• The Future of 5G+ Infrastructure Could Be Built Tile by Tile

    Currently 5G+ technologies rely on large antenna arrays that are typically bulky and come only in very limited sizes, making them difficult to transport and expensive to customize. Researchers have developed a novel and flexible solution to address the problem. Their additively manufactured tile-based approach can construct on-demand, massively scalable arrays of 5G+‐enabled smart skins with the potential to enable intelligence on nearly any surface or object.

  • Future-Proofing Our Emergency Networks

    Climate change is heightening the intensity and frequency of severe weather around the world, making hurricanes more dangerous, increasing extreme heat, intensifying wildfires, and risking greater natural disasters. It’s a hard reality that the essential technology we rely on to get in touch with family, friends, and emergency services during a crisis is not guaranteed.

  • Redefining the Longest Drought

    Maps of the American West have featured ever darker shades of red over the past two decades. In some areas, conditions have blown past severe and extreme drought into exceptional drought. But rather than add more superlatives to the descriptions, one group of scientists believes it’s time to reconsider the very definition of drought.

  • Tactical Tunneling to Help Military Operations, Rescue Missions

    New tactical tunneling technologies show the feasibility of rapidly constructing tactical tunnel networks that enable secure, responsive resupply in denied environments. These networks could provide infrastructure for logistics support, such as pre-positioning supplies in advance of an operation or providing ongoing resupply as troops move through a contested area. The ability to rapidly bore tactical tunnels could also be helpful in rescue missions.

  • Marine Energy Is Finally Here

    Is marine energy finally here? The simple answer is yes, the ocean—specifically clean energy generated from waves, tides, and ocean and river currents—can help save the planet. Revamped software offers marine energy industry the data it needs to succeed.

  • Ukraine War’s Impact on Critical Materials Supply, Green Energy

    The elephant in the room is Europe’s dependence on the vast quantities of hydrocarbons that flow from Russia into Europe, but Putin’s war on Ukraine has the potential to affect many key supply chains for materials that will contribute to the clean energy transition.

  • German Auto Industry Alarmed Over Lack of Raw Materials

    Critical raw materials from Russia and Ukraine could become increasingly scarce as a result of the conflict. Car industry experts called on the EU to seek new markets and boost the domestic extraction of key metals.

  • DIY Innovations for Bomb Squads

    Bomb-squad members must effectively employ critical thinking and problem-solving skills while working in stressful, potentially life-threatening situations. DHS S&T notes that bomb technicians’ ability to expect the unexpected and adjust accordingly has created a consistent pipeline of do-it-yourself (DIY) inventions to solve everyday issues they face, and the S&T works to validate these innovations.

  • Testing Similitude Laws of Multistory Masonry Buildings

    Earthquakes and other stressors on buildings pose a threat to their structural integrity that endangers human life. It helps to be able to calculate the behavior of buildings and test with small-scale models.

  • Food Security During a Nuclear Winter

    A nuclear war would cause global blockage of the sun for several years due to injections of black carbon soot into the upper atmosphere, covering most of the planet with black clouds. This could result in less than 40 percent of normal light levels near the equator and less than 5 percent normal light levels near the poles. Research focuses on how meeting food security and nutrition in post-catastrophe conditions, which could last 15 years in some wet tropical forests.

  • Cyber and Physical Security Should Collaborate: What Does It Take to Achieve This

    To understand and mitigate threats that cross the boundary between what is cyber and what is physical, some organizations have integrated their security resources to encourage them to work more closely together.

  • Giving New Life to Old Concrete Structures Through “Vascularization”

    Concrete is a ubiquitous building material, and it is often cited as the most consumed commodity on Earth, second only to potable water. As this inherited concrete infrastructure continues to age, maintaining and repairing concrete is of increasing strategic importance to both defense and civilian infrastructure. DARPA’s BRACE program aims to revitalize legacy DoD infrastructure to extend its serviceability.

  • Tiny, Cheap Solution for Quantum-Secure Encryption

    A new kind of encryption could secure data in the age of quantum computers, ensuring medical records are destroyed after being read by a doctor, or to enforce time limits on software licenses. They can secure voting records or validate NFTs or just make sure no one is reading your email. Microchips with tiny clocks may hold key to future of computing security.

  • Protecting Picture Passwords Using Adjustable Distortion

    Researchers developed a new system for graphical authentication online using key images with adjustable levels of distortion to thwart over-the-shoulder and screen-capture snooping, which may make online sites more secure.

  • Pivotal Battery Discovery Could Benefit Transportation, the Grid

    Researchers uncover new avenue for overcoming the performance decline that occurs with repeated charge-discharge cycling in the cathodes of next generation batteries.