• Supply ChainHow to Fix Global Supply Chains for Good

    By Roger W. Ferguson Jr. and Upamanyu Lahiri

    Truck-driver shortages, “lean” inventories, and an overreliance on China plagued global supply chains long before the pandemic. Permanently addressing these and other issues will help the United States and rest of the world better cope with the next shock.

  • Cybersecurity EducationUniversity of Central Florida Students Defend Virtual Energy System to Win CyberForce Competition

    The Knights of the University of Central Florida won the DOE’s CyberForce Competition, valiantly defending and securing a hydropower energy system against a malicious virtual cyberattack. The event challenged 120 teams from 105 colleges and universities to thwart a simulated cyberattack.

  • Cybersecurity EducationPreparing Future Cybersecurity Leaders for Protecting Critical Infrastructure

    A network of Virginia universities, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Elections, joined to create an innovative educational program to train future cybersecurity professionals to protect election infrastructure.

  • Grid ResilienceProviding Resilient Power

    Extreme-weather events and wildfires can put power grids under pressure and threaten their ability to produce reliable power. A microgrid demonstration project demonstrates DC microgrid technology for resilient power to homes and installations.

  • Grid ResilienceUtilizing Demand Flexibility in Electricity Distribution Networks

    The transition to sustainable energy sources like wind and solar and the introduction of electric vehicles and heat pumps are putting a growing strain on our electricity distribution networks.

  • EarthquakesSeismic Shockwave Pattern May Be Redirecting Earthquake Damage

    New research could change the way scientists think about potential damage from earthquakes. The study examined data from one of the densest seismic arrays ever deployed and found that earthquakes emit their strongest seismic shockwaves in four opposing directions.

  • Supply Chain SecuritySupply Chain Disruptions—the Risks and Consequences

    By Bradley Martin

    Supply chain disruptions cause general economic disruption and key commodity shortages, which then in turn can, in fact, drive aggressive national behavior and international instability. And ironically, this reactive aggressive national behavior can happen even if the health of a national economy itself depends upon continued international economic interdependence. Indeed, this very interdependence can create vulnerabilities.

  • EarthquakesBe Prepared: It Is Impossible to Predict an Earthquake

    In earthquake-prone developed countries like Japan and New Zealand, even severe earthquakes cause very few deaths – they are mainly stories of economic loss. Earthquakes without Frontiers (EwF) supported physical and social scientists in eight U.K. universities and institutes working to increase resilience to earthquakes in Asian countries. But throughout much of the Mediterranean—Middle East–Central Asia earthquake belt, earthquakes here will kill tens, or hundreds of thousands of people.

  • FloodsGermany: Building Back in Flood-Prone Areas After a Flood

    By Natalie Muller and Neil King

    After deadly flash flooding devastated villages in Germany’s Ahr Valley, many residents are hoping to return. But experts say there needs to be a fundamental change in how we build in areas at risk of floods.

  • CybersecurityCyberForce Competition: Collegiate Students Try to Outwit Cyberattackers

    The cybersecurity field faces a shortfall of qualified professionals to fill nearly half a million open jobs. The CyberForce Competition, to be held on 13 November at the Argonne National Laboratory, will see college and university students from across the United States attempt to thwart a simulated cyberattacks. The competition seeks to inspire and help develop the next generation of energy sector cyber defenders.

  • GeoengineeringExperts Call for More Comprehensive Research into Solar Geoengineering

    Two articles published in Science magazine this week argue for more and better social science research into the potential use of solar geoengineering to offset some of the global warming from greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

  • HurricanesBack-to-Back Hurricanes Expected to Increase in the Gulf Coast

    Over the past four decades, the time between tropical storms making landfall in the Gulf Coast has been getting shorter. Florida and Louisiana are most likely to experience “sequential landfall,” where one hurricane moves over land faster than infrastructure damaged in a previous storm can be repaired. The researchers estimate this timescale between hurricanes to be 10 days for those states. Being hit by two storms in quick succession gives communities and infrastructure less time to recover between disasters.

  • Infrastructure ProtectionStalling Shifting Sand Dunes, Protecting Infrastructure and Ecosystems

    As deserts continue to expand, sand dunes pose an increasing risk to the built environment: swallowing up roads and houses whole as they engulf the land. In a similar way, dunes on the seabed can block shipping routes and even compromise the safety of underwater cables and pipelines.

  • Grid SecurityImportant Breakthrough to Help Secure Electrical Grid

    As the electrical grid is modernized, it requires new safeguards to keep it safe from cyberattackers. Researchers have developed a novel security approach to find and stop cyberthreats that penetrate the IT layer, preserving grid stability.

  • Infrastructure ProtectionProtecting Infrastructure from Hackers

    Two Midwestern universities lead an effort to form a coalition of regional research centers to work together to develop the region’s cyber defense talent with an eye to bolstering the defense of the region’s infrastructure against hackers.