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To Reduce Growing Climate Dangers, the World Needs to Consider Sunlight Reflection
Nothing about the present climate crisis or its implications is natural. Perhaps how the world deals with a warming planet shouldn’t be either.
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National Action Plan: The U.S. Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft
Over the last decade, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS or “drones”) have become a regular feature of American life. We use them for recreation, for research, and for commerce. But the proliferation of this new technology has also introduced new risks to public safety, privacy, and homeland security. On Monday, the administration released whole-of-government plan to address UAS threats in the homeland.
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A Peak at the Nation’s Future Cybersecurity Workforce
Hack the Port 22, hosted jointly by USCYBERCOM and the Maryland Innovation and Security Institute, brought together subject matter experts from government, industry, and academia to highlight the nation’s critical infrastructure and cyber defense priorities.
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Real-Time Flood Sensors, Dancing Drones and More
Over 40 innovations, including new influenza diagnosis tests and human-driven robots, will be on display at the Research Excellence Exhibit this Friday at NYU.
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Harnessing Wave Energy
Most wave energy devices only capture energy in one direction, such as an up-down motion, but waves have some movement in multiple directions.
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Bringing Big Science to Address the Climate Challenge
Tackling the climate crisis and achieving an equitable clean energy future are among the biggest challenges of our time. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the largest Department of Energy science and energy laboratory in the country, says it is deeply invested in the big science capabilities and expertise needed to address the climate challenge on multiple fronts.
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Risks of an Unfamiliar New Nuclear Age
High-tech advances in weapons technologies and a return of ‘great power nuclear politics’, risk the world ‘sleepwalking’ into a nuclear age vastly different from the established order of the Cold War, experts warn. Stockpiles are much reduced from the peak of up to 70,000 nuclear weapons seen in the 1980s, but progress in a number of new or ‘disruptive’ technologies threatens to fundamentally change the central pillars on which nuclear order, stability and risk reduction are based.
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AI, Machine Learning to Help Defend Against Cyberattacks
Two new tools are helping cybersecurity professionals fight the vast volume of threats and attacks— artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI and machine learning can detect novel malicious code, catch fraudulent charges on a credit card or fraudulent network login attempts, block phishing messages on an email service and assist companies with cloud management in spotting anomalies that traditional cyber defense technologies may not pick up.
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Predictive Models of Wildfire Behavior
New partnership will work to Advance fire research capabilities to help support the work of fire-, land-, and emergency managers.
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Improving Efficiency of Sewer System Surveys
The UK’s vast network of over 525,000km of sewers is notoriously expensive to maintain. A new AI tool is set to improve the efficiency of surveying sewerage systems and has the potential to benefit the entire water industry.
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Industrial Clusters Help Advance Energy Transition
Industrial clusters as geographic areas that comprise co-located companies representing either a single or multiple industries. The proximity of multiple industrial energy consumers creates an opportunity to scale low-carbon technologies through multi-stakeholder collaboration and can yield sizeable economic opportunities.
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Bolstering Planetary Defense
A new survey identifies scientific priorities and opportunities and makes funding recommendations to maximize the advancement of planetary science, astrobiology, and planetary defense in the next ten years.
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China’s Dominance of Electric Vehicle Supply Chains Jeopardize U.S. Energy Transition
While Russia holds significant leverage in influencing oil and gas prices, it pales in comparison to China’s position in several strategic industries critical to the energy transition. A case study shows China’s ‘soft power’ in move to cleaner alternatives.
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Geoengineering Could Bring Back Malaria for One Billion People
Geoengineering the climate would have massive repercussions for the health of billions of people at risk of malaria who live in tropical countries. The study focuses on solar radiation management (SRM), an intervention that hypothesizes emergency actions aimed at reducing dangerous impacts of climate change.
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Climate Change Will Transform How We Live, but Tech and Policy Experts See Reason for Optimism
Climate change has advanced so far, it’s now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed. Existing solutions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help people adjust to impacts of climate change that can’t be avoided. The problem is that these solutions aren’t being deployed fast enough.
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More headlines
The long view
Artificial Intelligence and Chemical and Biological Weapons
A recent article in Nature offers a disturbing look at the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the creation of chemical and biological weapons. “Anyone unfamiliar with recent innovations in the use of AI to model new drugs will be unpleasantly surprised,” Paul Rosenzweig writes. “The benefits of these innovations are clear. Unfortunately, the possibilities for malicious uses are also becoming clear.”
New National Water Alliance Aims to Predict Water-Related Hazards, Manage U.S. Water Resources
The new Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) is composed of 28 academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and government and industry partners across the United States and Canada, aiming to better predict water-related hazards and manage the nation’s water resources.
New Network to Improve Biosecurity in Livestock
Health and welfare, safety and sustainability are crucial elements for ensuring the future of livestock production. Biosecurity aims to prevent the introduction and spread of pathogens within and between farms and, consequently, results in better welfare, increased food safety and better sustainability. A new network to improve biosecurity in livestock.
You've Heard of Water Droughts. Could “Energy” Droughts Be Next?
In a new modeling study, researchers show how widely wind and solar potential vary by season and year, suggesting that backup energy sources may be needed as the world shifts to renewables to bring carbon emissions to zero.
Machine-Learning Techniques for Predicting the Evolution of Epidemics
Machine learning techniques can provide an assumption-free analysis of epidemic case data with surprisingly good prediction accuracy and the ability to dynamically incorporate the latest data. The techniques used to analyze case data show promise for predicting the evolution of an epidemic.
How Do We Learn to Live with Extreme Events?
From weather dictionaries to AI physics, new approaches try to anticipate the next catastrophic flood, tornado, or hurricane.
Reforming DHS’s Biodefense Operations and Governance
Today’s biological threats show no signs of desisting any time soon. Naturally occurring outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics, and laboratory accidents pose a growing challenge – while the number of high-containment laboratories and amount of dangerous research continues to increase unabated. “DHS, as chief among those federal departments and agencies responsible for securing the homeland, must overcome its current state of fractionation and demonstrate to the rest of the government, country, and world that it is capable of coordinating and leading efforts in biodefense and other arenas,” Carrie Cordero and Asha M. George write.
Reforming DHS’s Biodefense Operations and Governance
Today’s biological threats show no signs of desisting any time soon. Naturally occurring outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics, and laboratory accidents pose a growing challenge – while the number of high-containment laboratories and amount of dangerous research continues to increase unabated. “DHS, as chief among those federal departments and agencies responsible for securing the homeland, must overcome its current state of fractionation and demonstrate to the rest of the government, country, and world that it is capable of coordinating and leading efforts in biodefense and other arenas,” Carrie Cordero and Asha M. George write.