• A More Efficient Way to Extract Lithium from Mining Sites, Oil Fields, Used Batteries

    Lithium is a lightweight metal commonly used in energy-dense and rechargeable batteries. Electric vehicles, which are needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, rely on lithium-ion batteries. Chemists have invented a more efficient way to extract lithium from waste liquids leached from mining sites, oil fields and used batteries.

  • From Florida Floods to Idaho Desert: Understanding Impacts of Flood Damage on Vehicle Batteries

    Electric vehicles offer some clear advantages over gasoline-power cars including zero emissions and lower operation and maintenance costs. But they also present some new challenges. Recent storms have revealed that seawater-flooded EVs can pose safety concerns for passengers, emergency responders and recovery personnel.

  • Subterranean Storage of Hydrogen

    Hydrogen is an important clean fuel: It can be made by splitting water using solar or wind power, it can be used to generate electricity and to power heavy industry, and it could be used to energize fuel-cell-based vehicles. Sandia scientists are using computer simulations and laboratory experiments to see if depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs can be used for storing this carbon-free fuel.

  • Accelerating Research and Development for a Secure Water Future

    Water and energy are interdependent – water is used to produce nearly every major energy source, and energy is critical to transporting and treating water. A research consortium will continue to lead a DOE desalination hub to drive innovation for sustainable water security.

  • FEMA Is Making an Example of This Florida Boomtown. Locals call it “Revenge Politics.”

    When U.S. homeowners buy subsidized flood insurance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, they make a commitment to build back better after flood disasters, even if it costs them. The Biden administration is trying to punish Lee County for rebuilding flood-prone homes. The state’s Republican politicians are fighting back.

  • Southeast Asia’s Potential in Critical Minerals

    Global critical mineral demand is expected to increase dramatically in coming decades, from a 7.1 million tons in 2020 to 42.3 million tons in 2050. All manner of sophisticated industries, including defense manufacturing, will also compete for these materials. Southeast Asia has significant natural reserves of several key critical minerals, including nickel, tin, rare-earth elements (REEs) and bauxite, and the region is still not fully explored for more of them.

  • The Flooding Will Come “No Matter What”

    Another great American migration is now underway, this time forced by the warming that is altering how and where people can live. For now, it’s just a trickle. But in the corners of the country’s most vulnerable landscapes —on the shores of its sinking bayous and on the eroding bluffs of its coastal defenses —populations are already in disarray. The complex, contradictory, and heartbreaking process of American climate migration is underway.

  • Gaza War: Israel Using AI to Identify Human Targets Raising Fears That Innocents Are Being Caught in the Net

    A new report finds that AI targeting systems have played a key role in identifying – and potentially misidentifying – tens of thousands of targets in Gaza. This suggests that autonomous warfare is no longer a future scenario. It is already here and the consequences are horrifying.

  • OPEN Program Seeks to Prove Technology Capability for Global Critical Materials Market Transparency

    Transparency in critical materials markets is essential to ensuring readiness and to the national security of the United States. It’s also vital to protecting consumers and businesses from the economic costs that stem from supply chain disruptions. DARPA effort selects companies to develop technology for critical commodity pricing, supply, and demand forecasting.

  • Action Needed to Improve U.S. Smallpox Readiness and Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Therapeutics: Report

    A new report says that action is needed to enhance U.S. readiness for smallpox and related diseases, as well as to improve diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics that could be used in case of an outbreak. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed weaknesses in the ability of U.S. public health and health care systems to adapt and respond to an unfamiliar pathogen, as did challenges during the recent mpox outbreak to rapidly making diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics available at scale.

  • A New Way to Detect Radiation Involving Cheap Ceramics

    The radiation detectors used today for applications like inspecting cargo ships for smuggled nuclear materials are expensive and cannot operate in harsh environments, among other disadvantages. Work by MIT engineers could lead to plethora of new applications, including better detectors for nuclear materials at ports.

  • Critical Minerals in Africa: Strengthening Security, Supporting Development, and Reducing Conflict amid Geopolitical Competition

    US economic and national security depends on a reliable supply of critical minerals that underlie an array of products and services important to ever-changing modern economies. Yet for many critical minerals (e.g., cobalt, graphite, and manganese), the United States is heavily dependent on imports. Especially concerning is that the United States is at or near 100 percent reliant on “foreign entities of concern”—mainly the People’s Republic of China—for key critical minerals. Africa can play an important role in strengthening US critical minerals supply chain security.

  • Artificial Intelligence and Critical Infrastructure

    What is the technology availability for AI applications in critical infrastructure in the next ten years? What risks and scenarios (consisting of threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences) is AI likely to present for critical infrastructure applications in the next ten years?

  • Tech War: China Could Face U.S., EU Curbs Over Legacy Chips Dominance

    Legacy chips, used in everything from washing machines to cars and TVs to medical devices, may not be as powerful as the state-of-the-art semiconductors that power artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. But they’re a growing headache for the United States and European Union: After the United States cut China’s access to cutting-edge chips, the EU and the United States are concerned about the country’s dominance of semiconductors used in everyday technology.

  • Deepfake Defense Tech Ready for Commercialization

    The threat of manipulated media has steadily increased as automated manipulation technologies become more accessible, and social media continues to provide a ripe environment for viral content sharing. The speed, scale, and breadth at which massive disinformation campaigns can unfold require computational defenses and automated algorithms to help humans discern what content is real and what’s been manipulated or synthesized, why, and how.