The threat of 'killer robots' is real and closer than you might think

Outsourcing use-of-force decisions to machines violates human dignity and is incompatible with international law.

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Tags: artificial-intelligence china war united-nations russia uk us military warfare killer-robots

The Arctic hasn't been this warm for 3 million years – and that foreshadows big changes for the rest of the planet

Extreme shrinkage of summer sea ice is just the latest evidence of rapid Arctic warming – and what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay there.

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Tags: climate-change greenland arctic paleoclimate russia carbon-dioxide-co2 siberia arctic-warming sea-ice norway pliocene boreal-forest

Defending the 2020 election against hacking: 5 questions answered

Russian agents reportedly placed malware in U.S. voter registration systems in 2016 and are actively interfering in the 2020 election. Here's the state of election cybersecurity.

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Tags: cybersecurity hacking russia florida north-carolina elections malware voting wikileaks bob-woodward voter-registration voting-machines russian-hacking election-security

Mammoth task: the Russian family on a resurrection quest to tackle the climate crisis

The Zimovs want to restore the prehistoric 'mammoth steppe' ecosystem and see if it slows down – or even reverses – melting permafrost.

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Tags: permafrost ice russia interdisciplinarity climate-crisis siberia in-depth insights-series woolly-mammoth

Novichok: how are victims surviving poisoning?

It's all about the dose.

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Tags: russia toxicology alexei-navalny novichok

A COVID-19 vaccine needs the public's trust – and it's risky to cut corners on clinical trials, as Russia is

As Russia fast tracks a coronavirus vaccine, scientists worry about skipped safety checks – and the potential fallout for trust in vaccines if something ends up going wrong.

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Tags: epidemiology covid-19 coronavirus vaccines sars-cov-2 phase-3-trial anti-vaccination vaccination russia vaccine-research coronavirus-vaccine covid-19-vaccine vaccine-safety clinical-trials vaccine-hesitancy phase-1-trial phase-2-trial

A 20,000-tonne oil spill is contaminating the Arctic – it could take decades to clean up

Climate change is thawing permafrost and increasing the risk of these accidents, and the region has fewer of the bacteria that can 'clean up' oil spills.

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Tags: permafrost arctic russia siberia oil-spill

The UAE's Mars mission seeks to bring Hope to more places than the red planet

A new country launches a mission to Mars. A space expert explains what this means for the Middle East and the African continent.

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Tags: space mars india russia united-states space-exploration japan international-space-station united-arab-emirates mars-exploration space-race