• Automatically Finding Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities

    A typical buffer overflow occurs when a computer program receives a request to process more data than its physical memory is capable of handling all at once and places the excess into a “buffer.” The buffer itself has a finite capacity, so if the buffer can’t handle the excess, it “overflows,” or crashes.

  • Detecting Floods from Space Using Artificial Intelligence

    Observing the Earth from space provides valuable information for flood-related decision-making on the ground.

  • Face Off for Best ID Checkers

    A face matching test has been updated to find super-recognizers who can help prevent errors caused by face recognition software. The type of professional roles that involve face identification and that could benefit from the test include visa processors, passport issuers, border control officers, police, contract tracers, as well as security staff in private industry.

  • Recent Technology Cost Forecasts Underestimate Pace of Technological Change

    A comparison of observed global energy technology costs, with forecasts generated by models and forecasts predicted by human experts, showed that both forecasting methods underestimated cost reductions. This suggests that decisions based on forecasts may be overestimating the cost of climate mitigation and points to the need to further improve forecasting methods.

  • Why “Nuclear Batteries” Offer a New Approach to Carbon-Free Energy

    Much as large, expensive, and centralized computers gave way to the widely distributed PCs of today, a new generation of relatively tiny and inexpensive factory-built reactors, designed for autonomous plug-and-play operation similar to plugging in an oversized battery, is on the horizon. These microreactors, trucked to usage sites, could be a safe, efficient option for decarbonizing electricity systems.

  • With Cyberattacks Growing More Frequent and Disruptive, a Unified Approach Is Essential

    Coordinated cyberattacks can create massive disruptions to infrastructure and supply chains. New treaties are needed to prevent cyberwarfare, but it’s challenging to predict technological advances.

  • Building a Better “Canary Trap”

    A new artificial intelligence system generates fake documents to fool adversaries. The system automatically creates false documents to protect intellectual property such as drug design and military technology.

  • Matt Hancock and the Problem with China’s Surveillance Tech

    Matt Hancock, Britain’s Health Secretary, resigned last week – and informed his wife that he was divorcing her – after CCTV footage emerged of him snogging his assistant outside his office. Ian Williams writes that the Hancock affair raises serious questions involving surveillance and national security: The cameras involved were made by the Chinese company Hikvision, one of the 1.3 million Hikvision cameras installed across the U.K. Hikvision has close links to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s intelligence services. Even if the Chinese intelligence services were not involved in leaking the compromising Hancock video to the press, the episode is one more indication, if one were needed, of the security risks involved in allowing an unregulated access by Chinese technology companies access unfettered and unregulated access to Western markets.

  • Physics-Based Instruction Leads to Success for Geothermal Drilling

    Using the earth’s subsurface heat to change water to steam and power generators to produce electricity is not a new idea. The first large-scale geothermal electricity-generating plant opened in the U.S. in 1960 and has grown to become the most significant energy complex of its kind in the world. But while advances in technology have improved energy production efficiency, one aspect of tapping this renewable resource is still highly cost-prohibitive to those wanting to invest in it: Drilling into the earth.

  • Using Radio Signals to Image Hidden and Speeding Objects

    Radio signals can create real-time images and videos of hidden and moving objects, helping firefighters find escape routes or victims inside buildings filled with fire and smoke. The technique could also be used to track hypersonic objects such as missiles and space debris.

  • Disaster Response and Mitigation in an AI World

    Accurately forecasting the movement of natural disasters—wildfires, floods, hurricanes, windstorms, tornados, and earthquakes—gives first responders a jump, allowing them to take measures to reduce damage, conduct advanced resource planning, and increase infrastructure restoration time.

  • Using Intelligent Drones for Search and Rescue

    Finding people lost (or hiding) in the forest is difficult because of the tree cover. People in planes and helicopters have difficulty seeing through the canopy to the ground below, where people might be walking or even laying down. The same problem exists for thermal applications—heat sensors cannot pick up readings adequately through the canopy. New drone technology helps search and rescue teams locate missing persons - even in dense forests.

  • Harvesting Fresh Water from Humidity around the Clock

    Fresh water is scarce in many parts of the world and must be obtained at great expense. Communities near the ocean can desalinate sea water for this purpose, but doing so requires a large amount of energy. Further away from the coast, practically often the only remaining option is to condense atmospheric humidity through cooling. Current technologies allow water harvesting only at night, but a new technology, for the first time, allows water harvesting 24 hours around the clock, even under the blazing sun.

  • Is it a Virus or Bacteria? New Tech Rapidly Tests for Pathogens

    The first line of defense against pandemics is the ability quickly to detect the presence or absence of previously unknown pathogens. DHS S&T is exploring a new technology that can discriminate between bacterial and viral infections using only a single drop of blood per patient.

  • New Irrigation Tool Promotes Efficient Water Use and Environmental Stewardship

    Irrigation technology has developed to the point where pressurized pipes can deliver water for irrigation while generating in-conduit hydropower that can be used to power electric pumps that currently rely on diesel, and in the future, also power electric tractors and combines.