James Altucher:

Dinosaur Blood Found in Fossils for the First Time

In a study published this week, an international team of paleontologists confirmed the presence of intact biomolecules and mineralized red blood cells inside fossils of a 115-million-year-old dinosaur. Although previous work has suggested similar possibilities, the team's research is the first to chemically identify oxygen-carrying blood compounds known as heme.

"This really is a landmark discovery," Kliti Grice, a study co-author and chemist at Curtin University in Australia, said in a statement. "These findings challenge longstanding assumptions that certain biomolecules such as hemoglobin cannot survive deep time."

The evidence exists inside the fossilized limb bones of a juvenile Aratasaurus museunacionali. Discovered in 2008, A. museunacionali was an Early Cretaceous theropod that lived in present-day northeastern Brazil. The fossils suggest a dinosaur measuring over 10 feet long and weighing about 75 pounds, but given its young age, it likely grew larger.

Grice and her collaborators said that their discovery has wide implications. Further study could help advance our understanding of blood's evolution, dinosaur metabolism, and ancient animals' activity levels. The knowledge that this type of preservation is possible at all could even extend far beyond Earth. If such delicate biomolecules fossilize over millions of years in harsh environments, then it's possible similar traces of life may linger elsewhere in the universe.

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Ari Goldschmidt:

Google To Shut Off Search for Schools That Opt Out of AI

Google announced Tuesday morning that it would switch off AI products by default for students in schools that use the technology giant's education software.

The move comes after mounting criticism from advocacy groups and senators about the spread of Google's AI services available in classrooms. Until Tuesday, its AI products – branded under the Gemini moniker – were automatically activated for schools using Google Classroom.

But Google said Tuesday's move would also cut off students' access to Google Search if schools do not enable Gemini, given AI's growing integration into the company's search products.

Chris Phillips, Google's vice president and general manager of education, said in a blog post announcing the change that access to Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search "will be entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school administrators explicitly turn them on."

"We believe schools should have control over AI in their classrooms and in providing administrators with controls to help them manage their approach," Phillips wrote.

Some education and technology advocates immediately slammed the decision, painting the move as a punishment for schools that don't use Google's AI.

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Davis Wilson:

Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Addresses Historic Crypto Hack: 'There's No 100% Security'

It has been a busy few days for Changpeng Zhao in the wake of the hack on the enormous crypto platform he co-founded, Binance.

"It's been a pretty hectic process," Zhao, better known as CZ, said. "But the good thing is right now the withdrawals have been restored, the systems back to normal. People are free to use the platform without any issues now. And then all user funds are covered. The users did not suffer any loss."

Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency trading platform and holds approximately $171 billion in total assets on its platform.

Hackers recently drained roughly $6.3 billion worth of digital assets from Binance on Oct. 29. Blockchain intelligence firms and the FBI attributed the 20-minute raid with high confidence to TraderTraitor, an elite state-sponsored cyber unit tied to North Korea.

Binance moved swiftly to stabilize the situation by guaranteeing full customer restitution, deploying corporate treasury reserves, Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) capital, and insurance funds to replenish user balances.

"There's no 100% security," CZ added. "So when you run a platform, especially a crypto platform the possibility is always there. I did not think it was going to be this big of magnitude, probably not."

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