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Recent Hurricanes and Geoengineering
The recent back-to-back hurricanes that made landfall in the United States have sparked conspiracy theories about the government creating these disasters through geoengineering. While such theories are false, they have drawn attention to the risky idea of geoengineering, which typically refers to the large-scale, intentional manipulation of the earth’s processes to modify weather.
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New AI Model Could Make Power Grids More Reliable Amid Rising Renewable Energy Use
As renewable energy sources such as wind and solar become more widespread, managing the power grid has become increasingly complex. An AI model that can address the uncertainties of renewable energy generation and electric vehicle demand, making power grids more reliable and efficient.
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Climate Change Threatens Bridges, Roads: Research Helps Engineers Adapt Infrastructure
Across America, infrastructure built to handle peak stormwater flows from streams and rivers have been engineered under the assumption that rainfall averages stay constant over time. As extreme weather events become more frequent, these systems could be in trouble.
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Major Lithium Mine Approved in Nevada, Supporting a Domestic Supply of Critical Minerals
Critical minerals are essential building blocks of the modern economy and America’s energy security, from clean energy technologies – like electric vehicle and grid storage batteries and wind turbines – to semiconductors to advanced defense systems and consumer electronics.
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Accelerating Clean Energy Geothermal Development on Public Lands
Geothermal energy is one of our greatest untapped clean energy resources on public lands. Replenished by heat sources deep in the Earth, geothermal energy generates electricity with minimal carbon emissions. Interior Department announces new leases and pioneering project approval, and proposes simplified permitting.
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Emerging Tech and Terrorism: Adoption Patterns and Implications
The diffusion of innovation theory highlights that most organizations, groups, and individuals adopt innovations in the mid-to-late product lifecycle. This applies to technology adoption by terror groups: most violent non-state actors will adopt technology once it has crossed several thresholds, including cost, availability, testing (i.e., proof of concept), and ease of use.
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Navigating Uncharted Waters: ASU Drives Solutions for Water Resilience
The Southwest has grappled with an ongoing megadrought since 2000, the driest period in the last 1,200 years. In a place already known for extreme heat and an arid climate, a secure water supply is especially crucial in order for humanity to thrive.
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World War I Was the Crucible of Air Power. Ukraine Looks the Same for Drones
We seem to be seeing a new kind of air battle—lower, slower at close quarters and in a physical environment where fighter aircraft cannot intervene affordably or effectively. Could it be that Ukraine is to small unmanned systems what World War I was to aircraft?
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Voters: Here’s How to Spot AI “Deepfakes” That Spread Election-Related Misinformation
For years, people have spread misinformation by manipulating photos and videos with tools such as Adobe Photoshop. These fakes are easier to recognize, and they’re harder for bad actors to replicate on a large scale. Generative AI systems, however, enable users to create content quickly and easily. Domestic and foreign adversaries can use deepfakes and other forms of generative AI to spread false information about a politician’s platform or doctor their speeches.
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Leveraging AI to Enhance U.S. Cybersecurity
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can potentially provide the homeland unprecedented opportunity to enhance its cybersecurity posture. DHS S&T is exploring the possibilities of using new advances in this technology to detect threats, increase resilience and provide more supply chain oversight.
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CyberForce Competition Challenges College Students to Use Cybersecurity Skills to Defend Their Wind Energy System
College teams will work to outsmart a simulated attack on a U.S. wind energy plant. The CyberForce Competition offers students hands-on experience, igniting their passion for cybersecurity.
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Autonomous Disaster Response Technology Successfully Applied to Fire Extinguishing System of a 3,200-ton Vessel
An innovative technology for autonomously responding, without crew intervention, to ruptures to the pipes within the fire extinguishing system of vessels has been successfully verified for the first time in Korea.
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U. of California Faces Lawsuit for Not Hiring Illegal Aliens
UC’s Board of Regents decided by a vote in January to suspend for one year the implementation of its policy that allowed the hiring of illegal aliens. Now, the university faces a lawsuit for not offering jobs to illegal aliens.
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Social Media Platforms Aren’t Doing Enough to Stop Harmful AI Bots, Research Finds
While artificial intelligence (AI) bots can serve a legitimate purpose on social media — such as marketing or customer service — some are designed to manipulate public discussion, incite hate speech, spread misinformation or enact fraud and scams.
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To Make Children Better Fact-Checkers, Expose Them to More Misinformation — with Oversight
“We need to give children experience flexing these skepticism muscles and using these critical thinking skills within this online context,” a psychology researcher said.
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The long view
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
A Brief History of Federal Funding for Basic Science
Biomedical science in the United States is at a crossroads. For 75 years, the federal government has partnered with academic institutions, fueling discoveries that have transformed medicine and saved lives. Recent moves by the Trump administration — including funding cuts and proposed changes to how research support is allocated — now threaten this legacy.
Bookshelf: Preserving the U.S. Technological Republic
The United States since its founding has always been a technological republic, one whose place in the world has been made possible and advanced by its capacity for innovation. But our present advantage cannot be taken for granted.
Autonomous Weapon Systems: No Human-in-the-Loop Required, and Other Myths Dispelled
“The United States has a strong policy on autonomy in weapon systems that simultaneously enables their development and deployment and ensures they could be used in an effective manner, meaning the systems work as intended, with the same minimal risk of accidents or errors that all weapon systems have,” Michael Horowitz writes.
Ukraine Drone Strikes on Russian Airbase Reveal Any Country Is Vulnerable to the Same Kind of Attack
Air defense systems are built on the assumption that threats come from above and from beyond national borders. But Ukraine’s coordinated drone strike on 1 June on five airbases deep inside Russian territory exposed what happens when states are attacked from below and from within. In low-level airspace, visibility drops, responsibility fragments, and detection tools lose their edge. Drones arrive unannounced, response times lag, coordination breaks.
Shots to the Dome—Why We Can’t Model US Missile Defense on Israel’s “Iron Dome”
Starting an arms race where the costs are stacked against you at a time when debt-to-GDP is approaching an all-time high seems reckless. All in all, the idea behind Golden Dome is still quite undercooked.