Month: December 2016

The Game Awards returned for another annual iteration on Thursday, and like in years past, the online-streamed ceremony was probably more interesting because of game trailer debuts than any of its awards—with the exception of the very first award given.

Last year's broadcast was notable thanks to a weird no-show: Metal Gear Solid series creator Hideo Kojima, who wasn't allowed to attend thanks to contract issues with his former employers at Konami. "What happened to Hideo Kojima last year was a tragedy," a visibly shaken host Geoff Keighley told the crowd—referring specifically to Konami's choice to "lock him in a room" thanks to those squabbles—before handing him the show's Industry Icon award.

"Last year, I thought I lost everything," Kojima told the crowd in accepting the award. "But I didn't lose anything." He then revealed a new cinematic, non-gameplay trailer for his new PlayStation-exclusive game, Death Stranded, which was apparently rendered in real time on a PlayStation 4—and if so, it's shaping up to be quite the stunner of a game.

Enlarge / AirDroid's example imagery.

For at least the past six months, a popular remote management app available in the official Google Play Store has opened tens of millions of Android users to code-execution and data-theft attacks when they use unsecured networks, researchers said Thursday.

As recently as earlier this week—and possibly even at this moment—the most up-to-date versions of AirDroid have used a static and easily detectable encryption key when transmitting update files and sensitive user data, according to a blog post published by security firm Zimperium. Attackers who are on the same network can exploit the weakness to push fraudulent updates or view potentially sensitive user information, including the international mobile equipment identity and international mobile subscriber identity designations that are unique to each phone. The app has been downloaded 10 million to 50 million times from the official Google Play Store.

"A malicious party on the same network as the victim can leverage this vulnerability to remotely gain full control of their device," Simone Margaritelli, principal security researcher at Zimperium's zLabs, told Ars. "Moreover, the attacker will be able to see the user's sensitive information such as the IMEI, IMSI, and so forth. As soon as the update, or fake update, is installed the software automatically launches the updated [Android app file] without ever verifying who built it."

Flu viruses showing the protein coat that surrounds their genetic material. (credit: Takeshi Noda/University of Tokyo)

Synthetic biology has become a catch-all term for attempts to engineer organisms to do things they normally wouldn't. Efforts so far have ranged from assembling logic circuits inside bacteria to replacing an entire bacterial genome with one synthesized from scratch. So far, however, the field has largely produced some extremely impressive proofs-of-concept. There haven't been a lot of advances with obvious practical uses.

That may be about to change. Researchers have taken a technique that's been used a number of times before—engineering cells to use an artificial amino acid—and applied it to make a flu virus that acts as a vaccine. The vaccine is highly effective and, because it depends on an amino acid our cells don't use, it can't cause infections in us. Best yet, if the vaccine gets into cells with a normal flu virus, it interferes with its ability to generate an infection.

All of our proteins are made with different combinations of the same 20 amino acids. While many additional amino acids exist, those 20 appear to be the standard toolkit that all life shares. There are a few exceptional organisms that use a 21st, but these oddball amino acids are usually close chemical relatives of existing ones.

Long after the discovery of Anglo-Saxon graveyards at the Sutton Hoo site in East Anglia, England, scientists are still analyzing the treasures uncovered there. Perhaps the most famous grave at the site was discovered in 1939 by Suffolk amateur archaeologist Basil Brown. Inside a mound, he and his colleagues discovered the remains of a 27 meter-long Anglo-Saxon ship packed with grave goods including shields, cauldrons, jewelry, and a now-iconic iron-and-bronze helmet.

Remains of the high-ranking individual buried here were dissolved by in the acidic soil, but a lot of his loot remained intact. Safely ensconced at the British Museum, many items from the burial chamber in the ship have been catalogued and displayed. Still, a few mysteries remain. For decades, no one could identify a cache of hard, black nuggets. They were tentatively categorized as pine tar, which the Anglo-Saxons would have used for waterproofing ships. Now a team of scientists have figured it out. Writing in PLoS One, they describe using techniques including mass spectrometry and gas chromatography to analyze the chemical composition of the lumps.

Eebahgum/Wikimedia

Enlarge / Martin Shkreli, decidedly unaffected. (credit: Getty | Eduardo Munoz Alvarez )

A group of high school students in Sydney, Australia are having their moment of fame after announcing they were able to synthesize Daraprim—the anti-parasitic drug that went from $13.50 to $750 a pill last year, thanks to the infamous Martin Shkreli, ex-CEO of Turing pharmaceuticals.

According to headlines, the kids “show up” and “school” Martin Shkreli with their basic chemistry prowess. Forbes even went a violent route, saying the high schoolers “punch Martin Shkreli In the face, figuratively” with their science savvy. On Twitter, there even seemed to be a sincere question of whether the kids could actually compete with Daraprim on the market.

(credit: Twitter)

Shkreli—who is ever-present on social media—responded simply: “… no.” And, whether we like it or not, he’s absolutely right.