• Ultrasensitive Measurements Detect Nuclear Explosions

    Imagine being able to detect the faintest of radionuclide signals from hundreds of miles away. Scientists have developed a system which constantly collects and analyzes air samples for signals that would indicate a nuclear explosion, perhaps conducted secretly underground. The system can detect just a small number of atoms from nuclear activity anywhere on the planet. In terms of sensitivity, the capability – in place for decades – is analogous to the ability to detect coronavirus from a single cough anywhere on Earth.

  • Warming May Force Some Favorite Produce Crops to Get a Move On

    Record drought and heat have some farmers worried about where and when crops can be grown in the future, even in California where unprecedented microclimate diversity creates ideal growing conditions for many of the most popular items in America’s grocery stores Warmer California temperatures by mid-century will be too hot for some crops, just right for others.

  • Can Anonymous Classrooms Protect Students from Beijing’s Snooping?

    With many American universities holding online courses this semester because of the pandemic, faculty members at Princeton, Harvard and other elite schools are looking for ways to protect the privacy and identity of students logging in from Hong Kong and China, where they are subject to China’s repressive rules on self-expression.  

  • QAnon’s Growing Threat to the November Election and to Democratic Processes Worldwide

    Russian government-affiliated organizations are playing an increasing role amplifying and disseminating conspiracy theories promoted by QAnon, raising concerns not only of interference in the coming November U.S. election. There were no signs Russia had a hand in the early days of the QAnon movement, but the growth of the movement’s following have persuaded Russia’s disinformation and propaganda specialists that spreading QAnon’s conspiracies further would help Russia achieve its goal of weakening America by sowing division and acrimony; deepening polarization; discrediting democracy; and undermining trust in the government; judiciary; courts; and the media.

  • Pandemic Concerns and 2020 Election: Concerns Vary by Race, Education, Party Affiliation

    Although most voters say they believe that voting will be safe and that their ballot will be counted despite the coronavirus pandemic, those who question election safety and some who question election integrity appear less likely to vote, according to a new RAND survey. In addition, people who identify as Republicans are more likely to express concerns about the integrity of the 2020 elections, while Democrats are more likely to be concerned about safety—underscoring the need for election officials to communicate to the public about both issues.

  • Gunshot Injuries in California Drop, but Percentage of Firearm Death Goes Up

    Gun-violence research experts say that despite a significant drop in firearm injuries in recent years in California, there has been a substantial increase in the state’s overall death rate among those wounded by firearms. “We found that the number of nonfatal firearm injuries in California decreased over an 11-year period, primarily due to a drop in firearm assaults,” said Sarabeth Spitzer, lead author and a UC Davis research intern at the time of the study. “However, the lethality of those and other firearm injuries did not go down. In fact, it went up.”

  • U.K. Nuclear Power: The Next Huawei?

    London’s relations with China — hailed as entering a “golden era” only four years ago — have deteriorated badly over the coronavirus crisis and the Hong Kong issue, hitting a nadir when the U.K. finally bowed to U.S. pressure to ditch Huawei’s involvement in its new-generation internet (5G) rollout. China warned the U.K. it would face “consequences if it chooses to be a hostile partner” after London announced its Huawei’s decision. Nuclear power, once a key part of the U.K. energy plans, faces rising costs, cheaper renewables, and domestic opposition – but it also finds itself at the center of a row between London and Beijing that could prove fatal.

  • Name Your Poison: Some of the Exotic Toxins Which Fell Kremlin Foes

    The poisoning last Thursday by Kremlin operatives of Alexey Navalny, one of the leaders of the Russian opposition (he is now fighting for his life in a German hospital) is reminiscent of dozens of other such poisonings of opponents and critics of the Russian (and, before that, Soviet) regimes. Poisoning has been the Russian secret services’ preferred method of dealing with irritating critics, and these services have at their disposal a large and sophisticated laboratory — alternatively known as Laboratory 1, Laboratory 12, and Kamera (which means “The Cell” in Russian) – where ever more exotic toxins are being developed for use against regime opponents and critics.

  • Putin’s Victims: A Long List Getting longer

    Vladimir Putin’s intelligence operatives have killed many domestic critics of Putin – opposition politicians, journalists, investigative reporters, academics, artists – and more than a dozen Russian defectors, like Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. Russian intelligence operatives, however, have also killed Russians who were not outspoken critics of the regime, leading Russia experts to speculate that Putin has adopted a milder version of Stalin’s tactics of random killings in order to instill a generalized sense of fear and insecurity in the Russian elite. Below is a list of 16 politicians, businesspeople, and diplomats – and 122 journalists – who were killed, or whose death was arranged, by operatives of the Putin regime.

  • Manafort’s Reward: Sen. Ron Johnson and the Ukraine Conspiracy Investigation: Part II

    After three years of insisting that unvetted information should never form the basis for an investigation into an active presidential candidate (did someone say “Steel Dossier”?), Republican members of the Senate would never attempt to do such a thing themselves, right? “Wrong,” Asha Rangappa and Ryan Goodman write in Just Security, adding that this is exactly what Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) is attempting to do in the home stretch of the 2020 election: “An attempt to accomplish through a congressional hearing what President Donald Trump was unable to achieve through his quid pro quo to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, namely, to put Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, under a cloud of suspicion before the country votes this November.” But Johnson’s investigation as a second purpose, too: “The goal isn’t just to smear Biden, but also to shift blame for 2016 election interference to Ukraine.”

  • German Docs Identify Poison Used in Attempt on Russian Opposition Leader

    Initial findings by physicians and scientists at the Berlin Charité hospital, where Russia’s opposition leader Alexey Nvalny was transferred late Sunday, indicate that he was poisoned. The hospital spokesperson told reporters on Monday (24 August) that the first clinical investigations indicated that the substance Russian agents used in their attempt to kill Navalny belong to a group of active substances called cholinesterase inhibitors. In minute quantities, cholinesterase inhibitors, also known as anti-cholinesterase, are used as drugs for Alzheimer’s and myasthenia gravis, but can be lethal in larger quantities and can be sued as insecticides and chemical weapons.

  • Alexey Navalny is but the Latest in a Long Line of Putin’s Victims

    Not everyone who has a quarrel with Russian President Vladimir Putin dies in violent or suspicious circumstances, but enough of them do. Moreover, enough of them die in practically identical manner, which may indicate that the agents who killed them all had similar training and experience. Opposition leader Alexey Navalny joins a long list of Putin’s critics who experience the violence of Putin’s agents.

  • Handgun Purchaser Licensing Laws Associated with Lower Firearm Homicides, Suicides

    State handgun purchaser licensing laws—which go beyond federal background checks by requiring a prospective buyer to apply for a license or permit from state or local law enforcement—appear to be highly effective at reducing firearm homicide and suicide rates, according to a new analysis of gun laws.

  • Kremlin Refuses to Have Navalny Flown to Germany for Treatment, or have German Doctors Examine Him in Russia

    The Kremlin says it will not allow opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who is in a coma in a Siberian hospital with suspected poisoning, to be flown to Germany for treatment because of “medical reasons.” The attending physician at the Omsk hospital’s ICU said Navalny suffers from “metabolic disorder,” and that there was no need for foreign specialists to examine him. Navalny’s wife was not allowed to see him. Navalny’s personal physician said that “they are waiting three days so that there are no traces of poison left in the body, and in Europe it will no longer be possible to identify this toxic substance.” Other medical experts agree with her, and also support her assertion that “metabolic disorder” is not a diagnosis but a condition which, among other things, can be caused by poisoning.

  • Police solve just 2% of all major crimes

    As Americans across the nation protest police violence, people have begun to call for cuts or changes in public spending on police. But neither these nor other proposed reforms address a key problem with solving crimes. My recent review of fifty years of national crime data confirms that, as police report, they don’t solve most serious crimes in America. In reality, about 11 percent of all serious crimes result in an arrest, and about 2 percent end in a conviction. Therefore, the number of people police hold accountable for crimes – what I call the “criminal accountability” rate – is very low.