How the tiny microbes in your mouth could be putting your health at risk - Related to u.k., impressive, speed, wants, unchecked

How the tiny microbes in your mouth could be putting your health at risk

“We’re working on trying to create functional replacement teeth,” Pamela Yelick of Tufts University, one of the researchers behind the work, told me. The idea is to develop an alternative to titanium dental implants. Replacing lost or damaged teeth with healthy, living, lab-grown ones might be a more appealing option than drilling a piece of metal into a person’s jawbone.

Current dental implants can work well, but they’re not perfect. They don’t attach to bones and gums in the same way that real teeth do. And around 20% of people who get implants end up developing an infection called peri-implantitis, which can lead to bone loss.

It is all down to the microbes that grow on them. There’s a complex community of microbes living in our mouths, and disruptions can lead to infection. But these organisms don’t just affect our mouths; they also seem to be linked to a growing number of disorders that can affect our bodies and brains. If you’re curious, read on.

The oral microbiome, as it is now called, was first discovered in 1670 by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a self-taught Dutch microbiologist. “I didn’t clean my teeth for three days and then took the material that had lodged in small amounts on the gums above my front teeth … I found a few living animalcules,” he wrote in a letter to the Royal Society at the time.

Van Leeuwenhoek had used his own homemade microscopes to study the “animalcules” he found in his mouth. Today, we know that these organisms include bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses, each of which comes in lots of types. “Everyone’s mouth is home to hundreds of bacterial species,” says Kathryn Kauffman at the University of Buffalo, who studies the oral microbiome.

These organisms interact with each other and with our own immune systems, and researchers are still getting to grips with how the interactions work. Some microbes feed on sugars or fats in our diets, for example, while others seem to feed on our own cells. Depending on what they consume and produce, microbes can alter the environment of the mouth to either promote or inhibit the growth of other microbes.

This complex microbial dance seems to have a really crucial role in our health. Oral diseases and even oral cancers have been linked to an imbalance in the oral microbiome, which scientists call “dysbiosis.” Tooth decay, for example, has been attributed to an overgrowth of microbes that produce acids that can damage teeth.

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The U.K. wants unchecked access to all iPhones worldwide

In 2016, the FBI requested Apple to grant it an iOS backdoor access, but the corporation rejected it, with the “No” coming straight from CEO Tim Cook. In 2021, Apple even sued an Australian corporation that unlocked an iPhone for the same federal law enforcement agency.

Apple is once again at a security crossroads that could pose an existential threat to its iPhone business, and the privacy of consumers across the globe. , the British government has ordered Apple to give them “blanket” access to the encrypted materials saved by iPhone consumers on the iCloud online storage drive.

“Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud,” says the findings.

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At the center of the debate is Advanced Data Protection, a new feature that started rolling out in 2022 and allows individuals to protect their iCloud data with a layer of end-to-end encryption.

That means even Apple can’t see it, and only the user can access it after identity verification. The content protected by encryption on Apple’s cloud storage includes photos, notes, reminders, messages, bookmarks, and voice memos, among others.

The order reportedly comes from the office of the Home Secretary and invokes the [website] Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) of 2016, which allows law enforcement bodies to arm-twist companies into compliance.

Also infamous as the Snooper’s Charter, the IPA allows the government to “collect and store information about everything people do and say online,” as per the Digital Freedom Fund. Notably, a bill widening the powers of the IPA was approved in the UK and became law in April last year.

Liberty, a prominent civil liberties organization, says the IPA also allows the government to “hack into our phones and computers and create large ‘personal datasets’ on us.” The group is currently engaged in a legal battle against the provisions of IPA in the country.

As per The Post, the IPA is so secretive that even disclosing a government’s demand invoking the order is deemed a criminal offense. In 2024, Apple argued against another IPA-adjacent demand by lawmakers, labeling it an “unprecedented overreach by the government.”.

Back then, Apple threatened the removal of services such as iMessage and FaceTime from the UK market rather than compromise with the security aspect.

Regarding the latest order from the British government, Apple can file an appeal, but as per local laws, the firm can’t delay compliance. And here’s the most worrying part. If Apple agrees to the request, it can’t warn customers about the weakened state of security on iPhones.

“One of the people briefed on the situation, a consultant advising the United States on encryption matters, mentioned Apple would be barred from warning its consumers that its most advanced encryption no longer provided full security,” says the investigation.

The consequences could be chilling. The UK government is not only asking Apple to let it secretly access the data of local iPhone customers, but also those in other countries across the globe.

Moreover, if a democratic nation like the UK can land such an approval, regimes with a more authoritarian approach would also push Apple for similar access. This comes at a time when China-linked hacking operations have rattled the US government and officials have been instructed to cultivate a certain level of digital security vigilance, including the usage of encrypted software.

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New MediaTek Chromebook benchmark surfaces with impressive speed

Many SoCs are being prepared for upcoming 2025 devices, and a recent benchmark indicates that a MediaTek chipset could make Chromebooks as fast as they have ever been this year.

Referencing the GeekBench benchmark, ChromeUnboxed discovered the latest scores of the MediaTek MT8196 chip, which has been reported on for some time now. With the chip being housed on the motherboard codenamed ‘Navi,’ the benchmark presents the chip excelling in single-core and multi-core benchmarks, as well as in GPU, NPU, and some other tests run.

The publication notes that MediaTek MT8196 is an ARM-based SoC, that is likely a Dimensity 9400 chip reconfigured to work on Chromebooks. Typically, the chip is a flagship SoC run on smartphones and tablets, and it’s known for its speed. Its biggest competition are chips from the Qualcomm Snapdragon line.

In terms of other Chromebooks, the MediaTek MT8196 ‘Navi’ device has beat out all of the current fastest Chromebooks, all which run the Intel Core Ultra 7. ChromeUnboxed noted the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714, codenamed ‘Karis’ as an example.

The publication added that one hinderance to the MediaTek MT8196 chip providing the fastest Chromebooks of 2025 could be if devices featuring Intel’s Panther Lake release first. There have been no benchmarks of the SoC yet, so there is no way to know how its power will fare in the industry.

Evenso, Google is likely to begin introducing new Chromebooks in the spring. It will be interesting to confirm models and specs at that time. If the business keeps a launch cycle similar to what it did last year, it may host a Chromebook launch in the fall as well.

There is also word of a device codenamed ‘Hylia,’ that ChromeUnboxed has been tracking that may table a tablet form factor. However, the publication cannot confirm whether the Chromebook might run the MediaTek MT8196 chip.

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