ORNL will lead two collaborations under the Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) program and partner on two more to close critical gaps in fusion technology and bridge basic research with growing fusion companies.

Cybersecurity training programs as implemented today by most large companies do little to reduce the risk that employees will fall for phishing scams–the practice of sending malicious emails posing as legitimate to get victims to share personal information, such as their social security numbers. 

That’s the conclusion of a study evaluating the effectiveness of two different types of cybersecurity training during an eight-month, randomized controlled experiment. The experiment involved 10 different phishing email campaigns developed by the research team and sent to more than 19,500 employees at UC San Diego Health.

Genes are the building blocks of life, and the genetic code provides the instructions for the complex processes that make organisms function. But how and why did it come to be the way it is? A recent study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign sheds new light on the origin and evolution of the genetic code, providing valuable insights for genetic engineering and bioinformatics.

Prof. Laura Gagliardi at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) and Chemistry Department has developed a powerful new tool that harnesses electronic structure theories and machine learning to simulate transition metal catalytic dynamics with both accuracy and speed.

Researchers at Lehigh University have received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to explore how biological computation could make artificial intelligence (AI) more energy-efficient and powerful. The team, led by Yevgeny Berdichevsky, associate professor of bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering, will study neurons within engineered brain organoids—three-dimensional structures grown from adult stem cells that resemble developing brain tissue. By arranging and stimulating neurons in controlled ways, the researchers aim to replicate how the brain processes dynamic information, such as moving images. The interdisciplinary project combines neuroscience, bioengineering, electrical engineering, and computer science to create a proof of concept for biological computation and to inspire new AI algorithms. The researchers will also assess the ethical, social, and legal considerations of using brain organoids in computation.

Study shows that most of the country’s underground reservoirs will lose their capacity for renewal, increasing the risk of water shortages in several regions, especially the Southeast and South. One strategy to address the problem is “managed recharge,” which includes techniques that promote the infiltration of rainwater or even treated sewage.