• “Surveillance: From Vision to Data” Explores History of Surveillance

    The term surveillance may suggest images of high-tech cameras or George Orwell’s ever-watching Big Brother, but surveillance involves more than watching and being watched. To understand surveillance and its consequences, look to data: who collects it, what information is compiled, how it is interpreted, and ultimately, why it matters.

  • Floridians Believe in Climate Change, Want Government Action

    The latest edition of the Florida Climate Resilience Survey found that 90 percent of Floridians believe climate change is happening, a higher figure than in the nation as a whole: a recent Yale University survey found that 74 percent of Americans as a whole think climate change is happening.

  • Navigating the Risks and Benefits of AI: Lessons from Nanotechnology on Ensuring Emerging Technologies Are Safe as Well as Successful

    Twenty years ago, nanotechnology was the artificial intelligence of its time. The specific details of these technologies are, of course, a world apart. But the challenges of ensuring each technology’s responsible and beneficial development are surprisingly alike.

  • Happy 60th Birthday to Vela, Watchman for Nuclear Detonations

    Sixty years ago last week, on Oct. 16, 1963, the United States launched a pair of satellites whose primary purpose was to determine the feasibility of using satellites to detect nuclear detonations in outer space. The satellites were part of the Vela program, initiated in 1959 to provide a nuclear detonation detection capability to verify compliance with nuclear treaties. On Sept. 27, 1984, the last of the Vela satellites were turned off.

  • Arizona Is Evicting a Saudi Alfalfa Farm, but the Thirsty Crop Isn’t Going Anywhere

    As Arizona struggles to adapt to a water shortage that has dried out farms and scuttled development plans, one company has emerged as a central villain. The agricultural company Fondomonte, which is owned by a Saudi Arabian conglomerate, has attracted criticism over the past several years for sucking up the state’s groundwater to grow alfalfa and then exporting that alfalfa to feed cows overseas. Now Arizona has cancelled one of the company’s leases and says it will not renew the others, but the decision will do little to solve a water shortage largely driven by irrigated agriculture.

  • China, U.S. Escalate Trade-Restrictions War

    The Chinese government announced Friday that it would tighten export controls on graphite, a material essential to the construction of batteries used in electric cars and other green energy systems and of which China is the world’s preeminent supplier. The move came days after the Biden administration announced that the United States would widen the list of semiconductors that it prevents from being exported to China.

  • Tackling Fake News

    Cutting-edge technologies gave the world fake news, but researchers are developing even newer technology to stop it. Their innovative system — the first of its kind — relies on something already famous for underpinning Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — blockchain.

  • Experts Warn of Risk of Civil Unrest in U.K. Due to Food Shortages

    Food shortages—especially a shortage of popular carbohydrates such as wheat, bread, pasta, and cereal — caused by extreme weather could lead to civil unrest in the U.K., according to a new study, which has surveyed some of the country’s leading food experts.

  • Testing Seafloor Fiber Optic Cable as an Earthquake Early Warning System

    One of the biggest challenges for earthquake early warning systems (EEW) is the lack of seismic stations located offshore of heavily populated coastlines, where some of the world’s most seismically active regions are located. Researchers show how unused telecommunications fiber optic cable can be transformed for offshore EEW.

  • New Cyber Algorithm Shuts Down Malicious Robotic Attack

    Researchers have designed an algorithm that can intercept a man-in-the-middle (MitM) cyberattack on an unmanned military robot and shut it down in seconds.

  • Critical Vulnerabilities Found within Major LLMs

    Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Bard have taken the world by storm this year, with companies investing millions to develop these AI tools, and some leading AI chatbots being valued in the billions. Computer scientists have demonstrated that chunks of these LLMs can be copied in less than a week for as little as $50, and the information gained can be used to launch targeted attacks.

  • Responsible AI Initiative Seeks to Solve Societal Problems

    With a $100 million investment, a new research initiative focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) that aims to responsibly use advanced AI technology to tackle societal issues.

  • Fueling the Future of Fusion Energy

    Long considered the ultimate source of clean energy, nuclear fusion promises abundant electrical power without greenhouse gas emissions or long-lasting radioactive waste. The process has fueled the core of the sun for more than four billion years – with billons more to go. Nore scientists are joining the global pursuit of harnessing that reaction.

  • Modular Dam Design Could Accelerate the Adoption of Renewable Energy

    Researchers have developed a new modular steel buttress dam system designed to resolve energy storage issues hindering the integration of renewable resources into the energy mix. The m-Presa modular steel buttress dam system cut dam construction costs by one-third and reduce construction schedules by half.

  • Not the Usual Suspects: New Interactive Lineup Boosts Eyewitness Accuracy

    Allowing eyewitnesses to dynamically explore digital faces using a new interactive procedure can significantly improve identification accuracy compared to the video lineup and photo array procedures used by police worldwide.