-
Two Months in, the Iran War Has Changed the Global Energy System Forever
The conflict may be the beginning of the end of fossil fuel dominance. Here’s which energy sources stand to win and lose.
-
-
U.S. Government Ramps Up Mass Surveillance with Help of AI Tech, Data Brokers – and Your Apps and Devices
To understand the issues, it is critical to know how these technologies function, who collects what data about you, how that data can be used against you, and why the laws you might think are protecting your data do not apply or are ignored.
-
-
Could Deep Sea Mining Break China's Grip on Critical Minerals?
Mining companies have proposed to use remote-controlled robots or seabed crawlers tethered to surface ships to bring up nodules. The International Seabed Authority has wrestled for more than two decades with how to regulate seabed mining. The Trump administration has promised no such delay. It plans to use an existing U.S. regulatory framework.
-
-
Electrochemical Process Enables Recovery of Valuable Raw Materials
Lithium, cobalt and nickel are in high demand – and they are hard to obtain. Researchers are developing an electrochemical process to recover scarce raw materials in battery recycling. This new technology could also enable the extraction of rare earth elements from electronic waste in the future.
-
-
Far from Random, China’s Global Port Network Is Clustering Near the World’s Riskiest Trade Routes
Chinese firms now own or operate terminals at more than 90 ports worldwide, including many of the busiest. The network spans Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with growing activity in South America. The scale of China’s involvement in overseas ports has fueled debate over whether these investments are purely commercial or serve broader strategic goals. -
-
From Lecture Halls to Jail Cells: The Rising Risks of University Research
Universities should be clear-eyed about the need to negotiate trade-offs between research security and international engagement. National export-control authorities also need to provide adequate guidance and support to university institutions and researchers navigating increasingly onerous export-control regimes.
-
-
AI Can Design and Run Thousands of Lab Experiments without Human Hands. Humanity Isn’t Ready for the New Risks This Brings to Biology
What happens when the same capabilities operate outside those controls is a question that policy has not yet answered. Overreact, and talent and investment may move elsewhere while the technology continues advancing anyway. Underreact, and the risks of that technology could be exploited to cause real harm.
-
-
The Federal Government Is Rushing Toward AI. Our Reporting Offers Three Cautionary Tales.
I’ve studied how the federal government has handled — and mishandled — the AI transition over the past two decades, and my reporting offers some cautionary tales and valuable lessons as policymakers encourage the use of AI and federal agencies adopt the technology.
-
-
How Iran Can Stop Shipping with Mines – in the Strait, the Whole Gulf, and Even the Red Sea
Mine warfare doesn’t need to sink ships to succeed. It works by imposing unacceptable risk. Sea mines offer distinct advantages as a maritime weapon. They require little training or specialist support. They are easy to deploy. And they can be laid without direct combat interaction with an adversary, remaining dormant until activated by a passing vessel. These characteristics make mines the most cost-effective weapons available to a weaker and outmatched force.
-
-
Bypass the Strait of Hormuz with Nuclear Explosives? The U.S. Studied That in Panama and Colombia in the 1960s
The idea of a new canal to move oil from the Middle East had emerged in the context of another Middle East conflict, the 1956 Suez crisis. Project Plowshare advocates, led by Edward Teller, sought to use what they called “peaceful nuclear explosions” to reduce the costs of large-scale earthmoving projects.
-
-
April 2, 2025: A Day of Economic Lunacy, Not Liberation
A year ago this week, President Trump walked into the White House Rose Garden, held up a poster board with nonsensical tariff rates on imports from virtually every country in the world, and declared April 2, 2025, “Liberation Day.” History will likely view April 2, 2025, as a day of economic infamy, not liberation. After a year, the tariffs are failing their stated objectives, including their central premise: to reshore domestic manufacturing.
-
-
Researchers Find Training Gaps Impacting Maritime Cybersecurity Readiness
Whether it’s a fire or a flood, a ship’s crew can only rely on itself and its training in emergencies at sea. The same is true for crews facing digital threats on oil tankers, cargo ships, and other commercial vessels.
-
-
Why Iran Targeted Amazon Data Centers and What That Does – and Doesn’t – Change About Warfare
It seems likely that as the use of AI tools and other cloud-based resources continues to grow in importance for countries around the world, commercial data centers will be targets in future conflicts.
-
-
Wondering Where China’s Cyber Effort Will Go Next? Just Read the Five-Year Plan
Adversaries sometimes declare strategic priorities, yet cyber incidents that align with them are not assessed accordingly. We should in fact be guarding against intrusions before they happen by taking note of foreign and industrial policies that indicate where they’re likely to concentrate.
-
-
Why Hasn’t the U.S. Military Used Force to Secure the Strait of Hormuz?
To make the strait safe for shipping, there is a need to secure not just the water, but the land on either side of it. And this would likely require ground forces – or perhaps raiding parties on Iran’s coastline – which would be complicated and risky for the US military. Securing shipping would require a significant number of naval ships.
-
The long view
U.S. Needs New Drought Assessment Framework as Droughts Become More Severe and Unpredictable
Droughts in the United States are becoming more intense and unpredictable, and the nation needs to develop a new drought assessment framework to better understand and address them. A new framework should be developed which distinguishes between short-term operational needs, such as drought monitoring and emergency response, and long-term planning for water management, infrastructure, and climate adaptation.