• Stuck Bridges, Buckling Roads − Extreme Heat Is Wreaking Havoc on America’s Aging Infrastructure

    Summer 2024’s record heat is creating problems for transportation infrastructure, from roads to rails. It doesn’t help that the worsening heat is hitting a U.S. infrastructure system that’s already in trouble.

  • Sniff Test for Explosives Detection Extends Its Reach

    Scientists have developed a way to detect tiny amounts of hard-to-detect explosives more than eight feet away, reducing the need to swipe clothing, luggage or other materials. The nNew method detects dangerous materials with lower vapor pressure.

  • WHO Updates List of Most Dangerous Viruses and Bacteria

    The WHO recently published a report outlining the findings of its global pathogen prioritization process that involved more than 200 scientists who evaluated evidence related to 28 viral families and one core group of bacteria, covering 1,652 pathogens.

  • State Lawmakers Eye Promise, Pitfalls of AI Ahead of November Elections

    This presidential election cycle is the first since generative AI — a form of artificial intelligence that can create new images, audio and video — became widely available. Artificial intelligence proved the ‘topic du jour’ at the largest annual meeting of state lawmakers this week in Kentucky.

  • Hybrid System Would Create New ‘Backbone’ for Internet in Space

    A new NATO-funded effort seeks to make the internet less vulnerable by rerouting its flow of information to space in the event that the underwater cables that transmit the world’s communications are attacked or accidentally severed.

  • Where the Public and Private Sectors Converge

    DHS S&T recently hosted its annual Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) Demo Week, bringing together federal government and startup communities to exhibit new technologies, talk through ideas and identify opportunities for future collaboration.

  • White House Summit on Standards for Critical and Emerging Technology

    In a White House summit, representatives of government agencies, industry and standards development organizations discussed the U.S. Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology (USG NSSCET). This strategy promotes technologically sound standards that help American industry compete internationally on a level playing field and is intended to support and complement existing private sector-led standards activities.

  • Insights on Valuable Byproduct Minerals

    Byproduct minerals are not the main target of the mining operation but are obtained as a result of processing the primary ore. Many critical minerals are byproducts of mining other minerals like copper, gold, and zinc.

  • How Deepfakes Are Being Used

    Digital tools can alter images of ourselves and others in ways that are more convincing and harder to detect than ever before. They can create spectacular special effects in movies. But they also are used with the images or voices of people without their consent, or to create propaganda with the intent to fool people.

  • AI-Powered Massive Deepfake Detector to Safeguard Elections from Deepfake Threats

    Israeli startup Revealense has introduced its illuminator Massive Deepfake Detector, an AI-powered solution designed to combat the growing threat of deepfakes in electoral processes. Dov Donin, CEO of Revealense, said: “Our system is already used by several governments globally.”

  • Can Florida’s Orange Growers Survive Another Hurricane Season?

    Oranges are synonymous with Florida, but a perfect storm of hurricanes, diseases, and water scarcity threatens to wipe out the state’s famed citrus industry.

  • Reviving the Los Angeles River: Engineering Alongside Nature and Society

    Reviving the LA River is a prime example of a large-scale infrastructure project that requires engineers to work alongside nature and society. A revived LA River can again serve as habitat for native vegetation and wildlife, improve water quality, aid water management, and contribute to cultural renewal.

  • Engineers Debut New Drone ID Tech After Yemen Strikes Israel

    Tel Aviv University researchers unveil an AI-powered drone ID radar system that enhances detection in challenging urban environments.

  • Data Privacy After Dobbs: Is Period Tracking Safe?

    Many people think all health care information is protected under the federal privacy law, known as HIPAA. But menstrual cycle tracking apps, along with other health care technologies, like texting platforms that patients can use with doctors, are not. There haven’t been any cases where a menstrual tracking app’s data has been subpoenaed yet, but that’s probably due to the slow speed of which cases proceed through the court system.

  • The Case for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure

    Climate change is making weather harder to predict, and creating new risks in places that never faced them before. And as hurricanes, floods, extreme heat and wildfires intensify, most infrastructure will need to be retrofitted or designed and built anew for future climate resilience.