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All Research

Tracing Engineered Biothreats with AI Forensics: Five Steps to Improve Attribution
Article
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Tracing Engineered Biothreats with AI Forensics: Five Steps to Improve Attribution

The 2001 anthrax letter attacks in the United States, the 2007 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak, and the COVID-19 pandemic have something in common: Investigators have struggled to determine their origins despite extensive efforts. This highlights…

THB Insider #28 – Thanksgiving Reading
Article
The Honest Broker

THB Insider #28 – Thanksgiving Reading

It is Thanksgiving Day here in the US — My favorite holiday. Chez les Pielke we are getting ready to put the turkey in as the sun rises. We will…

US Hurricanes 2025 in Review
Article
The Honest Broker

US Hurricanes 2025 in Review

For the first time in a decade, the continental United States experienced no hurricane landfalls.1 Islands in the Caribbean saw multiple landfalls [1], notably Hurricane Melissa’s landfall as a Category 5 storm in…

What’s at Stake with the App Store Freedom Act
Article
AEIdeas

What’s at Stake with the App Store Freedom Act

Americans benefit every day from the world’s most dynamic, secure, and innovative mobile platforms—Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. These ecosystems launched mobile e-commerce and continue to fuel its unprecedented growth,…

Article
The Honest Broker

The Battle for Climate Science and Policy Past—And Why It Matters

Last week in Belém, Brazil the 30th Conference of Parties to the U.N Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concluded with little accomplished, according to most observers. Perhaps the most significant…

The Hidden Economy Behind Every Scam Email
Article
AEIdeas

The Hidden Economy Behind Every Scam Email

Remember the last time you got a text that felt off? Maybe it claimed that your package was delayed or mentioned an unpaid toll, with a link to a website…

Mobilizing Data for the Military and Beyond
Article
AEIdeas

Mobilizing Data for the Military and Beyond

Last week, I commented on the infeasibility of establishing a state-of-the-art data center on Australia’s Indian Ocean outpost Christmas Island. While the island is strategically well situated to monitor military…

As Expected, Meta Wins Antitrust Grudge Match
Article
AEIdeas

As Expected, Meta Wins Antitrust Grudge Match

For the first two decades of its existence, the American tech sector flourished under a bipartisan celebration of the country’s global leadership at the cutting edge of digital innovation. Then,…

Reassessing the World’s Climate Victories: The Paris Delusion
Article
The Dispatch

Reassessing the World’s Climate Victories: The Paris Delusion

In 2015 in Paris, countries from around the world agreed to accelerate the decarbonization of their economies in response to climate change. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on…

The Flawed Firing of a Public University Professor: First Amendment Lessons About Online Speech Rights
Article
AEIdeas

The Flawed Firing of a Public University Professor: First Amendment Lessons About Online Speech Rights

By late September, the New York Times had identified “more than 145” instances of people being “fired, suspended, reassigned or pushed to resign . . . for things they said…

Antitrust’s Iceberg Problem: Failing to See What Lies Beneath
Article
AEIdeas

Antitrust’s Iceberg Problem: Failing to See What Lies Beneath

Antitrust enforcement in the United States too often fails to deliver what it promises. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have won historic cases—the breakups of Standard Oil and…

Article
The Honest Broker

The Last Gasp of the Climate Thought Police

Following my lecture last week at Cornell, one Cornell professor, a well-known climate activist, called for the firing of the director of the Cornell Atkinson Institute for Sustainability — an accomplished scientist…

Congress Can Help Update our Infrastructure by Passing the SPEED Act
Article
The Hill

Congress Can Help Update our Infrastructure by Passing the SPEED Act

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 is the basic law governing federal reviews of construction projects’ environmental impacts. Unfortunately, it has evolved into an environmentally destructive monstrosity. Why? Because…

Restoring America’s Cyber Shield: Why CISA 2015 Must Be Reenacted Now
Article
AEIdeas

Restoring America’s Cyber Shield: Why CISA 2015 Must Be Reenacted Now

The United States faces a cybersecurity crisis: not from foreign actors, but from internal political deadlock that has dismantled one of its most effective defense tools. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing…

Science Evolved. The Narrative Didn’t.
Article
The Honest Broker

Science Evolved. The Narrative Didn’t.

I spent this week in Ithaca, New York visiting Cornell University. It was a fantastic visit. I met with faculty, researchers, students, staff, administrators, and taught a few classes. I…