World leaders are gathering in Montreal for the U.N.’s COP15 global conference on biodiversity loss. The National Academies have identified opportunities for action that would help reduce the loss of critical species and lessen future climate change, discussed recently during an Academies webinar about the report “Biodiversity at Risk.”

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.

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.

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a spotlight on the continuing, decades-long problem of medical product supply chain disruptions. Drug and medical device shortages — life-threatening for some — also affect the entire U.S health care system, costing millions of dollars annually. New resources from the National Academies offer insights.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Read highlights from a recent webinar hosted by the National Academies’ New Voices program, which explored how to make developments in emerging technologies more equitable in multiple fields including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and energy.

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.

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

Social media sites are designed to make their users come back for more. Do laws restricting children's exposure to addictive social media feeds have teeth or are they a political gimmick?

Blanket bans on ransomware payments are a much-debated topic in cybersecurity and policy circles. What are the implications of outlawing the payments, and would the ban be effective?

Your humble phone number is more valuable than you may think. Here’s how it could fall into the wrong hands – and how you can help keep it out of the reach of fraudsters.

Your phone number is more than just a way to contact you – scammers can use it to target you with malicious messages and even exploit it to gain access to your bank account or steal corporate data

Here’s what parents should know about Snapchat and why you should take some time to ensure your children can stay safe when using the app

ESET Research analyzed two separate toolsets for breaching air-gapped systems, used by a cyberespionage threat actor known as GoldenJackal

You may not always stop your personal information from ending up in the internet’s dark recesses, but you can take steps to protect yourself from criminals looking to exploit it

Jiro's Pick this week is AstroVolley Courseware by Paul Huxel.Back in my undergraduate studies (many, many years ago), I took a Pascal programming course, and it was the first official programming... read more >>

Jiro's Pick this week is Home Battery Energy Management System by Rodney Tan.I met Dr. Rodney Tan at a virtual educator workshop we held last year, and there I learned that he is very active in the... read more >>

Two former high court judges - SN Shukla of the Allahabad High Court and Quddusi of the Odisha High Court - have been charged by the CBI in the case. The agency had produced intercepted phone calls between the two judges as part of its charge sheet filed last July. It had also named other people in the alleged bribery scandal.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that linear set-top boxes (STBs) be included in the PLI scheme to promote local manufacturing in the television broadcasting sector. The TRAI has also suggested conducting periodic reviews of indigenous components, factoring in local components in determining localisation levels under the PLI scheme, and reviewing investment outlays required for MSME manufacturing for selected equipment.

Amongst the areas that Ericsson and Intel have identified for collaboration is the joint development of enterprise use cases in selected verticals such as manufacturing, transport and logistics.

​​"IoT is one of the fastest-growing business segments for Airtel Business. This venture into NB-IoT strengthens our credentials as the largest cellular IoT player in the country and places us as a partner of choice for Discoms looking to invest in smart meters," said Ajay Chitkara, director and CEO, Airtel Business.

At its fiscal fourth quarter earnings call Thursday, Indus' top management said that while Vi has started clearing 90-100% of current dues, the tower company is closely monitoring the telco's payment patterns and its funding situation to recover its accumulated past dues as per the agreed schedule.

The telecom regulator has recommended two categories for cable landing station (CLS) location – main CLS, and CLS point-of-presence (CLS-PoP).

Leading women data scientists and AI leaders talk about fostering more female candidates in the industry and navigating the challenges associated with it.

Big Tech companies are likely to get less time than startups, MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), government departments and other state governments to implement the rules around the DPDPA, the official had said. The government is also ready with a broad draft of the 21 rules under DPDPA, the official had said, adding that the government would now begin consultation on these rules.

The capabilities of data are expanding and revolutionizing with each passing day. It is important for technology business leaders to stay updated on the top data trends and use data more efficiently to improve their existing business models.

Spanish prosecutors said Thursday that they were investigating Facebook owner Meta over suspicions it breached data-protection laws by using users' data to train its AI programme. It added that prosecutors were seeking to protect users' "personal data" and would consult the Spanish data-protection authority about possible measures. du/mb/rlp/js

Big data allows retailers to analyze vast sets of customer information including purchase history, demographics, browsing behaviour, and social media interactions. This enables highly targeted marketing campaigns, product recommendations, and loyalty programs.

As businesses continue to explore and adapt Data Mesh, balancing its potential benefits with the realities of execution will be key to realizing its full value, say Data leaders at the ETCIO Data Strategy Summit 2024.

Noam Shazeer, an AI pioneer who left Google in 2021, has returned to the company after Google paid $2.7 billion to acquire his startup, Character.AI. Shazeer is now a vice president at Google and will lead the development of their next-generation AI project, Gemini. This move highlights the intense competition for top AI talent in Silicon Valley.

The partnership between Union Bank of India and Zoho began in 2021 after the merger of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of India, which significantly expanded its operations.

With 24 years of professional experience, Jhajhria specializes in strategy consulting and business management.

Last month, Meta, which owns Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, failed to reach a deal with the Italian society of authors and publishers SIAE, to renew copyright licenses.

Outage reports had come down to less than 500 as of 6:30 p.m. ET (2230 GMT), according to Downdetector.

After Musk acquired Twitter in October, the social media firm faced months of chaos, including layoffs of thousands of employees, criticism over lax content moderation, and an exodus of many advertisers who did not want their ads appearing next to inappropriate content.

The EU's Digital Services Act is one of the most ambitious pieces of legislation on controlling online content since the advent of social media, setting major obligations on how platforms deal with free speech. Meta, TikTok, Twitter, and others have to invest heavily in building compliance teams to meet the new rules.