Michigan State University Network Breached In Ransomware Attack

Netwalker ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operators have reportedly breached Michigan State University’s network, threatening to leak private files to the public if they don’t pay a ransom in time. BleepingComputer reports: A countdown timer on the attacker’s website shows that the university has about six days to comply or “secret data” will become public. The site set up by the Netwalker ransomware gang…

Quantum computation solves an old enigma: Finding the vibrational states of magnesium dimer

High vibrational states of the Magnesium dimer (Mg2) are an important system in studies of fundamental physics, although they have eluded experimental characterization for half a century. Experimental physicists have so far resolved the first 14 vibrational states of Mg2, despite reports that the ground-state may support five additional levels. In a new report, Stephen H. Yuwono and a research team…

What’s new on Coursera for Business – February 2020

By Kyle Clark, Senior Skills Transformation Consultant February was a special month at Coursera: we officially launched Rhyme Projects for enterprise. Coursera acquired Rhyme Softworks last year to augment our abilities to create and share hand-on projects with learners. Projects allow learners to work on a task in their browser while following a self-paced or […]
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What’s new on Coursera for Business – January 2020

By Kyle Clark, Senior Skills Transformation Consultant 2020 is already proving to be an exciting year for skill development on Coursera. Our university and industry partners launched over 60 courses in January – an average of 2 courses per day. Our new courses range in topic from IT automation and feature engineering to visual analytics, […]
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The World’s First Gattaca Baby Tests Are Finally Here

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Anxious couples are approaching fertility doctors in the US with requests for a hotly debated new genetic test being called “23andMe, but on embryos.” The baby-picking test is being offered by a New Jersey startup company, Genomic Prediction, whose plans we first reported on two years ago. The company says it…

Meet Estella: An Up-and-Coming Journalist Passionate about Social Change

Coursera for Refugees launched in 2016 to provide free access to Coursera’s catalog to refugees around the world. Today more than 26,000 refugees are learning on Coursera, including Estella. Estella is a 25-year-old aspiring journalist living in Rwanda after she had to leave her home in Burundi. She participates in Coursera for Refugees through the […]
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US astronomers speak on SpaceX Starlink satellites

The American Astronomical Society – chief organization for US astronomers – said it is in conversations with SpaceX about the impending launch of 12,000 Starlink satellites. The astronomers worry the satellites will interfere with their work of understanding the universe. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/aas-statement-spacex-starlink-satellites…

Police Use of DNA Leads To Backlash, Policy Change For GEDmatch

Police investigators have used popular online DNA databases to solve at least 50 open murder and rape cases, reports the Associated Press. But now, “complaints about invasion of privacy have produced a backlash, leading the Florida-based database known as GEDmatch to change its policies.”
The nonprofit website’s previous practice was to permit police to use its database only to solve homicides and…