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UN Fails to Agree on “Killer Robot” Ban While Nations Pour Billions into Autonomous Weapons Research
Autonomous weapon systems – commonly known as killer robots – may have killed human beings for the first time ever last year, according to a recent UN Security Council report on the Libyan civil war. History could well identify this as the starting point of the next major arms race, one that has the potential to be humanity’s final one.
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Identifying Fake Voice Recordings
Artificial intelligence can imitate people’s voices. Scammers are already taking advantage of this on the phone. A team of researchers is working on a solution.
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Selective Separation Could Help Alleviate Shortage of Critical Metals
A new way of processing rare-earth and other key metals to separate them from other materials could reduce environmental impact and cost.
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Why China’s Advancements in Quantum Technology Worry Others
Quantum refers to a type of computing that lets high-powered machines make calculations that are too complex for ordinary devices. China’s advances in quantum computing will give a new advantage to its armed forces, already the world’s third strongest, analysts say.
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Gunfire or Plastic Bag Popping? Trained Computer Can Tell the Difference
There have been 296 mass shootings in the United States this year, and 2021 is on pace to be America’s deadliest year of gun violence in the last two decades. Discerning between a dangerous audio event like a gun firing and a non-life-threatening event, such as a plastic bag bursting, can mean the difference between life and death. Engineering researchers develop gunshot detection algorithm and classification model to discern similar sounds.
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Consortium to Combat Targeted Crowd Attacks
Ten universities formed a consortium to combat terrorist and criminal attacks on soft targets such as schools, hospitals, shopping malls and sports stadiums. “The challenges of keeping people safe in soft targets and crowded spaces gets more complicated every day,” said one expert.
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Aviation Self-Screening Concept and Prototype
DHS S&T has awarded $2.5 million to Vanderlande Industries to develop a passenger self-screening concept design and prototype that streamlines TSA PreCheck operations.
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Fuzzy Nanoparticles: New Way to Design Tougher Ballistic Materials
Researchers have discovered a new method to improve the toughness of materials that could lead to stronger versions of body armor, bulletproof glass and other ballistic equipment.
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New Cyber Protections against Stealthy “Logic Bombs”
Cybersecurity researchers proposed new ways to protect 3D printed objects such as drones, prostheses, and medical devices from stealthy “logic bombs.”
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Helping Calculate Likelihood of Worst-Case Scenarios
If you had to guess, what would you think is most likely to end all life on Earth: a meteor strike, climate change, or a solar flare? New statistical method could help accurately analyze low-probability, high-risk events such as earthquakes, pandemics, or meteor strikes.
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Community-Based Solutions to Enhance Disaster Resilience
The NSF announced a $15.9 million in awards to teams to conduct and evaluate ready-to-implement pilot projects that address community-identified challenges. A significant portion of the funds was awarded to projects focusing on resilience to natural disasters in the context of equipping communities for greater preparedness to and response after disasters such as floods, hurricanes and wildfires.
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Feasibility, Cost, and Potential Impacts of Ocean-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal Approaches
To better understand the potential risks and benefits of removing or sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide using ocean-based interventions — for example, by cultivating seaweed on a large scale or manipulating nutrients in seawater — the U.S. should undertake a new research program to learn more about how these methods could be used to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
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Cooking Material-Storage Containers to Assess Fire Safety
Researchers have completed a series of tests on specially designed stainless-steel containers used by the Department of Energy for storage and transportation of hazardous materials. Even at 2000 degrees, the sealed, stainless-steel containers did not split open.
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Ground Improvement Technique Ahead of Earthquakes
Helping engineers better understand and predict the “liquefaction” hazard during earthquakes and more reliably mitigate it.
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Balance of Power—Building a Resilient Electric Grid
Events such as blackouts and outages are increasing in frequency as the nation’s infrastructure ages and climate change leads to extreme weather events. Hotter, wetter summers and harsher winters require more reliance on heating and cooling utilities, placing higher stress on the nation’s electric grid. Newtechnology can ‘help keep the lights on’ during emergencies.
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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.