• U.S. Nuclear Testing Moratorium Launched a Supercomputing Revolution

    By Bob Webster and Nancy Joe Nicholas

    On 23 September 1992 the U.S. conducted its 1,054th – and last — nuclear weapons test. After the test, and with the Soviet Union gone, the U.S. government issued what was meant to be a short-term moratorium on testing, but the moratorium has lasted to this day. This moratorium came with an unexpected benefit: no longer testing nuclear weapons ushered in a revolution in high-performance computing.

  • Scientific Discovery for Stockpile Stewardship

    Following the U.S. last nuclear test in September 1992, the Department of Energy’s national labs convened to develop a strategy and map out an R&D effort that would come to be known as the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP). Its mission was ensuring the readiness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent force without nuclear tests.

  • Propelling Wind Energy Innovation

    Motivated by the need to eliminate expensive rare-earth magnets in utility-scale direct-drive wind turbines, Sandia National Laboratories researchers developed a fundamentally new type of rotary electrical contact. The novel rotary electrical contact eliminates reliance on rare-earth magnets for large-scale wind turbines.

  • Charging Cars at Home at Night Is Not the Way to Go: Study

    By Mark Golden

    The move to electric vehicles will result in large costs for generating, transmitting, and storing more power. Shifting current EV charging from home to work and night to day could cut costs and help the grid, according to a new Stanford study.

  • Cobalt-Free Cathode for Lithium-Ion Batteries

    Researchers have devised a way to make lithium-ion battery cathodes without using cobalt, a mineral plagued by price volatility and geopolitical complications. The innovation could lead to safer, longer-lasting power storage for electric vehicles and devices.

  • Lithium-Ion Battery Material Improves Charging Speed, Storage Capacity

    Researchers discovered a key material needed for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries. The commercially relevant approach opens a potential pathway to improve charging speeds for electric vehicles.

  • To Out-Innovate Global Competitors, the United States Should Embrace Immigrant Talent

    By Laura Taylor-Kale

    Immigration barriers for entrepreneurs and U.S.-educated STEM graduates hurt American innovation.

  • Simple Process Extracts Valuable Magnesium Salt from Seawater

    Magnesium has emerging sustainability-related applications, including in carbon capture, low-carbon cement, and potential next-generation batteries. These applications are bringing renewed attention to domestic magnesium production. A new flow-based method harvests a magnesium salt from Sequim seawater.

  • New Wave Energy Technology Gets Its Sea Legs

    Clothing that charges your smart watch as you walk, buildings that vibrate in the wind and power your lights, a road that extracts energy from the friction created by moving cars, and flexible structures that change shape in ocean waves to generate clean electricity: New technology could generate electricity from ocean waves – and many other sources.

  • Thinking Like a Cyberattacker to Protect User Data

    A component of computer processors that connects different parts of the chip can be exploited by malicious agents who seek to steal secret information from programs running on the computer. Researchers develop defense mechanisms against attacks targeting interconnection of chips in computers.

  • Can We Really Deflect an Asteroid by Crashing into It? Nobody Knows, but We Are Excited to Try

    By Stefania Soldini

    Nasa’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) spacecraft is designed to be a one hit wonder. It will end its days by crashing into an asteroid at 24,000 kilometers per hour on 26 September. Launched from Earth in November 2021, Dart is about the size of a bus and was created to test and prove our ability to defend the Earth from a dangerous asteroid.

  • Rooftop Solar Cells Can Also Help Water Conservation

    By Karl Leif Bates

    Energy generation and use are tightly bound to water consumption, and fossil-fueled electrical grid’s enormous water use is often overlooked. A given household may save an average 16,200 gallons of water per year by installing rooftop solar.

  • Not-So-Safe Automated Driving: Safety Risks During Drivers’ Takeover

    In a recent study on automated driving traffic and engineering psychologists analyzed reactions to possible malfunctions of this future human-machine interface. The study shows that people are only partially able to take over the wheel quickly and safely in the event of technical malfunctions.

  • DHS Debuts First Fully Electric Law Enforcement Vehicle

    DHS became the first federal agency to debut a battery electric vehicle (EV) fitted for performing law enforcement functions. The Ford Mustang Mach-E is the first of a variety of EVs DHS plans to field across its varied law enforcement missions throughout the United States.

  • U.S. Is Falling Behind China in Key Technologies: Experts

    By Rob Garver

    The United States has fallen behind China in the development of several key technologies, and it now faces an uncertain future in which other countries could challenge U.S. historic dominance in the development of cutting-edge technology. A new report envisions a future where China, not the U.S., captures the trillions of dollars of income generated by the new technological advances and uses its leverage to make the case that autocracy, not democracy, is the superior form of government.