Month: February 2023

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

Internet Explorer 11 was never Windows 10's primary browser—that would be the old, pre-Chromium version of Microsoft Edge. But IE did continue to ship with Windows 10 for compatibility reasons, and IE11 remained installed and accessible in most versions of Windows 10 even after security updates for the browser ended in June of 2022. That ends today, as Microsoft's support documentation says that a Microsoft Edge browser update will fully disable Internet Explorer in most versions of Windows 10, redirecting users to Edge.

Edge will "automatically" transfer over bookmarks and other browsing data from IE and display a dialogue box letting users know what has happened so that the last few people using Internet Explorer out of habit, ignorance, or spite will be fully aware of what's going on. Clicking any IE icon or attempting to launch it from the Start or Run menus will automatically open Edge instead.

Microsoft never shipped any version of Internet Explorer in Windows 11, so nothing will change if you're already running Microsoft's latest OS.

Enlarge (credit: Kriswanto Ginting)

Light-sensing proteins are found throughout all domains of life. Even single-celled microbes carry proteins that respond to light. And animals have light-sensitive organs in a huge range of shapes and architectures. All of these seem to operate along the same principles: Photons are absorbed by a protein that responds by allowing ions to flow across a membrane. In single cells, this sets off a regional difference in ion concentrations, allowing them to respond. In more complicated organisms, these ions flow into nerve cells, causing them to signal.

But scientists are describing a weird exception this week: the centipede. These organisms clearly respond to light, as anyone trying to stomp one before it rushes back under a rock or wall will know. Yet many species don't seem to have eyes (and many that have eye-like structures don't sense light with them). And studies of their genome indicate they don't have any of the normal light-sensitive proteins. So how do these arthropods do it?

See the heat

To be clear, many centipede species have things that look like eyes and contain some cells that respond to light. But studies of those organs indicate they have no major impact on the response of the animal to light. And then there's the lack of genes. Light-triggered proteins tend to have similar structures, in part because they have to form channels through the membranes that allow ions to pass through it. So, it's usually relatively easy to pick out genes for these proteins when genome sequences become available.

Enlarge / A joint Department of Defense team executed 12 artificial intelligence, or AI, flight tests in which AI agents piloted the X-62A VISTA to perform advanced fighter maneuvers at Edwards Air Force Base, California, December 1-16, 2022. (credit: U.S. Air Force photo / Kyle Brasier)

An autonomous jet fighter has now completed 17 hours of flight testing, including advanced fighter maneuvers and beyond-visual-range engagements, according to the United States Air Force. The X-62A Variable Stability In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft, or VISTA, was put through its paces at Edwards Air Force Base in California during the first half of December 2022 in 12 different flight tests of the Air Force Research Lab's Autonomous Air Combat Operations (AACO) and DARPA's Air Combat Evolution (ACE) AI agents.

"The X-62A VISTA team has proven with this test campaign that they are capable of complex AI test missions that accelerate the development and testing of autonomy capabilities for the DOD," said Dr. Malcolm Cotting, the director of research for the US Air Force Test Pilot School.

The X-62 began life as a two-seat Block 30 F-16D and first flew in 1992, spending much of its time at the Air Force Test Pilot's School at Edwards AFB. In 2021 it was redesigned from NF-16D—the N indicating it was a special test aircraft—to X-62A. Modifications made to the aircraft over the years allow it to simulate the flight characteristics of other fixed-wing aircraft, making it an effective training platform for human test pilots, as in the past, and most recently, AI pilots.