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August 26, 2024
VIPER’s Failure and the Future of Space Exploration
Earlier this year, NASA’s most advanced lunar rover—the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover or VIPER—seemed to be on track to the moon. Engineers integrated the VIPER’s final instrument of four in February. By April, the golf-cart-sized rover stood “taller and more capable than ever” after its mast was installed and it passed a crucial review. The fully assembled VIPER…
August 26, 2024
Bring Digital Twins Back to Earth
Abstract We reflect on the development of digital twins of the Earth, which we associate with a reductionist view of nature as a machine. The projects of digital twins deviate from contemporary scientific paradigms in the treatment of complexity and uncertainty, and does not engage with critical and interpretative social sciences. We contest the utility…
August 26, 2024
What Future for U.S.-China Science and Technology Collaboration?
On Tuesday this week the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) is due to expire unless the U.S. and China can agree on its extension. Today I provide some background on the agreement, why it is now being debated, and my view on what should happen next. STAs are a common tool of science diplomacy. The…
August 24, 2024
The Commerce Department Celebrates a “Milestone” in Restoring Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing to the US—Intel, Not So Much
Recently, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo proudly announced that the US had achieved a “milestone” in its drive to build secure advanced semiconductor plants within its borders. Specifically, the Department of Commerce has now received commitments from the five leading manufacturers of advanced semiconductor chips to build new facilities (fabs) in the US over the next decade. The manufacturers…
August 24, 2024
A RealClearEnergy Conference Well Worth Your Time
The Biden administration is a full-employment act for energy/environment policy analysts, in particular those interested in defending the market allocation of resources, the national wealth and freedom inherent in expansion of efficient energy technologies, and resistance to the diktats and impoverishment—the central anti-human stance—favored by the environmental left, the bureaucracy, and many “experts.” It is…
August 22, 2024
AI’s Corporate Takeover? (With Mark Johnson)
As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries, companies are grappling with the challenges of effectively leveraging AI tools. From data readiness to privacy concerns, the path to successful AI implementation is fraught with complexities. Yet the potential benefits—from revolutionizing health care to enhancing our daily interactions with technology—are too significant to ignore. Here to shed…
August 22, 2024
Social Media Platforms and Justice Thomas’s Tenacity on Compelled Disclosures and Common Carriers
Although the US Supreme Court recently ruled in three First Amendment cases involving social media platforms, Justice Clarence Thomas, its longest-serving member, wrote just once—a separate concurrence in Moody v. NetChoice. Daniel Lyons recently explained that Thomas’s concurrence mostly argued that facial challenges violate the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III of the US Constitution. That topic arose in Moody and the companion case of NetChoice v. Paxton because NetChoice facially attacked (rather than launching as-applied…
August 22, 2024
Data Center Electricity Use IV: Unrealistic Emissions Targets?
Large-scale, dynamic social and economic change is often more difficult, incremental, and slower than anticipated. Consider James Watt and Matthew Boulton in Birmingham in 1776, having invented and refined the double-acting steam engine. Watt patented the invention that year, a breakthrough that would ultimately become a hallmark of the British Industrial Revolution and propel its…
August 21, 2024
Billion Dollar Disasters: Not the Highest Standards
Last January, upon submission of my paper (since published) — Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters” — I submitted a “request for correction” to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the agency’s policies for scientific integrity and information quality. Today, I heard back from NOAA and they largely agree with my concerns: “NOAA will…
August 20, 2024
Can We Childproof the Internet?
Child Online Safety bills are crafted with the intention of protecting minors from harmful content on the internet. However, they can infringe on First Amendment rights, affecting the freedom of speech and access to information, and cause other inadvertent harms. In this discussion, we explore the complexities and unintended consequences of age gating, including the…