• An Elusive Shadow: State-by-State Gun Ownership

    Policy-makers are faced with an exceptional challenge: how to reduce harm caused by firearms while maintaining citizens’ right to bear arms and protect themselves. Meaningful legislation requires an understanding of how access to firearms is associated with different outcomes of harm, but this knowledge also calls for accurate, highly-resolved data on firearm possession, data that is presently unavailable due to a lack of a comprehensive national firearm ownership registry.

  • U.S. Youth Firearm Mortality Increases Over the Past Decade --Trends Differ Significantly Across States

    In 2020, firearms were the leading cause of death in children in the United States. Four states with stricter laws restricting gun access successfully reversed upward trajectories in youth gun deaths over the past decade.

  • 'Killer Robots': Will They Be Banned?

    A UN panel in Geneva remains split on whether to ban autonomous weapons, which don’t need a human to pull the trigger. Increasingly, these sorts of weapons are the stuff of a manufacturer’s promotional materials rather than science fiction movies. The war in Ukraine is complicating the conversation.

  • Alarming Trend Toward Political Violence

    A new report reveals alarming trends in attitudes toward violence, including political violence, in the United States. The survey is the first of its kind to explore the participants’ personal willingness to engage in specific political violence scenarios.

  • The World’s Largest Experimental Earthquake Infrastructure Facility

    The National Science Foundation (NSF) promotes research investments and technology that help recognize and mitigate the impacts of natural disasters across the U.S.“The ability to test infrastructure under a full range of motion is critical for unleashing new and pioneering research that can lead to effective, economical and innovative infrastructure designs and retrofitting strategies for existing infrastructure,” said NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan.

  • Further Indications of Iran’s Renewed Interest in Maraging Steel for its Nuclear Enrichment Program

    Maraging steel bellows are well known to be used in the IR-2m centrifuge, but Iran has not made any of these centrifuges in years, leading to speculation that the bottleneck was the maraging steel. A recent report has revealed Iran’s renewed interest in metal bellows in its advanced centrifuges.

  • Climate Change, Land-Use Changes Increase Likelihood of Flood Events

    The German government estimates the total losses resulting from the disastrous floods in July 2021 at 32 billion euros. To improve future preparedness for such extreme events, researchers advise that risk assessments take greater account of the landscape and river courses, how they change, and how sediments are transported. In addition, projections show an increase in the spatial extent and frequency of such extreme events, as well as higher amounts of precipitation.

  • New Imaging Method Reveals Concealed Objects

    Imaging scenes that lie outside an observer’s direct line of sight could greatly enhance search and rescue missions, such as finding a lost child in an abandoned factory, as well as military and police surveillance operations, such as exposing a hidden terrorist or enemy stronghold. Using submillimeter radiation naturally emitted by objects and people, researchers see around corners.

  • Research Collaboration Informs International Classification of Firefighting as Carcinogenic

    The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently classified occupational exposure as a firefighter as carcinogenic, changing the previous classification of possibly carcinogenic.

  • Ukraine's Homegrown Response to “Deadly” Chinese Drone Detection Tech

    Ukrainian forces have been using drones for tracking the movement of Russian forces, and armed drones to attack Russian tanks, trucks, and artillery batteries. But the effectiveness of the drones has been limited by a Chinese drone-tracking technology called AeroScope. Ukrainian drone enthusiasts have now developed their own drones which are capable of evading the Chinese detection technology.

  • Were Participants in the Jan. 6 Attack Extremists? Protesters? Patriots?

    Survey finds most view the rioters negatively, but much depends on how you feel about Black Lives Matter and gun ownership. American views of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack do not vary much by race overall, but Black Lives Matter supporters, regardless of race, age, or sex, tend to view the attackers more negatively, and white gun owners are more likely to see them in a positive light.

  • Rise in Firearm Homicides Mostly Hit South-Central and Midwest States

    A rise in U.S. firearm homicides in recent years has primarily affected states in the South-Central and Midwest portion of the nation, as well as disproportionately affecting people who are American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Black. While overall rates of racial and geographic disparities in firearm homicides declined in previous decades, the recent spike in firearm killings has reversed that improvement, worsening long-existing disparities.

  • Pegasus Spyware Maker NSO Is Conducting a Lobbying Campaign to Get Off U.S. Blacklist

    The cybersecurity firm has invested heavily in top lobbyists and law firms in an effort to lift restrictions on doing business in America. NSO is hoping the Israeli prime minister will raise the issue with Joe Biden when the two meet this week.

  • U.K. Parliamentary Report: “Threat from Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism on an Upward Trajectory”

    “The threat from Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism is on an upward trajectory, populated by an increasing number of young people and driven by the internet,” said Julian Lewis, MP, the chairman of the U.K. Parliament Intelligence and Security Committee. The committee has just released a detailed report on the threat of terrorism in the United Kingdom.

  • Updated Software Reference Library Will Aid in Criminal Investigations

    A recent update to a publicly downloadable database maintained by NIST will make it easier to sift through computers, cellphones and other electronic equipment seized in police raids, potentially helping law enforcement catch sexual predators and other criminals.