Using the Summit supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researchers have modeled a key component of nucleotide excision repair (NER) called the pre-incision complex (PInC), which plays a crucial role in DNA damage repair. Their study, published in Nature Communications, provides new insights into how the PInC machinery orchestrates precise DNA excision, potentially leading to advancements in treating genetic disorders, preventing premature aging, and understanding conditions like xeroderma pigmentosum and Cockayne syndrome. Phys.Org reports: “Computationally, once you assemble the PInC, molecular dynamics simulations of the complex become relatively straightforward, especially on large supercomputers like Summit,” [said lead investigator Ivaylo Ivanov, a chemistry professor at Georgia State University]. Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics, or NAMD, is a molecular dynamics code specifically designed for supercomputers and is used to simulate the movements and interactions of large biomolecular systems that contain millions of atoms. Using NAMD, the research team ran extensive simulations. The number-crunching power of the 200-petaflop Summit supercomputer — capable of performing 200,000 trillion calculations per second — was essential in unraveling the functional dynamics of the PInC complex on a timescale of microseconds. “The simulations showed us a lot about the complex nature of the PInC machinery. It showed us how these different components move together as modules and the subdivision of this complex into dynamic communities, which form the moving parts of this machine,” Ivanov said.

The findings are significant in that mutations in XPF and XPG can lead to severe human genetic disorders. They include xeroderma pigmentosum, which is a condition that makes people more susceptible to skin cancer, and Cockayne syndrome, which can affect human growth and development, lead to impaired hearing and vision, and speed up the aging process. “Simulations allow us to zero in on these important regions because mutations that interfere with the function of the NER complex often occur at community interfaces, which are the most dynamic regions of the machine,” Ivanov said. “Now we have a much better understanding of how and from where these disorders manifest.”

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Netflix has deployed AI upscaling on the 1987-1993 sitcom “A Different World,” resulting in significant visual artifacts documented by technology commentator Scott Hanselman. The AI processing, intended to enhance the original 360p footage for modern displays, has generated distortions resembling “lava lamp effects” on actors’ bodies, improperly rendered mouths, and misshapen background objects including posters and tennis rackets. This marks Netflix’s second controversial AI implementation in recent months, following December’s AI-powered dubbing and mouth morphing on “La Palma.”

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Google says its new open-source AI model, Gemma 3, achieves nearly the same performance as DeepSeek AI’s R1 while using just one Nvidia H100 GPU, compared to an estimated 32 for R1. ZDNet reports: Using “Elo” scores, a common measurement system used to rank chess and athletes, Google claims Gemma 3 comes within 98% of the score of DeepSeek’s R1, 1338 versus 1363 for R1. That means R1 is superior to Gemma 3. However, based on Google’s estimate, the search giant claims that it would take 32 of Nvidia’s mainstream “H100” GPU chips to achieve R1’s score, whereas Gemma 3 uses only one H100 GPU.

Google’s balance of compute and Elo score is a “sweet spot,” the company claims. In a blog post, Google bills the new program as “the most capable model you can run on a single GPU or TPU,” referring to the company’s custom AI chip, the “tensor processing unit.” “Gemma 3 delivers state-of-the-art performance for its size, outperforming Llama-405B, DeepSeek-V3, and o3-mini in preliminary human preference evaluations on LMArena’s leaderboard,” the blog post relates, referring to the Elo scores. “This helps you to create engaging user experiences that can fit on a single GPU or TPU host.”

Google’s model also tops Meta’s Llama 3’s Elo score, which it estimates would require 16 GPUs. (Note that the numbers of H100 chips used by the competition are Google’s estimate; DeepSeek AI has only disclosed an example of using 1,814 of Nvidia’s less-powerful H800 GPUs to server answers with R1.) More detailed information is provided in a developer blog post on HuggingFace, where the Gemma 3 repository is offered.

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Meta has notched an early victory in its attempt to halt a surprise tell-all memoir from a former policy executive turned whistleblower. An arbitrator has sided with the social media company, saying that the book’s author should stop selling and publicizing the book, which went on sale earlier this week.

The drama stems from Careless People, a new book by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former policy official at Facebook who Meta says was fired in 2017. Described by its publisher as an “explosive insider account,” Wynn-Williams reveals some new details about Mark Zuckerberg’s push to bring Facebook to China a decade ago. She also alleges that Meta’s current policy chief, Joel Kaplan, acted inappropriately, and reveals embarrassing details about Zuckerberg’s awkward encounters with world leaders

The book was only announced last week, and Meta has waged a forceful PR campaign against it, calling it a “new book of old news.” Numerous former employees have publicly disputed Wynn-Williams’ account of events that transpired while she worked at Facebook.

Meta also filed an emergency motion with an arbitrator in an attempt to block the book, arguing that Wynn-Williams had violated a non-disparagement agreement with the company. In a decision, the arbitrator said that she should immediately stop making disparaging comments about Meta and stop “further publishing or distributing” the book. It’s unclear what exactly this means for the book, which is already on sale. The publisher, Flatiron Books, which was also named in Meta’s complaint, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “This urgent legal action was made necessary by Williams, who more than eight years after being terminated by the company, deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to shelves after waiting for eight years.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-trying-to-stop-a-former-employee-from-promoting-her-book-about-facebook-004938899.html?src=rss

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is acquiring Nianticâ(TM)s gaming division for $3.5 billion through its subsidiary Savvy Games Group. Niantic’s titles include the hit mobile game Pokemon Go, Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom. “Despite launching almost a decade ago, Pokemon Go is still amongst the highest-grossing mobile games in the world, with 30 million monthly players,” notes the BBC. From the report: Scopely is one of the biggest names in mobile gaming, with its most successful title, Monopoly Go, being downloaded more than 50 million times and generating more than $3 billion in revenue. Pokemon itself is jointly owned by Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures, which licensed the brand to Niantic so it could develop the game.

Ed Wu, who leads the Pokemon Go team at Niantic, said in a blog post he believed the move was “a positive step” for the game’s future. “Pokemon Go is more than just a game to me, it’s my life’s work,” he said. “I won’t say that Pokemon Go will remain the same, because it has always been a work in progress. But how we create and evolve it will remain unchanged, and I hope that we can make the experience even better.”

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Season three of Netflix’s thrilling YA animated series, the sequel to Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, arrives soon.