Securify your PC using Qubes and Whonix

Qubes is a security-oriented, open-source operating system for personal computers.
Qubes takes an approach called security by compartmentalization, which allows you to compartmentalize the various parts of your digital life into securely isolated compartments called qubes.

This approach allows you to keep the different things you do on your computer securely separated from each other in isolated qubes so that one qube getting compromised won’t affect the others. For example, you might have one qube for visiting untrusted websites and a different qube for doing online banking. This way, if your untrusted browsing qube gets compromised by a malware-laden website, your online banking activities won’t be at risk. Similarly, if you’re concerned about malicious email attachments, Qubes can make it so that every attachment gets opened in its own single-use disposable qube. In this way, Qubes allows you to do everything on the same physical computer without having to worry about a single successful cyberattack taking down your entire digital life in one fell swoop.

Source: Qubes OS Project

It runs lightweight Virtual Machines for your processes (Qubes) which isolate them, making sure they don’t infect other parts of your machines.

Whonix is a desktop operating system designed for advanced security and privacy. It realistically addresses attacks while maintaining usability. It makes online anonymity possible via fail-safe, automatic, and desktop-wide use of the Tor network. A heavily reconfigured Debian base is run inside multiple virtual machines, providing a substantial layer of protection from malware and IP leaks. Pre-installed applications, pre-configured with safe defaults are ready for use. Additionally, installing custom applications or personalizing the desktop will in no way jeopardize the user. Whonix is the only actively developed OS designed to be run inside a VM and paired with Tor.

This safeguards your privacy by running on 2 VMs in your OS, so it can’t know much about what your computer is doing.

Whonix

Then there is tails, which has as advantage that it runs off a USB stick. This does, however, mean that every time you restart, everything resets. This ensures the base package stays clean, but updates to software or personal documents cannot be part of your tails.

Team unravels mystery of bacteria’s antibiotic resistance

A popular antibiotic called rifampicin, used to treat tuberculosis, leprosy, and Legionnaire’s disease, is becoming less effective as the bacteria that cause the diseases develop more resistance.
[…]
“Antibiotic resistance is one of the major problems in modern medicine,” said Adbelwahab. “Our studies have shown how this enzyme deactivates rifampicin. We now have a blueprint to inhibit this enzyme and prevent antibiotic resistance.”

Rifampicin, also known as Rifampin, has been used to treat bacterial infections for more than 40 years. It works by preventing the bacteria from making RNA, a step necessary for growth.

The enzyme, Rifampicin monooxygenase, is a flavoenzyme—a family of enzymes that catalyze chemical reactions that are essential for microbial survival. These latest findings represent the first detailed biochemical characterization of a flavoenzyme involved in antibiotic resistance, according to the authors.

Source: Team unravels mystery of bacteria’s antibiotic resistance

Someone built an AI chatbot from a text message database of a dead man, works quite well

It had been three months since Roman Mazurenko, Kuyda’s closest friend, had died. Kuyda had spent that time gathering up his old text messages, setting aside the ones that felt too personal, and feeding the rest into a neural network built by developers at her artificial intelligence startup. She had struggled with whether she was doing the right thing by bringing him back this way. At times it had even given her nightmares. But ever since Mazurenko’s death, Kuyda had wanted one more chance to speak with him.

Source: Speak, Memory

The article goes into quite a few existential questions about what this kind of a memorial means for the bereaved, but from a technical standpoint it sounds very interesting.