Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that busted their butts, scaled great heights, got it right, and discovered a new world. First, Hannibal marched an army of men, horses, and… Read more: Scientists Solve Mystery of Bizarre ‘Alien Megastructure’ Star

Erik von Markovik, the notorious “pickup artist” known by his stage name Mystery, is apparently obsessed with an AI girlfriend. Last month, as Wired reports, von Markovik posted a video to his Instagram showing an… Read more: Famous “Pick Up Artist” Reduced to Hitting on AI Girlfriend

A detailed independent study found that SpaceX’s Starship is every bit as revolutionary as expected, while revealing both its impressive capabilities and its biggest remaining hurdles. It also introduces an ambitious European rocket concept that… Read more: Europe just unveiled a new rival to SpaceX’s Starship

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown fossil goose that challenges a decades-old theory about the evolution of New Zealand’s birds. The find suggests the country’s giant flightless geese evolved from much more recent arrivals, revealing… Read more: Rare fossil goose rewrites the story of New Zealand’s giant birds

Many of the body’s biggest flaws are the result of evolution building on old designs instead of starting over. Our spine, eyes, teeth, pelvis, and even certain nerves all reveal compromises that worked well enough… Read more: Why the human body has so many design flaws

Ultra-fine bubbles may offer a cleaner way to perfect inkjet printing for next-generation electronics. By simply changing the number of bubbles in each droplet, researchers were able to dramatically reshape the final printed pattern without… Read more: Tiny bubbles could revolutionize inkjet printing

Researchers have achieved a major milestone by creating a long-sought two-dimensional quantum material and confirming its unusual conducting edge states. The ability to control these states through strain could make the material a promising platform… Read more: Physicists finally build a quantum material predicted more than a decade ago

Researchers discovered that electricity can dramatically reshape how heat flows through certain ceramic materials, increasing heat conduction by almost threefold in a preferred direction. The unexpected result could lead to much more efficient cooling technologies… Read more: This electric field trick boosted heat flow by nearly 300%

Two striking Asian praying mantis species that have rapidly spread across Europe have now been officially classified as invasive, raising new concerns about their impact on native wildlife. Boosted by climate change and urban environments,… Read more: Scientists warn invasive Asian mantises are threatening Europe’s wildlife

AI chatbots has been a dream come true for criminals. The tech has been a boon for scammers. Hackers are using the tools to infiltrate networks and steal sensitive data. Art forgers are even generating… Read more: The AI Industry Has Finally Found the Perfect Customer: Bloodthirsty Terrorists

The federal government is rewriting its rules governing ranching on public lands to increase the number of cattle, sheep, and other livestock grazing on 155 million acres in the West, an area twice the size… Read more: Overhaul of public lands grazing regulations seeks to cut public involvement

WD 1856 b is the only confirmed case of a planet that survived the death of a Sun-like star. It’s a Jupiter-size world orbiting a white dwarf—the burned-out remnant of a Sun-like star. Now, a… Read more: A Jupiter-size planet that escaped its star’s death

Experts say there will still be opportunities ahead in everything from teaching to hotels and the law Entering the world of work often brings some uncertainty, but now there is another question: how can I… Read more: Safe from AI: which jobs will help you thrive in the future?

Acting is about human connection across cultural and social divides. But we can’t expect much of that in the ‘Tillyverse’ Rejoice, cinema lovers. Tilly Norwood is back! Not familiar? I don’t blame you, as she’s… Read more: AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood has a movie coming out. Spare us this future | Dave Schilling

All three companies say they still aim to achieve net zero carbon output despite construction boom Microsoft, Amazon and Google’s collective carbon emissions have increased by nearly a fifth in the past year, driven largely… Read more: Datacentres drive emissions of Microsoft, Amazon and Google to half those of France

A lot of people still seem convinced that AI will replace every job on Earth, despite the fact that the tech still struggle with simple math. As the AI hype wears increasingly thin, that gap… Read more: Tech Bros Puzzled by Why AI Hasn’t “Massively Disrupted” Books Yet

Learn what Google’s major AI models do, including Gemini, Veo, Imagen, Nano Banana, Gemma, Lyria, Chirp, and Gemini Nano. The post Google AI Models Explained: Gemini, Veo, Nano Banana & More appeared first on TechRepublic.

Meta was criticised for feature launched on Tuesday that automatically lets users generate images using content from public Instagram accounts Meta has said ⁠it is discontinuing an AI feature launched this week that allowed users… Read more: Meta ditches Muse Image AI feature because it ‘misses the mark’ on users’ privacy

Johannes Heidecke’s departure comes as OpenAI tries to further integrate its research and safety teams.

More cities and towns deployed drones to spot illegal fireworks during the Fourth of July celebrations commemorating America’s 250th anniversary—leading to a $100,000 fine in one instance and coming as part of a broader national… Read more: Increased drone surveillance of illegal July 4th fireworks led to $100K fine

There are some obvious big picture issues that stand between us and useful quantum computing. Issues like whether we can make enough high-quality hardware qubits to connect into the error-corrected logical qubits we need, and… Read more: Quantum error correction can constantly recalibrate a processor

China’s sprawling state-owned rocket developer, maker of the country’s Long March rocket family, announced it recovered a reusable orbital-class booster for the first time Friday in the South China Sea. The milestone mission began with… Read more: China recovered its first reusable rocket and showed a new way to do it

Suit claims OpenAI poached Apple workers, coaxing them to share confidential material in bid to create hardware Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday alleging the artificial intelligence firm stole company trade secrets in… Read more: Apple sues OpenAI, alleging artificial intelligence company stole trade secrets

Apple lost its EU court challenge over iOS and the App Store, keeping both under the Digital Markets Act as another legal challenge still remains possible. The post Apple Loses EU Court Fight Over iOS,… Read more: Apple Loses EU Court Fight Over iOS, App Store Rules

New York will ban Meta and other smart glasses from all 1,240 state courts starting July 20 over privacy and recording concerns. The post New York Bans Smart Glasses Across 1,240 Courts appeared first on… Read more: New York Bans Smart Glasses Across 1,240 Courts

Anthropic’s AI-run espionage report shows why enterprises need stronger governance for AI agents, MCP connectors, and enterprise data access. The post Claude Code Espionage Campaign Exposes a New Enterprise AI Risk appeared first on TechRepublic.

With no new data or clear reasoning, a panel of advisors hand-selected by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted last September to strip federal recommendations for a combination shot against measles, mumps, rubella,… Read more: Study shows how toxic RFK Jr.’s change to measles vaccine is for US toddlers

A former ransomware negotiator was sentenced to 70 months in prison yesterday after colluding with BlackCat scammers to extort the victims he was hired to protect. As a ransomware negotiator for the company DigitalMint, Florida… Read more: Ransomware negotiator hired to represent victims was working for the attackers

Back in 2024, we reported on the discovery of the Quest shipwreck, the polar exploration vessel that served Arctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton on his last voyage. Shackleton died before reaching their destination, and the… Read more: Check out the first images of Quest shipwreck

The iPhone-maker claims OpenAI encouraged poached employees to bring over confidential presentations, secret prototypes, and key supplier details.

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts that a rotating mass like the Earth pulls the fabric of space and time around with it in a perpetual swirl. This phenomenon is known as frame dragging… Read more: An orbiting disco ball gave Einstein’s theory its most precise test yet

A firmware update is behind recent reports that some Hue Bridge Pro smart hubs are no longer working, Ars Technica has confirmed. In late June, there were reports of some Hue Bridge Pro devices not… Read more: Firmware update bricks Hue Bridge Pro devices; Philips gives free replacements

About a month ago, Valve announced that it would expand its long-standing Steam Deck Verified program to the now-shipping Steam Machine, offering a separate rating of Steam games’ compatibility and playability for the fresh living… Read more: Valve’s new Steam Machine verification system is silent on these Steam Deck-busters

Fiction written by artificial intelligence is easy to detect because it struggles with complex story structure and tends to moralize in clunky ways, according to a preprint study from researchers at University of Maryland, College… Read more: AI Fiction Is Easy to Detect Because It’s Stupid and Bad, Research Finds

As the World Cup enters its final stages, soccer-themed AI slop is proliferating on X-formerly-Twitter. Sure, it’s no secret that X has suffered some major brain drain under the Musk regime. But the latest deluge… Read more: People on X Are Getting Fooled by the Dumbest AI Slop We’ve Ever Seen

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss mobile podcasting, participating in the meme, and… Read more: Behind the Blog: The Promise of the Internet

Membership in NVIDIA’s partner program gives GoodVision AI deeper access to NVIDIA compute and software as it works to cut the cost and latency of AI inference across its Smart Routing Engine and AI Factory… Read more: GoodVision AI Joins NVIDIA Connect to Boost AI Inference at Scale

New partnership will accelerate secure, scalable and sovereign AI solutions toUK organisations Kore.ai, a global leader in enterprise AI platforms and agentic applications, today announced a partnership with Atos UK&I, a global leader in AI-powered digital… Read more: Kore.ai and Atos Partner to Deliver Sovereign Agentic AI for UK Enterprise

NASA this week released a much-anticipated document, known as a “draft Request for Proposals,” that provides some clarity about what it expects from US companies attempting to build privately operated space stations in low-Earth orbit.… Read more: NASA sure seems to be asking an awful lot of private space stations

The European Union is ramping up pressure on Meta to make big changes to Facebook and Instagram after the European Commission preliminarily found that features like auto-play, infinite scroll, and highly personalized content recommendations were… Read more: Disable auto-play and infinite scroll or risk massive fines, EU tells Meta

Direct oversight of ‘critical third parties’ such as Oracle and Microsoft given to ensure resilient cyber-defences and help safeguard UK economy The Bank of England has been handed powers to regulate important tech firms including… Read more: Bank of England handed powers to regulate key tech firms including Amazon and Google

New Model is 20x Faster Than Comparable Generative Methods While Delivering Benchmark-Leading Accuracy and No Trade-off Between Speed and Quality WitnessAI, the AI-native security platform trusted by leading enterprises, today announced the launch of a… Read more: WitnessAI Announced the Launch of NER-D

New consultancy and offerings will move organizations from pilots to production with a practical methodology and hands-on validation Presidio, a leading global digital services and AI solutions provider, today announced its largest investment in artificial… Read more: Presidio Expands AI Investment Strategy

GPU Cloud Operators can now pair Rafay’s infrastructure orchestration platform with Saturn Cloud’s AI application layer to deliver managed fine-tuning, model serving, and token-metered inference to tenants. Saturn Cloud, the AI token factory platform for GPU cloud operators,… Read more: Saturn Cloud, Rafay Partner on AI Cloud Services

Combining process intelligence, execution management, and consulting expertise to accelerate transformation, reduce costs, and enable continuous process optimization. Mythics, a leading Oracle systems integrator and consulting firm, announced a strategic partnership with Celonis, the global… Read more: Mythics and Celonis Team Up to Accelerate AI-Driven Oracle Transformations

Volkswagen Group is doing well with electric vehicle sales in its home region, but costly tariffs and eroding market share in China and North America have been hurting it badly. Europe’s largest automaker, which also… Read more: VW Group and unions disagree on plan to streamline the automaker

Donald Trump is now the first president to have an airport named after him while still in office. And what better way to commemorate this high honor than with lazy AI slop? Until a few… Read more: The Logo for Donald Trump International Airport Appears to Be AI Slop

Students cheating while using AI is a common concern among educators, but not the only one. Phiwath Jittamas/iStock/Getty Images Plus The risk of students using AI to cheat tends to get a lot of attention… Read more: Teachers are worried about students cheating with AI, but my survey suggests the deeper issue is learning

After a rush to attract data centers with incentives, more communities are pushing back against their development. AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey The fierce backlash against data centers shows no sign of easing up. Since early 2024,… Read more: Why better-off cities and towns see more benefits from data centers than rural regions

From welfare and defence spending to cost of living and geopolitics, we the look at issues leftover from Keir Starmer UK politics live – latest updates Andy Burnham is expected to become prime minister in… Read more: The bulging in-tray of challenges Andy Burnham faces upon entering No 10

Scientists have identified new clues that could help astronomers spot one of the most famous hypothetical alien megastructures: a Dyson sphere. The study finds that red dwarfs and white dwarfs are the most promising stars… Read more: The galaxy’s coldest “stars” may actually be alien megastructures

Anyone who has followed the aftermarket automotive performance industry for long enough can tell you just how dramatically it has changed over the past few decades. What once required mechanical tinkering and a lot of… Read more: Like a cheat code for your car: We investigate ECU tuning

Welcome to Edition 9.02 of the Rocket Report! Our attention in the coming days turns to Asia, where there are a couple of notable rocket debuts. Up first is the Long March 10B on Friday,… Read more: Rocket Report: “Panic” over Transporter availability; Isar to launch from Canada

If you’re reading this while the blinds are drawn against yet another heat wave and wondering whether it’s finally time to buy an air conditioner, you’re far from alone. At the end of June, as… Read more: Is an air-conditioning revolution coming to Europe?

Mount Etna has long puzzled geologists because it doesn’t fit any of the three classic ways volcanoes are thought to form. A new study suggests it may instead be fueled by ancient pockets of magma… Read more: Europe’s most active volcano may have a secret origin

Wally Funk, who in 2021 became the oldest woman to fly into space—60 years after she and 12 other women sought the same opportunity as NASA’s original astronauts—died on Wednesday at 87 years old. Funk… Read more: Wally Funk, last of Mercury 13 and oldest woman in space, dies at 87

A next-generation pesticide designed to kill crop pests may also be interfering with the reproductive health of bumblebees. Researchers discovered that low-dose exposure to sulfoxaflor changed gene activity, especially in tissues involved in reproduction, raising… Read more: This common pesticide may be quietly wiping out future bumblebees

Researchers solved the mystery of how soft lithium dendrites crack the hard ceramic inside solid-state batteries, triggering short circuits. The breakthrough could help engineers build safer, longer-lasting batteries for smartphones, electric vehicles, and other electronics.

BeyondTrust launches Pathfinder NHI Governance, extending privileged access control to the non-human and AI identities that run modern environments New Pathfinder module enables organizations to establish ownership, enforce least privilege, govern AI agents, and reduce… Read more: BeyondTrust Releases NHI Governance for Every Non-Human and AI Identity

VERA, powered by Cloudera AI Studios, automates research and analysis workflows, enabling faster, more localized humanitarian insights in resource-constrained environments Cloudera, the only company bringing AI to data anywhere, today announced the next phase of… Read more: Cloudera, Mercy Corps Expand Agentic AI Partnership

Jensen Huang has a test for whether an engineer is worth keeping, and it comes with a token budget attached. Speaking on the All-In Podcast at the close of GTC 2026, the Nvidia chief executive… Read more: How to shrink the token budget without shrinking the team

Civil liberties groups say Facewatch system in stores such as Sainsbury’s and B&M is ‘dangerous escalation’ Facial recognition technology in shops will soon alert police in real time to the presence of serious offenders, with… Read more: Alarm over launch of facial recognition in UK shops that instantly alerts police

Billed as the “world’s first museum of AI arts,” Dataland uses wearables and troves of material from the Amazon to merge nature, biometrics, and art.

Newly created senior leadership role blends commercial, technical and people leadership to embed an AI-native mindset across the business ProofID, the pure-play identity security specialist delivering advisory, implementation and managed services, today announced the appointment… Read more: ProofID Announced the Appointment of Neil Evans as Chief AI Officer

Exclusive: Senator Ed Markey on why he has proposed legislation aimed at curbing datacenters, automated hiring systems and harm to children US senator Ed Markey is worried about the perils of unregulated artificial intelligence. What… Read more: ‘AI accountability agenda’: US senator unveils package of bills to curb tech’s harms

Token per watt — not raw compute — is emerging as the defining efficiency metric for AI data centers, putting storage at the center of an infrastructure rethink that is reshaping how the industry measures… Read more: Token per watt becomes the defining metric as storage moves to AI’s critical path

Meta Platforms Inc. today launched a new flagship large language model optimized to power multi-agent automation workflows. Muse Spark 1.1 is available in the company’s Meta AI chatbot service and via an application programming interface.… Read more: Meta launches flagship Muse Spark 1.1 model with multi-agent upgrades

Artificial intelligence training data company Mercor.io Corp. announced today that it has acquired Deeptune Inc., a startup that builds simulated software environments used to train AI agents. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal closed… Read more: Mercor buys Deeptune to build training environments for AI agents

OpenAI Group PBC today launched a new “agentic” tool called ChatGPT Work as it announced the global rollout of its most advanced model family so far in GPT-5.6. ChatGPT Work is a new mode within… Read more: OpenAI debuts ChatGPT Work, an agentic tool for automating business workflows

AI creative workflows are reshaping how teams create, moving beyond content generation to editable, collaborative experiences that boost productivity. At the same time, enterprises are demanding trusted AI solutions that balance ease of use with… Read more: Canva targets enterprise creativity with trusted AI creative workflows

Data scraping startup Oxylabs UAB has broken into unicorn territory after raising $130 million in funding from the private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC. The round is the first time the bootstrapped company has ever… Read more: Web data scraping infrastructure startup Oxylabs reels in $130M in its first funding round

Amid live coding sessions and Silicon Valley optimism, the UN’s AI for Good summit wrestled with an increasingly urgent question: Can global governance catch up before the technology races beyond its control?

Returning from annual leave, Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady has faced a barrage of questions for the first time since the company’s nationwide outage on Wednesday affected train services, payment systems and triple zero calls.… Read more: Telstra CEO Vicki Brady faces questions on nationwide outage – video

Exclusive: Plan to improve skills of thousands of financial sector workers to keep pace with tech revolution Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to announce a new City “skills compact” that will commit firms such as Barclays… Read more: Reeves to launch City ‘skills compact’ committing firms to retrain staff in AI

SK hynix, a supplier of advanced memory chips, has seen profits skyrocket thanks to the global race to build AI datacentres South Korean chip maker SK hynix set pricing for its mega US listing on… Read more: South Korea chip maker SK hynix rides AI boom raising $26.5bn in huge US listing

Returning from annual leave, Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady has faced a barrage of questions for the first time since the company’s nationwide outage on Wednesday affected train services, payment systems and triple zero calls.… Read more: Telstra CEO says executive bonuses to be reviewed after nationwide outage – video

Schwarzman Centre, OxfordHeadlong’s take on Karel Čapek’s 1920 tale of romance and robots is rife with timely debates about tech’s threat but at times the philosophical discussions drag on If our world is currently thinking… Read more: Robota review – machines on the march in next-gen version of sci-fi classic

A newly discovered Happy-Face spider in the Himalayas closely resembles Hawaii’s iconic species but evolved independently, according to DNA evidence. Its mysterious smile-like markings, many color forms, and unexpected link to ginger plants have scientists… Read more: Hawaii’s famous “happy-face” spider has a surprising relative

A planet with one side permanently roasting and the other frozen in endless darkness might still have a chance of supporting life. Researchers found that heat inside a tidally locked exoplanet could circulate in a… Read more: This alien planet never has sunrise or sunset. It may support life

What if time doesn’t actually exist until something changes? Scientists at the University of Birmingham created a tiny “mini universe” using 24,000 ultracold atoms and showed that the flow of time can emerge naturally from… Read more: Physicists created a tiny universe where time emerged without a clock

A new study debunks the long-standing claim that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adults. Researchers found that young rattlesnakes can control their venom just like adults, while adult snakes usually inject much more venom… Read more: Scientists just debunked a dangerous baby rattlesnake myth

Chris Rogers/Getty Images This week, Andrew Charlton, the federal assistant minister for science and technology, issued a stark warning about artificial intelligence (AI). Speaking at the AI Safety Forum at the University of Sydney, he… Read more: Australia’s government has woken up to the risks of AI. More ambition is needed

Plans to build a NZ$3.5bn datacentre in Makarewa in the country’s south has drawn concern about electricity and water use, and potential noise pollution People living near the site of New Zealand’s first planned AI… Read more: ‘A lot of red flags’: plans for New Zealand’s first datacentre spark concern as locals demand greater transparency

The move comes after Simo took significant medical leave. She will stay on as a part-time advisor.

Last year, when we tested out the “Agent Mode” in OpenAI’s Atlas web browser, we complained that any automated tasks tended to stop after a few minutes, limiting its usefulness for ongoing or complex tasks.… Read more: OpenAI wants its new tool to do your work for you and with you

Cases of an explosive diarrheal parasite continue to skyrocket in Michigan, which is reporting 1,251 cases as of July 9. Of those, 44 were hospitalized. Meanwhile, across the border in Ohio, cases are also quickly… Read more: Michigan’s explosive outbreak of diarrheal parasite jumps to over 1,200 cases

Until about 60,000 years ago, diminutive hominin cousins, Homo floresiensis (affectionately nicknamed Hobbits for obvious reasons), shared the island of Flores with Komodo dragons, pygmy elephants, and giant rats. Based on the presence of hominin… Read more: Flores Hobbits’ eating habits offer clues about their evolutionary past

By Arvind Narayanan and Akash Kapur Our goal in this essay is to move beyond the debate over whether AI is a bubble. We do so in two ways: clearly separating current financials from the… Read more: Up the Stack: How AI’s Escape From the Commodity Trap Risks Enterprise Lock-in

Newly minted rich and those anticipating huge IPOs are fueling buying and charter spree in the private jet sector Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Aviation lawyer Amanda Applegate skipped her annual… Read more: SpaceX and AI startup wealth fuels demand for private jets

Patreon announced on Thursday that it’s partnering with Cloudflare to block crawlers from stealing creators’ work to train AI models. “I HAVE A KICKASS PRODUCT UPDATE FOR YOU ALL!” Jack Conte, the founder and CEO… Read more: Patreon Blocks Crawlers From Stealing Creators’ Work for AI Training

Instagram users should check privacy settings after rollout of new Meta AI image generator, advocates warn Meta has sparked blowback from privacy advocates for allowing its new AI image maker to generate photos of users… Read more: Instagram’s AI image generator alarms privacy experts

Humanoid robots have surgically removed the gallbladders from living animals in an unprecedented medical experiment—but not as autonomous machines capable of replacing human doctors. Instead, skilled human surgeons remotely controlled the robots’ movements in a… Read more: Humanoid robots controlled by surgeons did world-first operation on live pigs

China warned organizations to remove certain Claude Code versions over alleged backdoor risks, while Anthropic called the feature anti-abuse protection. The post China Warns of Claude Code ‘Backdoor’ Security Risk appeared first on TechRepublic.

Allstate Insurance Company has accused Broadcom of haphazardly issuing audits against it because the insurance firm decided not to renew its contracts with VMware and CA Technologies. The allegations were made in relation to a… Read more: Allstate accuses Broadcom of auditing it because it quit VMware, CA

Amazon raised $25 billion through a bond sale as AI infrastructure spending accelerates, highlighting the growing cost of competing in the AI race. The post Amazon Raises $25 Billion in Bond Sale as AI Spending… Read more: Amazon Raises $25 Billion in Bond Sale as AI Spending Accelerates

A patch Microsoft released on Wednesday to fix a zero-day vulnerability in its Defender security engine may cause Windows machines to write files large enough to completely consume available disk space, the researcher who discovered… Read more: Patch for Windows Defender 0-day could allow attackers to fill hard disk

We’ve been hearing plenty about how Meta’s workforce is in total disarray. But this latest story takes the cake — or acorn, perhaps. As Wired reports, a squirrel got loose inside one of the company’s… Read more: Someone Reportedly Mailed a Live Squirrel to Meta, Where It Sent an Employee to the Hospital

OpenAI is facing calls for “serious sanctions” after fighting to keep news organizations from snooping through millions of logs to find evidence of users skirting their paywalls by prompting ChatGPT to regurgitate their articles. This… Read more: OpenAI may have made a fatal misstep in copyright fight with news orgs

A federal judge reluctantly approved a $1.5 million settlement between Elon Musk and the Trump administration despite raising numerous concerns about a deal that lets Musk get off lightly for a rule violation that allegedly… Read more: Judge doesn’t like Elon Musk settlement with SEC, but says court can’t block it

Meta’s Cheyenne AI data center project was linked to the presence of rare bacteria in reclaimed irrigation water, adding scrutiny to local data center wastewater rules. The post Meta AI Data Center Linked to Rare… Read more: Meta AI Data Center Linked to Rare Bacteria Water Scare