Hacker NewsFriday, February 21

A concerning report details how Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has gained unprecedented access to federal agencies' digital systems, including USAID, with potential expansion to CDC and FAA. This access grants complete control over sensitive data, financial systems, and critical infrastructure.

Studies now show that early weight-bearing after bone fractures can aid healing and improve recovery time, challenging the traditional six-week non-weight-bearing approach. Research indicates early walking is safe for most cases and helps prevent muscle loss, maintain bone density, and allows faster return to normal activities.

Mastra is an open-source JavaScript SDK for building AI agents, created by the founders of Gatsby. It simplifies AI development by offering workflow management, RAG capabilities, agent memory, and a local playground for testing. Users are already applying it in iOS support, aerospace documentation, and WhatsApp bots.

Microsoft has made a breakthrough in quantum computing with Majorana 1, the first Quantum Processing Unit powered by a Topological Core. This innovative system uses new materials called topoconductors and represents a significant step towards practical quantum computing that could scale to millions of qubits on a single chip.

A researcher shares their successful recovery of a working UNIX system from the DMR tapes, specifically a kernel that appears to be a transitional version between UNIX V1 and V2. After forensic analysis and creative emulation techniques, they managed to boot the system and demonstrate its functionality, making it available for download as an RF disk image.

This article discusses mathematician Britta Späth's 20-year journey to prove the McKay conjecture, a complex mathematical problem in group theory. Working with Marc Cabanes, whom she later married, Späth successfully proved that examining a small subset of a group can reveal broader properties about its entire structure.

This article discusses an AI co-scientist system built on Gemini 2.0 that helps researchers generate novel hypotheses and research proposals. The system uses specialized agents to evaluate and refine ideas, and has been validated through real-world experiments in drug repurposing, target discovery, and antimicrobial resistance research.

Using scented products indoors, such as flame-free candles and wax melts, can create significant indoor air pollution comparable to car exhaust. Research by Purdue University found these products release nanosized particles that can penetrate deep into lungs and potentially enter the bloodstream, posing serious respiratory health risks.

Ubicloud encountered reliability issues after adopting Hetzner's new AX162 server line, experiencing frequent crashes that were 16 times more likely than previous models. After months of investigation and multiple hardware updates from Hetzner, the issue was finally resolved with a new motherboard version that proved more reliable than its predecessor.

Microsoft announced a breakthrough in creating their first topological qubit, though some experts remain cautious due to past retracted claims. While potentially a scientific milestone, the technology lags decades behind traditional qubit approaches and needs significant advances to prove practical value. Microsoft is largely alone in pursuing topological qubits commercially.