Portable sensor enables community lead detection in tap water
Lead contamination in municipal water sources is a consistent threat to public health. Ingesting even…
Belgian designer Marina Yee, member of Antwerp Six, dies age 67
By AFP Published November 2, 2025 Belgian designer Marina Yee, member of the Antwerp Six collective that revolutionized fashion in the 1980s, has died at the age of 67, the Antwerp Fashion Museum announced on Sunday. AFP “Her name is inextricably linked to the legendary Antwerp Six collective, which put Belgian fashion on the world…
Scans for Port 8530/8531 (TCP). Likely related to WSUS Vulnerability CVE-2025-59287
Sensors reporting firewall logs detected a significant increase in scans for port 8530/TCP and 8531/TCP over the course of last week. Some of these reports originate from Shadowserver, and likely other researchers, but there are also some that do not correspond to known research-related IP addresses. CVE-2025-59287 is exploited by connecting to affected WSUS servers…
Scientists uncover what delayed Earth’s oxygen boom for a billion years
The arrival of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere marked a defining moment in the planet’s history, transforming it into a world capable of supporting complex life. This major shift, known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), took place approximately 2.1 to 2.4 billion years ago. However, oxygenic photosynthesis — produced by cyanobacteria — had likely evolved…
A warming Earth could accidentally trigger a deep freeze
For most of Earth’s history, scientists have viewed the slow breakdown of silicate rocks as the planet’s main natural thermostat. In this process, rainwater absorbs carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, lands on exposed rocks, and gradually dissolves them. The carbon and calcium released eventually flow into the oceans, where they form the raw materials…
JWST captures stunning 3D view of a planet’s scorching atmosphere
Astronomers have produced the first three-dimensional map of a planet outside our solar system, revealing distinct temperature regions, including one so hot that water vapor breaks apart. The findings appear in Nature Astronomy, published October 28, 2025. Led by researchers at the University of Maryland and Cornell University, the study charts temperatures across WASP-18b, a…
The bold idea that spacetime doesn’t exist
The question of whether spacetime truly exists should not be particularly controversial or even conceptually difficult once we understand what is meant by “spacetime,” “events,” and “instants.” Believing that spacetime is a real, physical entity is no more defensible than believing in the old idea of a celestial sphere. Both are human-centered frameworks that help…
Windows Graphics Vulnerabilities Lead to Remote Code Execution and Memory Exposure Windows Graphics Vulnerabilities Lead to Remote Code Execution and Memory Exposure
Background Check Point Research (CPR) identified three security vulnerabilities in the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) in Windows. We promptly reported these issues to Microsoft, and they were addressed in the Patch Tuesday updates in May, July, and August 2025. These are the vulnerabilities: CVE-2025-30388, rated important and considered more likely to be exploited; CVE-2025-53766, classified as critical severity…
The Traitors star Elyn Wyn grateful for ‘abnormal anatomy’
Lena-Zaharah MohammedBBC Wales BBC/PA Elen has previously called on the Welsh government to offer more funding, better information and greater sensitivity to women’s health The Traitors star and Welsh opera singer Elen Wyn says she is “grateful to have an abnormal anatomy” as it ultimately led to her endometriosis diagnosis. Appearing on the podcast It’s…
Soil microbes remember drought and help plants survive
A new study in Nature Microbiology analyzes soils collected across Kansas to test the role of “legacy effects,” which refers to how soils at a given site are shaped by microbes that have adapted to the local climate over many years. “The bacteria and fungi and other organisms living in the soil can actually end…
A new microscopy breakthrough is revealing the oceans’ invisible life
Plankton are the unseen drivers of life on Earth. These microscopic organisms produce a large share of the planet’s oxygen and form the base of the ocean food chain. They are also astonishingly diverse, with tens of thousands of species already identified and many more waiting to be discovered. Among them, protists — tiny, single-celled…
