• More Places to Experience Floods as Extreme Weather Events Become More Frequent and Intensify

    As extreme weather events become more frequent and intensify, the number of people and places exposed to flooding events is likely to grow. But until now, surprisingly little was known about how floodplain development patterns vary across communities.

  • Five Years After Parkland, School Shootings Haven’t Stopped, and Kill More People

    Since the 2018 Parkland attack, there have been over 900 shootings in K-12 school settings. Thirty-two were indiscriminate attacks apparently driven by the intent to kill as many people as possible, including mass casualty events.

  • Study Links Adoption of Electric Vehicles with Less Air Pollution and Improved Health

    Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC conducted one of the first-ever studies showing that electric cars are associated with real-world reductions in both air pollution and respiratory problems.

  • U.S., China Compete for Africa's Rare Earth Minerals

    African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo have some of the largest deposits of these resources, but China currently dominates the supply chain as well as their refinement and the U.S. wants to reduce its reliance on the Asian giant.

  • Tidal Stream Power Can Significantly Enhance Energy Security

    A new study reveals the potential of tidal resources to make a marked difference on a community’s clean energy ambitions. Using tidal technologies as part of a renewable energy mix can also reduce the space required for power-generating facilities, both on land and at sea, by around 33% and significantly reduce their visual impact since much of their operation is below the sea’s surface.

  • Floods, Rising Sea Levels Push Planned Internal Migration

    Climate change could force billions to move by the end of the century, displaced by floods and rising sea levels. Some communities are already adapting through managed retreat and moving people to other areas.

  • Will Machine Learning Help Us Find Extraterrestrial Life?

    When pondering the probability of discovering technologically advanced extraterrestrial life, the question that often arises is, “if they’re out there, why haven’t we found them yet?” And often, the response is that we have only searched a tiny portion of the galaxy. Researchers have applied a deep learning technique to a previously studied dataset of nearby stars and uncovered eight previously unidentified signals of interest.

  • Studying Gun Violence

    Otto Meisenheimer was a 21-year old college student when he was killed in 1977 in random shooting at a bowling alley outside of Chicago. His family has committed significant funds to establish the Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence in his name at Indiana University School of Public Health.

  • Earthquake Footage Shows Turkey’s Buildings Collapsing Like Pancakes. An Expert Explains Why

    Many of the collapsed buildings appear to have been built from concrete without adequate seismic reinforcement. Seismic building codes in this region suggest these buildings should be able to sustain strong earthquakes (where the ground accelerates by 30% to 40% of the normal gravity) without incurring this type of complete failure. The 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes appear to have caused shaking in the range of 20 to 50% of gravity. A proportion of these buildings thus failed at shaking intensities lower than the “design code.”

  • Gauging Losses and Lessons in Turkey's Unfolding Earthquake Calamity

    As earthquake engineers stress, most of the time, buildings kill people, not the shaking itself. Many of the buildings destroyed in the quake had “soft floors” – ground-level retail spaces with very little reinforcement supporting far heavier residential floors above; buildings where, for tax purposes, higher floors jutted out beyond the dimensions of the ground floor; or homes where floors were added as families expanded. Engineers call such structures “rubble in waiting.”

  • New Accelerator for Data Science and Emerging AI Startups

    Data science and AI are two of the most transformative technologies this century, with the potential to revolutionize virtually every industry and field of study. The University of Chicago is at the heart of these scientific innovations. The New Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation program provides support to early-stage companies built on data science and AI technologies.

  • New Sodium, Aluminum Battery Aims to Integrate Renewables for Grid Resiliency

    A new battery design could help ease integration of renewable energy into the nation’s electrical grid at lower cost, using Earth-abundant metals.

  • Supporting Dams with Innovative Materials

    There are about 91,000 dams in the United States. About half the dams built in the past century and a half are starting to show their age, with resulting wear and tear. Severe weather events, extreme temperatures, erosion and rising water levels are all straining the infrastructure and exacerbating the impacts of deterioration and aging processes. In many cases, simply replacing the dams and levees is not a viable option due to high costs.

  • Deepfakes Could Create Audience Trust Issues

    Deepfakes could ‘shatter’ moviegoers’ trust and lead to big job cuts in the film industry. That’s the verdict from deepfake expert after it was revealed the latest development in the technology is set to be used in “Here,” an upcoming film starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis.

  • Climate Change-Driven Water Crises More Severe Than Previously Thought

    The interference of climate change with the planet’s water cycle is a well established fact. New analyses suggest that in many places, runoff responds more sensitively than previously assumed.