A Massive Fraud Ring Is Publishing Thousands of Fake Studies and the Problem is Exploding. “These Networks Are Essentially Criminal Organizations” - ZME Science

Protect Progress, an affiliate of the cryptocurrency-aligned Fairshake super political action committee (PAC), reported spending $362,000 on ads to support a Democrat in California’s 14th congressional district, just weeks after she won a special election against the same opponent. According to a Sunday filing with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), Protect Progress reported spending $362,000 on media supporting incumbent Democrat Aisha Wahab in the Bay Area district against her fellow party member, Melissa Hernandez. Wahab defeated Hernandez in an Aug. 18 special election with more than 53% of the vote, raising questions about why the cryptocurrency industry-aligned PAC is supporting her in the 2026 midterms. Notably, both Wahab and Hernandez were ranked as “strongly supports crypto” after they went on the record with the digital asset organization Stand With Crypto to complete questionnaires ahead of the August special election. That election was used to determine who would replace Democrat Eric Swalwell for the remainder of his term, ending January 2027. Swalwell resigned in April amid sexual assault allegations.

New aquabot offers a way to design small, efficient “biohybrid” robots. Continue reading MIT’s paper-thin robot swims with power from living cells on Tech Explorist .

Five spooky skywatching targets perfect for naked eye stargazing this Halloween!

s reveals how a severely bleached coral can regain its colour, offering a fascinating glimpse into the recovery processes of these vulnerable marine animals. The images, captured over nine weeks by underwater photographer and researcher Danny Collins, document the transformation of a coral from a ghostly white appearance to a rich golden-brown, with its individual polyps becoming increasingly visible.

Oct 24, 2026 5:00 AMThe Webb telescope sees tiny red dots everywhere. Astronomers can’t agree on what they are, but some believe they may be enormous stars with black holes inside. Courtesy of Mark Belan/Quanta MagazineThe original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Astronomers built the James Webb Space Telescope to pick up faint light from the first billion years after the Big Bang, a chaotic era when vast swaths of hydrogen and helium gas gathered into the chains of galaxies we see today. Even in the telescope’s first images, astronomers could see a whole zoo of mysterious smears of light. One batch of objects proved especially difficult to interpret. They glowed blindingly bright, emitting red light with long wavelengths and shining as brilliantly as a whole galaxy. They were tiny, spanning just a pixel. And they were everywhere. A couple appear in almost every image Webb takes. In 2023, researchers started calling them “little red dots.” Astronomers have repeatedly pointed Webb toward the little red dots, wringing precious new information from these pixels of light. Initially, researchers thought the dots looked kind of like galaxies.