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Home Internet Tariffs in Russia Rise Up to 20% in First Half of 2026 Amid Rising Costs and Surging Demand
Poisson's Spot: 200-Year-Old Optical Effect That Proved Light Is a Wave Now Enables Simple Creation of Optical Skyrmions for Future Photonic Computing
Bankrupt After Just Six Weeks of Production Shutdown: How a Cyber Attack Killed a 37-Year-Old German Textile Manufacturer and Exposed the Cruel Reality of Modern Cyber Threats
t.me Domain Restored in DNS After Sudden Outage, But Full Recovery for Telegram Links May Take Up to 24 Hours
The short domain t.me has been restored to active DNS status after the .me registry removed the restrictive serverHold flag that had taken it offline worldwide. DNS records have been reinstated, allowing t.me links to function again in browsers, although propagation delays caused by caching at ISPs and recursive resolvers mean not all users will see the change immediately. The outage occurred when the registry-level serverHold status was applied, preventing resolution of the domain despite Telegram continuing to operate normally. As a precaution, Telegram began automatically substituting t.me links with telegram.me inside its mobile and desktop applications. Old t.me addresses continued to work when opened directly within the messenger, but external browsers were unable to reach them. The exact cause of the serverHold status remains unknown, with possibilities including a technical error, legal request, or deliberate action by the registry operator. The domain is now formally active again, and full global visibility depends on DNS cache expiration across networks.
Generative AI Can Clone and Modify Android Apps for as Little as 88 Kopecks, Positive Technologies Warns
Positive Technologies researchers have demonstrated that generative AI models can successfully modify, reassemble, and preserve the functionality of Android applications in just minutes at extremely low cost. In experiments involving 90 diverse commercial apps, closed-source AI models achieved an 84% success rate while open-weight models reached 61%, requiring an average of 14 iterations and between 5.5 and 9 minutes per attempt. The cost of each successful modification ranged from 0.88 to 40.89 rubles, meaning an attacker could attempt to clone around 100 popular applications for only a few thousand rubles. Although the researchers inserted only neutral changes rather than malicious code, the same technique could be used to embed data interception, alter app behavior, or add connections to external command servers. The resulting fake APKs can then be distributed through third-party stores, websites, messengers, and online communities, primarily threatening users who sideload applications outside official marketplaces. The study shows that AI does not create entirely new attack vectors but dramatically lowers the technical barrier that previously required advanced reverse-engineering skills.
Hidden Spy for 1.6 Million Users: Popular Browser Extension ModHeader Secretly Collected Browsing History
Google and Microsoft have removed the popular ModHeader browser extension from the Chrome Web Store and Microsoft Edge Add-ons after security researchers discovered a hidden mechanism designed to secretly collect users' browsing history. The extension, which had approximately 1.6 million installations, allowed developers to modify HTTP headers for testing and debugging purposes but contained a dormant data-collection module in its legitimate codebase. British firm Stripe OLT confirmed that the suspicious code was part of the genuine signed build rather than a fake version. Although the history-stealing functionality remained inactive due to an empty internal browser list, the extension still transmitted telemetry data and could have been activated remotely via a simple update. Experts recommend immediate removal of the extension, replacement of any credentials entered through it, and blocking of the domains stanfordstudies[.]com and extensions-hub[.]com.
Drawn-on-Skin Conductive Ink Electrodes Replace Traditional Sensors: Washable, Customizable Designs Enable Long-Term ECG, EMG, and EEG Monitoring
Engineers have developed a water-based conductive ink that can be painted directly onto the skin using a brush to form flexible, washable electrodes in any shape or color, including decorative designs like animals or patterns. The ink dries within about ten minutes into a thin, stretchable conductive layer that conforms to skin microrelief, maintains stable electrical contact during movement and sweating, and can be easily removed with water. This approach solves common problems with rigid metal electrodes and hydrogels, such as poor adhesion, air gaps, and signal distortion during physical activity. The system pairs disposable painted electrodes with a reusable electronic module connected via porous silver fabric, enabling Bluetooth transmission of biosignals for up to 12 hours of continuous monitoring. Tests demonstrated reliable electrocardiogram recording during daily activities and exercise, electromyography for controlling robotic prosthetics, and potential uses in pediatrics, neurointerfaces, and even plant monitoring. The innovation, detailed in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with a preliminary patent filed, promises more comfortable and precise long-term biosignal tracking without complex fabrication.
ChatGPT Returns to WhatsApp After EU Forces Meta to Reopen Business API to Rival AI Bots
Home users of generative AI services have begun seeing <b>ChatGPT</b> working again inside <b>WhatsApp</b>, owned by <b>Meta</b> (recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). The partial restoration follows an EU antitrust investigation that accused Meta of abusing its dominant position to favor its own AI assistant. <b>OpenAI</b> originally launched the integration in 2024, allowing users to message the chatbot like any regular contact without extra apps. In 2025 Meta updated its <b>Business API</b> rules, effectively blocking third-party universal chatbots and pushing competitors out. After the European Commission intervened, Meta was required to reopen access, and <b>ChatGPT</b> is now gradually reappearing for some users. The rollout remains uneven, with some contacts responding normally while others stay silent, and no paid subscription is required. Neither Meta nor OpenAI has officially linked the return to the EU decision.
Google Enhances Android Backup Controls in Play Services Update, Adds Document Sync to Google Drive Amid Storage Limit Cut
Google is updating its Android backup system through Google Play Services version 26.25, introducing separate toggles for messaging backups and the ability to automatically save documents to the cloud. Users can now disable SMS, MMS, and RCS backups independently, though RCS remains nested under the MMS category for less visibility. The new document backup feature supports formats including DOC, PPT, XLS, and PDF, storing copies in a device-named folder on Google Drive without automatic synchronization to the original files. These changes coincide with Google's reduction of free storage from 15 GB to 5 GB, where Android backups now count against the quota, potentially turning small 40 MB backups into much larger archives. The update provides more granular control over what gets backed up, including call history and system settings, accessible via Settings > Accounts and backup > Google Backup > Other device data. While the feature can help preserve important files, it risks quickly exhausting limited free storage if documents are included.
The Formula Remains the Same, but the Mathematics Changes: Physicists Show Quantum World Can Be Described Without Imaginary Numbers
Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the German Aerospace Center have developed a new mathematical framework for quantum mechanics that relies solely on real numbers instead of complex numbers. By relaxing one overly restrictive assumption from a 2021 study that concluded imaginary numbers were indispensable, the team created an entire family of real-valued theories capable of reproducing all predictions of standard quantum mechanics. The work demonstrates that complex numbers, while convenient, are not necessarily a fundamental requirement of nature but rather one possible mathematical tool for describing quantum phenomena such as wave-particle duality, tunneling, and entanglement. The new approach maintains identical experimental outcomes for any conceivable test, making the two formulations indistinguishable through measurement alone. Although the authors do not advocate replacing the established complex-number formalism, their findings open fresh perspectives on the mathematical foundations of quantum theory and its applications in quantum computing and secure communication.
Near Absolute Zero and 0.55% Efficiency: World's First Superconducting Quantum Heat Engine Demonstrated by Aalto University Researchers
Researchers from Aalto University have built the first experimental cyclic quantum heat engine operating inside a superconducting quantum circuit, achieving a full repeating Otto cycle near absolute zero. The device uses a transmon qubit as the working substance, coupled with a resonator and a quantum refrigerator that can heat or cool the qubit on demand, replacing separate hot and cold reservoirs with a single voltage-controlled component. Experimental measurements over three consecutive cycles confirmed positive net work output, with an average power of 0.039 electronvolts per second and an efficiency of approximately 0.55 percent, reaching 27 percent of the theoretical Otto-cycle limit for the chosen parameters. Simulations suggest that efficiency could approach 2.2 percent once the system reaches steady-state operation. Beyond energy conversion, the technology offers a promising route to reduce the number of external microwave control lines in large-scale superconducting quantum processors by enabling autonomous on-chip operations such as state preparation and readout. The work also provides a new experimental platform for testing predictions of quantum thermodynamics under precisely controlled conditions.
Study Reveals That Names Gradually Shape Adult Facial Appearance Through Societal Expectations, Not Genetics Alone
New research demonstrates that a person's given name can influence their physical appearance over time as they unconsciously conform to social stereotypes associated with that name. The study compared photographs of children and adults, finding that participants could accurately guess names from adult faces at rates significantly above chance, while the same task proved nearly impossible with children's images. Machine learning algorithms reinforced these findings by detecting greater facial similarity among adults sharing the same name, an effect absent in younger subjects. To rule out natural aging as the cause, researchers artificially aged childhood photos, yet the resulting images still failed to match name-based expectations. The phenomenon is attributed to social structuring, where repeated societal feedback creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that subtly alters expressions, posture, and facial habits. This effect highlights how even minor social labels can leave measurable marks on human appearance by adulthood.
Tired of Instant Messaging, Users Flock to Virtual Pigeons: Roost App Revives Postal Delivery with Birds and Animals
Roost is a new messaging application that deliberately replaces instant delivery with delayed virtual bird flights, turning the wait itself into the core user experience. Users select couriers ranging from fast falcons to slow snails and turtles, with delivery times calculated from real animal speeds and actual geographic distances displayed on an interactive map. The app combines messenger functions, social networking, and a collectible creature-training game featuring over one thousand birds and animals that can be leveled up through mini-games. Created by Ticketmaster trust and safety manager Logan Mendelson as a small experiment, Roost went viral after a Threads post by Karen Lewis, growing from 10,000 to over 300,000 users in weeks without any paid marketing. Despite its playful design, the service raises notable privacy concerns because it requires precise location data, stores messages in plaintext, and sends content to OpenAI for moderation while lacking end-to-end encryption.
Scientists Develop Eye-in-a-Care-Box Device to Keep Whole Eyes Alive and Responsive to Light for 10 Hours After Death, Advancing Future Transplant Possibilities
Researchers have created a novel perfusion system called Eye-in-a-Care-Box (ECaBox) that successfully maintains the viability of whole eyes outside the body for extended periods after death. The device uses 3D-printed components and continuous oxygenated fluid circulation through the ophthalmic artery to supply oxygen and nutrients to delicate retinal tissues that typically degrade rapidly without blood flow. Experiments on pig eyes showed preserved cellular structure and electrical responses to light flashes via electroretinography even 10 hours post-mortem when perfusion began promptly, outperforming standard cold storage. Similar benefits were observed in limited tests with human donor eyes, though ethical constraints limited sample sizes and no light-response testing was performed on human retinas. The work builds on a landmark 2024 face-and-eye transplant case and highlights potential applications beyond transplantation, including ex vivo studies of macular degeneration without live animal testing. Challenges remain in reconnecting the optic nerve for vision restoration, but the technology could enable portable donor-eye preservation to reduce critical time delays.
Virtual Herd of Cows Solves Century-Old Mystery of Terracettes on Slopes That Puzzled Darwin
A new computer model demonstrates that grazing animals such as cows and sheep can independently create the striking stepped patterns known as terracettes on steep hillsides through simple energy-saving behavior. Researchers modeled individual virtual animals that only sought food while minimizing movement costs, without any pre-defined paths. On steep slopes, the animals gradually preferred horizontal routes because climbing or descending required more energy, and each step compacted soil and removed vegetation, reinforcing those paths for subsequent animals. This feedback mechanism, called stigmergy, led to the emergence of dozens of parallel, evenly spaced terraces after thousands of steps, closely matching real-world examples from the Alps, Britain, and other regions. The findings revive and strengthen observations made by Charles Darwin in 1881, who noted similar features and enlisted his son to count nearly 30 parallel steps on a 40-degree chalk slope in England. While soil creep and other geological factors may also contribute, the model proves that chaotic animal movement alone is sufficient to produce highly ordered landscape patterns without external coordination.
Legacy of Hawking, Penrose and Zeldovich: US Laboratory Recreates Rotating Black Hole Physics with Synthetic Superluminal Rotation
Physicists at the Advanced Science Research Center of the City University of New York have successfully reproduced the core physical principle behind energy extraction from rotating black holes in a stationary laboratory setup. By using a ring of electronic resonators whose parameters were rapidly modulated in sequence, the team created an artificial rotational pattern that interacted with radio waves exactly as a superluminal rotating medium would. The experiment directly demonstrates the Penrose process and Zeldovich’s rotational superradiance without any mechanical motion, gravity, or event horizon. Radio waves carrying the correct angular momentum were amplified by drawing energy from the electronic control system that continuously altered resonator properties. Published in Nature, the work belongs to the emerging field of Floquet engineering and opens pathways for studying extreme Doppler shifts and wave interactions in controlled tabletop environments. Potential future applications include advanced wireless communications, photonics, signal processing, and quantum devices, although significant miniaturization remains necessary before practical deployment.
Universe Proves Ordinary After All: High-Profile DESI Study Claiming Giant Aligned Cosmic Structures Collapses Following Data Correction
A widely publicized study published in Nature that used Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) observations to suggest the existence of unusually long, preferentially aligned filaments in the cosmic web has been overturned by independent analysis. The original paper analyzed data on 47 million galaxies and quasars spanning more than 11 billion years and argued that these structures could stretch across billions of light-years and show non-random orientations, potentially violating the cosmological principle. Critics identified two critical errors: the use of luminosity distance instead of the standard comoving distance and the failure to account for the evolving distances caused by the universe’s expansion. Once these corrections were applied, the apparent giant aligned structures vanished, restoring consistency with the standard cosmological model in which the universe appears statistically uniform on the largest scales. The episode has reignited debate over the rigor of peer review at top journals, the risks of embargoed pre-publication announcements, and the importance of releasing results on preprint servers such as arXiv for community scrutiny before formal publication.
Europe Unveils RLV C5 Reusable Rocket Concept as a Potential Competitor to SpaceX Starship
Following the successful recovery of Super Heavy booster using tower catch arms, SpaceX's Starship continues to push the boundaries of fully reusable super-heavy launch systems. A detailed independent analysis by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) reconstructed flight data from early Starship tests and estimated current payload capacity at around 59 tons to low Earth orbit in fully reusable configuration. The study also modeled future Starship variants with Raptor 3 engines, projecting up to 115 tons reusable and 188 tons expendable. In response, DLR presented its own European super-heavy concept called RLV C5, which features a reusable winged booster based on SpaceLiner technology and an expendable upper stage. The design uses liquid hydrogen/oxygen propulsion and an innovative mid-air capture system by a large subsonic aircraft, aiming for higher payload-to-mass efficiency than Starship. While Starship already undergoes real flight testing, RLV C5 remains a paper study requiring significant further development and funding.
CAR-T Therapy Expands Beyond Leukemia: GPNMB Protein Emerges as Promising Target for Glioblastoma and Rare Soft Tissue Sarcoma
CAR-T therapy, which has transformed treatment for certain blood cancers like leukemia by engineering patient T-cells to recognize specific surface proteins, has long struggled against solid tumors due to cellular heterogeneity and immunosuppressive microenvironments. Two independent research teams have now identified the surface protein GPNMB as a dual-purpose target that appears on both tumor cells and tumor-supporting immune cells. In glioblastoma models, GPNMB-directed CAR-T cells eradicated patient-derived tumor cells, slowed disease progression in mice, and attacked the protective immune niche. Parallel work on alveolar soft part sarcoma showed similar efficacy in mice, prevented metastasis, passed human-skin safety tests, and achieved disease stabilization in the first treated patient after a single infusion. The studies highlight how targeting proteins shared between cancer cells and their immunosuppressive surroundings could overcome key barriers that have limited CAR-T success in solid tumors, although larger clinical trials are still needed.
Bacteria Convert Toxic Dissolved Uranium into Rare Stable Compound FeU(V)O₄, Paving Way for Microbial Nuclear Waste Remediation
Scientists have discovered that naturally occurring bacteria from a flooded uranium mine in the Ore Mountains can transform dissolved uranium into a rare, stable pentavalent compound called FeU(V)O₄ using only glycerol as an additional carbon and energy source. In laboratory experiments mimicking the oxygen-free conditions found 2 km underground, the microbial community reduced dissolved uranium levels to just 5% of the original concentration within 130 days. Advanced synchrotron analysis at ESRF in France revealed that the bacteria not only accumulate uranium on cell walls but actively produce the previously little-known FeU(V)O₄ mineral, first identified in 2020 in uranium-contaminated Croatian soil. Remarkably, the compound remained stable and even continued to form when the bacterial biomass was dried and exposed to oxygen. This biological process could offer a cost-effective, nature-based approach to cleaning uranium-polluted water and soil, although further research is needed to scale it beyond laboratory conditions and identify the specific microbial species involved.
Doubling GPT-3 Inference Speed and Eliminating Silicon Furnaces: Vertical Memory Architectures V-Die and MOSAIC Revolutionize HBM Cooling and Bandwidth for AI Accelerators
Researchers from South Korea and Japan have unveiled two groundbreaking vertical memory stacking technologies, V-Die and MOSAIC, at the June 2026 IEEE VLSI Symposium that promise to dramatically increase HBM capacity and performance while solving critical heat dissipation problems in AI accelerators. Instead of stacking DRAM dies horizontally with TSV interconnects, both approaches rotate the memory packages sideways so individual dies stand vertically like radiator fins, enabling better cooling and more interconnects. The Korean V-Die design eliminates TSVs entirely, provides four times more connections than HBM4, reduces read latency by 37 percent, and uses microfluidic channels to keep temperatures around 45 °C, delivering 540 tokens per second on GPT-3-scale workloads versus 296 tokens with conventional HBM4 in simulations. The Japanese MOSAIC project replaces physical contacts with miniature inductive coils that enable wireless data transfer at up to 4 Gbit/s per channel, allowing up to 98 dies and 294 GB of memory (theoretically 882 GB) to be placed directly above a GPU with only a one-degree temperature rise. Both technologies remain in the research or early prototype stage and still face manufacturing and cost challenges, yet they demonstrate a viable path around the thermal wall that currently limits further scaling of high-bandwidth memory for next-generation AI hardware.
Rosreestr to Integrate AI with Satellite Imagery for Faster and More Efficient Map Updates Across Russia
Rosreestr plans to deploy artificial intelligence to accelerate the updating of cartographic materials by analyzing data from space-based remote sensing. The agency has already begun transitioning to satellite imagery for mapping the entire territory of Russia and now intends to add AI capabilities to detect changes automatically and reduce manual work. Following a signed roadmap with Roscosmos, a pilot project is being launched to monitor terrain changes using orbital images. Deputy Head Maxim Smirnov highlighted that the technology will increase update speed, boost labor productivity, and improve the efficiency of budget spending. IT companies are invited to propose solutions that combine space data with vector and registry information at various scales, after which Rosreestr will select the most suitable monitoring technology. The initiative aims to replace slow, labor-intensive manual map updates with automated satellite analysis, which is especially practical for a country of Russia’s vast size.
Physicians Fail to Detect Flawed AI Treatment Recommendations Even When Evidence Contradicts Them, New Study Finds
A new study involving 223 physicians has revealed that doctors continue to trust artificial intelligence recommendations for patient treatment even when real-world results clearly show the therapy provides no benefit. Participants were asked to evaluate an experimental therapy for a rare disease after receiving AI-generated suggestions that divided patients into groups expected to respond differently. In controlled experiments, researchers deliberately made the treatment either only moderately effective across all patients or completely ineffective, yet most doctors did not revise their assessment of the AI system. The findings point to a strong automation bias, where clinicians tend to over-rely on algorithmic outputs that appear objective and data-driven, making them less likely to question contradictory evidence. Even physicians with substantial medical experience struggled to override the initial AI guidance when presented with outcome data. The research underscores that simply having a human in the decision loop does not guarantee detection of AI errors in high-stakes medical contexts. Authors recommend additional safeguards such as independent case review before viewing AI suggestions and mandatory explanations when agreeing with algorithmic advice.
Why Simple ChatGPT Wrappers Are Losing Value: AI Model Makers Integrate Features, Pushing Startups to Control Full Industry Processes
Early startups that built businesses by wrapping large language models like ChatGPT are rapidly losing their edge as OpenAI, Anthropic, and other developers directly embed specialized capabilities into their core platforms. According to the venture firm NFX, startups must now move beyond narrow add-on tools and instead take ownership of complete industry workflows, such as building full legal services or end-to-end supply chain management systems. The initial wave of wrapper companies focused on tasks like generating ad copy, handling customer support, assisting sales teams, and searching legal documents, expecting base models to remain limited in specialized domains. This assumption proved incorrect as major AI providers added robust features for coding, document handling, and content creation, eroding the competitive advantage of single-task startups. Notable examples include Jasper, which raised $125 million at a $1.5 billion valuation before pivoting after revenue misses and layoffs, alongside more resilient firms like EvenUp, Blitzy, Tomo, and Seso that embed AI deeply into comprehensive services. Even large legal practices such as Freshfields are partnering directly with model developers, though these efforts require significant compute resources and in-house expertise. NFX emphasizes that deep domain knowledge, proprietary data, established sales channels, and control over entire service pipelines are far harder to replicate than isolated AI features.
Beats Normally — And Still Fails: Soft Robotic Heart Model Created to Study HFpEF, the Most Insidious Form of Heart Failure
Researchers have developed a soft robotic heart model capable of dynamically changing its stiffness during operation to accurately replicate heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The device uses fluid-pressure-responsive artificial muscles made from reinforced rubber tubes layered on a silicone base to mimic the left atrium and ventricle. Unlike previous models that followed fixed programs, this system features a closed-loop control mechanism where internal pressure directly influences muscle behavior and vice versa, allowing realistic simulation of diastolic dysfunction. The model can progressively restrict ventricular expansion to reproduce multiple stages of the disease, from early relaxation delays to severe filling impairment. With HFpEF accounting for roughly half of all heart failure cases and affecting over three million people in the United States alone, the platform offers a much-needed laboratory tool for testing therapies that target myocardial stiffness rather than just symptoms.
Scientists Consider Replacing Leap Seconds with a Century-Scale 'Extra Hour' to Protect Global Digital Infrastructure from Negative Leap Second Risks
International timekeeping authorities are accelerating plans to overhaul the leap second system by allowing a much larger gap between atomic time and Earth's rotation, potentially requiring the next major adjustment only after several centuries. The proposal, which could take effect as early as 2027, aims to eliminate the disruptive practice of adding or removing individual seconds from UTC. Leap seconds, introduced in 1972, have repeatedly caused outages at companies including Meta, Reddit, and Cloudflare, while also affecting aviation and high-frequency trading. Because Earth's rotation has been accelerating since 2016, experts now face the unprecedented risk of a negative leap second that would remove one second from UTC—an event whose impact on modern systems remains unknown. With a roughly 30 percent chance of needing such a negative adjustment before 2035, the General Conference on Weights and Measures is pushing for a larger tolerance between coordinated and astronomical time. The new approach would preserve the long-term link between civil time and Earth's rotation but make it far less rigid, allowing atomic clocks to govern daily operations without sudden one-second jumps.
Startup MorphMind Unveils Academic Humanizer to Help AI-Generated Research Papers Evade Detection by Mimicking Human Academic Style
MorphMind has released Academic Humanizer, a specialized tool that rewrites AI-generated academic drafts to remove machine-like patterns and align them with an individual researcher’s voice. The service operates as a Claude skill, allowing users to upload AI-created manuscripts along with examples of their previous publications so the output better reflects personal style while preserving scientific accuracy. Developers stress that the tool performs only editing and clarity improvements and does not generate new findings, data, or citations. The project’s GitHub description was revised after early wording about “removing AI traces” raised concerns, with co-founder Jie Ding clarifying that it is not intended to bypass peer review. Despite these safeguards, experts warn that the tool could make weak or fabricated papers appear more convincing, complicating detection efforts by journals and universities already dealing with a surge of AI-written submissions containing fabricated references.