The American Geophysical Union’s 2022 fall meeting, taking place Dec. 12-16, features several presentations from National Academies staff and experts on recent reports and ongoing studies on the environment, climate change, higher education, and space.

Among the many facets of the economy being challenged by warming global temperatures is the insurance industry. As damaging extreme events increase in frequency and intensity, insurance companies face larger financial risks and costs, and policy holders face higher premiums. A webinar explored how industry, policymakers, and consumers are responding.

The presidents of the U.S. National Academies warn that the Taliban’s decision to prevent Afghan women and girls from participating in higher education or attending secondary school ignores the scientific evidence on the benefits of education for women and could have “potentially disastrous consequences” for the future of Afghanistan.

Confucius Institutes are Chinese government-funded language and culture centers located worldwide. A new report proposes a set of criteria for the U.S. Department of Defense to consider in developing a waiver process that would potentially allow U.S. institutions of higher education to receive DOD funding while hosting a Confucius Institute.

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced today its 2022-2024 cohorts of Early-Career Research Fellows in the Offshore Energy Safety and Education Research tracks.

Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took the stage at the 2023 annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board to discuss the federal government’s plan to reach “net-zero” carbon emissions in the U.S. transportation sector by 2050.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance has provided advance indications of community-level outbreaks, sometimes weeks before other indicators. A new report says that wastewater surveillance is worthy of investment and outlines a vision for the future of a national system.

A new roundtable will hold its first public meeting on Jan. 23 to discuss challenges associated with incorporating climate change into the macroeconomic analyses used for federal policymaking. The roundtable’s activities will inform a new White House interagency working group.

The insufficient supply of seeds from native plants is a major barrier to ecological restoration and other revegetation projects across the U.S., especially as climate change increases the possibility of extreme weather events that can damage natural areas.

“Reports & Events” is a monthly tip sheet for the news media that highlights selected meetings of interest and reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Nobel Prize laureates and other esteemed experts and leaders will gather at “Truth, Trust and Hope” for a global dialogue on how to stop misinformation from eroding public trust in science. Hosted by NAS and the Nobel Foundation, the summit takes place May 24-26 in Washington, D.C., and virtually.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s facilities should be modernized to ensure that the agency can continue to deliver measurement science and standards that advance U.S. innovation and competitiveness on national technology priorities. Substandard facilities brought about through lack of investment have created ongoing problems that affect research.

In a new NAE Perspective, Idalis Villanueva Alarcón argues that engineering must recognize and permanently remove negative hidden curriculum. It is only then that engineering can create a new image, one where everyone is equitably welcomed, valued, invested in, and sustained for generations to come.

As U.S. life expectancy falls and the nation struggles to achieve health outcomes on par with other high-income countries, the VA and HHS should collaborate to create a national Center for Whole Health Innovation to support, scale, and spread whole health care nationally across health systems.

The final agenda is now available for the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing, to be held March 6-8 in London and virtually. The National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine are among the international partners hosting the summit.

As the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine approaches, NAS President Marcia McNutt and the presidents of the national science academies of Poland and Ukraine urge the scientific community around the world to continue helping scientists from and in Ukraine, and to plan for the post-war recovery of science there.

Pulling from research and institutional examples, the Remediation Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education has published a paper that examines the types of power differentials in academia, how abuses of power can take the form of sexual harassment, and strategies for preventing and remediating such abuses.

The U.S. should renew its investments in high energy density science facilities and workforce capacity and improve collaboration, in order to achieve advances in areas such as fusion power and materials science and help address significant national needs.

National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt will deliver a lecture on the future of the research enterprise this week at the AAAS Annual Meeting. The meeting will also feature sessions and presentations focused on National Academies reports and projects.

The Gulf of Mexico region faces numerous complex challenges, from extreme weather events to potential offshore oil spills. The National Academies’ Gulf Research Program is enlisting serious gaming as part of its strategy to help the region prepare and respond.

Today the science academies of the G-7 nations released statements calling on their governments to address systemic risks and improve decision-making related to climate change, restore and recover ocean biodiversity, and deliver better health and well-being for aging populations.

Two remarkable women who made invaluable contributions to the work of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) died in recent months -- Catherine Kelleher and Jo Husbands. Their accomplishments and qualities have been described well by others, including especially Women in International Security (WIIS). We at CISAC want additionally to honor their work for us.

Race, ethnicity, and ancestry labels are often used in genomics and genetics research to describe human genetic differences, which is misleading and inaccurate. Researchers and scientists who utilize genetic and genomic data should rethink and justify how and why they use these descriptors in their work.

Strengthening and expanding critical safety net programs is necessary to address the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on children and families, says a new report that examines the substantial toll the pandemic has taken on their health and well-being, especially those in marginalized communities.

Registration is now open for the Nobel Prize Summit “Truth, Trust and Hope,” a global conversation on how to stop misinformation from eroding public trust in science. Hosted by NAS and the Nobel Foundation, the summit takes place May 24-26 in Washington, D.C., and virtually.

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2023 Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications, which honor top science communicators, journalists, and research scientists who have developed creative, original work to communicate issues and advances in science, engineering, and medicine for the general public.

Most of the offshore oil and gas industry operating in the Gulf of Mexico has improved its management of systemic risk in recent years, according to a new report that also points out where uneven progress and critical gaps remain for industry and regulators to address.

The National Nuclear Security Administration needs to fundamentally rethink the strategy for its next generation of high-performance computing and cannot continue with ‘business as usual’ through shifting technical and geopolitical landscapes. Advanced computing capabilities help the NNSA ensure that the U.S. maintains a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear stockpile.

To mark Earth Day, the National Academies are highlighting a selection of our projects and activities aimed at addressing climate change, protecting the environment and natural resources, and advancing progress toward a more sustainable planet for everyone.

A new National Academies report highlights how behavioral economics has built invaluable evidence about why people may act in seemingly irrational ways, how they respond to interventions, and how public policy can be designed to help people make better decisions.

The news article suggests that the donations from the Sacklers presented a conflict of interest for the National Academies’ studies on chronic pain, opioid use, and ways to combat the opioid epidemic. The Sackler funds were never used to support an advisory study on these issues.

A new NAE Perspective by Adiba M. Proma, Robert M. Wachter, and Ehsan Hoque discusses how helping people change their behaviors may be where technology can have its greatest impact on climate change.

New nuclear reactor concepts could help the U.S. meet its long-term climate goals, but a range of technical, regulatory, economic, and societal challenges must first be overcome. A new report provides recommendations to start laying the foundation required for advanced reactors to become a viable part of the U.S. energy system.

Research funded by NIH that uses nonhuman primates is critical to the nation’s ability to respond adequately to public health emergencies and carry out high-impact biomedical research, but gaps in the systems that support research using these animal models are undermining national health emergency readiness.

The prerequisites for becoming a security elite create a skills ceiling that is tough to break through – especially when it comes to hiring skilled EDR or XDR operators. How can businesses crack this conundrum?

This week, ESET experts released several research publications that shine the spotlight on a number of notable campaigns and broader developments on the threat landscape

Available as both an IDA plugin and a Python script, Nimfilt helps to reverse engineer binaries compiled with the Nim programming language compiler by demangling package and function names, and applying structs to strings

As the UK mulls new rules for ransomware disclosure, what would be the wider implications of such a move, how would cyber-insurance come into play, and how might cybercriminals respond?

Much digital ink has been spilled on artificial intelligence taking over jobs, but what about AI shaking up the hiring process in the meantime?

Password leaks are increasingly common and figuring out whether the keys to your own kingdom have been exposed might be tricky – unless you know where to look

A facial recognition system misidentifies a woman in London as a shoplifter, igniting fresh concerns over the technology's accuracy and reliability

$90,000/year, full home office, and 30 days of paid leave for a junior data analyst – what's not to like? Except that these kinds of job offers are only intended to trick unsuspecting victims into giving up their data.

Ticketmaster seems to have experienced a data breach, with the ShinyHunters hacker group claiming to have exfiltrated 560 million customer data

Don’t get hacked in the first place – it costs far less than dealing with the aftermath of a successful attack

Hacktivism is nothing new, but the increasingly fuzzy lines between traditional hacktivism and state-backed operations make it a more potent threat

As health data continues to be a prized target for hackers, here's how to minimize the fallout from a breach impacting your own health records

VPNs are not all created equal – make sure to choose the right provider that will help keep your data safe from prying eyes

Understanding and preparing for the potential long-tail costs of data breaches is crucial for businesses that aim to mitigate the impact of security incidents

Why organizations of every size and industry should explore their cyber insurance options as a crucial component of their risk mitigation strategies