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Hack Post-Quantum Cryptography Now So That Bad Actors Don’t Do It Later
In February, the cryptography community was stunned when a researcher claimed that an algorithm that might become a cornerstone of the next generation of internet encryption can be cracked mathematically using a single laptop. Edward Parker and Michael Vermeer write that this finding may have averted a massive cybersecurity vulnerability, but it also raises concerns that new encryption methods for securing internet traffic contain other flaws that have not yet been detected.
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Coming Soon: Solar-Powering First Responders?
Fabric woven to harness solar power recently completed weaving trials. The fabric will ultimately be used to design high-functioning gear that can keep responders’ tech charged and ready.
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Secure Cryptography with Real-World Devices Is Now Possible
New research published in Nature explains how an international team of researchers have, for the first time, experimentally implemented a type of quantum cryptography considered to be the ‘ultimate’, ‘bug-proof’ means of communication.
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Tool Estimates Costs of Power Interruptions
Berkeley Lab-led initiative helps electric companies improve grid reliability and resilience. The initiative aims to update and upgrade the Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator – a publicly available, online tool – which estimates the economic consequences of power interruptions.
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A Water Strategy for the Parched West: Have Cities Pay Farmers to Install More Efficient Irrigation Systems
Unsustainable water practices, drought and climate change are causing this crisis across the U.S. Southwest. To achieve a meaningful reduction in water use, states need to focus on the region’s biggest water user: agriculture.
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Your Brain Is Better Than You at Busting Deepfakes
Deepfake videos, images, audio, or text appear to be authentic, but in fact are computer generated clones designed to mislead you and sway public opinion. They are the new foot soldiers in the spread of disinformation and are rife – they appear in political, cybersecurity, counterfeiting, and border control realms. While observers can’t consciously recognize the difference between real and fake faces, their brains can.
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Deep Learning Technology for Faster and More Accurate Terahertz Security Inspection
With the strengthening of global anti-terrorist measures, it is increasingly important to conduct security checks in public places to detect concealed objects carried by the human body. A new detection method can be used for accurate and real-time detection of hidden objects in terahertz images.
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'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.
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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.
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Solution to Encrypted Messages Being Hacked Before Sending or After Receipt
Message applications must do more to keep user data safe from undetected malware or over-the-shoulder eavesdropping that bypasses encryption before a message has been sent. Researchers have created a new end-to-end encryption mechanism that protects users’ communications at a far higher level than currently experienced on popular applications.
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NIST chooses Kyber, Dilithium and SPHINCS+ as Standards for Post-Quantum Cryptography
NIST has selected CRYSTALS-KYBER, CRYSTALS-Dilithium and SPHINCS+, three security algorithms, as one the new standards for post-quantum cryptography. The underlying technology must ensure that the encryption of sensitive communication will continue to be secure in the coming decades.
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How Not to Solve the Climate Change Problem
When politicians talk about reaching “net zero” emissions, they’re often counting on trees or technology that can pull carbon dioxide out of the air. What they don’t mention is just how much these proposals or geoengineering would cost to allow the world to continue burning fossil fuels. I’ve been working on climate change for over four decades. Let’s take a minute to come to grips with some of the rhetoric around climate change and clear the air, so to speak.
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Strengthening U.S. Government’s Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogen Framework, Dual Use Research
Group of scientists, public health experts, policy researchers propose strengthening of U.S. government’s policies regarding enhanced potential pandemic pathogen framework and dual use research of concern.
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Review: IT in Health Care Has Produced Modest Changes — So Far
Large study of existing research shows incremental improvement in patient outcomes and productivity, without big employment changes.
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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.
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More headlines
The long view
Aces-High Frontier: Space War in 2053
There are good reasons why the best science and speculative fiction ranks high on the reading lists of many military scholars and leaders. Done well, speculative military fiction projects thoughtfully beyond the here and now, and renders real operational and strategic concepts in terms of plausible future technologies.
What Is Microstamping, and Can It Help Solve Shootings?
Laws to expand the technology’s use have passed in three states and the District of Columbia. But some are questioning its effectiveness.
Creating Buildings That Can Withstand the Most Extreme Stress Loads
Combined ballistic impacts pose a major challenge for engineers who build structures that must withstand extreme stresses. An explosion can hurtle fragments and debris at enormous velocities so they strike the surroundings. Then comes the shock wave. It’s a scary combination.
New Sodium, Aluminum Battery Aims to Integrate Renewables for Grid Resiliency
A new battery design could help ease integration of renewable energy into the nation’s electrical grid at lower cost, using Earth-abundant metals.
Illuminating the Barrier to Next-Generation Battery That Charges Very Quickly
In the race for fast-charging, energy-dense lithium metal batteries, researchers discovered why the promising solid electrolyte version has not performed as hoped. This could help new designs – and eventually battery production – avoid the problem.
Great Leap Nowhere: The Challenges of China’s Semiconductor Industry
China is struggling in the battle for advanced semiconductor technology. With President Joe Biden’s most recent round of export controls on semiconductors, China is now facing an increasingly urgent challenge as it seeks to ramp up its domestic innovative capacity for high-end chips. These difficulties and challenges notwithstanding, Elliot Ji writes, “U.S. policymakers should be keenly aware that China’s relative success with creative adaptation means that it can boost certain sectors of the chip industry by exploiting leaky export controls and engaging in cyber espionage.”
AI Nuclear Weapons Catastrophe Can Be Avoided
There is a growing concern that emerging AI features will only increase the potential for disaster through the possibility of semiautonomous or fully autonomous nuclear weapons. Noah Greene writes that “As the Soviet-era Col. Petrov case kindly taught us, without a human firmly in control of the nuclear command-and-control structure, the odds of disaster creep slowly toward an unintended or uncontrolled nuclear exchange.”
AI Nuclear Weapons Catastrophe Can Be Avoided
There is a growing concern that emerging AI features will only increase the potential for disaster through the possibility of semiautonomous or fully autonomous nuclear weapons. Noah Greene writes that “As the Soviet-era Col. Petrov case kindly taught us, without a human firmly in control of the nuclear command-and-control structure, the odds of disaster creep slowly toward an unintended or uncontrolled nuclear exchange.”