“Scientists Use AI to Create a Virus Never Seen Before”
January 26th, 2026Via: Daily Mail:
Lab–grown life has taken a major leap forward as scientists use AI to create a new virus that has never been seen before.
The virus, dubbed Evo–?2147, was created by scientists from scratch using new technologies that could revolutionise the course of evolution.
With just 11 genes, compared to the 200,000 in the human genome, this virus is among the simplest forms of life.
However, scientists believe that the same tools could one day create entire living organisms or resurrect long–extinct species.
This artificial virus was specifically created to kill infectious and potentially deadly E. Coli bacteria.
Based on a wild virus known to infect bacteria, scientists used an AI tool called Evo2 to create 285 entirely new viruses from scratch.
While only 16 were able to attack the E. Coli, the most successful were 25 per cent quicker at killing bacteria than the wild variants.
However, previous research has raised concerns that AI–designed pathogens could themselves become a deadly threat to humanity.
LED Lighting (350-650nm) Undermines Human Visual Performance Unless Supplemented by Wider Spectra (400-1500nm+) Like Daylight
January 26th, 2026Via: Scientific Reports:
Life evolved under broad spectrum sunlight, from ultraviolet to infrared (300–2500 nm). This spectrally balanced light sculpted life’s physiology and metabolism. But modern lighting has recently become dominated by restricted spectrum light emitting diodes (350–650 nm LEDs). Absence of longer wavelengths in LEDs and their short wavelength dominance impacts physiology, undermining normal mitochondrial respiration that regulates metabolism, disease and ageing. Mitochondria are light sensitive. The 420–450 nm dominant in LEDs suppresses respiration while deep red/infrared (670–900 nm) increases respiration in aging and some diseases including in blood sugar regulation. Here we supplement LED light with broad spectrum lighting (400–1500 nm+) for 2 weeks and test colour contrast sensitivity. We show significant improvement in this metric that last for 2 months after the supplemental lighting is removed. Mitochondria communicate across the body with systemic impacts following regional light exposure. This likely involves shifting patterns of serum cytokine expression, raising the possibility of wider negative impacts of LEDs on human health particularly, in the elderly or in the clinical environment where individuals are debilitated. Changing the lighting in these environments could be a highly economic route to improved public health.
In Conversation with Andrew Bridgen: Digital ID, Excess Deaths & Political Silence
January 26th, 2026Via: Digby Furneaux:
Microsoft Gave FBI a Set of BitLocker Encryption Keys to Unlock Suspects’ Laptops
January 23rd, 2026Letting Microsoft hold copies of your Bitlocker keys is very convenient—for the police.
Via: Forbes:
Early last year, the FBI served Microsoft with a search warrant, asking it to provide recovery keys to unlock encrypted data stored on three laptops. Federal investigators in Guam believed the devices held evidence that would help prove individuals handling the island’s Covid unemployment assistance program were part of a plot to steal funds.
The data was protected with BitLocker, software that’s automatically enabled on many modern Windows PCs to safeguard all the data on the computer’s hard drive. BitLocker scrambles the data so that only those with a key can decode it.
It’s possible for users to store those keys on a device they own, but Microsoft also recommends BitLocker users store their keys on its servers for convenience. While that means someone can access their data if they forget their password, or if repeated failed attempts to login lock the device, it also makes them vulnerable to law enforcement subpoenas and warrants.
In the Guam case, it handed over the encryption keys to investigators.
Microsoft confirmed to Forbes that it does provide BitLocker recovery keys if it receives a valid legal order. “While key recovery offers convenience, it also carries a risk of unwanted access, so Microsoft believes customers are in the best position to decide… how to manage their keys,” said Microsoft spokesperson Charles Chamberlayne.
He said the company receives around 20 requests for BitLocker keys per year and in many cases, the user has not stored their key in the cloud making it impossible for Microsoft to assist.
Korg Phase8 Acoustic Synthesizer
January 23rd, 2026There are probably fewer than five people who read Cryptogon who will be interested in the Korg Phase8, but I want to make sure they know about it. 🙂
Via: loopop:
Related: Korg Phase8 Acoustic Synthesizer
And Now… U.S. Unveils Plans for ‘New Gaza’ with Skyscrapers
January 23rd, 2026Via: BBC:
The US has unveiled its plans for a “New Gaza” that would see the devastated Palestinian territory rebuilt from scratch.
Slides showed dozens of skyscrapers stretching along the Mediterranean coast and housing estates in the Rafah area, while a map outlining the phased development of new residential, agricultural and industrial areas for the 2.1 million population.
They were presented during a signing ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos for President Donald Trump’s new Board of Peace, which is tasked with ending the two-year war between Israel and Hamas and overseeing reconstruction.
“We’re going to be very successful in Gaza. It’s going to be a great thing to watch,” Trump declared.
“I’m a real estate person at heart and it’s all about location. And I said: ‘Look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people.'”
Dangerously Cold Air to Surge Through Dozens of States
January 23rd, 2026Via: Accuweather:
The coldest air of the winter may visit many areas across the central and eastern United States, with AccuWeather RealFeel Temperatures of 50 below zero in the coldest spots.
More: State of Emergency Declared in Multiple States
Up to 25 Percent of U.S. Colleges May Close Soon
January 23rd, 2026Good.
And this should be done at the high school level:
The initiative seeks to overhaul the university’s general education curriculum, expand access to internships and apprenticeships, and provide students with micro-credentials tied to skills valued by employers.
Via: The College Fix:
Higher education is approaching a period of profound disruption, and many colleges may not survive, Arthur Levine, the newly appointed president of Brandeis University, said during a recent event.
Levine estimated that between 20 and 25 percent of colleges will close in the coming years, while community colleges and regional universities move increasingly online.
…
Levine said he is attempting to respond to these issues through his “Brandeis Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts.”
The initiative seeks to overhaul the university’s general education curriculum, expand access to internships and apprenticeships, and provide students with micro-credentials tied to skills valued by employers.
“The liberal arts have always been practical,” he said, noting that early American higher education was designed to prepare students for professional and civic leadership. Under the new plan, Brandeis aims to redesign general education to better align with the demands of a global digital economy.
Withdrawing The United States From The World Health Organization
January 22nd, 2026Via: The White House:
Sec. 2. Actions. (a) The United States intends to withdraw from the WHO. The Presidential Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations signed on January 20, 2021, that retracted the United States’ July 6, 2020, notification of withdrawal is revoked.
Pentagon Orders More Active-Duty Soldiers to Prepare for Deployment in Minnesota
January 22nd, 2026Via: Independent:
Hundreds more active-duty soldiers have been given orders to prepare for possible deployment in Minnesota, amid ongoing tensions and concern that Donald Trump may invoke the Insurrection Act to quash anti-immigration enforcement protests.
The Pentagon has ordered members of an Army military police brigade based at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, to be on standby, sources familiar with the matter told MS NOW.
