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Ultra-Rapid Vision in Birds

Flying animals need to accurately detect, identify and track fast-moving objects and these behavioral requirements are likely to strongly select for abilities to resolve visual detail in time. However, evidence of highly elevated temporal acuity relative to non-flying animals has so far been confined to insects while it has been missing in birds. With behavioral experiments on three wild passerine species, blue tits, collared and pied flycatchers, we demonstrate temporal acuities of vision far e

Hackers plant 4G Raspberry Pi on bank network in failed ATM heist

The UNC2891 hacking group, also known as LightBasin, used a 4G-equipped Raspberry Pi hidden in a bank's network to bypass security defenses in a newly discovered attack. The single-board computer was physically connected to the ATM network switch, creating an invisible channel into the bank's internal network, allowing the attackers to move laterally and deploy backdoors. According to Group-IB, which discovered the intrusion while investigating suspicious activity on the network, the goal of t

Watch a Reconstructed 250-Year-Old Robotic Painting Bring a Fiery Mount Vesuvius Back to Life

Sir William Hamilton was the British ambassador to the court of Naples and Sicily from 1765 to 1800, as well as a passionate volcanologist. During his time in Italy he must have seen Mount Vesuvius erupt a number of times—certainly enough to leave a lasting impression. So much so that in 1775 he designed a rotating device that, with mechanical movement and light, could bring to life the fiery magma depicted in Pietro Fabris’ 1771 watercolor, “Night view of a current of lava.” While experts aren

Stanford's holographic AI glasses are coming for your clunky VR headset

Over the past couple of years, with the introduction of the Apple Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3, I've become a believer in the potential of mixed reality. First, and this was a big concern for me, it's possible to use VR headsets without barfing. Second, some of the applications are truly amazing, especially the entertainment. While the ability to watch a movie on a giant screen is awesome, the fully immersive 3D experiences on the Vision Pro are really quite compelling. In this article, I'm

SpaceX Is Gearing Up for Starship’s Next Flight After a String of Explosive Setbacks

SpaceX is prepping the Starship rocket for its upcoming test flight, expected to take place in early August. The rocket’s last few launches did not go smoothly, leaving SpaceX in a bit of a slump as it rushes to develop a fully reusable Starship. The company desperately needs a win ahead of its planned uncrewed Mars launch in 2026, or at least for the rocket not to end up as burnt scraps at the bottom of the ocean. This week, SpaceX transported Starship to its launch site in Starbase, Texas, fo

How Does Lightning Start? New Research Provides a Groundbreaking Theory

Lightning has long terrified and fascinated scientists and non-scientists alike. For something so relatively common, the precise atmospheric events that give rise to a lightning strike have been shrouded in mystery, but new research is offering some tantalizing clues. A team of engineers and meteorologists believe they’ve cracked the curious case of how lightning forms in the cloudtops, and their solution comes from an increasingly influential contender for cracking climate mysteries: mathemati

Scientists Unveil the Shocking Truth Behind Lightning’s Mysterious Birth

Lightning has long terrified and fascinated scientists and non-scientists alike. For something so relatively common, the precise atmospheric events that give rise to a lightning strike have been shrouded in mystery, but new research is offering some tantalizing clues. A team of engineers and meteorologists believe they’ve cracked the curious case of how lightning forms in the cloudtops, and their solution comes from an increasingly influential contender for cracking climate mysteries: mathemati

Startup aims to beam sunlight from space using mirrors

Forward-looking: A California startup is looking to space to solve the limits of ground-based solar power. Reflect Orbital is developing a constellation of satellites with giant Mylar mirrors to beam sunlight back to Earth after dark – an idea that offers bold potential but faces steep engineering hurdles. At the heart of Reflect Orbital's project are its Mylar mirrors. Each satellite will unfurl a 33-by-33-foot sheet of lightweight polyester film known for its durability and reflectivity. The

7 Best Reading Lights (2025): Clip-On, Rechargeable, Portable

Reading before bed is a great way to relax. But achieving the right balance of light can be tricky. We want to illuminate the text without disturbing sleeping partners, kids, or roommates. A warm light that is not too bright is also better, as it helps you feel drowsy. Special reading lights may be the answer. They come in a surprisingly wide variety of shapes and sizes, but all will light up your page, not your whole room. I've tested a library of reading lights over the last year, tucking int

A Secretive US Space Plane Will Soon Test Quantum Navigation Technology

The X-37B, the US Space Force’s secretive space plane, will soon take flight again. On Monday, the Space Force announced that it will fly the small, Space Shuttle–shaped vehicle on the program’s eighth mission next month. The launch of the vehicle, on a Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled to occur no earlier than August 21 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are two active X-37Bs in the Space Force fleet, both built by Boeing. The first made its debut flight in April 2010. Since then, the tw

Sony sues Tencent over blatant Horizon Zero Dawn clone, Light of Motiram

What just happened? In a move that is only surprising because of how long it's taken, Sony has launched a lawsuit against Tencent over a game that looks so much like Horizon Zero Dawn it's hard to believe it isn't a sequel. Light of Motiram is described by the Japanese company as a "slavish clone" of the popular robot-dinosaur-fighting adventure games, which is an accurate description. Gamers were excited to see what everyone assumed was another entry in the Horizon Zero Dawn series last Novemb

Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Sony is suing Tencent to attempt to stop the release of Light of Motiram, which Sony describes as a “slavish clone” of its Horizon series of games, as reported by Reuters. Light of Motiram was announced last year with a trailer featuring an aesthetic that’s quite similar to the Horizon franchise — including huge robot animals and even a title font that resembles the Horizon ga

Sony sues Tencent over its Horizon Zero Dawn clone

Sony is suing Tencent for copying nearly every aspect of its Horizon games for the upcoming Light of Motiram, an open-world hunting game with some obvious similarities to Sony's franchise, as first reported by Reuters. Tencent first announced the new game in November 2024. The lawsuit goes into detail on the various ways Tencent's new game appears to be unlawfully copying memorable aspects of Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West and Lego Horizon Adventures. That include the basic setup of

A secretive space plane is set to launch and test quantum navigation technology

The X-37B, the US Space Force's secretive space plane, will soon take flight again. On Monday, the Space Force announced that it will fly the small, Space Shuttle-shaped vehicle on the program's eighth mission next month. The launch of the vehicle, on a Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled to occur no earlier than August 21 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are two active X-37Bs in the Space Force fleet, both built by Boeing. The first made its debut flight in April 2010. Since then, the tw

Flights grounded as Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot hacked and systems ‘destroyed’

In Brief Flights across Russia have been grounded after a cyberattack hit the country’s largest airline, Aeroflot, on Monday. Details of the cyberattack remain limited, but a pro-Ukrainian hacker group known for targeting Russian organizations called Silent Crow took credit for the cyberattack alongside Belarusian hackers, citing Russia’s occupation of Ukraine. The group said in a Telegram post, seen by TechCrunch, that it had taken control of Aeroflot’s critical systems, including terabytes

Flights grounded as Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot hit by cyberattack

In Brief Flights across Russia have been grounded after a cyberattack hit the country’s largest airline, Aeroflot, on Monday. Details of the cyberattack remain limited, but a pro-Ukrainian hacker group known for targeting Russian organizations called Silent Crow took credit for the cyberattack alongside Belarusian hackers, citing Russia’s occupation of Ukraine. The group said in a Telegram post, seen by TechCrunch, that it had taken control of Aeroflot’s critical systems, including terabytes

200k Flemish drivers can turn traffic lights green

Two years ago, the Flemish Roads Agency (AWV) announced the introduction of the new system: via an app on your smartphone, you can get a traffic light to turn green more quickly. Over the past 2 years, 250 intersections were to be equipped with so-called “intelligent traffic lights”, which would receive a signal as soon as a road user with the app approaches. In that way, motorists - but also cyclists and motorcyclists- will not have to wait unnecessarily at red lights when less traffic is appr

Google says it’s working to fix voice commands for your smart lights

Lil Katz / Android Authority TL;DR Google has acknowledged a bug affecting voice commands for smart lights. The company says it is aware of the issue and will share an update soon. Many users say they can still control lights via the Google Home app, but not through Assistant voice commands. Google has confirmed it’s investigating a bug preventing users from controlling their smart lights through Google Assistant voice commands. We first reported on the issue over the weekend, as user compla

Personal aviation is about to get interesting (2023)

Aviation is a poster child for economic stagnation. Yes, airline travel has gotten cheaper and safer—great. But every other aspect of aviation has struggled or even regressed. As I’ve noted many times, we had supersonic travel across the Atlantic from 1976 to 2003. Today, not even the world’s richest travelers can fly that fast. Another part of aviation that has suffered over the last half-century is general aviation, particularly its low-end segment, personal aviation, in which people fly them

‘Ok Google, turn on the lights’ is mysteriously broken for many users right now

Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR Many users are reporting not being able to control lights or groups of lights with an ‘Ok Google’ command. I noticed this issue on my speakers yesterday, but thought it was a random bug. It seems more widespread, and the Google Nest account has acknowledged the issue. Yesterday evening, as I went to bed, I told my Google Nest Audio, “Hey Google, turn off all the lights.” Normally, this is one of the easiest commands, and my success rate with it is better

Purple Earth hypothesis

Astrobiological hypothesis regarding early photosynthetic organisms Artist's impression of Earth in the early Archean with a purplish hydrosphere and coastal regions Purple culture of Haloarchaea (left) and isolated purple and red membrane components (right) The Purple Earth Hypothesis (PEH) is an astrobiological hypothesis, first proposed by molecular biologist Shiladitya DasSarma in 2007,[1] that the earliest photosynthetic life forms of Early Earth were based on the simpler molecule retina

In-Flight Wi-Fi Is Getting a Boost on These Starlink-Enabled Airlines

Sluggish airline internet might become a thing of the past. For the last 20 years, airline internet has been notoriously unreliable, but Starlink is changing the game with significantly faster speeds. In fact, the latest reports show it's already twice as fast as its in-flight competitors. Starlink-equipped planes achieve superior internet speeds due to its fleet of almost 8,000 low-Earth orbit satellites, which operate much closer to Earth than the geostationary satellites used by competitors

Your MacBook is getting a major upgrade for free - 5 MacOS 26 features I'm trying right now

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Last month, Apple announced its latest update for MacOS 26, codenamed "Tahoe." It's full of new visual design elements like Apple's Liquid Glass design theme, better integration with the iPhone, and a more robust Spotlight feature that's better integrated with Shortcuts. In fact, the theme of all of Apple's updates this year is streamlining both the visual UI and feature sets across Apple devices, while making more apps and features available on them, punctuated by Apple Intell

The 2025 Audi RS 3 is a five-cylinder firecracker

First offered in a passenger car by Mercedes-Benz back in 1974, the five-cylinder engine has always been a bit of an automotive oddball. The unconventional configuration eventually gained a foothold in the 1980s with manufacturers who needed a transversely mounted motor that was narrower than a V6 but wanted something smoother and more powerful than an inline-four. For a time, the engine, with its distinctive exhaust warble, became closely associated with Audi’s lineup, aided in no small part b

5 Best Red-Light Therapy Masks and LED Devices of 2025, Reviewed

If your skin is crying for help but you're too tired to care, the best red-light therapy masks are the easiest fake-it-till-you-make-it hack around. You might have seen a wave of people on social media channeling their best Hannibal Lecter while wearing an LED device, like our top pick, the CurrentBody LED Face Mask Series 2 ($470). They’re not sipping Chianti, but instead claiming that the wrinkles and fine lines on their faces have disappeared with the help of red-light therapy. There's nothin

Topics: best led light mask red

macOS 26 beta preview: Spotlight's time to shine

I've learned not to expect much from macOS updates — not through sheer cynicism, but from the obvious reality that Apple pays far more attention to iOS and iPadOS than its desktop platform. I get it. macOS is a thing of the past, while smartphones and tablets are Apple's profitable present and future. But still, I think Mac users deserve more than just widgets, or the ability to merely mirror their iPhones (a feature that's not only genuinely useful, but also cements how crucial iPhones are to A

macOS 26 preview: Spotlight's time to shine

I've learned not to expect much from macOS updates — not through sheer cynicism, but from the obvious reality that Apple pays far more attention to iOS and iPadOS than its desktop platform. I get it. macOS is a thing of the past, while smartphones and tablets are Apple's profitable present and future. But still, I think Mac users deserve more than just widgets, or the ability to merely mirror their iPhones (a feature that's not only genuinely useful, but also cements how crucial iPhones are to A

Fire on Virgin Airlines Flight Linked to Power Bank in Passenger’s Bag

Did a power bank start a fire on a recent Virgin flight? That’s the question investigators are currently trying to answer, as they probe an incident in Australia where a woman’s bag burst into flames. The incident, which involved a flight from Sydney, took place around 9 a.m. on Monday, just as the plane was descending to its destination, the New York Times reports. After the bag burst into flames, the plane’s cabin filled with smoke, according to reports. The plane’s crew managed to put out th

Zenbivy Light Bed Review: Still the Best Backcountry Sleep System

Zenbivy, renowned makers of outdoor bedding, have a clever quilt-and-sheet backcountry sleep system that gave me the best sleep I’ve ever had on the trail. The only problem with the original version was the weight, which was more than I generally like to carry on longer trips. Zenbivy has an ultralight version of its bed, but the fabrics aren't nearly as nice and soft as the original. This year Zenbivy updated its Light Bed, which sits between the ultralight and the regular (both of which were