• $3.5 Million NSF Grant to Fund Cybersecurity Scholarships

    A $3.5 million grant will fund new scholarships at Binghamton University over the next five years for two dozen students who plan to join the workforce as cybersecurity professionals. The NSF’s CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program trains the next generation of information technology experts and security managers.

  • Demand for Rare Minerals and Metals Creates Eco-Dilemma

    The world is crying out for rare minerals for the manufacture of electric cars, wind turbines and other technologies that we simply need more of. But how can we guarantee access to these resources without threatening the natural world and mankind as we know it?

  • Smart Electric Grid to Power Our Future

    A novel plan that offers partnership in keeping the United States electric grid stable and reliable could be a win-win for consumers and utility operators.

  • Competition and Collaboration: Understanding Interacting Epidemics Can Unlock Better Disease Forecasts

    A new algorithm increases scientists’ abilities to accurately model mutually dependent spreading processes, from virus outbreaks to disinformation on social media.

  • Opening Architecture to Make Air Travel Safer, Easier

    Researchers have developed an open architecture for airport screening systems, which will allow air travelers to experience faster and safer security checkpoints — no need to open bags or remove liquids or shoes.

  • Ensuring Safe Nuclear Waste Disposal

    Disposal concepts call for the waste to be isolated a third of a mile belowground for safe storage, enclosed within engineered barrier systems and surrounded by subsurface rock. But there’s still the chance radionuclides might leak out if these systems lose their protective properties as it heats up due to radioactive decay. International nuclear waste disposal research effort evaluates maximum allowable temperature for buffer material.

  • Addressing the Microchip Shortage

    The U.S. semiconductor chip shortage is likely to continue well into 2022, and experts predict that the U.S. will need to make major changes to the manufacturing and supply chain of these all-important chips in the coming year to stave off further effects. That includes making more of these chips here at home. 

  • Next Renewable Energy Source: An Artificial Leaf

    Solar energy is not a new concept and has been implemented on a grand scale world-wide. But researchers are looking at another possible renewable method of harnessing the power of the Sun: photosynthesis.

  • Reasserting U.S. Leadership in Microelectronics

    The global semiconductor shortage has grabbed headlines and caused a cascade of production bottlenecks that have driven up prices on all sorts of consumer goods, from refrigerators to SUVs. The chip shortage has thrown into sharp relief the critical role semiconductors play in many aspects of everyday life. But years before the pandemic-induced shortage took hold, the United States was already facing a growing chip crisis. MIT researchers lay out a strategy for how universities can help the U.S. regain its place as a semiconductor superpower.

  • Simulations Can Improve Avalanche Forecasting

    Currently, avalanche forecasts in Canada are made by experienced professionals who rely on data from local weather stations and on-the-ground observations from ski and backcountry ski operators, avalanche control workers for transportation and industry, and volunteers who manually test the snowpack. But simulated snow cover models developed by a team of researchers are able detect and track weak layers of snow and identify avalanche hazard in a completely different way.

  • 2021 Was U.S. 4th-Warmest Year on Record, Fueled By a Record-Warm December

    The year 2021 was marked by extremes across the U.S., including exceptional warmth, devastating severe weather and the second-highest number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters on record. The U.S. was struck with 20 separate billion-dollar disasters in 2021.

  • Weather Disasters in U.S. Dominate Natural Disaster Losses in 2021

    In 2021, natural disasters caused overall losses of $280bn, of which roughly $120bn were insured. Alongside 2005 and 2011, the year 2021 proved to be the second-costliest ever for the insurance sector (record year 2017: $146bn, inflation-adjusted). Overall losses from natural disasters were the fourth-highest to date (record year 2011: $355bn). Hurricane Ida was the year’s costliest natural disaster, with overall losses of $65bn (insured losses of $36bn). In Europe, flash floods after extreme rainfall caused losses of $54bn (€46bn) – the costliest natural disaster on record in Germany. Many of the weather catastrophes fit in with the expected consequences of climate change, making greater loss preparedness and  climate protection a matter of urgency.

  • The Battle of the SARS-CoV-2 Variants

    In order to fight the pandemic in the long term, it is crucial to understand why one variant prevails over another. A new study has provided important answers by comparing the spread and transmission of different emerging variants in parallel.

  • Cities Boosted Rain, Sent Storms to the Suburbs During Europe’s Deadly Summer Floods

    When it comes to extreme weather, climate change usually gets all the attention. But according to a new study, the unique effects of cities – which can intensify storms and influence where rain falls – need to be accounted for as well.

  • Compound-Flood Modeling Tools Hel Build Community Climate Resilience

    In 2021, extreme flooding from rain affected residents across the United States, causing property damage and loss of life. These extreme weather events are becoming all too common. In fact, a recent United Nations report—Climate Change 2021—found that heavy rain events are likely to become more intense and frequent, resulting in an increase in severe flooding events around the globe.