訪問 BBC Future 閱讀 英文原文

~~~~~
"Music reaches parts of the brain that other things can’t."
"Research shows that learning to play a musical instrument is beneficial for children and adults alike, and may even be helpful to patients recovering from brain injuries."

Musical training can have a dramatic impact on your brain’s structure,…
THEGUARDIAN.COM|由 MO COSTANDI 上傳

2016年10月23日 星期日

Hacked home devices caused massive Internet outage10.20 美國公共服務,社交平台,民眾網絡服務器等等都遭到嚴重攻擊,幾乎陷入癱瘓

Hacked home devices caused massive Internet outage - USA Today


If you live on the East Coast and had trouble accessing Twitter, Spotify Netflix, Amazon or Reddit Friday morning, you were not alone. USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Eleven hours after a massive online attack that blocked access to many popular websites, the company under assault has finally restored its service.
Dyn, a New Hampshire-based company that monitors and routes Internet traffic, was the victim of a massive attack that began at 7:10 a.m. ET Friday morning. The issue kept some users on the East Coast from accessing Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Tumblr, Reddit, PayPal and other sites.
At 6:17 p.m. ET Friday, Dyn updated its website to say it had resolved the large-scale distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) and service had been restored.
DDoS attacks flood servers with so many fake requests for information that they cannot respond to real ones, often crashing under the barrage. It's unclear who orchestrated the attack.
“It’s a very smart attack. We start to mitigate, they react. It keeps on happening every time. We’re learning though,” said Kyle York, Dyn’s chief strategy officer said on a conference call with reporters Friday afternoon.
Troubling to security experts was that the attackers relied on Mirai, an easy-to-use program that allows even unskilled hackers to take over online devices and use them to launch DDoS attacks. The software uses malware from phishing emails to first infect a computer or home network, then spreads to everything on it, taking over DVRs, cable set-top boxes, routers and even Internet-connected cameras used by stores and businesses for surveillance.
These devices are in turn used to create a robot network, or botnet, to send the millions of messages that knocks the out victims' computer systems.
The source code for Mirai was released on the so-called dark web, sites that operate as a sort of online underground for hackers, at the beginning of the month. The release led some security experts to suggest it would soon be widely used by hackers. That appears to have happened in this case.
Dyn is getting “tens of millions” of messages from around the globe sent by seemingly harmless but Internet-connected devices.
“It could be your DVR, it could be a CCTV camera, a thermostat. I even saw an Internet-connected toaster on Kickstarter yesterday,"  said York.
The complexity and breadth of the multiple attack points makes it difficult to fight, because it's hard to distinguish legitimate traffic from botnet traffic.
York said one bright spot for the company had been the tremendous outpouring of aid from its customers, competitors and law enforcement. “You guys wouldn’t believe the amount of support we’ve received,” he told reporters.
Effects felt nationwide
Dyn first  posted on its website at 7:10 a.m. ET that it "began monitoring and mitigating a DDoS attack against our Dyn Managed DNS infrastructure."
These resolved towards 9:30 a.m.. Then more waves began. "It's been a hectic day," said York.
The attack comes at a time of heightened public sensitivity and concern that the nation's institutions and infrastructure could face large-scale hacking attacks. The most recent example has been the release of emails stolen from the servers of the Democratic National Committee, which U.S. intelligence sources say was the work of Russia. The topic has come up frequently during the fall's hard-fought presidential campaign.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the Department of Homeland Security was “monitoring the situation" but that “at this point I don’t have any information about who may be responsible for this malicious activity.”
So far Dyn has not been able to ascertain whether the attack is aimed at any specific customer. “We have no reason to believe it is at this point,” said Dave Allen, the company’s general counsel.
The attack is “consistent with record-setting sized cyberattacks seen in the last few weeks,” said Carl Herberger, vice president of security at security company Radware.
Disruption
A post on Hacker News first identified the attack and named the sites that were affected. Several sites, including Spotify and GitHub, took to Twitter Friday morning to post status updates once the social network was back online. 
美國遭受前所未有的神秘網絡攻擊,美國公共服務,社交平台,民眾網絡服務器等等都遭到嚴重攻擊,幾乎陷入癱瘓。美國電腦專家與網絡安全專家全力以赴試圖修復,但網絡進攻立即適應並改變進攻方式繼續癱瘓美國大部分網絡服務。至此美國沒有報告確認進攻源頭,但也謹慎避免錯誤指控。
據法新社報導,美國星期五受到新一波的大規模網絡進攻,不僅表明襲擊者強大頑固,並也顯示美國網絡安全是多麼的脆弱。美國的網絡服務從昨天開始以板塊式陷落。多次波浪形的網絡問題,讓數百萬美國網絡客戶被阻斷網絡服務平台與社交平台,包括網購服務平台。
儘管大規模的網絡服務受到影響,美國安全修復沒有能夠確認進攻者身份以及攻擊源頭的地理位置。
美國公共服務以及網絡各種服務包括郵箱,臉書,推特平台和網購服務,星期五都被網絡進攻攻陷。受到嚴重影響的還有Reddit, Airbnb, Netflix服務網站,許多媒體也被襲擊包括CNN, 紐約時報,波士頓環球報,金融時報以及衛報等等美國和國際媒體在內。
據專家指出,此次美國網絡問題表面上並不像駭客直接攻擊,而是顯示美國網絡分流管理機構DIN的技術故障。但技術修復和各種不久措施很快就被攻破並被侵入取代,使電腦專家相信這其實是一個非常隱秘非常完備的網絡技術攻擊。
不過到目前為止,美國沒有公布發現了網絡襲擊嫌疑的身份,美國官方承認,網絡攻擊的源頭地理位置也沒有被確定。而根據美國電腦安全專家指出,美國的技術和安全保障是能夠追蹤確定任何攻擊者包括組織或國家的身份和發動攻擊的源頭位置。
據報導,惡意進攻美國網絡涉嫌者被媒體點名包括維基解密或匿名駭客等。維基解密被阻斷了網絡鏈接,該網絡機構近來不斷發布攻擊美國民主黨候選人希拉里克林頓的網絡解密文件。維基解密稍後隱秘表示,他們的信息與要求顯示被聽到了。
匿名駭客沒有否認但也沒有肯定發動襲擊,在官方網站上,匿名駭客寫有屋頂烈焰,不必撲滅,讓它們燃燒吧的字樣。

2016年10月21日 星期五

千里外校長的心跳圖示 (CMU)

0:00
36,578 次觀看
Carnegie Mellon University 新增了一段影片
CMU President Subra Suresh’s heart beat lit up the Randy Pausch Memorial Bridge earlier this week.
While Dr. Suresh was miles away in New York City, students used biometric data from a Fitbit he was wearing to illuminate the bridge with flashing lights that changed from lavender to fuchsia as his heart rate increased.
Students created the project for a cross-disciplinary course called "Interaction and Expression Using the Pausch Bridge Lighting,” which is taught by Cindy Limauro, a professor in the College of Fine Arts, and Evan Shimizu, a PhD student in the School of Computer Science.
The video below was produced by Noah Johnson, a student in the course.
Music: "Burning Van" by Big Mean Sound Machine, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Big_Mean_Sound_Machive/

2016年10月20日 星期四

Secrets Inside Einstein's Mind -- BBC Science Documentary 2016; 廣義相對論與數學 / 丘成桐教授

BBC Documentary - Secrets Inside Einstein's Mind | BBC Science Documentary 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWX5sBpRsRY



丘成桐這個演講很精采,對於喜愛物理與數學的人們會有很大的啓發。這是講給一般大眾聽的,但內容對我來說,都是nontrivial. 剛剛聽了一遍,獲益良多,順手貼文,供有興趣的臉友們接觸。
影片一個多小時,要慢慢聽,耐心的聽。做科學或數學,taste很重要。他的演講,會開拓人的視野。做研究的taste 是以視野為基礎長出來的。
/YH 2016/10/18

一百年前的1915年,愛因斯坦寫下了他的著名方程,揭示了重力與動態時空的本質。愛因斯坦的發現被認為是人類文明史上最偉大的成就之一。他…
YOUTUBE.COM

Scientists make a fundamental discovery about the amino acid valine’s role in blood stem cell development

Scientists make a fundamental discovery about the amino acid valine’s role in blood stem cell development 
科學家對血液幹細胞發育中氨基酸纈氨酸的作用進行了基本的發現
A team of researchers from California and Japan has found that an essential amino acid plays a crucial role in the creation of blood stem cells—a discovery the scientists say could offer a potential alternative to chemotherapy and radiation in treating blood cancer patients.
The amino acid valine, which people obtain by eating protein, appears key to the formation of blood stem cells. Mice deprived of the protein building block for two to four weeks stopped making new blood cells altogether, according to the new study, published Thursday in Science.
In lab tests the study showed human blood stem cells also appear to be as dependent on valine, the researchers said. If this proves true, depriving patients of the amino acid before a bone marrow transplant might spare them the necessity of chemotherapy or radiation, both of which destroy blood stem cells to make room for new, transplanted ones. But with these procedures one in 20 transplant patients dies, sometimes from complications linked to the toxic treatments.
Additionally, depriving certain leukemia patients of valine might even kill off the cells that are causing their cancers, says Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a senior author on the new paper. “If such a simple and relatively less harmful therapy could be used to treat leukemias, that would be great,” says Nakauchi, a stem cell researcher at both the University of Tokyo and Stanford University. “That’s what I’m hoping at the moment.” Nakauchi adds that he was surprised to uncover such a basic biological process. “I couldn’t believe it myself,” he says.
Camilla Forsberg, a blood stem cell researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the research, says she was impressed with the results and thrilled there are still such fundamental discoveries to be made. “It’s pretty exciting how the basic things we think about are still giving us surprises,” she says, adding that it will be crucial to figure out why these blood stem cells—also called hematopoietic cells—are so sensitive to valine. Other cell types might have particular sensitivities to the other 19 amino acids active in the body, nine of which are vital and must be obtained via food, so Forsberg believes these must now be studied as well. The essential role valine plays in blood should not come as such a surprise, says Linheng Li, a stem cell biologist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Some people who eat a low-protein vegetarian diet are known to develop anemia, a disease characterized by low levels of red blood cells.
Li was not involved in the new research, but says he made a similar, unpublished finding in his own lab that makes him confident of Nakauchi’s results. He also thinks valine deprivation could work as well in people as it does in mice, although it will take a lot of research to determine how long people can tolerate being deprived of the amino acid. If valine deprivation works in bone marrow transplant patients, it could open the procedure to some people—such as pregnant women—who are usually not considered candidates for chemotherapy or radiation, he says. Li suspects, however, that valine deprivation alone will not be effective for treating cancer directly, although it might work well combined with other therapies.
In the new study Nakauchi and his colleagues say they were able to successfully transplant bone marrow in valine-deprived mice without needing radiation or chemotherapy—but some of the mice died from lack of the nutrient, which is also involved in metabolism and tissue repair. Nakauchi says it should be relatively easy to deprive people of valine by feeding them on specially formulated intravenous diets, although he admits that might be difficult if the depletion needs to last weeks or months.
The researchers also found human blood stem cells failed to proliferate when cultured without valine. Nakauchi says the team realized only after their study was completed that it built on research published 70 years ago in Science by the late Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg. When Nakauchi was a postdoctoral student at Stanford he knew the biochemist, and says it made him proud to renew and extend Kornberg’s findings.
Now Nakauchi says he hopes the work will lead to new approaches to cancer treatment. “There may be some other, similar amino acid–dependency in other stem cells and also cancer stem cells,” he says. “Those are the things I’m very much interested in.”

2016年10月18日 星期二

Tasmanian devil milk fights superbugs

Tasmanian devil milk fights superbugs http://bbc.in/2eoTPRy
Milk from Tasmanian devils could offer up a useful weapon against antibiotic-resistant superbugs, according to Australian researchers.
BBC.CO.UK

2016年10月17日 星期一

Apple 公司在日本和中國各設研發中心 (research and development base)

Tim Cook takes a bullet train and says Apple is not slowing down with the iPhone

TOKYO -- Apple will open a research and development base in Japan focusing on artificial intelligence in the iPhone's 10th year.
ASIA.NIKKEI.COM


Image for the news result
Apple has unveiled plans for a new research and development center in Shenzhen, China, ...

Apple building $45 million research center in Beijing to develop new hardware