Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Researchers led by the Duke Quantum Center (DQC) have used a quantum simulator to observe string breaking dynamics connected to particle antiparticle formation, marking one of the earliest demonstrations of its kind in quantum physics. The work, published September 23 in Nature Physics, shows how trapped ion quantum computers could become powerful tools for exploring some of the deepest questions in fundamental physics. The experiment simulated a process known as string breaking, in which two connected building blocks of matter are pulled apart until so much energy accumulates that new particles can effectively “pop into existence” when the connection breaks.…

Thousands of people marched through Madrid on Saturday to protest the eviction earlier this week of an 87-year-old woman from her lifelong home, calling for greater protection for tenants. Images of Maricarmen Abascal being carried from her Madrid flat on a stretcher on Wednesday after police broke down her door have thrust Spain’s housing crisis back into the spotlight ahead of a general election due in 2027. Protesters chanted slogans and held banners calling for measures to curb rising housing costs and make evictions more difficult as they marched through central Madrid. “You could be the next Maricarmen,” read one…

In Control Resonant, the entire world is at stake. But that didn’t stop the diligent employees of the Federal Bureau of Control from filing reams of paperwork, and it didn’t stop me from reading everything I could find, either. Reading is often optional in Resonant, but it’s where some of the game’s best details — and even love stories! — can be found.In the world of Control Resonant and its predecessor, 2019’s Control, the FBC deals with mysterious, otherworldly objects and entities that defy explanation. But the FBC itself is still an old-school bureaucratic agency, and that means tons of…

Sarvam AI has released Saaras V4, the newest generation of its speech recognition model. It covers all 22 scheduled Indian languages plus English, now including global English accents. Sarvam reports state-of-the-art accuracy across all 22 languages. Is it deployable? Yes, through Sarvam’s API today, using model=”saaras:v4″. Weights are not public, and Sarvam’s SageMaker self-hosting docs currently cover Saaras v3 only. What is Inside Saaras V4 Saaras V4 is an encoder-decoder system. An audio encoder converts the waveform into embeddings that carry phonetic and acoustic detail. A temporal-downsampling adapter then shortens that sequence and projects it into the language model’s embedding…

Microsoft has paused the rollout of the KB5002907 Microsoft 365 update after users report that it deactivated, or in some cases completely removed, perpetual Office 2016 and Office 2019 installations. KB5002907, titled “Optional update for out-of-date Microsoft 365 Apps installations,” was released to help users update Microsoft 365 Apps installations that are more than 90 days out of date. “This optional update is available only for Windows PCs with Microsoft 365 Apps installations that are more than 90 days out of date and use Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel,” explains the KB5002907 release notes. “Installing the update can help the apps…

KelpDAO has filed a lawsuit against cross-chain protocol LayerZero following the roughly $292 million exploit of its rsETH bridge earlier this year, alleging that failures in LayerZero’s security infrastructure contributed to the attack.KelpDAO said Friday that LayerZero failed to disclose risks in its technology or prevent attackers from compromising its infrastructure. It also alleged that LayerZero had reviewed and endorsed its deployment and configuration in writing before the exploit.The lawsuit also names LayerZero co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino.“Our number one priority has always been and will remain the security of our users’ assets,” Kelp wrote. “But we also need to…

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday rode along the Champs-Élysées in the “popemobile” and celebrated an open-air Mass in front of hundreds of thousands in Paris, before flying to the holy pilgrimage site of Lourdes in southern France. The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day trip to France, an officially secular country with deep Catholic roots, on the first official papal visit there in nearly two decades. In the highlight of the visit’s second day, the 71-year-old pope led believers in a Mass at Place de la Concorde, where a giant white canopy had been erected to…

A new help-to-buy scheme aimed at giving first-time buyers who cannot rely on the “bank of mum and dad” is to be introduced in a big policy announcement by Andy Burnham.The programme, called “Your first home”, is intended to help buyers in England who have a regular income but have been unable to save for a large deposit or don’t have financial support from their family.Under the scheme, first-time buyers will get a 20% equity loan to help them buy a new-build home, with an initial interest free period and a requirement of a minimum deposit of just 2.5%.Household income…

I don’t think I’m going to hurt anyone’s feelings by pointing out that Decap doesn’t have the name recognition of Kendrick Lamar, Olivia Rodrigo, or Charli XCX. But his fingerprints are all over tracks from them, as well as many other artists, including Freddie Gibbs, Bad Bunny, Mac Miller, BTS, and even Ludwig Göransson’s score for Oppenheimer.Nicholas Piantedosi, better known as Decap, is a record producer, but perhaps more importantly, he’s the man behind Drums That Knock, a series of sample packs that have found their way onto countless records across genres. The line is so successful that, after debuting…

Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 appears to be changing how it writes, with new analysis showing fewer obvious AI writing patterns, shorter sentences, and simpler wording compared with Opus 5. Claude Opus 5.5 is not only one of the best models for coding, but it also appears to be a bit better at writing, as Anthropic appears to be changing how AI writes. According to Arena, an AI benchmarking tool, Opus 5.5 has fewer obvious AI writing patterns, so you’re less likely to create AI slop content with this model. It also found that sentences are now shorter, which means you…