SoylentNews

janrinok writes:

https://scitechdaily.com/a-simple-pill-could-replace-injections-for-treating-gonorrhea/

Researchers are testing a new single-dose pill that could make treating gonorrhea easier as antibiotic resistance rises.

A new antibiotic pill called zoliflodacin could become an important option for treating gonorrhea as the infection grows harder to cure with existing drugs. In a phase 3 clinical trial published in The Lancet, researchers reported that a single oral dose of zoliflodacin worked about as well as the long-used standard approach that relies on two antibiotics: a ceftriaxone injection followed by an oral dose of azithromycin.

Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in 2020 there were 82·4 million new cases worldwide among people aged 15–49 years. Treatment matters because untreated gonorrhea can lead to serious complications, and infection can also increase the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV. The challenge is that N gonorrhea has gradually developed resistance to every class of antibiotics previously used against it, leaving fewer reliable options.

Surveillance data cited by the researchers describe growing concern in several regions, including reports of rising azithromycin resistance and increasing multidrug resistance, with especially worrying signals involving ceftriaxone susceptibility in places such as Cambodia and Viet Nam.

Zoliflodacin is a first-in-class spiropyrimidinetrione antibiotic that kills the bacteria by disrupting DNA replication, mainly by targeting the GyrB subunit of DNA gyrase. This is distinct from fluoroquinolones, which primarily act on other bacterial targets. Earlier work showed zoliflodacin can remain active in laboratory testing against strains resistant to ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, and azithromycin, and modelling supported a single 3 g oral regimen.

The phase 3 trial enrolled more than 900 people across 17 outpatient clinics in five countries (USA, South Africa, Thailand, Belgium, and the Netherlands). Participants received either the new pill or the standard treatment. Results showed that zoliflodacin cured over 90% of infections at genital sites.

Results showed that zoliflodacin cured over 90% of infections at genital sites. The medication was well tolerated, with side effects similar to those seen with current treatments, and no serious safety issues were reported. The investigators also reported no evidence that resistance to zoliflodacin emerged during the trial based on the laboratory findings they tracked from baseline to test of cure.

Zoliflodacin is awaiting review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If it is approved, the authors argue that a single-dose oral option could strengthen efforts to control drug-resistant gonorrhea, make treatment easier to deliver in more settings (including community-led care), and help protect reproductive health for millions of people by improving access to effective therapy worldwide.

Reference: “Zoliflodacin versus ceftriaxone plus azithromycin for treatment of uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhoea: an international, randomised, controlled, open-label, phase 3, non-inferiority clinical trial” by Alison Luckey, Manica Balasegaram, Lindley A Barbee, et al. 11 December 2025, The Lancet.

DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01953-1

Original Submission

c0lo writes:

Cheaper and faster than building a nuclear reactor

By either the end of Friday or Monday, Australia will have surpassed 100,000 small battery systems installed and registered since 1 July when batteries became eligible for the STC rebate under the Small Scale Renewable Energy Scheme.

The capacity of household batteries registered in the 17 weeks since July 1 is just under 2,000 megawatt-hours (MWh). To put this into perspective it is enough capacity to cover the average daily electricity consumption of almost 400,000 households and is 15 times the size of the original South Australian Hornsdale Big Battery.

[...] In the first three weeks we see rapid growth. This doesn't reflect actual install rates, because systems were being installed at high rates even before 1 July. Instead, this represents an initial learning, scale-up phase related to the administration processes involved in claiming STCs from the regulator.

Then from the fourth week we look to have hit a ceiling flat-line of about a 1000 systems per working day. This lasted for the next seven weeks.

Our discussions with industry participants indicated this had nothing to do with underlying demand, which was running hot. Instead, it was a function of constraints in obtaining battery equipment and electricians with the required accreditation in battery installation.

But then from the 12th week we look to have been able to break free of that initial constraint to enter a new higher-level constraint of around 1500 systems per working day.

[...] The other fascinating thing for nerds like me, is that the size of batteries being installed is much larger than the historical norm, and far larger than most households will need to meet their own consumption requirements.

The chart below shows in the green bars the average size of system registered each day, while the blue line shows the seven-day moving average of system size. The seven-day moving average has us at close to 25 kilowatt-hours (kWh) average system size.

By comparison the average Australian household tends to consume around 12 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day*. Although if a household was to own two electric vehicles and dump gas then their consumption would likely double, making that battery not so oversized.

janrinok writes:

https://scitechdaily.com/breaking-a-50-year-law-new-evidence-challenges-fundamental-black-hole-physics/

New observations suggest that the relationship between light emitted by quasars has changed over cosmic time, hinting that the structure around supermassive black holes may not be as universal as once thought.

Astronomers from around the world have uncovered strong evidence suggesting that the material surrounding supermassive black holes has not remained the same throughout the history of the universe.

If confirmed, the findings from a study led by the National Observatory of Athens and published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society could overturn a key assumption that has shaped black hole research for nearly fifty years.

Quasars, which were first recognized in the 1960s, rank among the most luminous objects ever observed. Their extraordinary brightness comes from supermassive black holes that draw in nearby matter through intense gravitational forces. As this material falls inward, it forms a rapidly rotating disc that ultimately feeds the black hole.

The disc heats up to extreme temperatures as particles collide and rub against one another while orbiting the black hole. This process releases an astonishing amount of energy, producing between 100 and 1,000 times more light than an entire galaxy made up of roughly 100 billion stars. The resulting ultraviolet radiation is so powerful that telescopes can detect quasars across immense distances, even near the farthest reaches of the observable universe.

The ultraviolet light of the disc is also believed to be the fuel for the much more energetic X-ray light produced by quasars: the ultraviolet light rays as they travel through space intercept clouds of highly energetic particles very close to the black hole, a structure also known as the "corona".

As they bounce off these energetic particles, the ultraviolet rays are boosted in energy and generate intense X-ray light that our detectors can also spot.

hubie writes:

A program of smell screening, awareness campaigns and health policies could improve the mental and physical health of millions:

Smell dysfunction is present in more than 130 neurological, somatic and hereditary disorders, with some evidence suggesting a causal role.

But a new paper published today reveals how smell is overlooked as a "Cinderella sense" in public health.

And researchers are calling for a worldwide campaign to put smell health on the map - with screening, education and awareness at its core.

Lead researcher Prof Carl Philpott, from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said: "A good sense of smell is vital for physical and mental health, and social wellbeing.

"However, smell remains a Cinderella sense which has lagged behind sight and hearing in terms of its perceived importance.

"Smell health underpins good nutrition, cognitive function, and psychological resilience. But national public health agendas around the world rarely consider smell health.

"Even before the emergence of Covid-19, smell disorders were very common but under-rated, under-researched, and under-treated sensory loss.

"Smell issues occur in at least 139 different neurological, physical, and inherited conditions. Research suggests smell loss may play a causal role because it often appears early and can predict future health issues.

"Increasing evidence has shown that smell loss is an independent risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders, increased frailty and reduced longevity."

To address this gap, the team are calling for education, awareness campaigns, and targeted public health policies that make smell health a priority.

Prof Philpott said: "The sense of smell should be promoted as an essential pillar of health, as it enables good nutrition and cognitive and psychological well-being.

"We recommend developing smell health educational programmes and awareness campaigns, introducing smell screening and developing and implementing smell health policies across all sectors of society.

"Inclusive efforts are particularly needed to ensure equity and diversity, particularly given the current demographic as those seeking help are typically not from a diverse cross-section of the community," he added.

It is interesting we regularly test vision and hearing, but don't regularly test the other senses.

Journal Reference: Carl Martin Philpott, Thomas Hummel, Valentina Parma, et al., The Need to Promote Olfactory Health in Public Health Agendas Across the Globe [OPEN], Clinical Otolaryngology, First published: 24 November 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/coa.70056

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://9to5linux.com/kali-linux-2025-4-ethical-hacking-distro-released-with-kde-plasma-6-5-gnome-49

This release also updates the Xfce desktop environment with support for color themes and introduces support for virtual machine guest tools.

Offensive Security announced today the release and general availability of Kali Linux 2025.4 as the fourth and last update to this Debian-based distribution for ethical hacking and penetration testing in 2025.

Coming almost three months after Kali Linux 2025.3, the Kali Linux 2025.4 release updates the GNOME and KDE Plasma desktop offerings to the latest GNOME 49 and KDE Plasma 6.5 releases, in addition to Xfce 4.20, which remains the default desktop environment.

The GNOME offering defaults to Wayland only, has an updated app grid that now organizes the Kali tools into folders, adopts Showtime as the default video player instead of Totem, and adds the Ctrl+Alt+T or Super+T keyboard shortcuts for quickly opening a terminal window.

The default Xfce desktop environment received some attention too in Kali Linux 2025.4 with the addition of support for color themes for icons, GTK 3/4 windows, Qt 5/6 windows, and Xfce's window manager decorations in the Appearance application.

For those running Kali Linux in a virtual machine, this release introduces support for virtual machine guest tools, such as clipboard sharing and window scaling in VirtualBox, QEMU, and VMware. The devs said that "all of the VM guest additions that you expected in X11 before are now working in Wayland without trouble."

Three new tools have been added in Kali Linux 2025.4, namely bpf-linker, a simple BPF static linker, evil-winrm-py, a Python-based tool for executing commands on remote Windows machines using WinRM, and hexstrike-ai, an MCP server that lets AI agents autonomously run tools.

Other than that, this release introduces a Halloween Mode for the Xfce desktop and updates Kali NetHunter with support for Android 16 devices like the Samsung Galaxy S10, S10e, S10 Plus, and S10 5G running LineageOS 23, improved terminal, updated Wifipumpkin3 tab with preview support, and an updated kernel install tab.

You can download Kali Linux 2025.4 from the official website in various flavors for 64-bit, ARM, VM, Cloud, WSL, or mobile platforms. Existing Kali Linux users need only to update their installations by running the sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade commands in a terminal emulator.

Original Submission

janrinok writes:

Scientists Discover Early Alzheimer's Warning Sign Hiding in Routine Brain Scans

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found that the brain's natural "drains", which help remove toxic waste from the organ, are more likely to become blocked in people who show early signs of Alzheimer's disease.

Their findings indicate that these blockages, known as "enlarged perivascular spaces", could serve as an important early signal of Alzheimer's, one of the most common forms of dementia.

"Since these brain anomalies can be visually identified on routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans performed to evaluate cognitive decline, identifying them could complement existing methods to detect Alzheimer's earlier, without having to do and pay for additional tests," said Associate Professor Nagaendran Kandiah from NTU's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) who led the study.

Justin Ong, a fifth-year LKCMedicine student and first author of the study, noted that spotting Alzheimer's at an early stage allows doctors to intervene sooner and potentially slow the progression of symptoms such as memory loss, reduced processing speed, and mood changes. The study was carried out as part of LKCMedicine's Scholarly Project module in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery program.

This research stands out because it is one of the few global studies that focus on Asian populations, rather than primarily Caucasian participants. The team examined nearly 1,000 people in Singapore from various ethnic groups, comparing individuals with no cognitive concerns to those showing mild difficulties in thinking.

These Asian-focused studies are important because past work suggests that dementia-related conditions vary across ethnicities.

"For example, among Caucasians with dementia, past studies show that the prevalence of a major risk gene, apolipoprotein E4, linked to Alzheimer's is around 50 to 60 per cent. But among Singapore dementia patients, it is less than 20 per cent," said Assoc Prof Kandiah, who is also Director of the Dementia Research Centre (Singapore)in LKCMedicine. So, findings in studies on Caucasian patients might not be observed in Asians and vice versa.

The brain's blood vessels are surrounded by small channels called perivascular spaces. These serve as pathways for clearing harmful waste such as beta amyloid and tau proteins, both of which appear in unusually high amounts in people with Alzheimer's.

When this drainage system becomes inefficient, the spaces expand and form enlarged perivascular spaces that are detectable on MRI scans. However, previous studies had not fully clarified whether this phenomenon was directly associated with dementia or specifically with Alzheimer's disease.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-approves-first-device-to-treat-depression-with-brain-stimulation-at-home/

In a first, this week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a brain stimulation device designed to treat depression at home. The approval of the first such device for home depression treatment expands therapeutic options for depression beyond drugs.

Made by Flow Neuroscience, the device is worn as a headset that delivers electric current to a part of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is known to be implicated in mood disorders and depression. The technique, known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), has its skeptics. A 2023 trial published in the Lancet found tDCS to be no better than a placebo for treating depression, while other investigations, including trials funded by Flow Neuroscience, have shown some benefit.

[...] Key to the FDA approval was a 2024 phase 2 trial involving 174 people. Participants who wore the headset for 30-minute sessions over 10 weeks reported experiencing significant relief from their depression symptoms compared with controls who did not use the headset. In a document summarizing the data backing its decision, the FDA said that the headset's benefit, "while modest, is sufficient to outweigh its probable risk." The agency pointed to headaches and skin irritation as among the possible risks of the device.

[...] "Flow's FDA approval is a watershed moment for the treatment of depression: the first step in moving from pharmaceutical treatments to tech-based therapies with minimal side effects," said Erin Lee, Flow Neuroscience's CEO, in a recent statement.

The FDA's approval will make the headset available by prescription to treat moderate to severe major depressive disorder in adults. The company is negotiating with health insurance providers over possible coverage for the device, which is likely to cost between $500 and $800, according to Reuters.

= Links in article:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-brain-stimulation-boost-memory-and-focus-huge-study-tries-to-settle-debate/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00640-2/fulltext
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03305-y
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf23/P230024B.pdf
https://www.flowneuroscience.com/fda-approved-lp-2/
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-fda-approves-first-at-home-device-depression-2025-12-11/

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Specific musical features have the power to make people bounce or sway:

Some music is for grooving: It evokes spontaneous dancing, like head bopping, jumping, or arm swinging. Other music is for swaying, or for crying, or for slow dancing. Music makes people move, but whether musicians intentionally induce specific movements with their compositions, such as vertical bouncing or horizontal swaying, or what musical features would contribute to these distinctions, is more complex.

Shimpei Ikegami, an associate professor at Showa Women's University, sought to understand how musicians express intended bodily movement directions using specific acoustic features.

"It's almost magical how something we hear with our ears can influence our entire body. In Japan, we even have terms to describe distinct rhythmic feelings to music," Ikegami said.

[...] Ikegami's findings suggest that the way musicians express certain qualities of danceability is specific and quantifiable. He aims to further explore commonalities and differences between musical profiles that induce vertical versus horizontal bodily movement.

"In the immediate future, I am investigating the psychological impressions — how the music is perceived by listeners. I am also deeply interested in cultural differences in these phenomena," said Ikegami. "I believe that advancing my understanding of how music influences our body movements could be beneficial in fields such as health care, rehabilitation, and education."

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Researchers exploit gravitational lensing to see how fast the universe is really expanding:

There is an important and unresolved tension in cosmology regarding the rate at which the universe is expanding, and resolving this could reveal new physics. Astronomers constantly seek new ways to measure this expansion in case there may be unknown errors in data from conventional markers such as supernovae. Recently, researchers including those from the University of Tokyo measured the expansion of the universe using novel techniques and new data from the latest telescopes. Their method exploits the way light from extremely distant objects takes multiple pathways to get to us. Differences in these pathways help improve models on what happens at the largest cosmological scales, including expansion.

The universe is big, and it's getting bigger. How big is it? We don't really know. But we do know how fast it's expanding. It's not a simple matter, however, as the expansion appears faster the farther away we observe. For every 3.3 million light years (or one megaparsec) of distance from us, we see things at that distance running away from us at increasing multiples of about 73 kilometers per second. In other words, the rate of expansion of the universe is 73 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/s/Mpc), also known as the Hubble constant.

There are different ways to ascertain the Hubble constant, but until now, all have relied on so-called distance ladders. These are things like supernovae or special stars called Cepheid variable stars, both of which are thought to be well understood enough such that their presence even in other galaxies ought to afford us accurate measurements about them, including their distances. By observing enough of these over the decades, the Hubble constant has been increasingly constrained. But there has always been a degree of doubt about this method, so cosmologists welcome improvements. In their latest paper, a team of astronomers including Project Assistant Professor Kenneth Wong and postdoctoral researcher Eric Paic from the University of Tokyo's Research Center for the Early Universe successfully demonstrated a method known as time-delay cosmography that they believe can mitigate the reliance on distance ladders and ought to have offshoots in other areas of cosmology as well.

Included are some cool pics of the lensed quasars used in the study.

Journal Reference:Simon Birrer, Elizabeth J. Buckley-Geer, Michele Cappellari, et al., "TDCOSMO 2025: Cosmological constraints from strong lensing time delays," Astronomy and Astrophysics: November 25, 2025, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202555801.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-thought-parkinsons-was-in-our-genes-it-might-be-in-the-water/

[...] Parkinson's is the second most common neurological disease in the United States, after Alzheimer's; each year 90,000 Americans are diagnosed. For decades, Parkinson's research has focused on genetics, on finding the rogue letters in our genome that cause this incurable misery. Today, published research on the genetics behind Parkinson's outnumbers all other potential causes six to one. This is partially because one of the disease's most generous benefactors, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, can tie Parkinson's to his genetics. Some Parkinson's patients diagnosed before age 50—as Michael J. Fox was—can trace the disease to their genes; Brin, whose mother has the disease, carries a mutation of the LRRK2 gene, which significantly increases the likelihood of him developing PD. Over the years, Fox's foundation has raised billions for Parkinson's research, and Brin has personally committed $1.8 billion to fighting the disorder. All told, more than half of Parkinson's research dollars in the past two decades have flowed toward genetics.

But Parkinson's rates in the US have doubled in the past 30 years. And studies suggest they will climb another 15 to 35 percent in each coming decade. This is not how an inherited genetic disease is supposed to behave.

Despite the avalanche of funding, the latest research suggests that only 10 to 15 percent of Parkinson's cases can be fully explained by genetics. The other three-quarters are, functionally, a mystery. "More than two-thirds of people with PD don't have any clear genetic link," says Briana De Miranda, a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "So, we're moving to a new question: What else could it be?"

"The health you enjoy or don't enjoy today is a function of your environment in the past," says Ray Dorsey, a physician and professor of neurology at the University of Rochester. Your "environment" could be the refinery a town over, the lead in the paint of your mother's home, the plastic sheath of the Hot Pocket you microwaved in 1996. It is air pollution and PFAS and pesticides and so much more.

And this environment of yours—the sum of all your exposures, from conception to the grave—could be making you sicker than you realize. In a study of half a million Britons, Oxford researchers determined that lifestyle and the environment is 10 times more likely to explain early death than genetics. But that also offers a tantalizing prospect. If Parkinson's is an environmental disease, as Dorsey and a small band of researchers emphatically believe, then maybe we can end it.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

The State of Open Source Software in 2025:

A few weeks ago, Linux Foundation Research published "The State of Global Open Source 2025," the third annual report based on its survey of the open source community. The report highlights the evolution of open source software (OSS) from a productivity tool to a key component of global mission-critical infrastructures. The 2025 global survey on which it's based confirms that organizations depend on OSS as the backbone of their critical systems.

Given my long involvement with open source technologies and the Linux Foundation, I was invited to write the Foreword of the 2024 Open Source report, where I tried to explain why open source has been so successful over the past several decades:

"For centuries, experts have worked together to jointly address some of the most complex and important problems of their times, from exploring the secrets of the universe to developing new healthcare treatments. Open source is part of this long tradition of collaborative innovation."

[...] The 2025 report warns that despite open source software being the backbone of organizations' critical systems, "most lack the governance and security frameworks to manage this dependency safely. While expecting enterprise-level reliability and support, organizations systematically underinvest in the security practices, formal governance structures, community engagement, and comprehensive strategies that production environments demand. ... This governance gap creates substantial risk exposure given the mission-critical nature of these deployments."

[...] "The 2025 World of Open Source Survey reveals a paradox: while open source software has achieved mission-critical status with widespread adoption across enterprise technology stacks, organizational maturity significantly lags behind this adoption," said the report in conclusion. "This disconnect creates significant business risks: organizations depend on foundational technologies they cannot adequately assess, understand, or strategically influence."

Finally, the report offers a few key recommendations:

• Establish open source governance structures. Implement Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) or formalize open source strategies to manage compliance, security, and contribution workflows.
• Strengthen security evaluation practices. Move beyond the community health checks currently used by 44% of organizations to implement systematic security assessment frameworks.
• Establish enterprise-grade support arrangements. Organizations should establish support arrangements with sub-12-hour response times for mission-critical workloads.
• Promote strategic participation through active engagement. Prioritize sponsoring critical open source dependencies to ensure project sustainability and gain strategic influence over technology roadmaps.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

NIST scientists have calculated that clocks on Mars will tick an average of 477 millionths of a second faster than clocks on Earth per day:

Ask someone on Earth for the time and they can give you an exact answer, thanks to our planet's intricate timekeeping system, built with atomic clocks, GPS satellites and high-speed telecommunications networks.

However, Einstein showed us that clocks don't tick at the same rate across the universe. Clocks will run slightly faster or slower depending on the strength of gravity in their environment, making it tricky to synchronize our watches here on Earth, let alone across the vast solar system. If humans want to establish a long-term presence on the red planet, scientists need to know: What time is it on Mars?

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have calculated a precise answer for the first time. On average, clocks on Mars will tick 477 microseconds (millionths of a second) faster than on Earth per day. However, Mars' eccentric orbit and the gravity from its celestial neighbors can increase or decrease this amount by as much as 226 microseconds a day over the course of the Martian year. These findings, just published in The Astronomical Journal, follow a 2024 paper in which NIST physicists developed a plan for precise timekeeping on the Moon.

Knowing how clocks will tick on Mars is a steppingstone for future space missions, said NIST physicist Bijunath Patla. As NASA plans Mars exploration missions, understanding time on our planetary neighbor will help synchronize navigation and communication across our solar system.

"The time is just right for the Moon and Mars," Patla said. "This is the closest we have been to realizing the science fiction vision of expanding across the solar system."

Journal Reference: Neil Ashby and Bijunath R. Patla 2026 AJ 171 2 DOI 10.3847/1538-3881/ae0c16

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The new COSMIC desktop environment is written in the Rust programming language, designed and developed by System76 for all GNU/Linux distributions:

Linux hardware vendor System76 launched today [December 11, 2025] the first stable release of the Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment, along with the stable release of the Ubuntu-based Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Linux distribution.

Based on the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) operating system series, Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS ships with the brand-new COSMIC desktop environment written in the Rust programming language, designed and developed by System76 for all GNU/Linux distributions.

Previous Pop!_OS releases used a version of the COSMIC desktop that was based on the GNOME desktop environment. However, System76 wanted to create a new desktop environment from scratch while keeping the same familiar interface and user experience built for efficiency and fun.

This means that some GNOME apps have been replaced by COSMIC apps, including COSMIC Files instead of Nautilus (Files), COSMIC Terminal instead of GNOME Terminal, COSMIC Text Editor instead of GNOME Text Editor, and COSMIC Media Player instead of Totem (Video Player).

Also, the Pop!_Shop graphical package manager used in previous Pop!_OS releases has now been replaced by a new app called COSMIC Store. On top of that, COSMIC ships with a built-in screenshot tool and a Welcome app to make it easier to set up your COSMIC/Pop!_OS Linux desktop experience.

COSMIC Launcher lets users launch and navigate apps quickly and efficiently with features like web search, calculator, and file search. Moreover, COSMIC supports both dual-panel and single-panel layouts, feature-rich workspaces, intuitive window tiling and stacking, multi-monitor setups, and new theming options.

"This year, System76 turned twenty. For twenty years, we have shipped Linux computers. For seven years, we've built the Pop!_OS Linux distribution. Three years ago, it became clear we had reached the limit of our current potential and had to create something new. Today, we break through that limit with the release of Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with the COSMIC desktop environment," said System76 CEO Carl Richell.

The best part about COSMIC is that it's not only available for Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS users, but also for many other distributions, including Arch Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed, NixOS, Fedora Linux, AerynOS, as well as BSD and Redox OS platforms.

Under the hood, Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS is powered by the Linux 6.17 kernel series and ships with the Mesa 25.1.5 open-source graphics stack. You can download 64-bit and ARM64 live ISO images for Intel/AMD or NVIDIA systems right now from the official website.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Agentic AI Foundation launches to support MCP, AGENTS.md, and goose:

Big Tech has spent the past year telling us we're living in the era of AI agents, but most of what we've been promised is still theoretical. As companies race to turn fantasy into reality, they've developed a collection of tools to guide the development of generative AI. A cadre of major players in the AI race, including Anthropic, Block, and OpenAI, has come together to promote interoperability with the newly formed Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF). This move elevates a handful of popular technologies and could make them a de facto standard for AI development going forward.

The development path for agentic AI models is cloudy to say the least, but companies have invested so heavily in creating these systems that some tools have percolated to the surface. The AAIF, which is part of the nonprofit Linux Foundation, has been launched to govern the development of three key AI technologies: Model Context Protocol (MCP), goose, and AGENTS.md.

MCP is probably the most well-known of the trio, having been open-sourced by Anthropic a year ago. The goal of MCP is to link AI agents to data sources in a standardized way—Anthropic (and now the AAIF) is fond of calling MCP a "USB-C port for AI." Rather than creating custom integrations for every different database or cloud storage platform, MCP allows developers to quickly and easily connect to any MCP-compliant server.

Since its release, MCP has been widely used across the AI industry. Google announced at I/O 2025 that it was adding support for MCP in its dev tools, and many of its products have since added MCP servers to make data more accessible to agents. OpenAI also adopted MCP just a few months after it was released.

Expanding use of MCP might help users customize their AI experience. For instance, the new Pebble Index 01 ring uses a local LLM that can act on your voice notes, and it supports MCP for user customization.

Local AI models have to make some sacrifices compared to bigger cloud-based models, but MCP can fill in the functionality gaps. "A lot of tasks on productivity and content are fully doable on the edge," Qualcomm head of AI products, Vinesh Sukumar, tells Ars. "With MCP, you have a handshake with multiple cloud service providers for any kind of complex task to be completed."

Calibre Now Lets You Chat About Your E-Books Using Local AI

An Anonymous Coward writes:

You can ask questions about any book in your library and run AI models locally via LM Studio:

A few months ago, Calibre introduced its first AI feature, letting users highlight text and ask questions directly in the eBook reader. It was a good start but relied entirely on cloud-based AI providers.

Now, Calibre 8.16.2 has arrived with some pretty handy upgrades to those capabilities, adding support for running AI models completely offline on-device. There are plenty of other new refinements too!

Thanks to LM Studio integration, Calibre can tap into AI models running locally on your machine instead of needing to rely on user data-hungry cloud services. If you didn't know, LM Studio is a desktop application that lets you run large language models on your own hardware without much technical know-how.

Beyond that, this release introduces two additional AI-powered features. The first one is a book discussion feature where Calibre can answer questions about any book in your library through a simple right-click menu, and the second is a reading recommendation system that suggests similar books based on your selection.

Both of these work locally or via any configured cloud providers.

[...] I tested out two of the new AI-powered features, and I must say, they work really well. First up was the book discussion feature, which can be accessed from the "View" menu either by right-clicking and selecting "Discuss selected book(s) with AI" or the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + A.

I told it to summarize Dracula, a book by Bram Stoker, and the output it provided was pretty good; I got a quick rundown of the happenings in the book without needing to fully read it. This could be handy if you have forgotten how a book ended or when you are deciding whether to commit to reading something.