Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech

09/09/2026

💡Two years ago, this was just an idea that came out of a recurring conversation with Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Co-Director Michael Alvarez, Bart Bonikowski, Sophie Borwein, and Peter John Loewen on the politics of AI. Last week, this work was presented at APSA 2026.

LCSSP Research Affiliate Beatrice Magistro, Northeastern University presented a joint paper from this research, "The Political Sustainability of Creative Destruction in the AI Age."

Excited to see where the conversation goes next! 🎉

🔗https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7233760

09/08/2026

🚨New publication alert from Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Research Affiliate Ramit Debnath, University of Cambridge in Nature, "Nepal Disaster is a Wake-Up Call to Take Compound Climate Risks Seriously."

The tragedy in Nepal is a serious reminder that compound climate risks are becoming increasingly important to understand and communicate!

Letter to the Editor.

09/04/2026

🌎 Ever wonder what Earth’s carbon cycle actually looks like over time?

In the new video from Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Board Member Christian Frankenberg (Caltech and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), "Earth's Changing Carbon Cycle," watch Earth’s carbon cycle change from 2015 to 2026 through observations from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions.

🔍 Learn more about this fascinating work!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAhXV6ntsZg
Article: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/nasa-selects-caltech-to-operate-the-orbiting-carbon-observatories

Watch Earth’s carbon cycle change from 2015 to 2026 through observa...

09/03/2026

🎉Congratulations to Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Research Affiliate Ramit Debnath, University of Cambridge on this well-deserved team win for their work on early flood warning and preparedness! 🌧️🌊🛡️

🔵Read about the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability & Centre for Human Inspired Artificial Intelligence - CHIA collaboration: https://sustainability-accelerator.stanford.edu/project/high-resolution-human-loop-flood-early-warning-system-informal-settlements

09/02/2026

📢 Catch the latest blog post from Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Research Policy Lead Sara Kassir, Caltech - "Fit for What Purpose? Evaluating Data Centers on Local Terms:" https://lcssp.caltech.edu/more/lcssp-blog/data-centers-question-of-community-fit

Our main takeaway from the Data Centers and Community Impact for Local Leaders Workshop was that the question of whether data centers are "good" or "bad" in the abstract has no answer. What matters is how well a particular project aligns with what a community is already trying to achieve, and whether local conditions allow those goals to be met.

📺 Watch the videos from the workshop on the LCSSP YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhybx0afMrVP3o-7zVw72QfzUnl7J_lR8

09/01/2026

🔊 New blog post from Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech's Science Policy Intern Brenna Outten, Caltech:

🟠 An LCSSP Intern's Update from the Field: How Science and Policy Intersect in the Provision of Disability Services 🟠

In her internship with the California Department of Developmental Services, Brenna is seeing how policymakers synthesize available research insights to develop and implement evidence-based strategies for supporting people with autism.

Read more about her internship here: https://lcssp.caltech.edu/more/lcssp-blog/intern-update-outten

🔷 LCSSP posts & archive: https://lcssp.caltech.edu/more/lcssp-blog

08/31/2026

🔥New Springer Nature, Behind the Paper post, "Wildfires Don’t Just Need Better Prediction - They Need Better Coordination," coauthored by Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Research Affiliate Ramit Debnath, University of Cambridge on how the role of governance, coordination, and agentic AI in wildfire response can enable faster, smarter cross-agency coordination when it matters most.

🔗 https://communities.springernature.com/posts/wildfires-don-t-just-need-better-prediction-they-need-better-coordination?channel_id=behind-the-paper

08/27/2026

📢 New research shows that AI-generated "pre-bunking" messages can help voters recognize false election claims before they spread, strengthening confidence in election integrity and public trust.

Mitchell Linegar (PhD '26), lead author of the paper who is now a postdoctoral scholar at Washington University in St. Louis along with coauthors Michael Alvarez, Caltech's Flintridge Foundation Professor of Political and Computational Social Science & Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Co-Director, LCSSP Research Affiliate Betsy Sinclair (PhD '07), Chair of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis, and Sander van der Linden, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge, use large language model-generated information to help voters navigate a complicated media environment where it is tough to separate truth from fiction.

🔗 Learn more: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/using-ai-to-thwart-election-misinformation

Caltech researchers have developed a tool to "pre-bunk" election rumors in real time, providing accurate information for voters who may be susceptible to false claims.

08/26/2026

Congratulations to Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Board Member Georgia Gkioxari, Caltech and team! SAM 3D won CVPR 2026 Best Paper Honorable Mention! It was selected as 1 of 5 award papers out of 16K+ submissions! 🎉

This distinguished honor recognizes pioneering research that is advancing the field of computer vision.

📖 Read the paper here:

We present SAM 3D, a generative model for visually grounded 3D object reconstruction, predicting geometry, texture, and layout from a single image. SAM 3D excels in natural images, where occlusion and scene clutter are common and visual recognition cues from context play a larger role. We achieve th...

08/25/2026

🛰️Many Caltech researchers were involved with the founding and design of OCO-2 and OCO-3, including Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy at Caltech Board Member Christian Frankenberg, the Chandler Family Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Scientist!

🔷 See below and link to article: https://caltech.edu/about/news/nasa-selects-caltech-to-operate-the-orbiting-carbon-observatories