Free Republic

A plump larva the length of a paper clip can survive on the material that makes Styrofoam. The organism, commonly called a “superworm,” could transform the way waste managers dispose of one of the most common components in landfills, researchers said, potentially slowing a mounting garbage crisis that is exacerbating climate change. In a paper released last week in the journal of Microbial Genomics, scientists from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, showed that the larvae of a darkling beetle, called zophobas morio, can survive solely on polystyrene, commonly called Styrofoam. The findings come amid a flurry of research...

Virus writers responsible for the recent rash of Mytob worm variants could be working on creating a super worm, a security researcher warns. The "HellBot" group behind the Mytob worms write programming instructions in their code that mirror the way developers work, says Sophos Security Consultant Carole Theriault. "The only conclusion we can come up with is that they are working on a big super worm," Theriault says. Since its discovery in February, the Mytob mass-mailing worm has spawned dozens of variants, each just slightly different, according to researchers. However, each variant turns off an infected machine's security settings and...