Ban the billion

The Mesoproterozoic – no “boring billion”

The authors show that the Mesoproterozoic (1.6-1.0 bn year before present) was no “boring billion” but a “bustling billion” - not only with Stromatolites and their apex in the Calymmian and Ectasian but also with the presence of multicellular organisms. To make it visible a graphical reconstruction was created. For a long time, it was assumed that there existed no noteworthy biosphere on Earth ...

To ban or not to ban? - that is the question.

To ban or not to ban?

The past four years have seen a steady increase in the number of companies that offer direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing services and in the number of such tests for genetic risk factors, including a wide range of diseases and other non-disease-related traits. These companies sell their tests outside the traditional healthcare setting and often do not involve healthcare professionals for ...

Connecting the Last Billion

Connecting the Last Billion

The Descent of BAN

The famous BAN paper [3] determined the research agenda of security-protocol verification for nearly a decade. Many others had worked on verifying security protocols, and the problem appeared to be intractable. The real-world systems were too complicated; too many different things could go wrong; the formal treatments were unusable. The BAN logic was abstract, formalizing intuitive notions dire...