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Category: education

US govt seeks Instructure testimony on massive Canvas cyberattack

The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security is calling on Instructure executives to testify about two cyberattacks by the ShinyHunters extortion group that targeted the company’s Canvas platform, allowing threat actors to steal student data and disrupt schools during final exams.

In a letter sent Monday afternoon to Instructure CEO Steve Daly, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino said the committee is investigating the massive breach at Instructure that impacts millions of students.

“The Committee on Homeland Security (Committee) is investigating the concerning reports related to recent cybersecurity incidents affecting Instructure Holdings, Inc. and the tens of millions of students, educators, and administrators who rely on its Canvas learning management platform,” reads the letter.

New documentary asks if we are doomed by AI

“The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” is a new documentary exploring the future of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on humanity. NBC News’ Gadi Schwartz spoke with co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, Tristan Harris, about the documentary and how to navigate overwhelming dread with tech optimism.

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Instructure confirms hackers used Canvas flaw to deface portals

Education technology giant Instructure has confirmed that a security vulnerability allowed hackers to modify Canvas login portals and leave an extortion message.

BleepingComputer has learned that both the breach and defacements involved multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities that enabled the attacker to obtain authenticated admin sessions.

The second hack was to draw attention and to pressure Instructure into entering negotiations to pay a ransom following an initial breach disclosed a week before.

Wealthy Individuals Funding Science is Good for Everyone

Excellent article on the importance of private funding for cutting-edge science.

“The skepticism toward private science funding is part of a broader anti-capitalist sentiment, likely fueled by real affordability problems in housing, healthcare, and education. These concerns are understandable. But directing private capital toward fundamental science benefits everyone, and treating this the same as other uses of wealth only ensures that money flows into megayachts rather than research.”

Private wealth funded most of history’s scientific breakthroughs. Stigmatizing it now is holding us all back.

Canvas login portals hacked in mass ShinyHunters extortion campaign

The ShinyHunters extortion gang has breached education technology giant Instructure again, this time exploiting a vulnerability to deface Canvas login portals for hundreds of colleges and universities.

The defacements, which were visible for roughly 30 minutes before being taken offline, displayed a message from ShinyHunters claiming responsibility for the earlier Instructure breach and threatening to leak stolen data if a ransom is not paid.

The message warns that Instructure and schools have until May 12 to contact them to negotiate a ransom, or students’ data will be leaked.

Why Trump Supporters Stay Loyal No Matter What | Psychology Explains

#HumanBehavior.

This Video is For Educational Purpose Only… It doesn’t have to be true in anyway. Everything is based on ones opinions and not a false narration.

This video examines the psychological factors behind strong political loyalty, using support for Trump as a case study. Based on findings from behavioral science and social psychology, it explores why some people continue to defend beliefs even when faced with opposing evidence.

Topics covered include cognitive dissonance, identity-protective thinking, and social dominance orientation—concepts that help explain how people process information, protect group identity, and remain committed to a political worldview.

This is not a partisan attack or political endorsement. It is an exploration of human behavior, showing how emotion, identity, and perception often shape decisions more powerfully than facts alone.

If you want to better understand why changing minds is so difficult in politics, this video provides a thoughtful, research-informed perspective.

Continue reading “Why Trump Supporters Stay Loyal No Matter What | Psychology Explains” | >

Magnetic fields can ‘revive’ superconductivity in nickelates, research reveals

A research team led by Professor Denver Li Danfeng, Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Education) of the College of Science and Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), has achieved a significant advance in superconducting materials.

The team has discovered a magnetic-field-induced “re-entrant superconductivity” phenomenon in infinite-layer nickelate superconductors, in which superconductivity—initially suppressed by a magnetic field—reappears at higher field strengths. This finding challenges the conventional understanding that magnetic fields suppress superconductivity and opens up new directions for exploring unconventional superconducting mechanisms and next-generation superconducting materials.

The findings are published in Nature, titled “Field re-entrant superconductivity in Eu-doped infinite-layer nickelates.”

Relamination: A mechanism that has been shaping continents for billions of years

An international team led by researchers from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) has identified a key mechanism that has shaped Earth’s continents over billions of years. This mechanism is the deep re-lamination of subducted continental crust, a process that explains the origin of certain magmas and offers a new perspective on continental evolution from the Archean (between 3.8 and 2.5 billion years ago) to recent times.

The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, combines numerical geodynamic modeling and high-pressure experiments to unravel how fragments of continental crust can give rise to hybrid magmas that fuel major magmatic events following continental collisions, generating new crust.

During continental collisions, one plate sinks beneath another—a process known as subduction. This study demonstrates that the less dense crust breaks away from the subducted plate and rises again, becoming integrated into the lithospheric mantle of the overlying plate in a process called relamination.

Technology has changed the way students study and learn

Now, as artificial intelligence enters the classroom, proponents argue it will be a welcome revolution for schools — but with limited guardrails, could it do more harm than good? Horizons moderator William Brangham explores the future of AI and education with Khan Academy founder Salman Khan, who has launched a new AI assistant for teachers.

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Russia Develops ‘Anti-Aging Vaccine’ Targeting Cellular Aging

Russia is developing what officials have described as a “vaccine against aging,” a gene therapy drug aimed at slowing cellular aging by blocking a receptor linked to age-related changes in the body, the deputy science minister said Thursday.

Denis Sekirinsky, Russia’s deputy science and higher education minister, said the experimental treatment would target the RAGE receptor, which he said triggers cellular aging when activated.

“The RAGE gene is a receptor whose activation launches the aging of the cell. Blocking this gene, on the contrary, can prolong its youth,” Sekirinsky said at a healthy longevity conference in the Volga city of Saransk, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

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