News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, an information war is raging alongside the physical fighting. Russia’s recent attempts to spread disinformation have not yet found great success in the West. Within the country, however, President Vladimir Putin’s regime is controlling the narrative through censorship, state control of media and other forms of digital repression. … Read more
Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, multiple social media platforms—including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube—announced they had dismantled coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation. These networks, which were comprised of fabricated accounts disguised with fake names and AI-generated profile images or hacked accounts, were sharing suspiciously similar anti-Ukraine talking points, suggesting they were being controlled by centralized … Read more
A few years ago, while doing research for a virtual reality (VR) program at MIT that I would be running, I donned a VR headset and played a ping-pong game. The game was so realistic that it momentarily fooled my brain. When it ended, I instinctively tried to put the paddle down on the “table” … Read more
In 1900, at the Paris Conference of the International Congress of Mathematicians at the Sorbonne, David Hilbert enumerated 23 open mathematical questions and set an agenda for a broad range of studies that continue to influence modern mathematics today. Since then, scientists in other disciplines, such as astrophysics and biology, have followed Hilbert’s example: They … Read more
When you live in Tornado Alley, you get used to the school drills, the periodic testing of the sirens, and storms that knock over trees and flood roadways. A face you know above all others is the broadcast meteorologist, who tells you routinely about tornado watches, and occasionally tornado warnings. When tornadoes materialize, this feature … Read more
A highly advanced commercial communications satellite will lift off from Japan on Wednesday (Dec. 22) and you can watch the action live. The huge Inmarsat-6 F1 satellite is scheduled to launch atop a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-2A rocket Wednesday from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan during a two-hour window that opens at 9:33 a.m. EST … Read more
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched its second rocket in less than 24 hours on Saturday night (Dec. 18), delivering a Turkish communications satellite into orbit before capping off the successful mission with a landing at sea. A 230-foot-tall (70 meters) Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Cape Canaveral … Read more
Researchers have just identified a security flaw in a software program called Log4J, widely used by a host of private, commercial and government entities to record details ranging from usernames and passwords to credit card transactions. Since the glitch was found last weekend, the cybersecurity community has been scrambling to protect applications, services, infrastructure and … Read more
A Russian Proton rocket overcame a one-week delay to launch two communications satellites into space Monday (Dec. 13). The Express-AMU3 and Express-AMU7 spacecraft flew to space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:07 a.m. EST (1207 GMT or 5:07 p.m. local time). Russian space agency Roscosmos reported launch success and said the upper stage … Read more