Science & Tech

Analysts Find Dormant Facial-Recognition Code in Meta’s Smart-Glasses App

Independent analyses found dormant facial-recognition code in Meta's smart-glasses companion app, but no evidence it’s been activated for users.

$META, #meta, #facialrecognition, #privacy, #smartglasses

Wildfire Smoke Has Erased Years of U.S. Ozone Gains, NASA-Supported Study Finds

A NASA-backed study finds wildfire smoke has driven up ground-level ozone across the contiguous U.S., wiping out years of air-quality improvements.

#wildfires, #ozone, #airquality, #nasa

Paper Flags April 1 South Atlantic Fireball as Leading Post‑2018 Interstellar Meteor Candidate

An arXiv preprint argues an April 1 South Atlantic fireball may be the strongest post‑2018 interstellar meteor candidate, but relies on unverified U.S. sensor data.

#astronomy, #meteors, #interstellar

Google launches Gemma 4 12B, an open-licensed multimodal AI that runs on 16GB laptops

Google released Gemma 4 12B, an Apache-2 open-licensed multimodal model that processes text, images and audio natively and can run on laptops with 16GB.

$GOOG, $GOOGL, #ai, #google, #gemma4, #multimodal

NASA Confirms End of MAVEN Mission After More Than 11 Years at Mars

NASA says MAVEN, its Mars atmosphere orbiter last heard from Dec. 6, 2025, is unrecoverable after an anomaly that likely drained its batteries.

#mars, #nasa, #space, #maven

EU General Court annuls gatekeeper designation for Facebook Marketplace but upholds Messenger

EU General Court overturns Meta's Marketplace gatekeeper label for procedural reasons but keeps Messenger designated under the DMA.

#meta, #digitalmarketsact, #eu, #gatekeeper

Preprint claims detection of four‑carbon sugar erythrulose in Milky Way molecular cloud

A June 2 arXiv preprint reports erythrulose, a four‑carbon sugar, in a molecule‑rich cloud near the Milky Way's center; result awaits peer review.

#astrochemistry, #interstellar, #sugars, #preprint

Lancet warns lack of rapid test hampers response to Bundibugyo Ebola in DRC and Uganda

Lancet Comment: no reliable rapid test for Bundibugyo Ebola is delaying isolation, testing and contact tracing during the DRC–Uganda outbreak.

#ebola, #bundibugyo, #diagnostics, #drcongo, #uganda

Emails in Valve Antitrust Case Show Threat to Pull Rainbow Six Siege From Steam, Bloomberg Reports

Emails disclosed in the Valve antitrust case allegedly show threats to remove Rainbow Six Siege from Steam over competing pricing, Bloomberg reports.

#valve, #antitrust, #steam, #video-games, #ubisoft

Trump signs order giving NSA central role in voluntary pre-release reviews of advanced AI

Trump signed an order creating a voluntary pre-release review of powerful AI models, naming the NSA to decide designations and boosting federal cyber defenses.

#ai, #cybersecurity, #executiveorder, #nsa

WMO says El Niño likely this summer; governments urged to prepare

WMO: 80% chance El Niño will develop June–Aug 2026, with near‑90% chance it lasts to November. U.N. urges stronger warnings to prepare for heat and rainfall extremes.

#elnino, #climate, #wmo, #weather

Preprint: JWST spectra suggest carbon disulfide in atmosphere of young exoplanet V1298 Tau e

A new arXiv preprint reports JWST detected carbon disulfide (CS2) in the atmosphere of young exoplanet V1298 Tau e — a result under review that needs confirmation.

#exoplanets, #jwst, #astronomy, #sulfur

Preprint Claims Language Models Undergo 'Alignment Transition' Around 3.5 Billion Parameters

An unreviewed arXiv preprint argues language models shift from trading truth for reasoning to improving both past ~3.5B parameters; code and dashboard released.

#ai, #alignment, #language-models, #arxiv

Webb Detects Methane in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

NASA’s James Webb made the first direct detection of methane in an interstellar object, finding CH4 plus CO2 and water in comet 3I/ATLAS.

#jwst, #interstellar, #comets, #methane

Nvidia, Arm and Microsoft Tease ‘New Era of PC’ With Taipei Coordinates Ahead of GTC and Computex

Nvidia, Arm and a Microsoft Windows exec posted matching Taipei coordinates ahead of Nvidia’s June 1 GTC keynote, fueling Windows-on‑Arm PC speculation.

$NVDA, $MSFT, $ARM, #nvidia, #arm, #microsoft, #computex