While the Sony hack might have made big headlines at the end of 2014, there was a far more dangerous and noteworthy hack that hasn’t been getting much attention. A steel plant in Germany was the target of a cyber attack that not only went after its business computers, but also its industrial control network. The attack resulted in a blast furnace shutting down improperly and suffering considerable damage. While this might not seem that bad in the grand scheme of things, it is actually rather terrifying, since the same thing could happen to a power plant or an oil refinery. This kind of attack has the potential to have a significant impact on our daily lives. The best way for industries to protect themselves from this kind of attack is to separate their industrial networks from the internet, or “air gap” them.
A Modern Blast Furnace.
This is the second attack of this kind, the first being the Stuxnet attack on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities in 2010.
One of the greatest achievements of the 20th century is the discovery of antibiotics, and one of the greatest dangers that face us in the 21st century is the post-antibiotic age. A new invention may significantly reduce that threat: the iChip, a device which aids in developing cultures of bacteria which traditionally resist development in a petri dish. This has already allowed scientists to find a promising new bacteria, teixobactin. Instead of attacking the proteins of a cell, teixobactin binds to fatty lipids that make up cell walls. This makes it much more difficult for microbes to mutate and become resistant. While the new bacteria has yet to be tested in humans, it has shown incredible potential in mice and lab tests.
The iChip
I had better not be allergic to this stuff like I am to Amoxicillin.
THERE IS LIFE ON MARS!!!! Ok, that’s more than a little bit of an exaggeration. But according to a geobiologist at Old Dominion University, there is a potential that life did exist on Mars. According to Dr. Nora Noffke, there are geological formations on Mars that are similar to those on Earth near which microbial life is often found. This is based on pictures sent back by the Curiosity rover, which has discovered other evidence that life may have existed. While her argument has been made before, Dr. Noffke put it together in a very well thought out manner that makes it more convincing. Even one of NASA’s own scientists has recognized the careful analysis involved. Though it doesn’t prove that life once existed on Mars, it does give us more evidence that life was at least possible on the Red Planet.
I might have been listening to David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” while writing this.
Therefore I Geek 