Environment Animals Wildlife Spiders Beware, beachgoers: New spider discovered in California's sand dunes Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Just in time for Halloween, researchers have identified a new species of trapdoor spider. The newly discovered is about the size of a quarter, brown, and pretty chunky. It's the fourth known species of trapdoor spiders in California whose habitat is limited to sandy coastal dunes. Female trapdoor spiders are basically vampires .

When someone loses the ability to speak because of a neurological condition like ALS, the impact goes far beyond words. Now, thanks to a team at the University of California, Davis, there's a new brain-computer interface (BCI) system that's opening up real-time, natural conversation for people who can't speak. Instead, it translates the brain signals that would normally control the muscles used for speech, allowing users to "talk" and even "sing" through a computer, almost instantly. Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report Get my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM/NEWSLETTER.

A man who lost the ability to speak can now hold real-time conversations and even sing through a brain-controlled synthetic voice. The brain-computer interface reads the man's neural activity via electrodes implanted in his brain and then instantaneously generates speech sounds that reflect his intended pitch, intonation and emphasis. Restoring the brain's mitochondria could slow ageing and end dementia "This is kind of the first of its kind for instantaneous voice synthesis – within 25 milliseconds," says Sergey Stavisky at the University of California, Davis. The technology needs to be improved to make the speech easier to understand, says Maitreyee Wairagkar, also at UC Davis. But the man, who lost the ability to talk due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, still says it makes him "happy" and that it feels like his real voice, according to Wairagkar.

Scientists claim they have had the first one-on-one conversation with a whale. The team from the SETI Institute and the University of California'spoke' with a 38-year-old humpback whale, named Twain, off the coast of Alaska. They used an underwater microphone to send out whale calls, 'whup/throp' sounds, and received 36 responses that seemed like Twain was actively engaged in a communicative exchange. AI-powered algorithms analyzed the replies, revealing Twain may have shared a greeting call with the team on a boat in the Pacific Ocean. While speaking to a different species has never been done in this manner, researchers are using the experience to hopefully one day converse with extraterrestrial life.

Elon Musk casually dropped that he has another Neuralink project in the works which he says will bestow sight upon people born blind -- and the tech is already being tested on monkeys. True to form, Musk announced the project's official name, 'Blindsight,' while replying to users on his social site X, first in late January, then with fresh details Wednesday. Musk claimed the tech will be lo-rez at first, 'like early Nintendo graphics' from the 1980s era of 8-bit video games. But ultimately, he hopes it will actually'exceed normal human vision.' If Blindsight remains true to its first unnamed tease, presented during a Neuralink'Show and Tell' in late 2022, the implant will be able to repackage digital camera data into electrical impulses compatible for delivery straight into the visual cortex.

For the third time this year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is being urged to investigate allegations of whether Elon Musk made misleading claims to investors about the deaths of primates used for research by Neuralink, his brain-chip startup. The latest claims center around his recent statements at the New York Times DealBook Summit that primates who died after implant surgeries were selected for experimentation because they were already close to death. In a letter sent to federal regulators today, an animal rights advocacy and research group claims that Musk's statements are inaccurate and amount to "possible securities fraud." This marks the third letter to the SEC since late September requesting an investigation into Musk's comments about Neuralink's test subjects. Records related to Neuralink's research reviewed by WIRED paint a complicated picture of the health of the monkeys used to develop the company's brain-chip implants, which will soon be used in human trials.

Does the public have a right to see gruesome photos of animal test subjects taken by a public university? That question underpins an ongoing court battle between UC Davis and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal welfare group, which is fighting for the release of photos of dead monkeys used in tests of Elon Musk–owned Neuralink's brain-chip implants. A WIRED investigation this week revealed the extent to which Neuralink and UC Davis have gone to keep images of the tests secret. Also this week, an investigation by the Markup, copublished with WIRED, analyzed crime predictions by Geolitica (formerly PredPol) in Plainfield, New Jersey, and found that they accurately predicted crime less than 1 percent of the time. As WIRED previously reported, Geolitica is shutting down at the end of this year and being sold for parts to SoundThinking, maker of the gunshot-detection system ShotSpotter.

The tan macaque with the hairless pink face could do little more than sit and shiver as her brain began to swell. The California National Primate Center staff observing her via livestream knew the signs. Whatever had been done had left her with a "severe neurological defect," and it was time to put the monkey to sleep. But the client protested; the Neuralink scientist whose experiment left the 7-year-old monkey's brain mutilated wanted to wait another day. As the attending staff sat back and observed, the monkey seized and vomited. Her pupils reacted less and less to the light.

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is said to be investigating Elon Musk's Neuralink over claims the company illegally transported hazardous pathogens. The probe is in response to allegations from the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which state Musk's company unsafely packed and moved implants removed from the brains of monkeys that may have been infected. PCRM, an animal-welfare advocacy group, wrote to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg earlier on Thursday to alert it of records it obtained on the matter from the University of California (UC) Davis, according to Reuters. The letters state that the implants were not properly sanitized and packaged, thus carrying pathogens that could cause serious health issues in infected humans. The lasted investigation follows months of allegations against Neuralink, which is said to have violated animal welfare laws with'botched experiments.'

An animal-welfare organization said it plans to ask a U.S. government agency on Thursday to investigate Elon Musk's brain-implant company Neuralink over records it said show potentially illegal movement of hazardous pathogens. The Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine (PCRM) said in a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which was shared with Reuters, that it has obtained emails and other documents that suggest unsafe packaging and movement of implants removed from the brains of monkeys. These implants may have carried infectious diseases in violation of federal law, PCRM said. The letter said records that the group obtained showed instances of pathogens, such as antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus and herpes B virus, that may have been transported without proper containment measures. PCRM's letter adds to the scrutiny facing Neuralink, which is developing a brain implant it hopes will help paralyzed people walk again and cure other neurological ailments.