On August 4th, Northrop Grumman's 19th resupply mission for the ISS arrived on the orbiting lab, carrying not just necessities for its inhabitants, but also an experiment that could greatly benefit future human colonies outside our planet. Specifically, the mission was carrying a module with hardware that could help us understand how heating and air conditioning systems can operate in reduced gravity and in the extreme temperatures observed on the moon and Mars. Daytime temperatures near the lunar equator, for instance, reach 250 degrees Fahrenheit, which is higher than the boiling point of water. At night, temperatures reach -208 degrees Fahrenheit. The lowest recorded temperature on Earth was -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit back in 1983.

The hardware was designed and built by scientists and engineers from Purdue University and NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. It will allow Purdue scientists to conduct the second part of their Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE), which has been collecting data aboard the ISS since 2021. They've already finished gathering data for the first part of their study that focuses on measuring the effects of reduced gravity on boiling. This part will now focus on investigating how condensation works in a reduced-gravity environment.

Issam Mudawar, the Purdue professor in charge of experiment, explained: "We have developed over a hundred years' worth of understanding of how heat and cooling systems work in Earth’s gravity, but we haven’t known how they work in weightlessness."

His team has published over 60 research papers on reduced gravity and fluid flow from the data they've collected so far, and they're in the midst of preparing more. They believe that in addition to providing the information needed to enable human colonies to live on the moon and on the red planet, their experiment could also provide the scientific understanding to enable spacecraft to travel longer distances and to refuel in orbit.

The Apple TV+ film Tetris was copied from a book written years ago, according to a lawsuit filed against the tech giant and the Tetris Company. Dan Ackerman, the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, has accused the plaintiffs of ripping off his book The Tetris Effect, which tells the history of the game in the form of a Cold War-era thriller. In his lawsuit (PDF, via Reuters), Ackerman said he sent the Tetris Company and its CEO Maya Rogers a pre-publication copy of his book back in 2016. Later that year, his agent received a "strongly worded Cease and Desist letter" to stop him from pursuing film and TV opportunities. 

Ackerman accused Rogers of working with screenwriter Noah Pink to develop a screenplay using content taken from his book without his knowledge or consent. Apparently, numerous producers showed interest in adapting his book, but the Tetris Company refused to license its IP for the project. "This was done at the direction and behest of Ms. Rogers so that she and the Tetris Company could pursue their own project and opportunities based on Mr. Ackerman's book without compensating him," the lawsuit reads. 

In his complaint, Ackerman explained that for writers, the option to license their work for film and TV is typically a major source of revenue. That's why he takes the Tetris Company's actions not as a means to prevent the unauthorized use of its IP, but as an "economic attack" on his business. To drive the point home, Ackerman included quite a lengthy list of "glaring similarities" between his book and the film in his lawsuit. Several items in the list explain how scenes in the movie mirrored his versions of events. That said, those events were based on scenarios that happened in real life, so it remains to be seen if the court will agree with him. Ackerman is asking for actual, compensatory and punitive damages equivalent to 6 percent of the film's $80 million production budget. 

Marvel's visual effects employees have voted in favor of joining a union in their fight for better pay, overtime compensation, more benefits and better treatment. According to Vulture, a supermajority of the company's 50 on-set VFX employees have filed a petition for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. They're hoping to join the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which also represents hair and makeup artists, wardrobe, lighting and prop personnel, among other workers. Because apparently, despite Marvel's reliance on visual effects to make its universe(s), superheroes and supervillains look real on the big screen, its VFX artists aren't represented by a union. IATSE has also been campaigning broadly to expand its membership into VFX and animation workers in recent months.

Several current and former VFX employees for the company previously spoke out about grueling schedules and breaking down under pressure while working on shows and movies for the studio. Sources told IGN that people were being given tasks that were impossible to finish within the timeframe allowed to complete them. Some VFX artists told Vulture that the hectic production schedule for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, for instance, led to rushed work and an end product that many reviewers had described as "bland."

VFX coordinator Bella Huffman said: "Turnaround times don't apply to us, protected hours don’t apply to us, and pay equity doesn’t apply to us. Visual effects must become a sustainable and safe department for everyone who's suffered far too long and for all newcomers who need to know they won’t be exploited."

Vulture says a strike by Marvel's VFX artists is not out of the question. It is a common tactic employed by workers seeking to organize, after all — plus, both the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild are currently on strike to demand better pay, streaming residuals from successful shows and regulation of AI use in Hollywood.

Almost three years after PayPal started supporting cryptocurrency for all US accounts, the fintech company has launched its own stablecoin that's pegged to the US dollar. PayPal USD, the payment processor said, is "100 percent backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US Treasuries and similar cash equivalents." The company first confirmed that it was "exploring a stablecoin" back in January last year after a developer found code and images for a "PayPal Coin" in its app. It said back then that it will work with relevant regulators "if and when [it] seek[s] to move forward."

In its announcement, PayPal explained that its coin is a token issued on the Ethereum blockchain by the Paxos Trust Company, which is subject to the regulatory oversight of the New York State Department of Financial Services. The company also obtained a BitLicense, or a business license of virtual currency activities, from the NYDFS in June 2022. 

Users can buy and sell PayPal USD coins for $1 each. They can send the coins to other users as payment or use them to purchase goods and services by selecting the option during the checkout process. They can also transfer PayPal USD to compatible external wallets or convert other cryptocurrencies in their account to and from the stablecoin. 

As Reuters notes, authorities previously thwarted attempts by major companies to introduce stablecoins of their own. Meta, for instance, spent two years trying to launch a stablecoin, but the project collapsed after repeated delays due to regulators' concerns that it could be used for money laundering and other nefarious purposes. Ian Katz, managing director of Capital Alpha Partners, told Reuters that PayPal USD could soon attract the attention of the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission. For now, PayPal is focusing on rolling out the new currency and all the things people can do with it in the US.

NASA has reestablished connection with Voyager 2 after a tense two weeks of not hearing anything from the probe. On July 21st, the agency lost contact with Voyager 2 following a series of planned commands that mistakenly pointed it two degrees away from our planet. While it is scheduled to automatically reset its orientation on October 15th, it's not surprising that NASA scientists didn't just wait for that date to know whether the spacecraft is still running. Voyager 2 was launched way back in 1977, and it's one of the only two probes sending us back valuable data on interstellar space. 

For a few days after July 21st, NASA wasn't even sure what the spacecraft's condition was. It wasn't until August 1st that multiple ground antennas from the Deep Space Network (DSN) were able to detect a carrier signal from the probe. A carrier signal is what a spacecraft uses to beam data back to the ground, but NASA said the one DSN detected was too weak to be able to transmit any information. Still, it was enough to confirm that Voyager 2 was still working and that it hadn't deviated from its trajectory. 

Instead of simply waiting for October, Voyager's ground team decided to take action. They concocted a plan to "shout" a command to the spacecraft across over 12.3 billion miles of space using the DSN, telling it to turn its antenna back to Earth. The whole process illustrated just how vast outer space truly is: It took 18.5 hours for that message to reach the probe, and another 18.5 hours for NASA to start receiving science and telemetry data again, indicating that Voyager 2 had received the command. 

This isn't the first time NASA has had issues with the spacecraft. In 2020, it had to provide tech assistance from billions of miles away after it tripped a system that shut off its scientific gear to conserve electricity. Voyager 2 entered interstellar space — that means it exited the plasma bubble created by our sun — back in 2018, becoming the second human-made object to do so after Voyager 1. Although NASA believes that both Voyager 1 and 2 could remain in contact with the DSN until 2036, it also says that "science data won't likely be collected after 2025." The spacecraft could only be providing us information on interstellar space for less than two years, so it stands to reason that scientists don't want to waste a single day it can send data back to Earth. 

Apple has quietly launched a new feature for its music streaming service that could help you expand your playlists and find new artists to listen to. It's a personalized radio station called "Discovery Station," which picks the songs it thinks you'd be into from Apple Music's catalog. As Apple Insider notes, the tech giant's music service hasn't gone all in on algorithmic recommendations like Spotify, which has several playlists that can generate mixes based on your listening habits. 

An Apple spokesperson told us that Discovery Station will only play music you haven't played on the service before from both familiar artists and potentially unfamiliar ones it thinks you might like. And since its main purpose is to help you discover new music, it will never play the same song twice and will play continuously until you stop it. Like other playlists that use algorithms to recommend tracks, Discovery Station also bases its suggestions on your activity and will keep changing as your taste evolves. 

The feature is now live around the world. If you're an existing subscriber, you can access it by going to your Listen Now page and checking out the Stations for You section. If you don't have a subscription, it will cost you at least $5 a month in the US for an audio-only plan or at least $11 a month if you want access to Apple Music's video programming and other features, such as lossless audio and Dolby Atmos. 

Viewers might see a new option in YouTube's dropdown resolution menu on the web if they're paying for the video hosting platform's Premium subscription service. According to The Verge, YouTube's 1080p playback option with "enhanced bitrate" is now available on desktop around the world. It's located above the ordinary 1080p option in the menu, and clicking on it will prompt users to pay for Premium if they're not currently a subscriber. 

YouTube started testing 1080p Premium earlier this year, describing it as a "version of 1080p which provides more information per pixel that results in a higher quality viewing experience." The higher bitrate, which is used as a measurement for the amount of video data transferred within a certain timeframe, it provides could give viewers a better quality without having to watch in higher resolution. Yes, 4K is available for some videos, but that means having to stream a larger file that not everyone's connection can handle and could eat up a significant portion of some people's data allowance. 

The service also rolled out enhanced 1080p on iOS a few months ago, but now more people will have access to it. That said, YouTube recently raised the prices for a Premium subscription from $12 a month to $14 and from $120 a year to $140. It does eliminate ads from the viewing experience, though, and it comes with features other than enhanced 1080p, including offline viewing and background playback. 

Threads users will soon get one of the most requested features for the text-based social network: A web version. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg has announced on the app that in the next few weeks, Threads is getting both a web version people can use to access the service on desktop, as well as a proper search function.

While it's possible to view Threads posts on desktop at the moment, clicking on the reply, repost, like and send buttons merely brings up a QR code that links to the app. Similarly, Threads' search function is currently limited. As 9to5Mac notes, it can only surface other accounts and can't be used to look for particular posts.

Meta pushed Threads out the door at an opportune time, when X users were reeling from major changes to the platform formerly known as Twitter. It became available shortly after X restricted the number of posts users can see on the website/app due to "extreme levels of data scraping [and] system manipulation." Non-paying users were the most affected and were initially limited to seeing 600 posts a day.

People flocked to Threads after it came out, and it easily reached 100 million users in under a week. However, Meta released Threads without a bunch of features people have come to expect from a social network like it. The company's higher-ups promised that the Threads team was working on those features, and over the past couple of weeks, it released a chronological feed and built-in translations. Threads' engagement has plummeted from that blockbuster first week, but the new features coming out could entice those early adopters to take a peek and become active users. 

TikTok is undergoing massive changes for users in the European Union in order to meet the August 28th deadline the region's authorities gave companies to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA). Perhaps the biggest change users will encounter is the ability to decide whether or not to let algorithms power their For You page (FYP). "Soon," the service announced, users in the region will be able to switch off personalization. If they do, then their FYP will be populated with popular videos within their location and from around the world instead of content tailored to them. 

When they search for any subject in particular, the results will also be comprised of popular videos in their region and content in their preferred language. They can still head to their Following and Friends feeds to see posts by people they follow, but both will now show a chronological timeline instead of one based on their profile. Under the DSA, "providers of very large online platforms," of which TikTok is included, are required to to ensure that users can "enjoy alternative options which are not based on profiling" as part of their "recommender systems." That means they have to offer an option that presents their content to users in a way that doesn't use their personal data. 

As TechCrunch notes, it'll be an enormous shift for TikTok, seeing as most of its success is credited to the algorithm that powers its For You Page. Its scrollable format filled with videos targeting specific users is what makes the app so addicting. 

In addition to introducing an alternative FYP, TikTok is rolling out an additional reporting option for European users for content they believe shouldn't be allowed on the platform. If the service decides that it doesn't violate its general guidelines upon review, a new dedicated team of moderators will then take a look at it to see if it violates laws in the region. TikTok can then restrict access to the reported video within that country or region only. 

The social network will also start giving users in Europe more details about its content moderation decisions, such as why posts with false information aren't eligible for recommendation. Finally, it said that it will no longer serve personalized advertising to users in Europe ages 13 to 17 based on their activities. 

Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the couple who were arrested last year for the massive 2016 Bitfinex hack involving billions of dollars of cryptocurrency, have pleaded guilty in court. Lichtenstein has admitted that he used multiple advanced hacking tools and techniques to gain entry into the cryptocurrency exchange's network. He then authorized 2,000 transactions to move 119,754 bitcoins to wallets he controlled. To cover his tracks, he said he deleted access credentials, logs and other digital breadcrumbs that could give him away. Morgan, his wife, helped him move and launder the stolen funds. 

If you'll recall, the Justice Department seized 95,000 of the stolen bitcoins at the time of their arrest. Back then, that digital coin hoard was worth a whopping $3.6 billion and was the largest financial seizure in the agency's history. Authorities were able to trace more of the stolen funds after that to recover an additional $475 million worth of cryptocurrency.

According to the DOJ, Lichtenstein and Morgan used false identities to set up online accounts on darknet markets and cryptocurrency exchanges. They then withdrew the funds and distributed the bitcoins from there by converting them into other forms of cryptocurrency and keeping them in crypto mixing services. By doing so, they obfuscated the coins' sources and made them harder to trace. The couple also set up businesses in the US to make their banking activities look legitimate — Morgan had a TikTok where she talked about establishing a "multimillion dollar business" with "zero outside funding" — and they apparently used the stolen money to purchase physical gold coins that Morgan then buried. 

To be precise, Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and could spend up to 20 years in prison. Meanwhile, Morgan pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Each one carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.