Machine learning and climate risk adaptation

Machine learning and climate risk adaptation

Author: PNAS June 2, 2025 Duration: 10:41

Using reinforcement learning to plan for an uncertain climate future

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Ning Lin talks about how reinforcement learning methods plant to mitigate climate risk despite uncertainty in climate change risk forecasts.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[1:04] Civil engineer Ning Lin introduces why climate forecast uncertainty complicates risk management planning.
•[02:41] Lin explains how reinforcement learning works.
•[03:26] She talks about why the team studied risk management for Manhattan.
•[04:54] Lin explains the results of the reinforcement learning study.
•[05:40] She recounts the results that surprised her.
•[07:25] Lin explains the takeaways from the study for emergency planners.
•[09:00] She enumerates the caveats and limitations of the study.
•[10:11] Conclusion.

About Our Guest:

Ning Lin
Professor
Princeton University

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2402826122

Follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts for more captivating discussions on scientific breakthroughs!

Visit Science Sessions on PNAS.org: https://www.pnas.org/about/science-sessions-podcast 

Follow PNAS:
Twitter/X
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
Sign up for the PNAS Highlights newsletter


Tune into PNAS Science Sessions for a direct line to the people shaping modern science. Produced by PNAS, this podcast offers more than just summaries of published research; it’s where you hear the candid, often personal stories behind the headlines. Each episode features concise conversations with the researchers themselves-from emerging voices to established Academy members-alongside the policymakers whose decisions are informed by this work. You’ll get a genuine sense of the questions that drive these experts, the unexpected hurdles they face in their labs and field studies, and why their findings matter right now. The scope is deliberately wide, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of science itself, covering discoveries that range from microscopic processes to planetary-scale phenomena. This isn't about dry lectures, but about capturing the human endeavor of investigation. For anyone curious about how science actually unfolds and wants to understand the context of breakthroughs as they happen, this podcast serves as an essential, engaging resource. It connects the dots between a published paper in a prestigious journal and the real-world implications that ripple out from it.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

PNAS Science Sessions
Podcast Episodes
Bias and the placebo effect [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:22
Lauren Howe and Alia Crum explore the interactions of societal biases with the placebo effect.
Epigenetic clocks for humans and dogs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:16
Steve Horvath and Elaine Ostrander explain the usefulness of epigenetic clocks in humans and dogs.
Peopling of the Americas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:58
Researchers explore how and when humans first arrived in the Americas.
How the saw sings [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:38
L. Mahadevan, Petur Bryde, and Suraj Shankar explain the otherworldly sounds of the musical saw.
Treating cystic fibrosis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:05
A feature episode explores recent developments and future research directions in treating cystic fibrosis.
Rising temperatures and European bird traits [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:08
Martijn van de Pol reports that approximately half of the changes in the traits of 60 European bird species can be attributed to rising mean temperatures.
Origin of the Great Unconformity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 7:48
Brenhin Keller and Kalin McDannell explore the origins of a worldwide gap in the geologic record spanning hundreds of millions to billions of years.

«1...678910