• Global Food Production Poses an Increasing Threat to the Climate

    The significant use of nitrogen fertilizers in the production of food worldwide is increasing concentrations of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere—a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide—which remains in the atmosphere longer than a human lifetime.

  • Two's a crowd: Nuclear and Renewables Don't Mix

    If countries want to lower emissions as substantially, rapidly and cost-effectively as possible, they should prioritize support for renewables, rather than nuclear power. That’s the finding of new analysis of 123 countries over 25 years.

  • Election Manipulation Threatens Democracy, but There Are New tools to Combat Disinformation

    The spread of false narratives about the election through social media poses a serious threat to American democracy. The Observatory on Social Media at Indiana University has a collection of tools and studies that aid in the fight against election manipulation and disinformation.

  • SOCOM, U.S. Air Force Enlist Primer to Combat Disinformation

    Information overload is one of the most pressing challenges facing the U.S. military. Every day, humanity creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data, and less than one percent of the total amount of global data has ever been analyzed. Primer secures Phase II SBIR contract to enhance its natural language processing platform to counter disinformation.

  • De-Identifying Public Safety Data Sets

    For critical applications such as emergency planning and epidemiology, public safety responders may need access to sensitive data, but sharing that data with external analysts can compromise individual privacy. NIST) has launched a crowdsourcing challenge to spur new methods to ensure that important public safety data sets can be de-identified to protect individual privacy.

  • As Atmospheric Carbon Rises, So Do Rivers, Exacerbating Flooding

    When it comes to climate change, relationships are everything. That’s a key takeaway of a new study that examines the interaction between plants, atmospheric carbon dioxide and rising water levels in the Mississippi River.

  • Finger Veins-Based 3D Biometric Authentication Almost Impossible to Fool

    Biometric authentication, which uses unique anatomical features such as fingerprints or facial features to verify a person’s identity, is increasingly replacing traditional passwords for accessing everything from smartphones to law enforcement systems. A newly developed approach that uses 3D images of finger veins could greatly increase the security of this type of authentication. Combining light and sound adds depth information that boosts security of biometric authentication.

  • UWF’s Master’s in Cybersecurity Online Program Ranks among Best Values in Nation

    In only its second year of existence, the University of Florida’s (UWF) nationally designated Master of Science in Cybersecurity online program – recognized as a leading program in cybersecurity education and workforce development — has been ranked as one of the best values in the nation, according to the 2020 Cybersecurity Guide rankings.

  • NSA Grant to Angelo State for Cyber Security Capacity Building Project

    Angelo State University has been awarded a $295,402 grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) to fund the new “ASU Cybersecurity Capacity Building Project” that will expand the cybersecurity program in ASU’s Department of Computer Science.

  • Addressing Risk, Safety in Fire Containment

    As 2020 has shown, wildfire frequency, size and severity are threatening communities and natural resources across the western U.S. As a result, there is a high demand for decision-making to mitigate risk, improve firefighter safety and increase fire containment efficiency.

  • Using Drones for Better Prediction of Urban Flooding

    The University of Luxembourg and the start-up RSS-Hydro are working together to optimize the prediction of flooding in Burange in the south of Luxembourg. Supported by the City of Dudelange, the project aims at building a unique and precise urban terrain model with the help of drones, aerial and satellite images to feed state-of-the art flood models.

  • Energy security The Promise of California Offshore Wind Energy

    As California aims to provide 60 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2045, a Cal Poly study provides some good news: Offshore winds along the Central Coast increase at the same time that people start using more energy — in the evening.

  • U.S. Imposes Curbs on Exports by China's Top Chipmaker SMIC

    By John Xie

    The U.S. government has placed new export restrictions on China’s most advanced maker of computer chips, citing an “unacceptable risk” that equipment sold to the country’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) could be used for military purposes.

  • Marine Sponges Inspire Next Generation Skyscrapers, Bridges

    When we think about sponges, we tend to think of something soft and squishy. But researchers are using the glassy skeletons of marine sponges as inspiration for the next generation of stronger and taller buildings, longer bridges, and lighter spacecraft.

  • How Many People Will Migrate Due to Rising Sea Levels? Our Best Guesses Aren’t Good Enough

    By Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson, Celia McMichael, Ilan Kelman, and Shouro Dasgupta

    The idea that rising seas will force millions to move, unleashing a refugee crisis like no other, has now become commonplace. It’s a narrative that the media are fond of, but that does not mean it is based on evidence. The potential scale of sea level rise is becoming clearer, but this does not necessarily translate into population movements. Everything we have learned so far suggests that decisions to migrate are far more complex than a simple flight response.