Enlarge (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Facebook is preparing to launch a cryptocurrency, the The New York Times reports. The new cryptocurrency would be integrated with Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging platform, allowing ordinary WhatsApp users to send electronic cash to friends and family across international borders. The Times says it talked to five anonymous sources who have been briefed on the project.

The most popular cryptocurrencies float freely against conventional currencies, leading to high volatility. By contrast, Facebook is planning to peg its currency to a basket of national currencies. This approach could give the new WhatsApp coin greater stability without tying it too tightly to any specific country’s financial system.

The Times notes that Facebook is just one of several messaging companies that are working on cryptocurrencies. Two privacy-focused messaging apps—Telegram and Signal—are each working on cryptocurrencies of their own, too. These are expected to be more traditional cryptocurrencies not pegged to conventional money.

Enlarge / This singing mouse species (Scotinomys teguina) thrives in the cloud forests of Costa Rica. Their songs could yield clues about how human brains accomplish the “turn-talking” that makes conversation possible. (credit: NYU School of Medicine)

High in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, there’s a species of mouse that sings call-and-response duets, similar to the high-speed back and forth humans engage in with conversation. Now scientists have pinpointed the precise brain circuit responsible for this behavior, which may lead to fresh insights into how humans converse, according to a new paper in Science.

Co-author Michael Long of New York University’s School of Medicine calls this conversational back and forth “turn talking,” likening it to hitting a tennis ball back and forth over a net between two players. “If I were to summarize [the results] in one sentence, I’d say this is the first demonstration of the neural mechanisms that lead to coordinated vocal turn-talking in the mammalian brain,” he said. “Our strong prediction from the mouse study is that a similar kind of vocal coordination center may exist in the human brain as well.”

Long’s lab specializes in the study of vocal communication, something at which human beings excel.  We don’t often stop to think about the intricate neural processing even a simple conversation requires.  The pause time between when one speaker finished and another begins—called “floor transfer time”—is just 200 milliseconds. But one in ten people experience some form of communication disorder, whether due to a stroke or a developmental disorder like autism.

Enlarge / An aerial view of homes destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California. Three months after the deadly and destructive Camp Fire, the community is beginning the rebuilding process. (credit: Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Although the cause of the 2018 Camp Fire is still under investigation, based on the information currently known to the company and reported to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and other agencies, the company believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp Fire,” PG&E told investors.

The utility goes on to state that its Caribou-Palermo 115 kilovolt (kV) transmission line deenergized approximately 15 minutes before a PG&E employee observed a fire in the vicinity of a tower on the line. In addition, “a suspension insulator supporting a transposition jumper had separated from an arm” on the tower in question.

Enlarge / Illustration of a OneWeb satellite. (credit: OneWeb)

“If we get six out of six working, that will be amazing,” OneWeb founder Greg Wyler said, according to a Bloomberg article.

The satellites were “aboard a Soyuz launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana,” the company said in an announcement today. The satellites left the rocket in two batches and “[s]ignal acquisition has been confirmed for all six satellites,” the company said.