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Oversight Revealed in AI Image Recognition Tools
Artificial intelligence can help people process and comprehend large amounts of data with precision, but the image recognition platforms and computer vision models that are built into AI frequently overlook an important back-end feature called the alpha channel. Researchers developed a proprietary attack called AlphaDog to study how hackers can exploit this oversight.
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Reducing Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise in Virginia
As the climate changes and sea levels rise, there is concern that sinking coastlines could exacerbate risks to infrastructure, as well as human and environmental health in coastal communities. The Virginia Coastal Plain is one of the fastest-sinking regions on the East Coast.
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Why Fracking Matters in the 2024 U.S. Election
The fracking boom has transformed the United States into the world’s leading producer of oil and gas. With presidential candidates Harris and Trump clashing on climate and energy policy, the practice is once again in the spotlight.
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$100 Million to Accelerate R&D and AI Technologies for Sustainable Semiconductor Materials
The U.S. Commerce Deprtment ssued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to announce an open competition demonstrating how AI can assist in developing new sustainable semiconductor materials and processes that meet industry needs and can be designed and adopted within five years.
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The CHIPS Act: How U.S. Microchip Factories Could Reshape the Economy
The CHIPS and Science Act seeks to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor industry amid growing fears of a China-Taiwan conflict. Where is the money going, and how is the effort playing out?
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NNSA Completes and Diamond-Stamps First Plutonium Pit for W87-1 Warhead
During the Cold War, the United States could manufacture hundreds of plutonium pits per year. Pit production ceased in 1989, and NNSA continues to recapitalize production capabilities that atrophied in the post-Cold War era.
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New Piggyback-Tech May Revolutionize Rail Travel
Trains are safe, reliable, cost effective and energy efficient. They’re a great mode of transport in almost every way, except for one thing. The gaps between them.
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In 2019, Congress Finally Funded Gun Violence Research. Here’s How It’s Changed the Field
A Trace analysis of federal data found that the amount of money going to gun violence studies has soared since lawmakers lifted a de facto federal funding ban.
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Counties Call for Rural Groundwater Management Despite Some Voters Rejecting It
Four rural Arizona county supervisors are asking for more regulation when it comes to pumping rural groundwater, something that their constituents denied them in 2022.
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Why Are So Many Historically Rare Storms Hitting the Carolinas? Geography Puts These States at Risk, and Climate Change Is Loading the Dice
Why have so many storms that, historically and statistically, should be exceedingly rare, struck the Carolinas in just a few years? In regions near the coasts, the frequency of heavy rainfall has increased as a result of human-caused climate change. Warmer air can hold more moisture, and warmer oceans provide that moisture as the fuel for heavy rainfall.
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Software Application Keeps Public Safer from Potential Airborne Radiological Releases
Developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, QUIC-DEPDOSE accurately measures the spread of radiological particles from the kilometer to micron level.
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Simultaneous Detection of Uranium Isotopes, Fluorine Advances Nuclear Nonproliferation Monitoring
Fluorine is essential for converting uranium into a form suitable for enrichment, so spotting both elements together may help inspectors determine the intended use of a nuclear material.
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GPS Jamming? No Problem, LEO Satellites Hold the Key to Resilient, Interference-Free Navigation
Increasingly occurring GPS jamming disrupts the daily civilian activities, posing major navigational challenges. A new method using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antennas addresses these location vulnerability issues, presenting means for precise navigation even where traditional global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) fail.
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Deflecting Doom: How Sandia Research Could Save Earth from Asteroids
The most efficient way to prevent potentially dangerous asteroids from damaging or even obliterating Earth may involve a coordinated nuclear response to deflect the menacing asteroid. Free-floating experiments at Sandia provide deflection data.
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New Security Protocol Shields Data from Attackers During Cloud-Based Computation
The technique leverages quantum properties of light to guarantee security while preserving the accuracy of a deep-learning model.
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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.