• Detecting, Blocking Grid Cyberattacks

    Researchers have designed and demonstrated a technology that can block cyberattacks from impacting the nation’s electric power grid.

  • How Do We Prepare for Extreme Flooding?

    By Martin Kuebler and Tim Schauenberg

    As the floodwaters recede following the devastating deluge in western Europe, survivors have begun the long, difficult process of cleaning up and rebuilding. But what can be done to reduce future risks?

  • No Excuse to Continue Reliance on Fossil Fuels: Nano-Technologist

    One of the leading thinkers in nano-science has called on the energy materials community to help finally put an end to the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. The expertchallenges the scientific community to lead the world away from a reality where fossil fuels still account for 80 percent of the energy mix.

  • The U.S. Army Tried Portable Nuclear Power at Remote Bases 60 Years Ago – It Didn’t Go Well

    By Paul Bierman

    The U.S. military’s Camp Century was a series of tunnels built into the Greenland ice sheet and used for both military research and scientific projects. The military boasted that the nuclear reactor there, known as the PM-2A, needed just 44 pounds of uranium to replace a million or more gallons of diesel fuel. Heat from the reactor ran lights and equipment and allowed the 200 or so men at the camp as many hot showers as they wanted in that brutally cold environment. The PM-2A was the third child in a family of eight Army reactors, several of them experiments in portable nuclear power.

  • Cold Weather Cost New England Electric Customers Nearly $1.8 Billion in One Month

    Constraints in the supply of natural gas have led to nearly a quarter of all unscheduled power plant outages in New England in the last decade. A new study suggests ways to mitigate fuel shortages.

  • Germany's Water Management Caught between Flood and Drought

    By David Ehl

    For a long while now, there has been talk of a drought in Germany; now, many regions have been deluged with water. How do authorities prepare for these two extremes?

  • Report from Europe’s Flood Zone: Researcher Calls Out Early Warning System Gridlock amid Shocking Loss of Life

    By Jeff Da Costa

    In my Ph.D. research, I study how we can effectively adapt to the consequences of increasing severe weather events under climate change and what can be done to prepare for them and mitigate their impact. One area I’m interested in is early warning systems, or the lack thereof, during extreme weather events, such as the recent floods in western Europe. While the climate is certainly a complex system that is difficult to predict with any certainty, the unfolding catastrophe is a sad reminder of just how inadequate early warning systems can be.

  • Can the Destructive Bootleg Fire Teach Us to Prevent Wildfires Before They Start?

    By Molly Callahan

    More and more, people are moving to less populous, woodland regions of the country, a phenomenon that puts more people in the path of potential wildfires and requires critical utilities such as power and water to be transported long distances from their origins. This creates a system of infrastructure that’s vulnerable to major disruptions—which is exactly what happened in the Bootleg fire.

  • Exploring Hydrogen Storage

    Hydrogen is emerging as a low-carbon fuel option for transportation, electricity generation, manufacturing applications and clean energy technologies that will accelerate the United States’ transition to a low-carbon economy. However, a key challenge is to ensure the safe and effective storage of hydrogen.

  • Climate Change’s Role in Germany’s Deadly Floods

    By Monir Ghaedi and Ajit Niranjan

    Massive flooding has caused devastation across parts of central Europe. In Germany, more than 125 have been confirmed dead, with hundreds still missing and thousands driven from their homes. Scientists say that climate change had a role in it.

  • Climate Change to Bring More Intense Storms Across Europe

    Climate change is driving a large increase in intense, slow-moving storms, a new study finds. It is these slow-moving storms that have the potential for very high precipitation accumulations, with devastating impacts, as we saw in Germany and Belgium.

  • Did the Cybersecurity Workforce Gap Distract Us from the Leak?

    There are 500,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions in the United States, and the number is growing. The government and private companies have been investing a lot of money and effort in training and recruiting young cybertalent through college programs, school partnerships, and by adjusting pay and benefit packages, but many have missed a significant leak in cyber workforce funnel: the rapid burnout and churn. In fact, the cyber workforce gap is in experienced roles, not junior levels. To fill the cyber workforce gap, we need to find ways to retain experienced cybersecurity talent.

  • Developing Cohesive, Domestic Rare Earth Element Technologies

    The U.S. has adequate domestic REE resources, but its supply chain is vulnerable due to dependence on foreign entities for separation and purification of these elements. DARPA program aims to fortify supply chain by utilizing bioengineering approaches to facilitate REE separation and purification.

  • Exploring Rare Earth Elements Opportunities

    By Kate Blackwood

    The purified form of REE is primarily sourced from foreign nations, so the U.S. supply chain of the rare earth elements presents a problem. Justin Wilson, a Cornell chemistry professor, has received a DOE grant to develop more efficient methods of separating rare earth elements that will make their domestic availability economically viable.

  • Mapping How Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Strategies Impact Economies, Floodwaters

    Sea levels are expected to rise by almost seven feet in the Bay Area by 2100. New research shows how traditional approaches to combating sea-level rise can create a domino effect of environmental and economic impacts for nearby communities.