July 12, 2022

Yesterday, NASA unveiled the deepest image of the universe ever captured. Believe it or not, the picture was not taken on an iPhone 13 but instead with the $10B James Webb Telescope. It shows the oldest galaxies in the universe, and if you look very closely you can see Luke Skywalker high-fiving an Ewok.

In today's edition:

• Tunagate
• Fries off the menus
• Iran's virus, Pt. 2

 Key Stories

Subway Can Be Sued For Its Tuna

A federal judge ruled that Subway can be sued for claiming to serve “100% tuna”

• The decision allows several lawsuits to advance, including a 2021 suit claiming that Subway’s tuna “partially or wholly lacks tuna as an ingredient”
• That claim is based on a UCLA study that found 19 of 20 samples of Subway tuna contained no detectable tuna DNA. Researchers say that they found the DNA of chicken, cows, and other fish in Subway’s spread
• Subway has fiercely defended its tuna, saying that all non-tuna DNA found in the tuna spread was due to cross-contamination with other foods in the stores

• Last week, as part of an effort to reverse nearly a decade of decreasing sales, Subway announced the "Subway Series" – its largest menu overhaul in 57 years. Its tuna remained unchanged on the new menu

OTC Birth Control Submitted to FDA

A pharmaceutical company submitted an application asking the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the first over-the-counter birth control pill

• The FDA first approved oral birth control pills in 1960, but all birth control pills require a prescription
• Studies have found that over half of the US’ 6.1M annual pregnancies are accidental. 12.6% of US 15-49 year-old women take a birth control pill, 10.3% use IUDs or similar devices, and 3.2% use a ring, patch, or similar
• The company said the timing is unrelated to the Roe decision, but that it wants to make birth control easier to access. The FDA may rule on it next year

Poll: Democrats Don't Want Biden

A New York Times/Siena College poll found that 64% of Democratic voters don’t want President Biden to run for re-election in 2024

• The results come with Biden’s approval rating at 38.5% — the lowest of any president at this point in the presidency since President Truman in 1946. In March, Biden announced he would run for re-election
• At 79, Biden is the oldest president in US history. 33% of Democrats cited his age as their primary concern; 32% cited his job performance
• Nearly 80% of respondents said the country is on the wrong track –— the highest figure since 2009

UN: World Population to Reach 8B 

A UN report projects the world population will hit 8B by November and peak at 10.4B in the 2080s

• In 1950, the world population was 2.6B; it hit 7B in 2017
• Despite the growth, the global fertility rate, or the number of births per woman, has decreased over the last 60 years. The UN said that in 2020 and 2021, the world population grew at its slowest rate since 1950
• Per the report, Africa has the fastest-growing population. Europe is the only continent with a shrinking population: It lost 2.1M people over the last 2 years
• India will surpass China as the most populous country as soon as next year

• Demographers believe that population growth is primarily fueled by more people surviving to reproductive age as health care and medicine advance, although decreasing fertility rates are muting the effects of this trend

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• Gone crypto: The founders of Three Arrows Capital, the crypto hedge fund that went from managing $10B to bankruptcy, are now missing
• RIP, Heinz Field: The Pittsburgh Steelers are ditching the ketchup bottles and rebranding their home stadium as "Acrisure Stadium"
• Roundup, the usual suspect: A weed-killing chemical linked to cancer was found in 80% of US urine samples. The chemical is glysophate

 What do you think?

See yesterday's results below the Wrap!

 Roca Wrap

In early 2011, Iran’s nuclear program was running into unexpected difficulties as its centrifuges – machines used to enrich uranium — kept inexplicably breaking.

Separately, a coder in Belarus stumbled across a remarkably complex computer virus. He shared his discovery with other coders, and soon researchers from around the world were trying to reveal its purpose and origin.

The connection between both events, when it finally came out, was straight out of a spy thriller.

After months, coders began to see a clearer picture of the virus. Fairly quickly, they realized that the virus targeted Iran: Of ~100k infected devices, ~58% were in Iran. Given its complexity and sophistication, they inferred that it must have been funded by a government. Finally, by judging its methods of spreading, they estimated that it was probably released “into the wild” in 2005.

They named the virus Stuxnet.

The most groundbreaking discovery about the virus came when a team of scientists reverse-engineered it. That’s when they realized that it used 4 “zero days.”

A zero day is a software hole — a metaphorical chink in the armor — that has never been discovered before and, as a result, allows hackers to bypass firewalls or security systems. They are rare and extremely difficult to find, and once found, can be worth huge sums. Scientists realized that Stuxnet exploited 4 zero days to propagate itself — an incredible number.

They also discovered that the software targeted a brand of centrifuges used at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. Every time Stuxnet entered a new computer, it ran a code to determine whether or not the computer was connected to one of these centrifuges; if it wasn’t, then Stuxnet did nothing.

However, if it did detect a centrifuge, then it was programmed to slowly accelerate the rate at which they spun, causing irreparable damage to the system while providing false feedback to operators. Stuxnet would cause centrifuges to start breaking in large numbers with no apparent cause. It is widely considered the first computer virus in the world that could cause real-life destruction.

But one final question puzzled scientists: How did it get into the Natanz facility? Like many high-security facilities, Natanz was “air-gapped,” meaning it wasn’t connected to the Internet. Eventually, researchers determined that it was likely transmitted to Natanz through a flash drive.

Both the US and Israel, deemed most likely to have funded the virus, denied a role in the situation. However, in the decade after its discovery, some officials implied they were responsible. It has since become widely believed that they cooperated to create and plant the virus. Leaks indicate the virus was created by US-funded “Operation Olympic Games,” which, while still officially unacknowledged, allegedly ran from 2006 — 2012.

It is still unclear how much Stuxnet impacted Iran’s nuclear program. Although some suggest that Iran quickly recovered, others believe the damage constituted a major setback for Iran.

In the coding community, Stuxnet has gained near-legendary status. The sheer size, complexity, and detail of the code were record-shattering, and in terms of cyberwarfare, it was revolutionary. 

 Roca Clubhouse

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 Final Thoughts

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