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Just add water and this squid-inspired plastic heals itself

While you’ve been busy scarfing down fried calamari rings, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have been doing something else with squid . Namely? Studying the cephalopod’s ring teeth for a way to create a material that heals when water’s present , much in the way that those tentacle-bound choppers do. The way the report spotted by Popular Science tells it, the researchers were able to reproduce the type of proteins found in the self-healing squid teeth and trigger bacteria to make it in a lab environment. To test just how strong the new material was, the scientists formed the protein into the shape of a dog bone and cut it in two with a razor blade. After pressing the two segments back together, dousing them with a bit of water and applying pressure, the pieces fused and were still as strong compared to before they were cut. Like PopSci notes, this type of material could be used to coat things deep-sea internet cables or perhaps help biomedical devices have a longer lifespan, but is still a ways off from primetime. That and it still needs to be tested against shark bites , of course. [Image credits: Getty/Jeff Rotman (lead), Demirel Lab/Penn State (lab photo)] Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: Popular Science Source: Penn State University , Nature Tags: bacteria, nature, protein, science, SelfHealing, squid, squidteeth, UniversityOfPennsylvania, upenn

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Just add water and this squid-inspired plastic heals itself

New Russian Laboratory To Study Mammoth Cloning

An anonymous reader writes: While plans to clone a woolly mammoth are not new, a lab used in a joint effort by Russia and South Korea is. The new facility is devoted to studying extinct animal DNA in the hope of creating clones from the remains of animals found in the permafrost. IBtimes reports: “The Sakha facility has the world’s largest collection of frozen ancient animal carcasses and remains, with more than 2, 000 samples in its possession, including some that are tens of thousands years old, such as a mammoth discovered on the island of Maly Lyakhovsky; experts believe it may be more than 28, 000 years old.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New Russian Laboratory To Study Mammoth Cloning

Samsung jumps into Ultra HD Blu-ray, as Fox provides the movies

Today Samsung is the first company to announce an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, taking the lead in 4K and HDR video. Following up on its big Ultra HD push at CES and the movie streaming/ download tech that has arrived in the months since, Samsung is ready to push super high resolution movies (four times the resolution of Blu-ray, and 64 times as many colors) on discs too. There’s not much detail available on its new player, although we expect it will cost less than the $1, 000 price its first Blu-ray player commanded nearly a decade ago and it should launch early next year. Joining the tech company on its IFA 2015 stage are Fox execs, with president Mike Dunn proclaiming the studio is committed to releasing its slate of upcoming movies in Ultra HD with HDR day-and-date with the Blu-ray and Digital HD releases. That includes Fantastic Four , Maze Runner , Kingsman: The Secret Service and more. Samsung’s Ultra HD Blu-ray player is curved to match its TVs , and also includes a number of UHD streaming services. The other news today at IFA is that Samsung’s TVs will be the first ones getting a software update to support HDMI 2.0a , necessary to receive HDR info from the new Blu-ray players. As far as that UHD Alliance the tech industry and Hollywood are creating to push their new video standards, Fox CTO Hanno Basse said it has tripled in size, and hopes to share more details in “the coming months.” Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD , Samsung , Microsoft Comments Tags: 4K, Blu-ray, Fox, hdpostcross, HDR, IFA, IFA2015, microsoft, MikeDunn, samsung, SUHD, UltraHD, UltraHDBlu-ray

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Samsung jumps into Ultra HD Blu-ray, as Fox provides the movies

City-run ISP makes 10Gbps available to all residents and businesses

A municipal Internet service provider in Salisbury, North Carolina, announced today that it is making 10Gbps service available throughout the city, to both businesses and residents. The city-run  Fibrant was created five years ago after city officials were unable to persuade private ISPs to upgrade their infrastructure and built fiber throughout the city. Gigabit download and upload speeds have been available to residents since last year for $105 a month , while customers can pay as little as $45 a month for 50Mbps symmetrical service. TV and phone service is available, too. Fibrant officials don’t actually expect much, if any demand from residents for the 10Gbps download and upload service. The big speed upgrade is mainly targeted at businesses, but the announcement said 10Gbps service is now “available to every premises in the city,” including all homes. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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City-run ISP makes 10Gbps available to all residents and businesses

Tesla’s $35,000 Model 3 will start production in 2017

God bless Elon Musk and his Twitter feed. While other companies rely on secretive press offices or employ PR giants to handle their communications, Musk happily uses the 140-character platform to break news about what’s going on at Tesla and SpaceX. Wednesday, we learned that the Model 3—Tesla’s next electric vehicle after the Model X SUV—will go into production in 2017, but only once the Gigafactory is up and running. Model 3, our smaller and lower cost sedan will start production in about 2 years. Fully operational Gigafactory needed. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2015 The Gigafactory is a $5 billion plant that Tesla is building near Sparks, Nevada in partnership with Panasonic. The plan is to achieve significant economies of scale at the Gigafactory, which will make the Model 3’s $35,000 price tag possible—something Musk also told us via Twitter yesterday. @elonmusk $35k price, unveil in March, preorders start then. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2015 When the Model 3 hits the streets in 2017 (assuming no Gigafactory-related delays) it won’t have as easy a time in the marketplace as the Model S, which even now still has no real competition. Chevrolet is launching the Bolt next year, a $30,000 EV which will match Tesla’s 200-mile (321km) range. However, Tesla has cleverly positioned itself as a premium brand with the Model S (and forthcoming Model X). Leveraging that cachet to move Model 3s seems like a no-brainer. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Tesla’s $35,000 Model 3 will start production in 2017

Subpoenaed Clinton Staffer Will Plead the Fifth Over Email Scandal Questions

The FBI is investigating whether Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email compromised national security . And now the staffer who set it up is planning to stay silent during questioning to avoid incriminating himself. Read more…

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Subpoenaed Clinton Staffer Will Plead the Fifth Over Email Scandal Questions

Acer unveils the Revo Build: A tiny, modular, stackable PC

7 more images in gallery BERLIN—At IFA 2015, Acer has unveiled the intriguing Acer Revo Build, a modular mini PC that that can be upgraded with a series of stackable blocks. The NUC-like base unit, which has a footprint of just 12.5×12.5 centimetres (5×5in), comes equipped with a low-power Intel Pentium or Celeron Skylake chip , 32GB of flash storage, and 8GB of upgradeable RAM. On top of the base unit, you can stack other components like hard drives, graphics cards, and wireless charging units. The Revo Build will be released in Europe in October. Each block connects via a set of magnetically aligned pins, which should make swapping out different components easy. However, it’s not clear just how fast that interconnect is, nor whether the PC needs to be powered down to swap out blocks. That said, given that one of the blocks in development contains a graphics card upgrade, it should have plenty of speed and bandwidth on tap. Aside from the GPU block, Acer will also be offering blocks with a 500GB or 1TB hard drive, wireless charging, a speaker and microphone, and bizarrely, even a projector. Some blocks like the hard drives can be used independently of the base unit. Acer says additional blocks will be “rolled out gradually,” but there’s currently no indication how often this’ll be, or what’s coming next. Individual pricing for these units hasn’t been announced either. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Acer unveils the Revo Build: A tiny, modular, stackable PC

“NightShift” caches Netflix shows on your home network to boost speed

Are you having problems streaming Netflix? A startup called Aterlo Networks claims it has a solution: download Netflix shows and cache them locally so you can view them later without problems. Aterlo’s “ NightShift ” service could theoretically help anyone with slow home Internet connections access high-definition Netflix video. But Aterlo is primarily targeting it at satellite Internet customers who have to abide by strict data caps during the day and evening hours when most people watch streaming video. “Most satellite subscriptions in the US have a 10GB to 25GB monthly usage restriction, which effectively makes it impossible to use Netflix or other streaming video,” Aterlo CTO Scot Loach told Ars in a phone interview. Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“NightShift” caches Netflix shows on your home network to boost speed

Mac keychain flaw can send your passwords to hackers via text

Antoine Vincent Jebara and Raja Rahbani have discovered a Mac Keychain vulnerability that hackers can easily exploit to steal passwords, certificates, etc. with very little user interaction needed. The duo stumbled upon the flaw while working on the Keychain for their identity management software Myki . They found out that attackers can craft commands that can make Mac’s password management system prompt users to click an “Allow button” instead of asking them to type in their passwords. Once a user clicks that button, the malicious code can forward Keychain’s contents via text, though the info could also be saved somewhere for download later on. The malware required to trigger that process can be introduced into the victim’s computer via innocuous files such as images, documents and spreadsheets. In fact, the proof of concept Rahbani and Jebara developed to test out what they discovered launches the malware-wrapped image in Preview after you click Allow. They designed it that way to show how that method can be used to allay any suspicion brewing in the back of the victim’s mind. In Jebara’s email to Engadget , he said they already notified Apple of the vulnerability and are waiting to hear back. He explained that they decided to come out with this information, because it could be extremely harmful to users if exploited. By knowing the flaw’s nature, you can at least protect yourself by not click strange buttons that pop up in Keychain. We disclosed because we feel that it is the right thing to do knowing that a vulnerability of this magnitude would have disastrous consequences (you wouldn’t be able to open any third-party file on your computer without the risk of losing all of your sensitive information until Apple issues a patch)… The vulnerability is extremely critical as it allows anyone to steal all of your passwords remotely by simply downloading a file that doesn’t look malicious at all and that can’t be detected by malware detectors because it doesn’t behave the way malware usually does. [Image credit: mangpages/Flickr ] Filed under: Misc , Apple Comments Tags: apple, keychain, security

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Mac keychain flaw can send your passwords to hackers via text