Curio Cabinet / Nerdy Curio

It's Flashback Friday! Soak up some pre-weekend inspiration with these curios about innovators who blazed trails and broke molds.
 

Now here's a futuristic ship that could save the world, and it's not even out of an Avengers movie. Slovak designer Lenka Petráková has won the prestigious 2020 National Grand Prix for Architecture for her floating station named the 8th Continent. The design would serve as both an ocean recycling and research center with living quarters. The vessel takes its name from the "8th Continent," a nickname given to the massive garbage patch floating in the Pacific Ocean—no doubt a nod to the gravity of pollution and ecological devastation caused by industrialization. While we might awe at the sleek design of the 8th Continent, Petráková did have specific intentions for each part of the ship: the large top parts will serve as sails and a hydroponic greenhouse. The middle decks will house the research and education center, as well as the ocean trash collecting area where plastic debris will be harvested from the surface of the water. The lower decks will have the viewing platforms and public outdoor areas. It may not be the traditional luxury cruise liner getaway, but the 8th Continent sure does look like a great opportunity to catch some rays and save the planet while we're at it!

[Image description: the large, futuristic 8th Continent ship floats on the water.] Credit & copyright: Lenka Petráková.

Written by: Esther P.

Urine for a treat. In July, researchers in Germany published a study in Current Biology explaining how they potty trained calves with sweet, molasses-based rewards. The researchers took 16 calves and trained them to use a special, fenced-in area with artificial turf when they needed to do their business. If they urinated while in the designated area called the MooLoo, the cows received a reward. If they went outside that area, they were given a three-second cold water spray. Within 10 days, 11 of the calves were reliably using the MooLoo, and the rest just needed a little more time. “The cows are at least as good as children, age 2 to 4 years, at least as quick,” said Lindsay Matthews, senior author of the study. Despite its playful name, the MooLoo has serious potential benefits for the environment. Cows can produce up to 30 liters of urine a day which, when mixed with feces, releases ammonia emissions that can affect plant and animal life. Urine can also increase nitrates in water sources, and if it leaches into the soil, microbes turn it into nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. According to past studies, if 80% of bovine urine is collected, it could produce a 56% reduction in ammonia emissions, leading to both healthier livestock and less damage to the environment. According to Matthews, the next step is to “develop automated training systems” so that the process can scale for widespread adoption. Time for Bessie to head to school!

[Image description: A white and brown cow standing in a grassy field, flicking its tail. Other cows stand in the background.] Credit & copyright: lloorraa/Public Domain
 

Take a step toward a greener future. On September 1, scientists in Switzerland published a study in the journal Matter exploring the possibility of using wooden flooring to generate electricity. The concept takes advantage of the phenomenon known as the triboelectric effect. When two pieces of certain materials that were in contact are separated, they create a small electric charge. Rubbing or repeatedly touching the two pieces together will build up the charge, and the result is what most people would recognize as static electricity. However, the problem with trying to create an electric charge with wood is that “wood is basically triboneutral,” according to Guido Panzarasa, the senior author of the recently published study. "It means that wood has no real tendency to acquire or to lose electrons…so the challenge is making wood that is able to attract and lose electrons,” he said.
To accomplish this, the scientists applied a coating of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to one piece of wood, and embedded nanocrystals called zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) to another. They were then sandwiched between layers of electrodes. When walked on, a surface area the size of a piece of paper generated enough electricity to power a light bulb. A house fully floored with it could power its lights and small electronics. According to Panzarasa, the best type of wood to turn into these floorboard generators is radially cut spruce, commonly used in Europe for construction. So, next time you’re renovating you house, maybe consider sprucing it up!

[Image description: Two feet, wearing red sneakers on a wooden floor.] Credit & copyright: MabelAmber/Pixabay
 

These birds have impeccable table manners. In fact, Goffin’s cockatoos, on Indonesia’s Tanimbar Islands, were recently observed creating three different types of tools while eating fruit; that’s practically an entire cutlery set! Researchers Mark O’Hara and Berenika Mioduszewska, of the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna Austria, were conducting a study of wild Goffin’s cockatoos when they happened to witness the never-before-seen behavior. “I’d just turned away, and when I looked back, one of the birds was making and using tools. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” O’Hara explained, in an interview with Science. He and Mioduszewska were able to categorize the tools, all of which were made from sticks for the purpose of digging pits out of sea mangoes. First, the cockatoos used large, thick sticks to wedge the fruits open. Then, they used thinner twigs, which they had sharpened with their beaks, to cut through mango flesh like knives. Finally, they used wide, blunt sticks to scoop out the pits.
 
Goffin’s cockatoos are one of six species of corella cockatoos. According to Mioduszewska, the Goffin’s small size might play a role in their use of tools. “The smaller bird might have a smaller beak, so they cannot just bite open the fruit and therefore they [might] need some little tricks,” she explained. Surprisingly though, not all Goffin’s cockatoos use tools. In fact, out of a flock of 15 birds, only two were observed to do so. This suggests that the behavior isn’t genetic, but is invented and passed on by certain individuals. It seems that even cockatoos have their Einsteins.
 

[Image description: A white Goffin’s cockatoo eating a red, spiky rambutan fruit.] Credit & copyright: Lip Kee Yap, image cropped for size.

This plane is sparking a lot of conversation. In August, American aviation company Ampaire conducted test flights of their hybrid electric plane, the Electric EEL, over Scotland. The experimental aircraft is a modified six-seater Cessna Skymaster with the usual piston engine removed and replaced by an electric, battery-powered motor. The plane traveled from Kirkwall Airport in Orkney to the Wick John O’Groats Airport in Wick, crossing the Pentland Firth, a strait separating the Orkney Islands from Caithness, along the way. Although these weren’t the Electric EEL’s first test flights, they were the first in the UK and the first to be conducted along a viable regional airline route.
 
The flights were part of the UK’s Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) project, which was developed to put the UK at the forefront of green travel technology and which created a low-carbon aviation test centre in Scotland’s Orkney Islands. In addition to testing electric planes, the site will also test planes which use synthetic fuel and new airport infrastructure powered by green energy sources. Ampaire founder and CEO Keven Noertker told sUAS News that the future of the planet depends on green technology, particularly when it comes to air travel. “With CO2 emissions rising 70 percent faster than predicted, transition to zero emission technology is critical. We’re pleased to be taking a big step in that direction here in Scotland,” he said. The Electric EEL’s test pilot said in a statement that his Scottish flight went off “without a hitch” and described the plane as “easy to fly.” Sounds like a bonnie start to greener air travel.

[Image description: A white Ampaire six-seater Cessna Skymaster plane tilts slightly in the air as it flies over the Scottish countryside.] Credit & copyright: Source
 

This odor is more terrifying than that of the smelliest gym socks. At least, that’s the case for some insect species. On August 25, researchers at Pennsylvania State University announced their creation of a special scent which, when spread via a diffuser, repels harmful insects from plants. It isn’t a traditional pesticide. Rather, it was created using compounds from ladybugs, a natural predator of many plant-eating insects. When these insects smell the mist, they believe that predators are nearby and naturally make themselves scarce. “Insects rely on olfactory cues to find food, mates and places to live, so this is a great opportunity to investigate how to use these smells to manipulate their behavior,” Doctor Jessica Kansman, of Pennsylvania State University, explained in a statement.
 
To create their “smell of fear”, researchers first used a process called gas chromatography, which separates different components of smells, to extract ladybugs’ odor. Aphids were then exposed to the compounds while under the surveillance of an electroantennogram machine, which allowed scientists to monitor their responses. Of all the compounds, a class of chemicals called methoxypyrazines elicited the strongest response. Researchers used these chemicals to create a special scent which they soon hope to test outdoors. In the wild, the scent of ladybugs not only causes aphids to flee, but also to stop reproducing as often. Researchers hope that their lab-created scent may have a similar effect. Talk about an agricultural game-changer.

[Image description: A macro photo of a ladybug on a fuzzy, green leaf.] Credit & copyright: Jon Sullivan/Public Domain
 

Indiana is known as the Crossroads of America, but drivers in the Hoosier State may soon get to experience a different kind of road. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) recently partnered with Purdue University and Magment GmbH, a German startup, to test out technology that charges electric vehicles as they drive on it. The concept of charging electric vehicles as they drive down the road isn’t anything new, but previous attempts haven’t been considered efficient enough for practical applications. However, INDOT and its partners are hoping to be the exception with their magnetized concrete. The idea is that electric coils embedded in the pavement will create a magnetic field that will in turn transfer energy to a receiver coil inside the car.
 
Starting this summer, the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) at Purdue will begin testing the technology on their West Lafayette campus, and INDOT will follow up with a quarter-mile-long testbed where engineers will test the pavement’s ability to charge heavy trucks that may require up to 200 kilowatts. If these tests prove the viability of the technology, INDOT plans to incorporate it into a section of interstate highway, although the exact location is yet to be determined. The CEO of Magment, Mauricio Esguerra, seems hopeful for the future of the technology, saying in a statement, “This project is a real step forward towards the future of dynamic wireless charging… that will undoubtedly set the standard for affordable, sustainable, and efficient transportation electrification.” Good to see innovators paving the way to a brighter, greener future!
 

[Image description: An electric car in Dortmund, Germany charges the traditional way, at a charging station.] Credit & copyright: Rudko/Public Domain
 

Metal doesn’t grow on trees, but it can be mined from plants. Phytomining, a process in which metals like nickel, zinc, and cobalt are harvested from plants which have absorbed them via ground soil, is becoming an increasingly popular way to avoid the environmental damages of traditional strip mining. These damages often include polluted waterways and carbon emissions which contribute to climate change.
 
Phytomining works by utilizing plants considered to be “hyperaccumulators”, or extremely efficient at absorbing metal from soil. Crops of plants like the leafy shrub P. rufuschaneyi are planted at phytomining sites, then harvested once per year and burned to produce bio-ore. A four-acre crop of P. rufuschaneyi can yield up to 25 percent nickel by weight. With around 700 “hyperaccumulator” plant species available for use, it’s easy to see how phytomining could be extremely profitable in a future where environmentally-unfriendly practices, like strip mining, are heavily regulated. Phytomining is also a good way to guarantee a supply of metals which are becoming increasingly difficult to find via traditional mining methods. Not to mention it’s as close to alchemy as modern science may ever get!

[Image description: A digital illustration of three glass beakers. The one on the far left contains a green, leafy plant, while the other two contain liquid.] Credit & copyright: PhotoMIX-Company/Pixabay
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of the 19th Amendment’s ratification on August 18, 1920, enjoy these curios featuring accomplished women!
 

When is a vacant lot more than a vacant lot? When it has the power to transform an entire city! Dr. Nashlie Sephus, a 35-year-old applied science manager working for Amazon's artificial intelligence initiative, has big plans for 12 acres of vacant lots in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. Over the next three to five years, she plans to build what is tentatively being called the Jackson Tech Hub. Among other things, it would feature an electronics lab and an innovation center where entrepreneurs can learn technology skills. Sephus has always led a cutting-edge career. In 2016, the company where she worked as Chief Technology Officer was acquired by Amazon. In 2018, she founded The Bean Path, a technology consulting nonprofit that helps Jacksonians with their technology needs.
 

In recent years, Jackson's economy has struggled. Abandoned buildings and shuttered businesses are a common sight. However, Sephus is confident that she can use her tech prowess to revitalize the city. "It's clear that people don't expect anything good to come from Jackson. So it's up to us to build something for our hometown, something for the people coming behind us," she said. The Jackson Tech Hub will cost around $25 million, but investors seem eager to pitch in, thanks to Sephus's proven track record. The Kellogg Foundation and Jackson city officials have contributed a $500,000 grant. Local business owner Toni Cooley was so impressed with the tech help he received from Sephus that he became an investor as well. "I'm inspired by the fact that she is from Jackson and it's very easy to leave and not come back. She is not that individual," he said. Good to know that those in Jackson seem to believe in Sephus as much as she believes in her city!
 

[Image description: Nashlie Sephus ] Credit & copyright: Lynsey Weatherspoon
 

Sometimes, cutting-edge technology employs age-old principles. Materials scientist Aaswath Raman from the University of California at Los Angeles has developed a way to lower nearby air temperatures by around ten degrees without using traditional air conditioning or even electricity. The technology, called SkyCool, uses radiative cooling, the same natural phenomenon that people living in arid deserts have used for centuries to create ice overnight.
 
When heat leaves an object, it does so in the form of electromagnetic waves. In hot, dry places, there is little moisture in the atmosphere to trap these waves, so they escape into space. This is why deserts that are scorching hot during the day often become frigid at night. To replicate this phenomenon, Raman created a thin, reflective film which maximizes radiative cooling, then covered large panels with the film. The panels radiate heat away from earth without using any electricity or traditional air conditioning technology. That’s great news, since air conditioners give off greenhouse gases, speeding up global warming even as people use them to stay cool. In fact, around 7 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from cooling systems. SkyCool, Raman hopes, can break this vicious cycle. The panels are already being used, in some places, to cool buildings and lower air conditioning use. Since they don’t require electricity, the panels may also prove useful in remote or rural places around the world where people have fewer ways to regulate temperatures in the face of climate change. Talk about cool technology!
 

[Image description: SkyCool Systems testing their radiative cooling panels.] Credit & copyright: SkyCool Systems
 

Who would have thought that deadly venom could become lifesaving medicine! Researchers from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and the University of Queensland in Australia recently published research in the journal Circulation explaining their development of a drug which can prevent damage caused by heart attacks and extend the life of donor hearts for organ transplants. The drug’s source? A molecule in the venom of the Fraser Island funnel web spider.
 
All species of Australian funnel web spiders belong to the family Atracidae, and all have bites which are dangerous to humans, to varying degrees. For example, the Sydney funnel web spider, which is closely related to the Fraser Island funnel web, has caused 13 documented deaths. However, the Fraser Island spider’s venom contains a protein called Hi1a which researchers discovered can halt “death signals” which cause cells to die during heart attacks.
 
Study co-author Nathan Palpant explained in a statement, “After a heart attack, blood flow to the heart is reduced, resulting in a lack of oxygen to heart muscle. The lack of oxygen causes the cell environment to become acidic, which combine to send a message for heart cells to die.”
 
After exposing human heart cells to heart attack stresses, Palpant treated them with the drug derived from Hi1a. It was able to block acid-sensing ion channels in the heart cells, thus blocking the “death message” which would normally have killed them. If the researchers’ drug is one day cleared for use in humans, it would be the first clinical drug ever used to prevent the cell-death caused by heart attacks. It could also extend the life of donor hearts, which can be difficult to keep alive between retrieval and implantation. Who would have guessed that a spider could hold the key to a healthier future for human hearts.

[Image description: A dark brown funnel web spider crawls out of white pipe toward the leaves above.] Credit & copyright: Doug Beckers, photo cropped for size.

It's Flashback Friday! On this day in 1961, construction on the Berlin Wall began. Take a look back at the social changes (both good and bad) of the 1960s with this 60s-themed curio.
 

On the 59th anniversary of John Glen's Friendship 7 flight, NASA honored one of the black women who made the original trip possible. February 20th marked the launch of the S.S. Katherine Johnson NG-15 Cyngus spacecraft from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. The S.S. Katherine Johnson is what's known as a Cyngus or robotic resupply spacecraft developed by Northrop Grumman, an aerospace industrial company working in tandem with NASA. Its mission will be to land on the International Space Station and deliver some four tons of cargo. While Northrop Grunman says it traditionally names Cyngus robots after prominent NASA figures, this honor comes after a whirlwind of honors for Katherine Johnson after decades lacking recognition for her instrumental orbital mechanics calculations that helped the U.S. launch its space programs in the 1960s. For example, in 2015, President Obama awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was followed by the book and film for Hidden Figures, and a statue of her likeness at her alma mater West Virginia State University. No matter how far she's gone, we're sure Katherine Johnson's pivotal space age legacy still has a long way to go in the future!

[Image description: Three images: one of the S.S. Katherine Johnson, an NG-15 Cyngus supply spacecraft for the International Space Station. Two photos of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, one of her as an elderly woman, and one of her as a young woman.
] Credit & copyright: NASA and Northrop Grumman
 

Written by: Esther P.

That’s one big balloon! In late July, NASA announced plans to launch an enormous 400-foot-wide balloon into the upper atmosphere. The balloon will carry instruments to study the process of star formation and will launch in December, 2023. It will function as a floating observatory while hovering in earth’s stratosphere, near the ozone layer.
 
The project is named ASTHROS (Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths) after the far-infrared telescope attached to its balloon. The telescope can pick up wavelengths of light which can’t be seen by the human eye, but can help scientists “see” the speed, density and overall motion of gasses in regions of space where stars are known to form. Studying gasses is a good way to study star formation, since they’re crucial to the process of stellar feedback. Stellar feedback occurs when supernovas explode, leading to massive clouds of dust and gas in which stars form. From the stratosphere, the telescope will have a closer view of gasses in our own Milky Way galaxy. Earthbound scientists will download this data and use it to create a 3D printed “gas map.” ASTHROS will even send scientists data about two regions outside the Milky Way: Messier 83, a galaxy about 15 million lightyears away, and TW Hydrae, a star with a large ring of dust and gas surrounding it.
 
After ASTHROS spends three to four weeks floating in the stratosphere, scientists will send flight termination commands which will cause a hole to be ripped in the balloon and for the telescope to parachute safely away. The telescope will be reused in future missions, while the balloon will be collected and disposed of, soas not to harm the environment. Too bad it can’t be re-used as well; it would make one heck of a birthday party decoration!

[Image description: A digital illustration of a light blue high-altitude balloon in the upper atmosphere.] Credit & copyright: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab/Michael Lentz
 

Mount Rushmore may have more to offer than just pretty faces. In fact, all mountains, including those surrounding Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills, can give us incredible clues about early life on earth, according to geologist John Dvorak. In his new book How the Mountains Grew, published August 3, Dvorak explains the links between geology and biology, and the ways one can teach us about the other. For example, not only do mountain rocks contain fossils of enormous insects from millions of years ago, their composition holds information about what earth’s atmosphere was like at the time the fossils formed. This can help explain aspects of biology, like how some ancient animals grew to enormous sizes due to increased atmospheric oxygen.
 
As its title suggests, How the Mountains Grew also explains how mountains form. Most people are familiar with the general idea of plate tectonics, the scientific theory that Earth’s crust is divided into plates which slowly move, sometimes collide with each other, and push against each other to form mountains. Dvorak argues that this is only one way that mountains can form, and that another, perhaps more common way is through a process called delamination. Delamination happens when a slab from the lower part of a tectonic plate breaks off and slides partially into the earth’s mantle. The cooler, more buoyant part of the plate rises out of the hot mantle, forming mountains. Always nice to know how some of earth’s most beautiful natural features came to be!
 

[Image description: A photo of Mount Rushmore with other mountains and trees in the background.] Credit & copyright: Black Hills Badlands/Public Domain
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of Farmworker Appreciation Day, enjoy this agriculture-themed curio from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 
"Pink slime," aka dyed and processed meat isn't the most controversial news in the fast food industry anymore. Late in December 2020 the Singapore Food Agency approved a product called "cultured chicken" for sale as the world's first regulatory approved lab-grown meat. The nuggets were grown by Eat Just, a San Francisco-based company that (usually) produces plant-based alternatives to egg products. Eat Just cracked the mold with their chicken nuggets, taking muscle cell biopsies from live chickens and feeding those samples plant-based nutrients in 300-gallon bioreactors. The tissues eventually grow into chicken meat. There's only one catch, in 2019 costs were estimated at $50 per nugget! Now, costs have gone down enough to compete with non-lab grown chicken, and currently over 24 companies around the world are working on similar lab-grown meat products. While the sterility and lab work required to grow meat could seem off putting to some, the ethical and environmental implications of industrialized meat production weigh heavily on these lab-grown meat producers. Just ask Josh Tetrick, Eat Just's chief executive whose goal is to ensure future meat production "doesn’t require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree."

[Image Description: lab grown chicken nuggets on a plate with a side of honey mustard sauce.] Credit & copyright: Just Inc.
 

Written by: Esther P.

It’s hard to strike a spark from underground. At least, that’s what Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) hopes, as it prepares to bury about 10,000 miles of power lines to prevent them from sparking wildfires in California. In late July, the company announced their intention to bury the lines after telling regulators that the ongoing Dixie Fire, one of the largest wildfires in California history, was caused by a blown fuse in their equipment. A 2018 wildfire, also caused by PG&E equipment, killed more than 80 people and pushed the company to file for bankruptcy in 2019.
 
PG&E provides power for around 16 million people in California. The process of burying its lines, called undergrounding, can be done in two different ways. In open trenching, trenches are dug, power lines are laid in the trenches, and trenches are backfilled with dirt. In directional drilling, a long pipe is driven underground and lines are laid inside. Since the heat from electrical wires can’t dissipate underground as it can in the air, wires must be insulated before undergrounding. Wires are wrapped in plastic and surrounded with a conduit like oil so they won’t overheat.
 
PG&E will focus on undergrounding power lines in dry areas at the highest risk for wildfires. However, the process takes time. PG&E crews recently celebrated after burying around 1,250 feet in a single day, and the company announced that they hope to bury at least 1,000 miles each year, but the sobering fact remains that at that rate, it will take 10 years to bury all the lines they plan to. With climate change causing hotter, dryer weather each year, there may not be enough time to prevent the next fire before it happens. Here’s hoping!

[Image description: A fire burns beneath power lines near pine trees at Coconino National Forest] Credit & copyright: Coconino National Forest/Public Domain
 

Chalk up another win for Albert Einstein. Astronomers recently detected light behind a black hole for the first time and published their findings in the journal Nature, on July 28. While it’s not unheard of for scientists to see light around black holes in the form of X-rays, this time telescopes picked up flashes of light that were smaller and differently colored than the ones they were used to. Upon closer inspection, they realized that they were seeing luminous echoes, light rays being bent around the black hole due to its massive gravitational pull. Essentially, scientists were seeing lights shining behind the black hole, over 800 million light years away.
 
This phenomenon is further proof of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The theory states that massive objects, like black holes, create distortions in space time, producing gravity—and, in this case, bending light. In an interview with The Guardian, Stanford University astrophysicist Dan Wilkins explained, “Any light that goes into that black hole doesn’t come out, so we shouldn’t be able to see anything that’s behind the black hole. The reason we can see that is because that black hole is warping space, bending light and twisting magnetic fields around itself.” If only Einstein were around to gloat about cracking this mystery way back in 1916!

[Image description: An artists’ illustration of a black hole.] Credit & copyright: NASA/JPL-Caltech
 

Running out of chips, potato or otherwise, is never good! Currently, the world is facing a chip shortage of the electronic variety, as semiconductor chips, electronic circuits with transistors and wires affixed onto silicon wafers, are in short supply. That’s bad news, since they’re used in the production of smartphones, computers and cars. In late July, Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger told the BBC that it will be at least two years before supplies return to normal. This means that consumers could face rising electronics and automotive prices in the near future. So, how did such a valuable item end up in such short supply?
 
The COVID-19 pandemic is one cause, and some have alleged that poor planning is another. In the automotive industry, when manufacturing plants shut down due to the pandemic, they also canceled orders for many specialized parts, including semiconductor chips. Chip suppliers were forced to sell their merchandise elsewhere, which was easy since use of electronic devices skyrocketed during the pandemic. Reopening automotive manufacturers are now finding that the chips they need are on backorder. The 2020 rollout of 5G smartphones also caused demand for chips to skyrocket, and trade sanctions placed on China also caused Chinese smartphone manufacturers, like Huawei, to place large orders for chips, since they knew they would be banned from buying them after a certain time. Add to this that there are relatively few reliable chip manufacturers (it’s intricate technology, after all) and you’ve got the recipe for a crisis.
 
Some automotive factories have had to shut down while waiting for chip orders to arrive, and some schools have been unable to provide students with laptops for online classes. Meanwhile, chip manufacturers are racing to fill large orders as quickly as they can. Here’s hoping they’re able to catch up soon!

[Image description: A close-up of a computer chip.] Credit & copyright: Paolo Neo/Public Domain
 

This Pegasus is a lot less heroic than the one from Greek myth. In fact, it’s a form of malware, or malicious software, that was recently found on the phones of over 1,000 people in 50 countries. Created by Israel-based hacker-for-hire outfit NSO Group, Pegasus can infiltrate and collect data from just about any smart device. Although NSO Group insists that Pegasus is only supposed to be used by government and law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism, a recent investigation by a global media consortium uncovered its widespread misuse. Governments were found to be spying on journalists, activists, and lawyers, among others. So, how does Pegasus work and what can be done to stop it?
 
Most spyware (malware created specifically to steal data) relies on unwitting user participation to work. For example, some spyware generates fake-but-official-looking forms which ask users to fill in personal info themselves. Pegasus is different. It uses difficult-to-detect vulnerabilities in operating systems, called zero-day exploits, to break into phones. This means that it can be loaded onto a target’s phone without them having to do anything. Pegasus can then steal data, such as contact lists, text messages, and photos, sending them directly to whoever is spying. GPS data can be accessed to track an infected phone. Reportedly, Pegasus can even hijack a phone’s camera and microphone to secretly record victims.
 
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Pegasus is notoriously difficult to find and remove. Two apps, iVerify and MVT from Amnesty International claim to be able to detect Pegasus, but removing it can require the help of an expert. Luckily, unless you’re a high-powered businessperson or politician, you’re unlikely to be targeted by Pegasus...but illegal government spying is something that everyone should be aware of, regardless.

[Image description: People in Hungary hold signs and flags during a protest against government spying.] Credit & copyright: AP photo/Anna Szilagyi
 

Written by: Maria C.