Scientific papers containing lots of specialized terminology are less likely to be cited by other researchers. The New York Times reports: Polje, nappe, vuggy, psammite. Some scientists who study caves might not bat an eye, but for the rest of us, these terms might as well be ancient Greek. Specialized terminology isn't unique to the ivory tower -- just ask a baker about torting or an arborist about bracts, for example. But it's pervasive in academia, and now a team of researchers has analyzed jargon in a set of over 21,000 scientific manuscripts. They found that papers containing higher proportions of jargon in their titles and abstracts were cited less frequently by other researchers. Science communication -- with the public but also among scientists -- suffers when a research paper is packed with too much specialized terminology, the team concluded. These results were published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Jargon can be a problem, but it also serves a purpose, said Hillary Shulman, a communications scientist at Ohio State University. "As our ideas become more refined, it makes sense that our concepts do too." This language-within-a-language can be a timesaver, a way to precisely convey meaning, she said. However, it also runs the risk of starkly reminding people -- even some well-educated researchers -- that they aren't "in the know." "It's alienating," said Dr. Shulman.

According to researchers in Beijing, China, the total carbon footprint of bitcoin mining in the country will peak in 2024, releasing around 130 million metric tons of carbon. This figure exceeds the annual carbon emissions of countries including Italy and the Czech Republic. New Scientist reports: By 2024, bitcoin mining in China will require 297 terawatt-hours of energy and account for approximately 5.4 per cent of the carbon emissions from generating electricity in the country. The researchers predicted the emissions peak in China in 2024 based on calculations of when the overall cost of mining -- the investment in computing equipment and the electricity costs -- outweighs the financial rewards of selling mined bitcoin. They used both financial projections and carbon emissions analysis to model the emissions footprint in China, taking into account factors such as location. Bitcoin miners in Beijing or other parts of northern China are very likely to be using electricity from coal-powered plants. Mining in southern provinces -- especially Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan -- is in large part powered by hydroelectricity, says Guan. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

"NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has emerged from its first night on the surface of Mars," reports NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was deployed from the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover on April 3rd. In the days to come, Ingenuity will be the first aircraft to attempt powered, controlled flight on another planet. From the report: Evening temperatures at Jezero Crater can plunge as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius), which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical components and damage the onboard batteries required for flight. "This is the first time that Ingenuity has been on its own on the surface of Mars," said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "But we now have confirmation that we have the right insulation, the right heaters, and enough energy in its battery to survive the cold night, which is a big win for the team. We're excited to continue to prepare Ingenuity for its first flight test."

To ensure the solar array atop the helicopter's rotors could begin getting sunlight as soon as possible, Perseverance was instructed to move away from Ingenuity shortly after deploying it. Until the helicopter put its four legs onto the Martian surface, Ingenuity remained attached to the belly of the rover, receiving power from Perseverance, which touched down at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18. The rover serves as a communications relay between Ingenuity and Earth, and it will use its suite of cameras to observe the flight characteristics of the solar-powered helicopter from "Van Zyl Overlook."

Confronting progressive U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Amazon officials tweeted "the kind of bad-ittude you rarely see from a major corporation," writes Kara Swisher.

"Here's what was more extraordinary — and revealing — to me: One of the most powerful companies in the world could not take criticism from politicians without acting like one of the biggest babies in the world..." But why? [I]t all felt oddly emotional and risky, which is why it was clear that the decision to launch such attacks could have been made only by someone who never suffers when mistakes are made: Mr. Bezos.

Why would he take such an approach?

I don't think his intention was to influence the union vote in Alabama. Instead, the goal was to goad progressives into proposing legislation around things like data privacy and a $15 federal minimum wage that Mr. Bezos knows cannot pass without being watered down and, thus, made less dangerous to giants like Amazon. After gaining immense power in the pandemic and becoming one of the best-liked brands around, the company is now saying to Washington legislators, who have dragged their feet and held endless and largely useless hearings about how to deal with tech: I dare you to regulate us.

For Amazon, weak regulation would certainly be much better than having to talk about the very real human toll that free shipping might have on its workers. It's an attitude that we will see adopted by a lot more tech leaders who are going to try to use the momentum for regulation in their favor, rather than let it run over them. In a recent congressional hearing, for example, Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, sheepishly proposed changes to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which gives platforms broad immunity for content posted on their sites. Many observers felt, though, that Mr. Zuckerberg's proposals were a smoke screen that would ultimately benefit Big Tech companies like Facebook.

It's high-risk, but possibly high reward, which has been Mr. Bezos' brand for his entire career, even before he was armed with all this power and money.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission could relax rules limiting the number of newspapers, radio stations and television stations that a single entity may own in a given market. The decision is likely to prompt further consolidation among broadcast outlets, some of which say they need more freedom to address competition from internet and cable companies. Critics fear that media consolidation will limit the perspectives available to viewers.

The rules at issue in the case, initially adopted between 1964 and 1975, had been meant "to promote competition, localism and viewpoint diversity by ensuring that a small number of entities do not dominate a particular media market," Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote for the court. But the rules, he added, were a relic of a different era -- "an early-cable and pre-internet age when media sources were more limited." "By the 1990s, however, the market for news and entertainment had changed dramatically," Justice Kavanaugh wrote. "Technological advances led to a massive increase in alternative media options, such as cable television and the internet. Those technological advances challenged the traditional dominance of daily print newspapers, local radio stations and local television stations."

The case, Federal Communications Commission v. Prometheus Radio Project, No. 19-1231, concerned three rules. One barred a single entity from owning a radio or television station and a daily print newspaper in the same market, the second limited the number of radio and television stations an entity can own in a single market, and the third restricted the number of local television stations an entity could own in the same market. In 2017, the commission concluded that the three rules no longer served their original purposes of promoting competition and the like. The vote was 3 to 2 along party lines, with the commission's Republican members in the majority.

Volkswagen is staying Volkswagen. From a report: Volkswagen's U.S. subsidiary said Tuesday the company would rebrand itself as Voltswagen of America to promote its electric car strategy, but a spokesman for the parent company in Germany later said the move was a joke. The name change, which immediately lit up social media and online news sites, was originally intended as an early April Fools' Day stunt to get people talking about VW's ambitious electric car strategy as the company rolls out its first all-electric sport-utility vehicle, the ID. 4, in U.S. dealerships, the spokesman said. The problem for VW is that everyone took it seriously, creating confusion about the company's intentions and moving the shares, putting VW's communications team on the defensive. "We didn't mean to mislead anyone," a Volkswagen spokesman in Wolfsburg told The Wall Street Journal. "The whole thing is just a marketing action to get people talking about the ID.4."

The spoof began late Monday, when VW communications in the U.S. published a draft of the press release on the company's website and then quickly took it down, according to VW officials in Germany. They left the document online long enough to grab the attention of journalists and VW fans, sparking a flood of online news and tweets. VW communications officials in the U.S. declined to comment at the time. VW's U.S. unit published the release in full again on Tuesday on the U.S. website, a move that suggested the name change was in fact real and would take effect as stated in the release in May. The press release quoted Scott Keogh as president and CEO of Voltswagen of America saying: "We might be changing out our K for a T, but what we aren't changing is this brand's commitment to making best-in-class vehicles for drivers and people everywhere." Back in Germany, a VW official told the Journal that the name change shouldn't be taken seriously. "There will be no name change," the official said. But after it became clear the joke's intended recipients were doing exactly that, officials in Germany scrambled to reach their colleagues at VW's U.S. headquarters in Herndon, Va., to pull the plug on the campaign, according to Wolfsburg officials.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Record by Recorded Future: Academic research published last week looked at the telemetry traffic sent by modern iOS and Android devices back to Apple and Google servers and found that Google collects around 20 times more telemetry data from Android devices than Apple from iOS. The research, conducted by Professor Douglas J. Leith from Trinity College at the University of Dublin, analyzed traffic originating from iOS and Android devices heading to Apple and Google servers at various stages of a phone's operation... [...] The study unearthed some uncomfortable results. For starters, Prof. Leith said that "both iOS and Google Android transmit telemetry, despite the user explicitly opting out of this [option]." Furthermore, "this data is sent even when a user is not logged in (indeed even if they have never logged in)," the researcher said.

But while the Irish researcher found that Apple tends to collect more information data types from an iOS device, it was Google that collected "a notably larger volume of handset data. During the first 10 minutes of startup the Pixel handset sends around 1MB of data is sent to Google compared with the iPhone sending around 42KB of data to Apple," Prof. Leith said. "When the handsets are sitting idle the Pixel sends roughly 1MB of data to Google every 12 hours compared with the iPhone sending 52KB to Apple i.e., Google collects around 20 times more handset data than Apple." In response to the findings, a Google spokesperson said: "This research outlines how smartphones work. Modern cars regularly send basic data about vehicle components, their safety status and service schedules to car manufacturers, and mobile phones work in very similar ways. This report details those communications, which help ensure that iOS or Android software is up to date, services are working as intended, and that the phone is secure and running efficiently." The Android maker also disputed the paper's methodology, which they claim under-counted iOS' telemetry volume by excluding certain types of traffic, which Google believes resulted in skewed results that found Android devices collecting 20 times more data than iOS.

Apple echoed its rival's response. "The report conflates a number of items in relation to different services and misunderstands how personal location data is protected," an Apple spokesperson told The Record. "Apple is not collecting data that can be associated with individuals without a user's knowledge or consent."

Additional information about the findings can be found here (PDF).

Many internet companies posted record performance during the pandemic as consumers turned to apps and other cloud software to work, study, socialize and shop from home. But as vaccines roll out and restrictions relax, some of this unprecedented digital demand is fading. From a report: Data from research firm Apptopia reveal how the superstar apps of the Covid-19 era are faring now in the U.S. Plus, stats from New Zealand, a country that reopened earlier, show what the future might hold for these services. Here's the main takeaway: Many well-known apps are losing ground, or usage has stabilized. Some behaviors are sticking, though, suggesting the pandemic will provide a more-permanent boost for a few internet companies.

Zoom Video Communications's app has been so ubiquitous during the pandemic that it's now a verb. Lately, though, workers complain of "Zoom fatigue," and data from New Zealand are ominous. Usage has dropped in that country as employees and students return to offices and schools. Even in the U.S., where most offices remain virtual, Zoom use peaked in September. The company said recently it's well positioned for strong growth. Microsoft's Teams communication software was another work-from-home hit last year. That service has seen mobile app usage decline, too, especially in New Zealand. Other staples of the virtual workplace are here to stay, according to Apptopia data. DocuSign's app, which lets you sign contracts and other documents digitally, has seen consistently high usage lately. The app has become a popular way to close real-estate transactions, so it is likely getting an extra boost from the housing boom.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: All of the major carriers made a significant change to how SMS messages are routed to prevent hackers being able to easily reroute a target's texts, according to an announcement from Aerialink, a communications company that helps route text messages. The move comes after a Motherboard investigation in which a hacker, with minimal effort, paid $16 to reroute our text messages and then used that ability to break into a number of online accounts, including Postmates, WhatsApp, and Bumble, exposing a gaping hole in the country's telecommunications infrastructure.

"The Number Registry has announced that wireless carriers will no longer be supporting SMS or MMS text enabling on their respective wireless numbers," the March 25 announcement from Aerialink, reads. The announcement adds that the change is "industry-wide" and "affects all SMS providers in the mobile ecosystem." "Be aware that Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T have reclaimed overwritten text-enabled wireless numbers industry-wide. As a result, any Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T wireless numbers which had been text-enabled as BYON no longer route messaging traffic through the Aerialink Gateway," the announcement adds, referring to Bring Your Own Number.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said his company would soon adding a range of audio features for all users of its work chat app. From a report: Butterfield said that a feature for leaving audio messages, similar to a function available in messaging apps like Telegram, was available in a beta test. He also said that Slack would soon offer a feature akin to the audio-chat app Clubhouse, which allows users to drop into rooms for conversations without requiring scheduling a meeting or initiating a call. He made the remarks in a Clubhouse room hosted by investor and former journalist Josh Constine, whose Press Club regularly hosts tech executives. Butterfield also said Slack would soon get an ephemeral video message feature commonly known as "stories," similar to a message format originated by Snapchat and imitated by many, from Instagram to LinkedIn. Butterfield first indicated these features were on Slack's roadmap back in October. The new features come as Slack is making a push to turn its tool for internal company communications into a broader company-to-company messaging service.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away Facebook's bid to pare back a $15 billion class action lawsuit accusing the company of illegally tracking the activities of internet users even when they are logged out of the social media platform. Reuters reports: The justices declined to hear Facebook's appeal of a lower court ruling that revived the proposed nationwide litigation accusing the company of violating a federal law called the Wiretap Act by secretly tracking the visits of users to websites that use Facebook features such as the "like" button. The litigation also accuses the company of violating the privacy rights of its users under California law but Facebook's appeal to the Supreme Court involved only the Wiretap Act.

Four individuals filed the proposed nationwide class action lawsuit in California federal court seeking $15 billion in damages for Menlo Park, California-based Facebook's actions between April 2010 and September 2011. The company stopped its nonconsensual tracking after it was exposed by a researcher in 2011, court papers said. Facebook said it protects the privacy of its users and should not have to face liability over commonplace computer-to-computer communications. Facebook has more than 2.4 billion users worldwide, including more than 200 million in the United States.

The case centers on Facebook's use of features called "plug-ins" that third-parties often incorporate into their websites to track the browsing histories of users. Along with digital files called "cookies" that can help identify internet users, the plaintiffs accused Facebook of packaging this tracked data and selling it to advertisers for profit. Facebook said it uses the data it receives to tailor the content it shows its users and to improve ads on its service. [...] In its appeal to the Supreme Court, Facebook said it is not liable under the Wiretap Act because it is a party to the communications at issue by virtue of its plug-ins.

A law professor serving on the EFF's board of directors (and advisory boards for the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Democracy and Technology) offers this analysis of "the push for stricter rules for internet platforms," reviewing proposed changes to the liability-limiting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — and speculating about what the changes would accomplish: Short of repeal, several initiatives aim to change section 230. Eleven bills have been introduced in the Senate and nine in the House of Representatives to amend section 230 in various ways.... Some would widen the categories of harmful conduct for which section 230 immunity is unavailable. At present, section 230 does not apply to user-posted content that violates federal criminal law, infringes intellectual property rights, or facilitates sex trafficking. One proposal would add to this list violations of federal civil laws.

Some bills would condition section 230 immunity on compliance with certain conditions or make it unavailable if the platforms engage in behavioral advertising. Others would require platforms to spell out their content moderation policies with particularity in their terms of service (TOS) and would limit section 230 immunity to TOS violations. Still others would allow users whose content was taken down in "bad faith" to bring a lawsuit to challenge this and be awarded $5,000 if the challenge was successful. Some bills would impose due process requirements on platforms concerning removal of user-posted content. Other bills seek to regulate platform algorithms in the hope of stopping the spread of extremist content or in the hope of eliminating biases...

Neither legislation nor an FCC rule-making may be necessary to significantly curtail section 230 as a shield from liability. Conservative Justice Thomas has recently suggested a reinterpretation of section 230 that would support imposing liability on Internet platforms as "distributors" of harmful content... Section 230, after all, shields these services from liability as "speakers" and "publishers," but is silent about possible "distributor" liability. Endorsing this interpretation would be akin to adopting the notice-and-takedown rules that apply when platforms host user-uploaded files that infringe copyrights.
Thanks to Slashdot reader Beeftopia for sharing the article, which ultimately concludes: - Notice-and-takedown regimes have long been problematic because false or mistaken notices are common and platforms often quickly take-down challenged content, even if it is lawful, to avoid liability...

- For the most part, these platforms promote free speech interests of their users in a responsible way. Startup and small nonprofit platforms would be adversely affected by some of the proposed changes insofar as the changes would enable more lawsuits against platforms for third-party content. Fighting lawsuits is costly, even if one wins on the merits.

- Much of the fuel for the proposed changes to section 230 has come from conservative politicians who are no longer in control of the Senate.

- The next Congress will have a lot of work to do. Section 230 reform is unlikely to be a high priority in the near term. Yet, some adjustments to that law seem quite likely over time because platforms are widely viewed as having too much power over users' speech and are not transparent or consistent about their policies and practices.

hackingbear writes: The Wall Street Journal reports that China's government is restricting the use of Tesla's vehicles by military staff and employees of key state-owned companies (Source paywalled; alternative source), citing concerns that the data collected by the cars could be a source of national security leaks. "The move follows a government security review of Tesla's vehicles, which Chinese officials said raised concerns because the cars' cameras can constantly record images, the people said, as well as obtain various data such as when, how and where the cars are being used, and the contact list of mobile phones that are synced to the cars," reports The Wall Street Journal. "The government is concerned that some data could be sent back to the U.S., the people said."

The move appears to be a retaliation against U.S. restrictions on the use of communications equipment made by a slate of Chinese companies including Huawei, the Chinese tech giant that Washington has labeled a national security threat over fears it could spy for Beijing -- allegations which Huawei denies and which base more on overheating US-China rivalry than actual evidences.

Tech companies led by Mozilla are urging the Federal Communications Commission to swiftly reinstate net neutrality rules stripped away under the Trump administration. From a report: In a letter to FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Friday, ADT, Dropbox, Eventbrite, Reddit, Vimeo and Wikimedia joined Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, in calling net neutrality "critical for preserving the internet as a free and open medium that promotes innovation and spurs economic growth." [...] In a blog post Friday, Mozilla Chief Legal Officer Amy Keating said the pandemic has made the need for net neutrality rules even more clear.

"In a moment where classrooms and offices have moved online by necessity, it is critically important to have rules paired with strong government oversight and enforcement to protect families and businesses from predatory practices," Keating said. "In California, residents will have the benefit of these fundamental safeguards as a result of a recent court decision that will allow the state to enforce its state net neutrality law. However, we believe that users nationwide deserve the same ability to control their own online experiences."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from SlashGear: Nissan has found a second-life for old LEAF batteries inside mobile machines that help workers at Nissan factories worldwide. The old batteries are being used in automated guided vehicles or AGVs used for various tasks inside the manufacturing facilities, including delivering parts to workers on the assembly line.

AGVs are used as robotic mail carriers operating on magnetic tracks taking mail and parts exactly where they're needed on the assembly line. The idea is to use the AGV to deliver parts so the worker doesn't waste time searching for a component and can stay focused on installing parts. Nissan and other automotive manufacturers have found that AGVs are indispensable when it comes to saving time and increasing productivity on the assembly line. Nissan currently operates more than 4000 AGVs around the world at its various manufacturing facilities. The factories have a system that includes 30-second automatic quick charging to keep battery packs on the electric vehicles topped off and working correctly. AGVs also have sensors that keep them operating on a set route and allow them to stop when needed. They also have wireless communications capabilities that enable them to communicate with each other to avoid collisions.

Nissan says that it has been exploring ways to reuse old LEAF batteries since 2010. The first-generation LEAF used a 24-kilowatt hour battery pack made by combining 48 modules. Nissan said eight years ago, its engineers discovered a way to take three of those modules and repackage them to fit inside the AGV. Last year, the engineers began to repurpose used battery modules instead of using new ones to power the AGVs. The team also found the repurposed LEAF batteries last a lot longer thanks to their lithium-ion design compared to the lead-acid batteries used previously.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission moved toward barring China Unicom (Hong Kong) and ComNet from the U.S., calling the Chinese telecommunications carriers a security risk controlled by the Beijing government. From a report: The action against two of China's three major telecommunications operators was decided by a 4-0 vote by agency. It continues a security crackdown that earlier touched Chinese gear makers Huawei Technologies and ZTE. In 2019, the FCC barred China Mobile Ltd. from the U.S. market over national security concerns. ComNet, a subsidiary of Pacific Networks, and the unit formally known as China Unicom (Americas) Operations Ltd. were told in April by the FCC to show they are independent from the Chinese government, or face a proceeding that could result in ejection from the U.S. market. With its vote Wednesday the FCC began those proceedings. China Unicom and Pacific Networks are indirectly and ultimately owned and controlled by the government of the People's Republic of China, the FCC said in news releases Wednesday. The companies may present evidence in proceedings set in motion, according to the news releases.

Regulators decided the next U.S. 5G airwaves auction will offer frequencies in portions covering millions of people, a plan backed by wireless giants thirsty for spectrum and opposed by cable providers leery of expensive bidding. From a report: The Federal Communications Commission with a 4-0 vote set rules for the sale that's to begin in October. It'll follow an airwaves auction that drew a record $81 billion in bids as companies race to establish next-generation ultrafast 5G wireless service. "We take action that will move us closer to 5G service that is fast, secure, reliable, and most importantly available everywhere in the country," FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said as the agency voted at its monthly meeting in Washington.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: In 2016, a family in Illinois thought that a meteorite had hit their backyard. They called up the geology department at nearby Wheaton College to say that whatever struck their property had started a small fire and had left a weird rock embedded in the scorched dirt. "Meteorites, contrary to popular belief, are cold when they hit the ground," says Benjamin Hess, who was an undergraduate at the college but is now a graduate student at Yale University. "My professor readily figured out that that was probably a lightning strike."

When lightning strikes sand, soil or stone, it immediately melts the materials into a glassy clump known as a fulgurite, or lightning rock. When geologists excavated the fulgurite in Illinois, they found something unexpected inside -- an important ingredient for life that had long been thought to be delivered to early Earth by meteorites. A report on the find, in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that this could have been a way for lightning to have played a key role in the emergence of life.

When the researchers dug out the fulgurite in Illinois, they first saw glassy bits on its surface. Below that was a thick, tree-root-like structure extending down about a foot and a half. Hess and two colleagues at the University of Leeds analyzed the minerals inside and found one called schreibersite. This reactive mineral contains phosphorus, an essential element for life. Phosphorus "really plays a key role in a lot of the basic cell structures," says Hess. For example, it makes up the backbone of DNA. Phosphorus was abundant in early Earth, but geologists know that it was mostly inaccessible because it was trapped inside nonreactive minerals that don't dissolve easily in water. One explanation for where the phosphorus came from is meteorites, which can contain reactive minerals like schreibersite. But, according to the researchers, lightning offers an alternative source as it doesn't destroy an entire 100-kilometer area when it strikes and there could have been 1 billion to 5 billion lightning flashes every year when life firm emerged, about 3.5 billion years ago.

"Google failed to win dismissal of a lawsuit alleging it collects users' data on internet activity even when they browse in a browser's private incognito mode," reports CNET: The lawsuit, filed in June, alleges Google violates wiretapping and privacy laws by continuing to "intercept, track, and collect communications" even when people use Chrome's incognito mode and other private web browser modes. A federal judge on Friday denied the tech giant's request for dismissal of the lawsuit, which seeks class action status. "The court concludes that Google did not notify users that Google engages in the alleged data collection while the user is in private browsing mode," US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, wrote in her ruling...

The lawsuit, which seeks at least $5 billion from Google and its parent company, Alphabet, alleges the company surreptitiously collects data through Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager, website plug-ins and other applications, including mobile apps.
Google "cannot continue to engage in the covert and unauthorized data collection from virtually every American with a computer or phone," the complaint said.

Reuters reported in June that the proposed class action likely includes "millions" of Chrome users who had tried browsing the internet in a private mode — and seeks $5,000 damages per user "or three times actual damages, whichever is greater, for violations of federal wiretapping and California privacy laws."

An anonymous reader shared this report from Live Science: A U.S. Air Force base in Texas has taken the first steps to guard against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. But what, exactly, is an EMP, and how big is the threat...? An EMP is a massive burst of electromagnetic energy that can occur naturally or be generated deliberately using nuclear weapons. While many experts don't think EMPs pose a big threat, some people argue that these types of weapons could be used to cause widespread disruption to electricity-dependent societies.

"You can use a single weapon to collapse the entire North American power grid," said defense analyst Peter Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Commission, which was set up to assess the threat of EMP attacks but shut down in 2017. "Once the electric grid goes down, everything would collapse," Pry told Live Science. "Everything depends on electricity: telecommunications, transportation, even water.... We've arrived at a place where a single individual can topple the technological pillars of civilization for a major metropolitan area all by himself armed with some device like this," he said...

The threat posed by EMPs is far from settled, though. A 2019 report by the Electric Power Research Institute, which is funded by utility companies, found that such an attack would probably cause regional blackouts but not a nationwide grid failure and that recovery times would be similar to those of other large-scale outages... "There are other ways that adversaries can achieve some of the same outcomes, some of which would be cheaper and some of which would be less discernible," Frank Cilluffo, director of Auburn University's McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, told Live Science. Such alternatives might include cyberattacks to take out critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, or even efforts to disrupt space-based communications or the GPS system that modern society is so reliant on.

Work to protect against EMPs makes sense... but these upgrades shouldn't distract from efforts to shore up defenses against more probable lines of attack, Cilluffo said.