• Robots Could Help Verify Compliance with Nuclear Arms Agreements

    Ensuring that countries abide by future nuclear arms agreements will be a vital task. Inspectors may have to count warheads or confirm the removal of nuclear weapons from geographical areas. Those hotspots could include underground bunkers and require confirmation that no weapons exist in a location at all. Now, researchers have devised an automated way to ensure compliance.

  • Scientific and Technological Flows Between the United States and China

    What are the potential benefits and risks of U.S.-Chinese scientific research collaboration? What is the nature and volume of scientific researcher flows between the United States and China? What potential threats and benefits have emerged from the recent uptick in scientific collaboration between the United States and China on aerospace engineering research?

  • How Molten Salt Could Be the Lifeblood of Tomorrow’s Nuclear Energy

    Molten salt has caught the eye of the nuclear industry as an ideal working fluid for reactor cooling, energy transfer, fueling and fission product absorption. Many of the salts being considered are inexpensive, nontoxic, and easily transportable – and table salt is one of the constituents many reactor developers are choosing to use.

  • 150 Hydrogen-Powered Trucks Ready to Roll on European Roads

    Truck manufacturers Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, and Iveco have joined with fuel manufacturers and academic researchers to make heavy transport across Europe more climate friendly. The result: The first of a total of 150 hydrogen-powered trucks will start rolling on European roads next year.

  • First Hydrogen Filling Station Opens in Israel

    Israel’s first hydrogen fueling spot has opened, heralding the start of clean hydrogen-based transportation in Israel. Pioneering project enables a shift to non-polluting hydrogen fuel cell-based vehicles.

  • Boosting Supply Chains by Recovering Valuable Materials from Water

    Promoting national security and economic competitiveness will require America’s researchers to find new ways to obtain the materials that we need for many technologies. Traditional mining is fraught with challenges, while water, from the oceans to geothermal brines, is an underexplored resource for providing various materials.

  • Microgrids Can Help Communities Adapt to Wildfires

    Wildfires have become increasingly frequent due to climate change, with record occurrences in areas not historically prone to them. For some of the most vulnerable communities, clean energy microgrids can be both more effective and cheaper than conventional technologies.

  • Google, Cornell to Partner in Online Security Initiative

    Most current security-related research is focused on technical challenges, but many of the most significant security failures involve humans and can often be attributed to poor design that fails to take the human factor into account. A partnership between Google and four higher-education institutions will use an interdisciplinary approach to build better foundations for secure systems and ensure that they are deployed in ways that address rather than exacerbate societal problems.

  • Railways Could Be Key “Utility Player” for Backup Power

    The U.S. electric grid faces simultaneous, evolving pressures. Demand for power from the grid is increasing as people adopt electric cars and building energy is transitioned from gas to electricity. New research points to a flexible, cost-effective option for backup power when trouble strikes: batteries aboard trains.

  • The Microchip Industry Would Implode if China Invaded Taiwan, and It Would Affect Everyone

    Taiwan plays a critical role in the conflict between the US and China over computer chips. Taiwan has a huge share of the global semiconductor industry, but is also the focus of tensions between Beijing and Washington over its political status. If China invaded Taiwan, the global semiconductor industry would freeze, inflation would spiral further upwards, the post-COVID recovery would be reversed, and many of the tools we rely on would disappear from our shops for years.

  • Paving the Way for Collapse-Resistant Structures

    Buildings in the U.S. are generally designed to withstand the usual suspects: rain, wind, snow and the occasional earthquake. Abnormal events such as gas explosions, vehicle impacts or uncontrolled building fires are not typically a consideration. If vulnerable buildings face any of these unanticipated events, the results could be tragic. But now, a new building standard can help engineers prevent the worst.

  • Long-Duration Energy Storage: The Time Is Now

    How can US states with aggressive decarbonization goals coupled with federal decarbonization goals have energy when they need it? Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is a likely candidate. Planning for LDES needs to start now.

  • The New Water Reuse Consortium Will Address Clean Water Access and Sustainability Challenges

    The Water Reuse Consortium, a collaborative efforts of several academic institutions, is a 3-phase, $38 million program to tackle pressing water challenges through innovative research, education, communication, and collaborative efforts between government, local communities, industry, and academia.

  • New Tool to Improve Forecasting of Extreme Rain Events

    Researchers have identified the factors affecting the likelihood of extreme rain events and have developed a tool that can improve the forecasting of such events. This tool will be made available to the Israel Meteorological Service and its counterpart agencies throughout the world.

  • China Extends Its Lead Over U.S. in Key Technologies

    Western democracies are losing the global technological competition, including the race for scientific and research breakthroughs, and the ability to retain global talent—crucial ingredients that underpin the development and control of the world’s most important technologies, including those that don’t yet exist.A new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) finds that China’s global lead extends to 37 out of 44 technologies that ASPI is now tracking. These findings should be a wake-up call for democratic nations, who must rapidly pursue a strategic critical technology step-up.