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Argneitna warms up to UAVs
Argentina plans to increase use of UAVs for various homeland security and law enforcement missions
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DuPont to invest $500 million to expand Kevlar production
Growing demand for personal and vehicle protection conveniences company to increase Kevlar production capacity by 25 perent
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Mechanical mole seeks out disaster survivors under collapsed buildings
Robots already roll, walk, slither, and even “swarm” to locate or help survivors, so why not dig and burrow? University of Manchester rsearchers build a digging robot which imitates the common European mole
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InRob Tech leverages military technology in civilian markets
A remote-control and robotics specialist uses technologies developed for defense and homeland security for civilian market applications
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Elephant trap for truck-bombs
A truck bomb killed 241 soliders in Beirut in 1983, and they continue to reap their grim harvest in Iraq and Afghanistan; a designer suggests an elephant-trap design as proetction
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Herding swarming robots
Individual autonomous machines are now in wide use on land, in the air, and at sea for defense and homeland security missions; using several of these robots together, in a coordinated fashion, is difficult; an MIT researcher offers a way to use “swarming” robots which talk to each other
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Bottle makes dirty water drinkable; ideal for post diaster relief
A bottle which purifies even the dirtiest water — it uses filter which cuts out anything longer than 15 nanometres, which means that viruses are filtered out — is ideal for post-disaster relief, soldiers in the field
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Military GPS technology to be marketed domestically
Rockwell Collins will market its Polaris-branded devices, popular in the military, to homeland security and search and rescue agencies
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Body sensor network to improve individual's performance, safety
Imperial College London’s researcher develops sensor which monitors athletes’ performance; it may be used to monitor soldiers, first responders — and the sick and the eledrly
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Flying saucer technology to aid military, law enforcement
Small British company makes a UAV flying saucer; applications include close quarter surveillance and intelligence gathering for military and law enforcement, mountain rescue, and farming
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U.K. researchers to develop new communication signals analysis
The extreme risks and rapid time frames associated with terrorist activities make it difficult to gather evidence that might prevent an attack or lead to successful prosecution; analyzing communication signals with with forensic psychology techniques should help
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DirecTV thwarted in effort to limit signal interception
Court protects security and computer science research into satellite and smart-card technology by denying DirecTV’s broad — too broad — interpretation of federal law prohibiting “assembly” or “modification” of equipment designed to intercept satellite signals
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UAV sets duration world record
QinetiQ’s Zephyr uses solar power to fly for 54 hours while carrying a surveillance payload
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Russia tests world's biggest conventional bomb
As the war against terrorism and nuclear weapon proliferation escalates, so does the interest in bunker-busting weapon systems; Russia tests the latest version, and rogue nations with nuclear materials produced and stored in deeply dug bunkers, and terrorists hiding in caves and fortified undeground tunnels, should pause to reflect
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El Paso school district relies on interoperability
El Paso school district wants to avoid the problems highlighted in Columbine: It uses Department of Justice funds to buy radios which will allow school police officers to talk to El Paso city police and firefighters instantly
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The long view
Artificial Intelligence to make life harder for hackers
As the volume of digital information in corporate networks continues to grow, so grows the number of cyberattacks, and their cost. One cybersecurity vendor, Juniper Networks, estimates that the cost of data breaches worldwide will reach $2.1 trillion in 2019, roughly four times the cost of breaches in 2015. Now, computer scientists have developed a tool that could make it harder for hackers to find their way into networks where they don’t belong.
Thwarting cyberattacks by giving attackers “false hope”
With almost every online purchase, a person’s personal information — name, date of birth and credit card number — is stored electronically often in the “cloud,” which is a network of internet servers. Now, as more people buy from online businesses, researchers hope to employ a new strategy in the ongoing struggle to protect digital information in the cloud from targeted cyberattacks. The strategy establishes a new artificial intelligence system to combat digital intrusions.
Keeping the lights on during and after a disaster
The threat of an inevitable earthquake is the uncomfortable truth we all face in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which stretches from Alaska to California. Because the last major earthquake in the area was in the 1700s, our infrastructure developed without an appreciation and understanding of earthquake resilience. That means the next major earthquake will likely devastate our buildings, roads, bridges, and utility providers, posing immediate risks for the health and safety of those who live in the region. And later, there will be long-term economic aftershocks.
New approach to defeating superbugs
Researchers have developed a new way to identify second-line antibiotics that may be effective in killing germs already resistant to a first-line antibiotic – potentially helping overcome antibiotic resistance. This new research – based on tackling antibiotic resistance via existing drugs (with a twist) — provides an approach clinicians could consult when deciding which antibiotic treatment courses will be most effective for patients.
Causal link established between climate, conflict, and migration
Researchers have established a causal link between climate, conflict, and migration for the first time, something which has been widely suggested in the media but for which scientific evidence is scarce. There are numerous examples in recent decades in which climatic conditions have been blamed for creating political unrest, civil war, and subsequently, waves of migration. One major example is the ongoing conflict in Syria, which began in 2011. Many coastal Mediterranean countries in Europe are also inundated with refugees arriving by sea fleeing conflict in Africa.
Paradigm shift needed for making bridges tsunami-resistant
Over the past fifteen years, big earthquakes whose epicenters were in the ocean off the coasts of Japan and Indonesia have caused tsunamis that killed more than 250,000 people and caused more than $200 billion in damage. The damage includes washing away or otherwise dislodging hundreds of bridges, emphasizing the need to better understand the wave impacts’ underlying physics. Researchers argue in a new study that a paradigm shift is needed for assessing bridges’ tsunami risk.