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Effectiveness of 1,500 Global Climate Policies Ranked for First Time
The world can take a major step to meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Accord by focusing on 63 cases where climate policies have had the most impact, new research has revealed
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The U.S. Is Finally Curbing Floodplain Development, New Research Shows
Over the past century, the United States has built millions of homes along coastlines and rivers, developing on land that is all but destined to flood. At the same time that the warming of the planet has raised sea levels and increased rainfall, annual flood damages have surged in recent decades in large part because more homes are in flood-prone areas now than ever before.
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Work Toward a Cleaner Way to Purify Critical Metals
Rare-earth elements are everywhere in modern life. However, purifying these critical metals from ores with complex mixtures is a nasty business involving strong acids and hazardous solvents, and is primarily conducted in China. Sandia team studies selective sponges for rare-earth elements.
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SARCOP: One Team. One Mission. One Map.
The Search and Rescue Common Operating Platform (SARCOP) aggregates multiple emergency management applications and advanced geospatial analytics into a single dashboard, giving response agencies enhanced situational awareness when every second counts.
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Pagers and Walkie-talkies Over Cellphones – a Security Expert Explains Why Hezbollah Went Low-Tech for Communications
In general, I believe the adversary in an asymmetric conflict using low-tech techniques, tactics and technology will almost always be able to operate successfully against a more powerful and well-funded opponent. But from a cybersecurity perspective, Israel’s attack on Hezbollah’s pagers shows that any device in your life can be tampered with by an adversary at points along the supply chain – long before you even receive it.
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AI Safety Research, Testing and Evaluation with Anthropic and OpenAI
First-of-their-kind agreements between the U.S. government and industry will help advance safe and trustworthy AI innovation for all.
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Study: AI Could Lead to Inconsistent Outcomes in Home Surveillance
Researchers find large language models make inconsistent decisions about whether to call the police when analyzing surveillance videos.
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Why Experts Are Calling for a New Strategy to Improve U.S. Access to Semiconductors ― The Technology that Underpins Artificial Intelligence
While the U.S. first developed semiconductors and led globally in semiconductor development and manufacturing in the last century, today it produces just 12% of all semiconductors. A new report from the National Academies recommends actions for the U.S. Department of Defense ― coordinating with the commercial sector, universities, and other parts of government ― to secure its access to this critical technology.
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Planning the Future of America’s Vast Electric Grid
America’s electric grid is one of the largest and most complicated pieces of infrastructure ever built. It is intended to deliver electricity nearly 100% of the time in any situation. And it will soon be called upon to accommodate renewables and more electric demand.
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New Method for Fingerprint Analysis Holds Great Promise
Overlapping and weak fingerprints pose challenges in criminal cases. A new study offers a solution and brings hope for using chemical residues in fingerprints for personal profiling.
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Dams Built to Prevent Coastal Flooding Can Worsen It
The common practice of building dams to prevent flooding can actually contribute to more intense coastal flood events, according to a new study. Those massive infrastructure projects are surging in popularity globally, in part to help offset intensifying storms, salt intrusion and sea-level rise fueled by climate change.
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The Gulf Coast Is Sinking, Making Hurricanes Like Francine Even More Dangerous
Hurricane Francine hits low-lying Louisiana. Subsidence could make the storm surge worse: Because so much of southern Louisiana sits at or below sea level, the surge could race inland unimpeded.
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Cybersecurity Suite Now on Duty Defending the Nation
For the better part of a decade, dozens of Sandia engineers, each working on pieces of a new national security tool alongside federal partners, have revolutionized cybersecurity forensics with the Thorium platform and tool suite.
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NASA, Partners Conduct Fifth Asteroid Impact Exercise
Although there are no known significant asteroid impact threats for the foreseeable future, hypothetical exercises provide valuable insights by exploring the risks, response options, and opportunities for collaboration posed by varying scenarios, from minor regional damage with little warning to potential global catastrophes predicted years or even decades in the future.
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Longer-Lasting EV Batteries, Hasten Energy Transition
Batteries lose capacity over time, which is why older cellphones run out of power more quickly. This common phenomenon, however, is not completely understood. Now, researchers have revealed the underlying mechanism behind such battery degradation.
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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.