It’s not just Scripps. Ransomware has become rampant in health care during pandemic

Credit: CC0 Public Domain On a local level, the ransomware attack that engulfed Scripps Health this past week, paralyzing digital resources from hospitals to outpatient clinics, was isolated. Other health care systems in the region have been unaffected and able to assist diverted patients with serious and immediate needs including heart attacks and strokes. But, look around and it is obvious that Scripps is not alone. A recent report from software firm VMWare Carbon Black estimates that its health care customers experienced a 9,851% increase in hacking attempts in… Continue Reading News Source: techxplore.com

Fossil Fuel Emergency: US Races to Move Gasoline

In an effort to delay the effects of a gasoline shortage and subsequent price spike on the East Coast, the Biden Administration just issued an order to enable overtime for some truck drivers moving gasoline, according to a Sunday declaration from the Department of Transportation. This comes in response to the shutdown of one of the country’s most critical fossil fuel pipelines following one of the largest cyberattacks on gas and oil infrastructure in American history. Fossil fuel shortage could affect the East Coast Last Friday, Colonial Pipeline said it suffered a critical ransomware attack — forcing it to halt

DNA Supercoiling is Found to Play a Role in Gene Expression

A cell has many ways to regulate gene expression, one of which is the structure of the genome itself; active genes have to be accessible to the cellular machinery to be expressed. The DNA in the cell’s nucleus is thought to be in a dynamic state in which it twists and untwists regularly, making certain areas available and limiting others. When a gene is being expressed, the two strands of DNA are unwound, which puts an extra twist on the nearby areas, supercoiling it. Researchers have now found that the cell doesn’t waste that supercoil, it uses it to exert

What Black women in their 20s and 30s can do to prevent heart disease

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Michelle Bradley Emebo’s maternal grandmother had open heart surgery. Her mother had a stroke at age 37, and her father has vascular dementia that has been linked to his smoking. Bradley Emebo’s family medical history came into play during the third trimester of her pregnancy, when she was diagnosed with high blood pressure at age 30. Before she got pregnant, she said, her health metrics were “pretty normal.” According to the Tinley Park, Illinois resident, after the birth of her daughter Sarai, now 5, her physician told her that her

As ‘diesel death zones’ spread in California, pollution regulators place new rules on warehouse industry

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Southern California air quality officials have adopted first-of-their-kind rules on warehouse distribution centers in an effort to cut truck pollution, increase electrification and reduce health risks in communities hit hardest by lung-damaging diesel exhaust. The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s governing board approved the rules Friday on a 9-4 vote after an hours-long public hearing. The rules apply to… Continue Reading News Source: phys.org

E-waste recycling matter of national security: report

According to the United Nations more than 50 million tonnes of electronic waste was discarded in 2019 Recovering precious elements from e-waste is a security imperative for Europe that should be written into law, according to a report Monday that said it was “crucial” to ensure industry competitiveness and sustain tech-dependent lifestyles in the region. Circuit boards, magnets in disk drives and electric vehicles, batteries and fluorescent lamps… Continue Reading News Source: phys.org

US states oppose a children’s version of Instagram

Attorneys general from 44 US states are urging Facebook to drop its plan to create a version of Instagram for children under 13 Officials representing most US states on Monday called on Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg to nix plans to launch a version of Instagram for children. In a letter to the founder and chief of the leading social network, 44 state attorneys general argued that such a service would be “harmful for myriad reasons.” Concerns expressed by attorneys general included cyberbullying, predatory adults, mental well-being, and Facebook’s missteps on data… Continue Reading News Source: techxplore.com

Scientists remotely controlled the social behavior of mice with light

With the help of headsets and backpacks on mice, scientists are using light to switch nerve cells on and off in the rodents’ brains to probe the animals’ social behavior, a new study shows. These remote control experiments are revealing new insights on the neural circuitry underlying social interactions, supporting previous work suggesting minds in sync are more cooperative, researchers report online May 10 in Nature Neuroscience. The new devices rely on optogenetics, a technique in which researchers use bursts of light to activate or suppress the brain nerve cells, or neurons, often using tailored viruses to genetically modify cells

Why do whales swim up the Thames?

Rescuers are doing their best to return a young minke whale to the sea after it swum several miles up the River Thames through central London, all the way to Teddington Lock in south west London. The species is migratory and their range stretches up to the Arctic in summer and down to the tropics in winter, but this whale, which is approximately 3-4m (10-13ft) long, is far off course and the outlook is not good. It is thought the minke whale’s trip up the Thames is the furthest a whale has swum up the river – it is currently

Trafficking of banned Myanmar teak lands German company with $4m fine

German firm WOB Timber was ordered by a Hamburg court to pay $4 million in fines for illegally trading Myanmar teak. Although there is a regulation that prohibits imports of Myanmar wood into the EU, companies take advantage of legal loopholes to evade it, says the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). According to the EIA, demand for Myanmar teakwood contributed to the Southeast Asian country losing a Belgium-size area of forest between 2001 and 2018 WOB Timber, a logging company based in Hamburg, Germany, has been ordered by a court to pay a $4 million fine for illegally trading Myanmar timber.