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Jammers increasingly used to fight IEDs
From July 2003 to July 2007, 1,565 coalition forces were killed by IEDs; by the end of 2007, the Pentagon will have funded more than 30,000 jammers for Marine and Army units; DOD has spent $1.6 billion on jamming technology for this fiscal year; opportunities for technology companies
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DARPA outlines technologies in which it is most interested
From chip-scale atomic clock to real-time accurate language translation to Newton’s laws for biology, DARPA is funding research along a broad front
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3,000 life-saving radios go unused in Chicago
Motorola supplies city with sophisticated emergency radios, but aging radio towers can not take heavy digital equipment, so emergency communication upgrades must wait
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Analyzing intentions and behavior from afar
Security firms working on devices to spot would-be terrorists in crowd; emphasis on analyzing behavior and physiology from afar
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DHS increases size of Nanomix grant
In January DHS awarded a grant to a specialist in nanoelectronic detection; the department liked the company’s progress, and increased the amount of the grant
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Bush administration upholds phone ban in Qualcomm patent dispute
Bush administration upholds import ban on phones which contain Qualcomm chips; DHS review finds no justification to oppose the ban on public safety grounds
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Proxy demonstrates cooperative UAV performance
Maryland UAV specialist, USAF offers the first successful demonstration of multiple UAVs performing fully autonomous cooperative flight
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Metamaterials make levitation thinkable
Purdue University researchers have created a metmaterial that bends infrared light with a wavelength of 813 nm; such metameterials make two things possible: Invisibility cloak and quantum levitation
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Armed robots deployed to Iraq
Three armed robots — called SWORDS — have been deployed to Iraq; Army hopes that safety and control improvements will make the robots an effective urban fighting tool
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Researcher offers new method for analyzing pictures, videos
New error-level analytical techniques allows for detecting authenticity of pictures and videos — for example, those released by al Qaeda; retouched and added images may indicate coded messages to operatives
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New source of energy: People-powered "crowd farms"
These boots are made for walking: Two MIT students propose harvesting the energy of human movement in urban settings
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Versar awarded ISO 9000 certification for its protective suits
The market for personal protective gear is growing, and Versar receives important certification for its PPE products
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Hyderabad University issues certificates with digital chip
Seeking better jobs, thousands of Indians turn to forged school graduation certificate and college degrees; one university makes its certificate tamper-proof
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New fingerprinting technique reveals more
New method offers law enforcement information about the suspect’s gender, dietary habits, and substances he or she were in touch with recently
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Terrorists use online reality games to rehearse attacks
As terrorists find it more difficult to train in camps which can be monitored and attacked, they turn to online games to practice money laundering, identity theft, and attacks
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The long view
Does more education reduce political violence?
Recent evidence of above-average levels of education among genocide perpetrators and terrorists, such as those who carried out the 9/11 attacks, has challenged the consensus among scholars that education has a generally pacifying effect. Is it true that more schooling can promote peaceful behavior and reduce civil conflict and other forms of politically-motivated group violence?
Exposing security vulnerabilities in terahertz data links
Scientists have assumed that future terahertz data links would have an inherent immunity to eavesdropping, but new research shows that’s not necessarily the case. The study shows that terahertz data links, which may play a role in ultra-high-speed wireless data networks of the future, aren’t as immune to eavesdropping as many researchers have assumed. The research shows that it is possible for a clever eavesdropper to intercept a signal from a terahertz transmitter without the intrusion being detected at the receiver.
Unhackable computer relying on firmware security rather than software patches
By turning computer circuits into unsolvable puzzles, researchers aim to create an unhackable computer. The MORPHEUS project’s cybersecurity approach is dramatically different from today’s, which relies on software—specifically software patches to vulnerabilities that have already been identified. It’s been called the “patch and pray” model, and it’s not ideal. “Instead of relying on software Band-Aids to hardware-based security issues, we are aiming to remove those hardware vulnerabilities in ways that will disarm a large proportion of today’s software attacks,” says Linton Salmon, manager of DARPA’s System Security Integrated Through Hardware and Firmware program.
Unhackable communication: Single particles of light could bring the “quantum internet”
Hacker attacks on everything from social media accounts to government files could be largely prevented by the advent of quantum communication, which would use particles of light called “photons” to secure information rather than a crackable code. The problem is that quantum communication is currently limited by how much information single photons can help send securely, called a “secret bit rate.” Researchers created a new technique that would increase the secret bit rate 100-fold, to over 35 million photons per second.
Global hotspots for potential water conflicts
Scientists at the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission have identified the hotspots where competition over the use of shared water resources could lead to disagreements between countries. The scientists determined that the Nile, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Indus, Tigris-Euphrates and Colorado rivers are “water hotspots”, where “hydro-political interactions” are most likely to occur. These areas are already under water stress, and future demographic and climatic conditions are expected to exert further pressure on scarce water resources.
Making Oregon safer in quakes and fires
Research by University of Oregon seismologist is shaping a new set of policy agendas designed to help Oregon prepare for a Cascadia earthquake and other natural disasters. His work on the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system and its companion multihazard monitoring efforts informed Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s just-released document, “Resiliency 2025: Improving Our Readiness for the Cascadia Earthquake and Tsunami.”