OUR PICKSSafeguarding the World’s Worst Pathogens | Stymied U.S. Weapons Production | Flood-Resistant Cities, and more
· Safeguarding the World’s Worst Pathogens
More people in more places are researching the world’s most dangerous pathogens
· Little Nuclear Physics Lab to Tackle Department of Energy’s Big Data Problem
New center at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility to crunch millions of gigabytes a day from agency’s 10 science labs
· As Demand for Arms Booms, Lack of Modernization Stymies Weapons Production
Some small firms at the heart of the defense industry see little benefit to automation and digitization
· U.S. to Warn Crypto Firms Against Financing Hamas, Terror Groups
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo will address crypto financing in London
· How China Is Designing Flood-Resistant Cities
It’s time to redesign cities for climate change
Safeguard the World’s Worst Pathogens (Piers Millett, Science)
More people in more places are researching the world’s most dangerous pathogens. This work helps prepare against future pandemics, but it’s not without danger. Pathogens could escape from research facilities, so it is vital for countries to assess potential hazards and have procedures in place to manage the risks. This doesn’t happen enough.
Earlier this year, the Global Biolabs initiative released a report tracking the growth of maximum containment labs. These facilities provide extremely high levels of protection when there are very high risks to lab personnel, the wider community, or the environment. The report reveals that in 2000, there were only 13 such labs in the world. The number of labs in operation, under construction, or planned has risen steadily: to 59 labs in 23 countries in 2021, and 69 labs in 27 countries in 2023. This boom in labs has not been sufficiently accompanied by strengthened safety and security.
Little Nuclear Physics Lab to Tackle Department of Energy’s Big Data Problem (Adrian Cho, Science)
At risk of drowning in the output from its own facilities, the Department of Energy (DOE) plans to build a major new computing center specifically to crunch experimental data. The agency will construct a $305 million High Performance Data Facility at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Newport News, Virginia, officials announced last week. To be completed by 2028, the new data center marks an evolution in the agency’s approach to science and gives a new lease on life to JLab, a small lab that currently focuses on nuclear physics and accelerator development.
“This is a major response to the growing demand,” says Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of DOE’s Office of Science. DOE’s x-ray and neutron sources and atom smashers serve thousands of experiments probing everything from the origins of matter to the structures of materials and proteins. As the intensity of the sources has increased, they produce data ever faster and in greater detail, threatening to overwhelm computing resources at the 10 national laboratories run by the Office of Science. “The need for managing data is only growing,” Berhe says.
As Demand for Arms Booms, Lack of Modernization Stymies Weapons Production (Sam Skove, Defense One)
U.S. officials are desperate to find ways to crank up weapons production amid wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and growing tensions with China.
“The task before us
