Author name: Paul Patrick

we-probably-inherited-our-joints-from…-a-fish

We probably inherited our joints from… a fish

Biology, developmental biology, evolution, joints, paleontology, Science, synovial joints / /

What do we have in common with fish, besides being vertebrates? The types of joints we (and most vertebrates) share most likely originated from the same common ancestor. But it’s not a feature that we share with all vertebrates.

Humans, other land vertebrates, and jawed fish have synovial joints. The lubricated cavity within these joints makes them more mobile and stable because it allows for bones or cartilage to slide against each other without friction, which facilitates movement.

The origin of these joints was uncertain. Now, biologist Neelima Sharma of the University of Chicago and her colleagues have taken a look at which fish form this type of joint. Synovial joints are known to be present in jawed but not jawless fish. This left the question of whether they are just a feature of bony skeletons in general or if they are also found in fish with cartilaginous skeletons, such as sharks and skates (there are no land animals with cartilaginous skeletons).

As Sharma and her team found, cartilaginous fish with jaws, such as the skate embryos they studied, do develop these joints, while jawless fish, such as lampreys and hagfish, lack them.

So what could this mean? If jawed fish have synovial joints in common with all jawed vertebrates, including us, it must have evolved in our shared ancestor.

Something fishy in our past

While the common ancestor of vertebrates with synovial joints is still a mystery, the oldest specimen with evidence of these joints is Bothriolepis canadensis, a fish that lived about 387 to 360 million years ago during the Middle to Late Devonian period.

When using CT scanning to study a Bothriolepis fossil, Sharma observed a joint cavity between the shoulder and pectoral fin. Whether the cavity was filled with synovial fluid or cartilage is impossible to tell, but either way, she thinks it appears to have functioned like a synovial joint would. Fossils of early jawless fish, in contrast, lack any signs of synovial joints.

We probably inherited our joints from… a fish Read More »

measles-arrives-in-kansas,-spreads-quickly-in-undervaccinated-counties

Measles arrives in Kansas, spreads quickly in undervaccinated counties

health, Infectious disease, kansas, measles, MMR, outbreak, Science, texas, unvaccinated, vaccinated, virus / /

On Thursday, the county on the northern border of Stevens, Grant County, also reported three confirmed cases, which were also linked to the first case in Stevens. Grant County is in a much better position to handle the outbreak than its neighbors; its one school district, Ulysses, reported 100 percent vaccination coverage for kindergartners in the 2023–2024 school year.

Outbreak risk

So far, details about the fast-rising cases are scant. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has not published another press release about the cases since March 13. Ars Technica reached out to KDHE for more information but did not hear back before this story’s publication.

The outlet KWCH 12 News out of Wichita published a story Thursday, when there were just six cases reported in just Grant and Stevens Counties, saying that all six were in unvaccinated people and that no one had been hospitalized. On Friday, KWCH updated the story to note that the case count had increased to 10 and that the health department now considers the situation an outbreak.

Measles is an extremely infectious virus that can linger in airspace and on surfaces for up to two hours after an infected person has been in an area. Among unvaccinated people exposed to the virus, 90 percent will become infected.

Vaccination rates have slipped nationwide, creating pockets that have lost herd immunity and are vulnerable to fast-spreading, difficult-to-stop outbreaks. In the past, strong vaccination rates prevented such spread, and in 2000, the virus was declared eliminated, meaning there was no continuous spread of the virus over a 12-month period. Experts now fear that the US will lose its elimination status, meaning measles will once again be considered endemic to the country.

So far this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has documented 378 measles cases as of Thursday, March 20. That figure is already out of date.

On Friday, the Texas health department reported 309 cases in its ongoing outbreak. Forty people have been hospitalized, and one unvaccinated child with no underlying medical conditions has died. The outbreak has spilled over to New Mexico and Oklahoma. In New Mexico, officials reported Friday that the case count has risen to 42 cases, with two hospitalizations and one death in an unvaccinated adult. In Oklahoma, the case count stands at four.

Measles arrives in Kansas, spreads quickly in undervaccinated counties Read More »

italy-demands-google-poison-dns-under-strict-piracy-shield-law

Italy demands Google poison DNS under strict Piracy Shield law

DNS, Google, piracy, Policy, Tech / /

Spotted by TorrentFreak, AGCOM Commissioner Massimiliano Capitanio took to LinkedIn to celebrate the ruling, as well as the existence of the Italian Piracy Shield. “The Judge confirmed the value of AGCOM’s investigations, once again giving legitimacy to a system for the protection of copyright that is unique in the world,” said Capitanio.

Capitanio went on to complain that Google has routinely ignored AGCOM’s listing of pirate sites, which are supposed to be blocked in 30 minutes or less under the law. He noted the violation was so clear-cut that the order was issued without giving Google a chance to respond, known as inaudita altera parte in Italian courts.

This decision follows a similar case against Internet backbone firm Cloudflare. In January, the Court of Milan found that Cloudflare’s CDN, DNS server, and WARP VPN were facilitating piracy. The court threatened Cloudflare with fines of up to 10,000 euros per day if it did not begin blocking the sites.

Google could face similar sanctions, but AGCOM has had difficulty getting international tech behemoths to acknowledge their legal obligations in the country. We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update this report if we hear back.

Italy demands Google poison DNS under strict Piracy Shield law Read More »

“infantile-amnesia”-occurs-despite-babies-showing-memory-activity

“Infantile amnesia” occurs despite babies showing memory activity

Biology, infantile amnesia, memory, neurobiology, Science / /

For many of us, memories of our childhood have become a bit hazy, if not vanishing entirely. But nobody really remembers much before the age of 4, because nearly all humans experience what’s termed “infantile amnesia,” in which memories that might have formed before that age seemingly vanish as we move through adolescence. And it’s not just us; the phenomenon appears to occur in a number of our fellow mammals.

The simplest explanation for this would be that the systems that form long-term memories are simply immature and don’t start working effectively until children hit the age of 4. But a recent animal experiment suggests that the situation in mice is more complex: the memories are there, they’re just not normally accessible, although they can be re-activated. Now, a study that put human infants in an MRI tube suggests that memory activity starts by the age of 1, suggesting that the results in mice may apply to us.

Less than total recall

Mice are one of the species that we know experience infantile amnesia. And, thanks to over a century of research on mice, we have some sophisticated genetic tools that allow us to explore what’s actually involved in the apparent absence of the animals’ earliest memories.

A paper that came out last year describes a series of experiments that start by having very young mice learn to associate seeing a light come on with receiving a mild shock. If nothing else is done with those mice, that association will apparently be forgotten later in life due to infantile amnesia.

But in this case, the researchers could do something. Neural activity normally results in the activation of a set of genes. In these mice, the researchers engineered it so one of the genes that gets activated encodes a protein that can modify DNA. When this protein is made, it results in permanent changes to a second gene that was inserted in the animal’s DNA. Once activated through this process, the gene leads to the production of a light-activated ion channel.

“Infantile amnesia” occurs despite babies showing memory activity Read More »

judge-orders-musk-and-doge-to-delete-personal-data-taken-from-social-security

Judge orders Musk and DOGE to delete personal data taken from Social Security

doge, elon musk, Policy, Trump / /

The lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Alliance for Retired Americans; and American Federation of Teachers. “Never before has a group of unelected, unappointed, and unvetted individuals—contradictorily described as White House employees, employees of either existing or putative agencies (multiple and many), and undefined ‘advisors’—sought or gained access to such sensitive information from across the federal government,” the lawsuit said.

A temporary restraining order preserves the status quo until a preliminary injunction hearing can be held, although the legal standards for granting a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction are essentially the same, Hollander wrote. A temporary restraining order lasts 14 days by default but can be extended.

“In my view, plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits as to their claim that the access to records provided by SSA to the DOGE Team does not fall within the need-to-know exception to the Privacy Act. Therefore, the access violates both the Privacy Act and the APA,” Hollander wrote.

The SSA has meanwhile been hit with DOGE-fueled budget cuts affecting its operations.

The order

The order says the SSA must cut off DOGE’s access. Musk, Gleason, and all other DOGE team members and affiliates “shall disgorge and delete all non-anonymized PII [personally identifiable information] data in their possession or under their control, provided from or obtained, directly or indirectly, from any SSA system of record to which they have or have had access, directly or indirectly, since January 20, 2025,” it says.

The DOGE defendants are also prohibited “from installing any software on SSA devices, information systems, or systems of record, and shall remove any software that they previously installed since January 20, 2025, or which has been installed on their behalf,” and are prohibited “from accessing, altering, or disclosing any SSA computer or software code.”

The SSA is allowed to provide DOGE with redacted or anonymized records, and may provide “access to discrete, particularized, and non-anonymized data, in accordance with the Privacy Act” under certain conditions. “SSA must first obtain from the DOGE Team member, in writing, and subject to possible review by the Court, a detailed explanation as to the need for the record and why, for said particular and discrete record, an anonymized or redacted record is not suitable for the specified use,” the order said. “The general and conclusory explanation that the information is needed to search for fraud or waste is not sufficient to establish need.”

Judge orders Musk and DOGE to delete personal data taken from Social Security Read More »

the-ax-has-become-an-important-part-of-the-space-force’s-arsenal

The ax has become an important part of the Space Force’s arsenal

military space, Space, space force / /

“All those traditional primes opted out of this event, every single one,” Hammett said. “We’re cultivating an A-team who’s willing to work with us, who’s hungry, who wants to bring affordability and speed, and it’s not the existing industry base.”

Hammett’s office didn’t set out to banish the big defense contractors. Simply put, he said they haven’t performed or aren’t interested in going in the direction Space RCO wants to go.

“I’ve terminated 11 major contracts in less than three years,” Hammett said. “Eighty-five percent of those were with traditional defense primes.” Most of these programs are classified, so it doesn’t become news when a contract is canceled.

“We try to fix the programs,” Hammett said. “We work with the performers, but if they can’t get right, and if we have program baselines where they’re now exceeding it by 100 percent in cost or schedule … we’re going to fire them and start again.”

At the same time, venture-backed companies seem to emerge every day from the ether of Silicon Valley or one of the nation’s other tech corridors.

“There’s a lot of opportunity to bring other performers into the portfolio, but there are lots of barriers,” Hammett said. One of those barriers is leadership at many startups don’t have a security clearance. Many small companies don’t use the certified accounting systems the government usually requires for federal contracts. 

“You have to be willing to modify your approach, your acquisition strategies, those types of things, so I have directed my team to open the aperture, to find the A-team, wherever the A-team lives, because it doesn’t seem to be in our current portfolio,” Hammett said.

The Space Force has launched three generations of GPS satellites capable of broadcasting a jam-resistant military-grade navigation signal, but ground system delays have kept US forces from fully adopting it. This image shows a GPS III satellite at Lockheed Martin. Credit: Lockheed Martin

There’s still a place for the Pentagon’s incumbent contractors, according to Hammett. Small companies like the ones at Space RCO’s pitch lack the national, or even global, footprint to execute the military’s most expensive programs.

“We’re trying to build the first of something new, different, at a price point that we can accept,” Hammett said. “That’s what these types of companies are trying to do. And we’re not having to pay the lion’s share of the cost for that because VC [venture capital] firms and others are kick-starting them.”

Executives at Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and other traditional defense companies have become warier of bidding on government programs, especially fixed-price contracts where financial risk is transferred from the government to the contractor.

The CEO of L3Harris, another established defense contractor, said in 2023 that his company has also declined to bid on fixed-price development contracts. L3Harris leads development of a software system called ATLAS to manage data from a network of sensors tracking rocket launches and objects in orbit. The program is over budget and was supposed to be ready for action in 2022, but it still isn’t operational.

RTX is in charge of another troubled military space program. The Next-Generation Operational Control System, known as OCX, is designed to allow military forces, including airplanes, ships, and ground vehicles, to access a jam-resistant GPS signal that satellites have been beaming from space since 2005. Twenty years later, the military’s weapons systems still haven’t widely adopted this M-code signal because of OCX delays.

Both programs are managed by Space Systems Command, the unit that has traditionally been responsible for buying hardware and software for military space programs. SSC, too, hasn’t shied away recently from taking the hatchet to some problem projects. Last year, SSC confirmed it kicked RTX off a program to develop three next-generation missile warning satellites because it was over budget, behind schedule, and faced “unresolved design challenges.”

The ax has become an important part of the Space Force’s arsenal Read More »

mom-of-child-dead-from-measles:-“don’t-do-the-shots,”-my-other-4-kids-were-fine

Mom of child dead from measles: “Don’t do the shots,” my other 4 kids were fine

anti-vaccine, children's health defense, health, kennedy, measles, MMR, vaccine / /

Cod liver oil contains high levels of vitamin A, which is sometimes administered to measles patients under a physician’s supervision. But the supplement is mostly a supportive treatment in children with vitamin deficiencies, and taking too much can cause toxicity. Nevertheless, Kennedy has touted the vitamin and falsely claimed that good nutrition protects against the virus, much to the dismay of pediatricians.

“They had a really good, quick recovery,” the mother said of her other four children, attributing their recovery to the unproven treatments.

Tragic misinformation

Most children do recover from measles, regardless of whether they’re given cod liver oil. The fatality rate of measles is nearly 1 to 3 in 1,000 children, who die with respiratory (e.g., pneumonia) or neurological complications from the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tommey noted that the sibling who died didn’t get the alternative treatments, leading the audience to believe that this could have contributed to her death. She also questioned what was written on the death certificate, noting that the girl’s pneumonia was from a secondary bacterial infection, not the virus directly, a clear effort to falsely suggest measles was not the cause of death and downplay the dangers of the disease. The parents said they hadn’t received the death certificate yet.

Tommey then turned to the MMR vaccine, asking if the mother still felt that it was a dangerous vaccine after her daughter’s death from the disease, prefacing the question by claiming to have seen a lot of “injury” from the vaccine. “Do you still feel the same way about the MMR vaccine versus measles?” she asked.

“Yes, absolutely; we would absolutely not take the MMR. The measles wasn’t that bad, and they got over it pretty quickly,” the mother replied, speaking again of her four living children.

“So,” Tommey continued, “when you see the fearmongering in the press, which is what we want to stop, that is why we want to get the truth out, what do you say to the parents who are rushing out, panicking, to get the MMR for their 6-month-old baby because they think that that child is going to die of measles because of what happened to your daughter?”

Mom of child dead from measles: “Don’t do the shots,” my other 4 kids were fine Read More »

bird-flu-continues-spread-as-trump’s-pandemic-experts-are-mia

Bird flu continues spread as Trump’s pandemic experts are MIA

bird flu, eggs, health, pandemic, pandemic preparedness / /

Under the Biden administration, OPPR also worked behind the scenes. At the time, it was directed by Paul Friedrichs, a physician and retired Air Force major general. Friedrichs told CNN that the OPPR regularly hosted interagency calls between the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the USDA, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. When the H5N1 bird flu outbreak erupted in dairy farms last March, OPPR was hosting daily meetings, which transitioned to weekly meetings toward the end of the administration.

“At the end of the day, bringing everybody together and having those meetings was incredibly important, so that we had a shared set of facts,” Friedrichs said. “When decisions were made, everyone understood why the decision was made, what facts were used to inform the decision.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who co-wrote the bill that created OPPR with former Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), is concerned by Trump’s sidelining of the office.

“Under the last administration, OPPR served, as intended, as the central hub coordinating a whole-of-government response to pandemic threats,” she said in a written statement to CNN. “While President Trump cannot legally disband OPPR, as he has threatened to do, it is deeply concerning that he has moved the statutorily created OPPR into the NSC.”

“As intended by law, OPPR is a separate, distinct office for a reason, which is especially relevant now as we are seeing outbreaks of measles, bird flu, and other serious and growing threats to public health,” Murray wrote. “This should be alarming to everyone.”

Bird flu continues spread as Trump’s pandemic experts are MIA Read More »

hp-avoids-monetary-damages-over-bricked-printers-in-class-action-settlement

HP avoids monetary damages over bricked printers in class-action settlement

HP, printers, Tech / /

HP also now provides disclaimers on the product pages for most of the printers that it sells, stating that the device “is intended to work only with cartridges that have a new or reused HP chip” and uses Dynamic Security “to block cartridges using a non-HP chip.”

“Periodic firmware updates will maintain the effectiveness of these measures and block cartridges that previously worked. A reused HP chip enables the use of reused, remanufactured, and refilled cartridges,” the disclaimer says, adding a link to a support page about Dynamic Security. The support page notes that “most HP printers can be configured to receive updates either automatically or with a notification that allows you to choose whether to update or not.” However, some HP programs, like Instant Ink, require users to enable automatic firmware updates on HP printers.

All this means that, despite the recently approved settlement, Dynamic Security remains a critical part of most HP printers, and HP will continue to feel entitled to use firmware updates to suddenly block printers made after December 1, 2016, from using non-HP ink and toner. Owners of HP printers made after that date that allow automatic updates and still work with third-party accessories shouldn’t be surprised if that ability’s suddenly bricked one day.

Dynamic litigation

While HP isn’t paying a sum to class-action members this time, it has previously agreed to pay millions in relation to bricking printers: In 2022, it agreed to pay $1.35 million to European customers, and in 2020, the Italian Antitrust Authority fined HP for 10 million euros. In 2019, HP said it would pay $1.5 million to settle a similar class-action case in California, and it paid approximately AUD$50 each to Australian customers impacted by Dynamic Security in 2018.

There’s also an open case against HP regarding its ink practices, a class-action complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in January 2024. The lawsuit centers on Dynamic Security firmware updates pushed “in late 2022 and early 2023″ and accuses HP of creating a “monopoly in the aftermarket for replacement cartridges” [PDF]. The plaintiffs seek an order declaring that HP broke the law, an injunction against Dynamic Security, and monetary and punitive damages.

Another lawsuit, filed in mid-2022 about some HP all-in-one printers failing to scan or fax without ink, was dismissed.

HP’s printer arm has other pressing matters to address, though. Earlier this month, a firmware update broke specific HP printer models, preventing them from printing, even when using HP-brand ink. HP told Ars last week that it’s “actively working on a solution.”

HP avoids monetary damages over bricked printers in class-action settlement Read More »

nvidia-announces-dgx-desktop-“personal-ai-supercomputers”

Nvidia announces DGX desktop “personal AI supercomputers”

AI, AI GPU, ASUS, Biz & IT, dell, desktop AI PC, desktop PC, DGX, DGX Spark, DGX Station, GPUs, HP, Jensen Huang, Lenovo, machine learning, NVIDIA, Nvidia DGX, Nvidia GTC, personal AI supercomputer, supermicro, Tech / /

During Tuesday’s Nvidia GTX keynote, CEO Jensen Huang unveiled two “personal AI supercomputers” called DGX Spark and DGX Station, both powered by the Grace Blackwell platform. In a way, they are a new type of AI PC architecture specifically built for running neural networks, and five major PC manufacturers will build the supercomputers.

These desktop systems, first previewed as “Project DIGITS” in January, aim to bring AI capabilities to developers, researchers, and data scientists who need to prototype, fine-tune, and run large AI models locally. DGX systems can serve as standalone desktop AI labs or “bridge systems” that allow AI developers to move their models from desktops to DGX Cloud or any AI cloud infrastructure with few code changes.

Huang explained the rationale behind these new products in a news release, saying, “AI has transformed every layer of the computing stack. It stands to reason a new class of computers would emerge—designed for AI-native developers and to run AI-native applications.”

The smaller DGX Spark features the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip with Blackwell GPU and fifth-generation Tensor Cores, delivering up to 1,000 trillion operations per second for AI.

Meanwhile, the more powerful DGX Station includes the GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip with 784GB of coherent memory and the ConnectX-8 SuperNIC supporting networking speeds up to 800Gb/s.

The DGX architecture serves as a prototype that other manufacturers can produce. Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo will develop and sell both DGX systems, with DGX Spark reservations opening today and DGX Station expected later in 2025. Additional manufacturing partners for the DGX Station include BOXX, Lambda, and Supermicro, with systems expected to be available later this year.

Since the systems will be manufactured by different companies, Nvidia did not mention pricing for the units. However, in January, Nvidia mentioned that the base-level configuration for a DGX Spark-like computer would retail for around $3,000.

Nvidia announces DGX desktop “personal AI supercomputers” Read More »

nvidia-announces-“rubin-ultra”-and-“feynman”-ai-chips-for-2027-and-2028

Nvidia announces “Rubin Ultra” and “Feynman” AI chips for 2027 and 2028

AI, AI infrastructure, Biz & IT, Blackwell, Cloud Computing, datacenters, GPUs, IT, Jensen Huang, machine learning, NVIDIA, Nvidia Feynman, Nvidia Vera Rubin, Rubin Ultra, Tech, Vera Rubin / /

On Tuesday at Nvidia’s GTC 2025 conference in San Jose, California, CEO Jensen Huang revealed several new AI-accelerating GPUs the company plans to release over the coming months and years. He also revealed more specifications about previously announced chips.

The centerpiece announcement was Vera Rubin, first teased at Computex 2024 and now scheduled for release in the second half of 2026. This GPU, named after a famous astronomer, will feature tens of terabytes of memory and comes with a custom Nvidia-designed CPU called Vera.

According to Nvidia, Vera Rubin will deliver significant performance improvements over its predecessor, Grace Blackwell, particularly for AI training and inference.

Specifications for Vera Rubin, presented by Jensen Huang during his GTC 2025 keynote.

Specifications for Vera Rubin, presented by Jensen Huang during his GTC 2025 keynote.

Vera Rubin features two GPUs together on one die that deliver 50 petaflops of FP4 inference performance per chip. When configured in a full NVL144 rack, the system delivers 3.6 exaflops of FP4 inference compute—3.3 times more than Blackwell Ultra’s 1.1 exaflops in a similar rack configuration.

The Vera CPU features 88 custom ARM cores with 176 threads connected to Rubin GPUs via a high-speed 1.8 TB/s NVLink interface.

Huang also announced Rubin Ultra, which will follow in the second half of 2027. Rubin Ultra will use the NVL576 rack configuration and feature individual GPUs with four reticle-sized dies, delivering 100 petaflops of FP4 precision (a 4-bit floating-point format used for representing and processing numbers within AI models) per chip.

At the rack level, Rubin Ultra will provide 15 exaflops of FP4 inference compute and 5 exaflops of FP8 training performance—about four times more powerful than the Rubin NVL144 configuration. Each Rubin Ultra GPU will include 1TB of HBM4e memory, with the complete rack containing 365TB of fast memory.

Nvidia announces “Rubin Ultra” and “Feynman” AI chips for 2027 and 2028 Read More »

gemini-gets-new-coding-and-writing-tools,-plus-ai-generated-“podcasts”

Gemini gets new coding and writing tools, plus AI-generated “podcasts”

AI, Google, Google Gemini, Tech / /

On the heels of its release of new Gemini models last week, Google has announced a pair of new features for its flagship AI product. Starting today, Gemini has a new Canvas feature that lets you draft, edit, and refine documents or code. Gemini is also getting Audio Overviews, a neat capability that first appeared in the company’s NotebookLM product, but it’s getting even more useful as part of Gemini.

Canvas is similar (confusingly) to the OpenAI product of the same name. Canvas is available in the Gemini prompt bar on the web and mobile app. Simply upload a document and tell Gemini what you need to do with it. In Google’s example, the user asks for a speech based on a PDF containing class notes. And just like that, Gemini spits out a document.

Canvas lets you refine the AI-generated documents right inside Gemini. The writing tools available across the Google ecosystem, with options like suggested edits and different tones, are available inside the Gemini-based editor. If you want to do more edits or collaborate with others, you can export the document to Google Docs with a single click.

Gemini Canvas with tic-tac-toe game

Credit: Google

Canvas is also adept at coding. Just ask, and Canvas can generate prototype web apps, Python scripts, HTML, and more. You can ask Gemini about the code, make alterations, and even preview your results in real time inside Gemini as you (or the AI) make changes.

Gemini gets new coding and writing tools, plus AI-generated “podcasts” Read More »