• With $1.4 Billion investment, Texas Hopes to Sprint to the Front of the Microchip Manufacturing

    Microchips are increasingly present in every day life, from phones and laptops to cars and washing machines. Gov. Greg Abbott approved last week a stimulus package in an effort to shore up the supply chain after the pandemic’s disruptions.

  • Research Agenda Prepares for the Future of Science and Technology

    DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) works to prepare DHS for  the future of science and technology. The requires remaining aware (and ahead) of emerging science and technology threats along with harnessing the latest advancements in science and technology as cutting-edge solutions for homeland security operational challenges.

  • Adapt or Retreat? Conference Will Explore Questions of Habitability in a Changing World

    As sea levels rise, fires rage, and temperatures continue to increase around the globe, it is understood that certain areas may no longer be habitable in the not-so-distant future, and that people now living in these area will have to retreat to more accommodating areas — in what is called “managed retreat.” But what does it mean to be habitable? And who gets to decide what happens to these areas under threat?

  • Google, Cornell to Partner in Online Security Initiative

    Most current security-related research is focused on technical challenges, but many of the most significant security failures involve humans and can often be attributed to poor design that fails to take the human factor into account. A partnership between Google and four higher-education institutions will use an interdisciplinary approach to build better foundations for secure systems and ensure that they are deployed in ways that address rather than exacerbate societal problems.

  • Railways Could Be Key “Utility Player” for Backup Power

    The U.S. electric grid faces simultaneous, evolving pressures. Demand for power from the grid is increasing as people adopt electric cars and building energy is transitioned from gas to electricity. New research points to a flexible, cost-effective option for backup power when trouble strikes: batteries aboard trains.

  • The Microchip Industry Would Implode if China Invaded Taiwan, and It Would Affect Everyone

    Taiwan plays a critical role in the conflict between the US and China over computer chips. Taiwan has a huge share of the global semiconductor industry, but is also the focus of tensions between Beijing and Washington over its political status. If China invaded Taiwan, the global semiconductor industry would freeze, inflation would spiral further upwards, the post-COVID recovery would be reversed, and many of the tools we rely on would disappear from our shops for years.

  • Paving the Way for Collapse-Resistant Structures

    Buildings in the U.S. are generally designed to withstand the usual suspects: rain, wind, snow and the occasional earthquake. Abnormal events such as gas explosions, vehicle impacts or uncontrolled building fires are not typically a consideration. If vulnerable buildings face any of these unanticipated events, the results could be tragic. But now, a new building standard can help engineers prevent the worst.

  • Long-Duration Energy Storage: The Time Is Now

    How can US states with aggressive decarbonization goals coupled with federal decarbonization goals have energy when they need it? Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is a likely candidate. Planning for LDES needs to start now.

  • The New Water Reuse Consortium Will Address Clean Water Access and Sustainability Challenges

    The Water Reuse Consortium, a collaborative efforts of several academic institutions, is a 3-phase, $38 million program to tackle pressing water challenges through innovative research, education, communication, and collaborative efforts between government, local communities, industry, and academia.

  • New Tool to Improve Forecasting of Extreme Rain Events

    Researchers have identified the factors affecting the likelihood of extreme rain events and have developed a tool that can improve the forecasting of such events. This tool will be made available to the Israel Meteorological Service and its counterpart agencies throughout the world.

  • China Extends Its Lead Over U.S. in Key Technologies

    Western democracies are losing the global technological competition, including the race for scientific and research breakthroughs, and the ability to retain global talent—crucial ingredients that underpin the development and control of the world’s most important technologies, including those that don’t yet exist.A new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) finds that China’s global lead extends to 37 out of 44 technologies that ASPI is now tracking. These findings should be a wake-up call for democratic nations, who must rapidly pursue a strategic critical technology step-up.

  • U.S. Battle for Technology Standards

    Technology standards have become powerful instruments of geostrategic influence in recent years. Technology standards—which determine how devices, systems and networks operate and interact with each other—influence a nation’s economic competitiveness, national security and military power.

  • Needed: Ground Rules for the Age of AI Warfare

    The time has arrived form an international agreement on autonomous weapons. Lauren Kahn writes in Foreign Affairs that AI is at an inflection point: the technology is maturing and is increasingly suitable for military use, while the exact outlines of future AI military systems, and the degree of disruption they will cause, remain uncertain and, hence, can be, at least somewhat, shaped.

  • How Much Cobalt Can Be Mined in the U.S.? Study Examines Mining Site in Idaho

    Demand for cobalt is projected to increase more than 500% by 2050. Roughly 70% of the cobalt mined globally is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and then processed in China. Experts note that despite a high projected need for cobalt, battery technologies that use other ingredients have been gaining attention and popularity, such as lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, also called LFPs.

  • For Beleaguered Homeowners and Their Insurers, the Fire Next Time Could Be a Flood

    The data-driven insurance business is in trouble as climate-change-driven disasters arrive with greater fury and frequency. Catastrophic losses are something that insurance companies have long planned and budgeted for. But not this many.