• Forensics Lab Cracks Case on Newer, “Greener” Gunshot Residue

    Discoveries by forensic scientists about how gunshot residue behaves on skin, hair and fabric will allow crime scene investigators to catch up to the proliferation of new, eco-friendly types of ammunition and make faster, more informed decisions at crime scenes and in forensic laboratories.

  • What Are the Odds of a Truly Catastrophic, Even Extinction-Causing, Disaster?

    The Forecastong Research Institute (FRI) brought together forecasters from two groups with distinctive claims to knowledge about humanity’s future — experts in various domains relevant to existential risk, and “superforecasters” with a track record of predictive accuracy over short time horizons. FRI asked tournament participants to predict the likelihood of global risks related to nuclear weapon use, biorisks, and AI, along with dozens of other related, shorter-run forecasts.

  • A Quantitative Analysis of the In-Orbit Collision Risk and Its Effects on the Earth

    Since the launch of the first satellite in 1957, the proliferation of space debris has continued unabated. The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates that over 131 million useless objects, ranging from 1 millimeter to 10 centimeters in size, currently orbit the Earth at an average speed of 36,000 kilometers per hour. “Any fragment larger than 1 centimeter poses a potentially lethal threat in the event of a collision,” says an expert.

  • Sooner Than You Might Think: Virtual Power Plants Are Coming to Save the Grid

    Networks of thousands of home-based batteries could be key to a cleaner, more reliable electricity system. After years of pilot projects, utilities and battery companies now have networks with thousands of participants in California, Utah, and Vermont, among others.

  • How U.S. Colleges, Universities Can Mitigate Risks Related to Foreign-Funded Language and Culture Institutes

    A new report from the National Academies recommends steps that U.S. colleges and universities can take to identify and mitigate risks associated with foreign-funded language and culture institutes on campuses. The report follows one released in January that examined Confucius Institutes — Chinese government-funded language and culture centers.

  • Researchers Devise a Way to Evaluate Cybersecurity Methods

    A savvy hacker can obtain secret information, such as a password, by observing a computer program’s behavior, like how much time that program spends accessing the computer’s memory. Security approaches that completely block these “side-channel attacks” are so computationally expensive, so engineers often apply what are known as obfuscation schemes. MIT researchers have developed a system which analyzes the likelihood that an attacker could thwart a certain security scheme to steal secret information.

  • How Secure Are Voice Authentication Systems Really?

    Voice authentication has increasingly been used in remote banking, call centers and other security-critical scenarios. Attackers can break voice authentication with up to 99 percent success within six tries.

  • Energy Transition with Hydrogen Generated on Rooftops

    Efficient production of hydrogen, fuels, and even drinking water on roofs or in solar parks – this is what researchers want to achieve with low-cost photoreactor modules. Now, they have made major progress.

  • U.S. Agencies Buy Vast Quantities of Personal Information on the Open Market – a Legal Scholar Explains Why and What It Means for Privacy in the Age of AI

    The issues pf the protection of personal information in the digital age is increasingly urgent. Today’s commercially available information, coupled with the now-ubiquitous decision-making artificial intelligence and generative AI like ChatGPT, significantly increases the threat to privacy and civil liberties by giving the government access to sensitive personal information beyond even what it could collect through court-authorized surveillance.

  • Testing Next Generation Flood and Wildfire Alerting Technology

    DHS S&T conducted a demonstration of new technology that integrates unattended flood and wildfire sensors with Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS) with Open Platform for Emergency Networks (IPAWS-OPEN). These systems have the potential to provide life-saving critical emergency alerts to people in affected areas.

  • Extreme Heat Will Cost the U.S. $1 Billion in Health Care Costs — This Summer Alone

    Extreme heat — summertime temperatures and humidity that exceed the historical average — is being made more frequent and intense by climate change. High temperatures could lead to 235,000 ER visits and 56,000 hospital admissions for heat-related conditions annually.

  • Opportunities for Australia–ASEAN Collaboration on Critical Minerals

    Southeast Asia’s energy transition is coming to life as the development of green technologies accelerates across the region. Securing critical minerals will be crucial to this process, and Australia should work with Southeast Asia to realize their mutual goals in this area.

  • Climate Change Has Sent Temperatures Soaring in Texas

    Hotter days and nights. More record highs. Climate change has shifted the entire range of Texas heat upwards. Heat is one of the deadliest consequences of climate change. It’s already the most dangerous type of weather, typically killing more people annually than hurricanes, tornadoes or flooding.

  • Tidal Energy Project for Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Security

    The University of Oxford will lead an ambitious £7 million project to help deliver scalable, affordable and sustainable tidal stream energy. The project will address the key challenges that are currently preventing the tidal energy sector from reaching its full potential, with the aim of boosting energy security.

  • FireDrone Supports the Firefighters

    Researchers are developing a heat-resistant drone that can analyze the source of danger at close range in the event of a building or forest fire. This allows firefighters to optimize the strategy of a high-risk operation before entering the danger zone.