Daily Archives: May 12, 2025

Scientists find lead really can be turned into gold (with help from the Large Hadron Collider)

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One of the ultimate goals of medieval alchemy has been realized, but only for a fraction of a second. Scientists with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, were able to convert lead into gold using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. Unlike the examples of transmutation we see in pop culture, these experiments with the LHC involve smashing subatomic particles together at ridiculously high speeds to manipulate lead’s physical properties to become gold.

The LHC is often used to smash lead ions together to create extremely hot and dense matter similar to what was observed in the universe following the Big Bang. While conducting this analysis, the CERN scientists took note of the near-misses that caused a lead nucleus to drop its neutrons or protons. Lead atoms only have three more protons than gold atoms, meaning that in certain cases the LHC causes the lead atoms to drop just enough protons to become a gold atom for a fraction of a second — before immediately fragmenting into a bunch of particles.

Alchemists back in the day may be astonished by this achievement, but the experiments conducted between 2015 and 2018 only produced about 29 picograms of gold, according to CERN. The organization added that the latest trials produced almost double that amount thanks to regular upgrades to the LHC, but the mass made is still trillions of times less than what’s necessary for a piece of jewelry. Instead of trying to chase riches, the organization’s scientists are more interested in studying the interaction that leads to this transmutation.

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Source: Scientists find lead really can be turned into gold (with help from the Large Hadron Collider)

Garmin CEO Hints More Paywalls And Enshittification Are Coming, Falsely Claims Users Love It after paywalling existing features and pissing off actual users

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We recently noted how device maker Garmin had decided to follow in the footsteps of Google’s Fitbit, and begin putting basic features behind an annoying subscription paywall to goose revenues. Garmin’s new “premium” Garmin+ tier takes several features users already enjoyed for free, put them behind a $7 per month paywall, and called it innovation.

Users are pretty broadly pissed about it. In part because Garmin smartwatches are already significantly more expensive than many brands. And because they’re now paying more money for the same services. And the new services Garmin has added to justify a “premium price” — like a new “AI” assistant — suck.

Speaking on the company’s latest earnings call, Garmin CEO Cliff Pemble responded to questions about the backlash by first lying and claiming that Garmin customers really like the direction Garmin is heading (a five second tour of the Garmin subreddit makes it very clear that’s not true). He then promised that more of this kind of enshittification was definitely coming:

“I think we’ve been saying for a while that we are evaluating opportunities to have a premium offering on Garmin Connect,” Pemble responded. “I think the developments of AI and particularly around AI-based insights for our users was one of those things that we felt was important to recognize the value for the investment that it takes to do.”

Again though, reviews of the “AI” features they’re adding are extremely bad, aren’t as good as other devices or fitness apps, and are often subject to basic math mistakes. Again it appears we’ve taken software and some light LLM automation, thrown the “AI” tag on it, and demanded that consumers both be stunned by the innovation and accept higher prices for existing services.

For a while Garmin differentiated itself from competitors like Fitbit for not doing this kind of predatory bullshit. If you dig through Reddit comments, it’s clear that a lack of subscription paywall is what drew a ton of customers to the brand in the first place.

But now that Garmin has decided to hop on this treadmill of goosing earnings by sucking value out of the free tier, it will never end. Company execs have deluded themselves into thinking this kind of paywalling is innovation, when it’s just mindless extraction and gatekeeping that harms customer loyalty.

Pemble, of course, can’t admit any of this to investors keen on improved quarterly returns at any cost, so it creates both a weird anti-consumer slippery slope, and a sort of willful delusion to prop it up. It also creates a new opportunity for future smart device competitors to make market inroads by not being nickel-and-diming assholes keen on insulting their customers’ intelligence.

Source: Garmin CEO Hints More Paywalls And Enshittification Are Coming, Falsely Claims Users Love It | Techdirt

Moderna’s Vaccine for both Flu and Covid Works—Now Politics Could Sink It

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Moderna’s mRNA-based flu and covid-19 vaccine could provide the best of both worlds—if it’s actually ever approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

This week, scientists at Moderna published data from a Phase III trial testing the company’s combination vaccine, codenamed mRNA-1083. Individuals given mRNA-1083 appeared to generate the same or even greater immune response compared to those given separate vaccines, the researchers found. But the FDA’s recent policy change on vaccine approvals, orchestrated by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, could imperil the development of this and other future vaccines.

The trial involved 8,000 people split into two age groups: those between the ages of 50 and 64, and those over 65. People were randomly given mRNA-1083 (plus a placebo) or two already approved flu and covid-19 vaccines.

The vaccine seemed effective across both age groups, with mRNA-1083 participants showing at least the same level of humoral immune response (antibody-based) to circulating flu and covid-19 strains as participants who were given the separate vaccines. On average, this response was actually higher to the flu strains in particular among those given mRNA-1083. The experimental vaccine also appeared to be safe and well-tolerated, as the authors explained in their paper, published Wednesday in JAMA.

The study results are certainly encouraging, and typically they would pave the way toward a surefire FDA approval. But the political situation has changed for the worse. The Department of Health and Human Services recently mandated an overhaul of the vaccine approval process, one that will require all new vaccines to undergo placebo-controlled trials to receive approval.

While many experimental vaccines today are placebo-tested (including the original covid-19 vaccines), it’s unclear whether this order will also apply to vaccines that can be compared to existing vaccines, like the combination mRNA-1083 vaccine, or to vaccines that have to be regularly updated to match fast-evolving viruses like the flu and covid-19.

Some vaccine experts have said that these changes are unnecessary and potentially unethical, since it could leave some people vulnerable to an infection that already has a vaccine. The new rule also might delay the availability of upcoming seasonal vaccines, particularly the current covid-19 shots.

A potentially important wrinkle for the mRNA-1083 vaccine is that no mRNA-based vaccine for the flu is currently approved. That reality could very well be all that the FDA needs to demand further placebo-controlled trials. RFK Jr. and other recent Trump appointees have also been highly skeptical of mRNA-based vaccines in general, despite no strong evidence that these vaccines are significantly less safe than other types. Kennedy, who has a long history of supporting the anti-vaccination movement, has even wrongly declared that the mRNA covid-19 vaccine was the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Moderna stated last week it doesn’t expect its mRNA-1083 vaccine to be approved before 2026, following the FDA’s request for late-stage data showing the vaccine’s effectiveness against flu specifically. But it’s worth wondering if even that timeline is now in jeopardy under the current public health regime.

Source: Moderna’s Super-Vaccine for Flu and Covid Works—Now Politics Could Sink It

Charter airline helping Trump’s deportation campaign pwned

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GlobalX, a charter airline used for deportations by the US government, has admitted someone broke into its network infrastructure.

“On May 5, 2025, Global Crossing Airlines Group learned of unauthorized activity within its computer networks and systems supporting portions of its business applications, which the company determined to be the result of a cybersecurity incident,” an SEC filing from May 9 reads.

“Upon learning of this activity, the company immediately activated its incident response protocols and third-party cybersecurity experts to assist with containment and mitigation activities and to investigate the nature and scope of the incident, and took actions to contain and isolate the affected servers and prevent further intrusion.”

GlobalX is one of the small airlines contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out the President’s mass deportation campaign of “illegal aliens.”

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The disclosure, however vague, lends credence to reports that those responsible had stolen flight records and passenger manifests, including ones related to deportation flights, dating back to January.

The alleged perpetrators pitched the news to various outlets, and while the word of a cybercriminal should not be taken as gospel, the timing of the disclosure and its ambiguous wording suggest there is at least some truth to the story.

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GlobalX was quickly identified as one of the main small airlines whose services were called upon by ICE within days of Trump taking office for the second time, although the company doesn’t openly advertise this.

Bloomberg reported that some of the earliest flights it was tasked with making from the US to South American countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras were mired in technical difficulties.

The airline, which operates a fleet of 19 Airbus planes (A320, A321, and A321F), reportedly tackled various issues ranging from aborted landings, broken air conditioning leading to deportees fainting from high temperatures, to not being able to start engines for hours.

According to its investor presentation [PDF], GlobalX is the fastest-growing charter airline in America, but up-to-date filings show it has yet to turn a profit since being founded in 2018.

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Source: Charter airline helping Trump’s deportation campaign pwned • The Register

Volvo EX90’s Lidar Sensor Will Fry Your Phone’s Camera

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[…] That pod on the roof of Volvo’s new electric SUV is essentially just shooting out a bunch of high-powered infrared beams, determining the distance of the vehicle’s surroundings by measuring the time taken for reflected light to return to the sensor. If you point your phone’s camera directly at those beams, you’ll observe some strange phenomena, like what’s happening in the image above. What you’re seeing is a laser frying pixels on one of the device’s image sensors.

Credit to Reddit user Jeguetelli, who broke their smartphone for science, so the rest of us know what not to do. The constellation of artifacts disappears because the person filming zooms out, prompting the phone to switch to a shorter lens backed by a separate, healthy image sensor. To assuage the fears of some concerned redditors, this is presumably why lidar doesn’t pose the same threat to backup cameras on other vehicles, which also typically use ultra-wide-angle lenses.

Never film the new Ex90 because you will break your cell camera.Lidar lasers burn your camera.
byu/Jeguetelli inVolvo

It should be said that the risk here is inherent to lidar technology, and has nothing to do with Volvo’s specific implementation on the EX90. In fact, earlier this year, the automaker even issued a warning against directing external cameras at the vehicle’s lidar pod for the very reasons discussed. “Do not point a camera directly at the lidar,” one support page admonishes in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately, while that sort of information might be clear to owners (the ones who crack open their vehicles’ manuals, anyway), this is something the entire public ought to be aware of, especially as semi-autonomous cars with lidar systems become more common on our streets.

The Drive reached out to Volvo for a little more insight into the issue, as well as any other recommendations. “It’s generally advised to avoid pointing a camera directly at a lidar sensor,” a representative responded over email. “The laser light emitted by the lidar can potentially damage the camera’s sensor or affect its performance.”

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Source: Volvo EX90’s Lidar Sensor Will Fry Your Phone’s Camera

Which kind of makes you wonder, what else does this LIDAR fry?