• New kind of blast-resistant glass -- thinner and tougher -- developed

    Current blast-resistant glass technology — the kind that protects the windows of key federal buildings, the president’s limo, and the Pope-mobile — is thicker than a 300 page novel — so thick it cannot be placed in a regular window frame; DHS-funded research develops thinner, yet tougher, glass; the secret to the design’s success is long glass fibers in the form of a woven cloth soaked with liquid plastic and bonded with adhesive

  • WikiLeaks reveals U.S. anxious over infrastructure vulnerability

    Among the leaked documents released by WikiLeaks is a secret list of infrastructure-related facilities and topics, from pipelines to smallpox vaccine suppliers, whose loss or attack by terrorists could “critically impact” U.S. security in the view of the State Department; the February 2009 cable from the State Department requested overseas U.S. missions update a list of infrastructure and resources around the globe “whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security and/or national and homeland security of the United States”; the list includes undersea cables, communications, ports, mineral resources, and firms of strategic importance in countries ranging from Austria to New Zealand

  • ICx Technologies: comprehensive, layered approach to security

    At the recent ASIS exhibition and seminar, Homeland Security Newswire took the time to walk through the ICx Technologies booth and speak to some of their subject matter experts; CommandSpace® & ThreatSense™, solutions which provide a comprehensive, layered approach to perimeter security and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security for critical facilities, respectively, were on display

  • New strategy for UAVs: emulate the soaring approach of peregrine falcons

    UAVs could fly for longer using less power if they copied the counter-intuitive flying patterns of peregrine falcons, say researchers; falcons, instead of spiraling in one direction to stay with a single thermal, constantly change the direction of their spirals

  • Artificial tornadoes created to test Japanese homes

    Japan suffers from many natural disasters, and over the past few years the number of tornados hitting the country has been on the rise; researchers have built a tornado simulator which can generate maximum wind velocity of 15 to 20 meters per second, enough to simulate an F3-size storm; on Japan’s Fujita Scale, an F3 storm is one powerful enough to uproot large trees, lift and hurl cars, knock down walls, and destroy steel-frame structures

  • It's official: asteroids did kill the dinosaurs

    The prevailing scientific consensus is that at least one asteroid — possibly more — hit the earth about sixty-five million years ago, showering the planet with dust and debris, blocking sunlight, causing firestorms, and marking the end of the Cretaceous Period and the beginning of the Paleogene Period; most scientists believe the impact was directly responsible for the mass extinction of many species of plants and animals — most famously, the dinosaurs; geological evidence buried deep in the soil of New Jersey offers support for the impact theory of dinosaur extinction

  • Desalinating water, producing hydrogen, treating wastewater -- simultaneously

    Fresh water and reusable energy: humans are on a constant hunt for a sustainable supply of both; trouble is, water purification requires a lot of energy, while utility companies need large amounts of water for energy production; researchers from the University of Colorado Denver College of Engineering and Applied Science may have discovered an answer

  • Fusion power nears

    The long-sought goal of a practical fusion-power reactor has inched closer to reality with new experiments from MIT’s experimental Alcator C-Mod reactor, the highest-performance university-based fusion device in the world; MIT advance helps remove contaminants that slow fusion reactions

  • Container heist unrelated to Port of Los Angeles

    Investigators in Los Angeles described the heist of three containers as “terminal robbery” — but the heist had nothing to do with the Port of Los Angeles / Long Beach; the facility where the robbery occurred is located miles inland from the port, is not part of a federally regulated port area, and is not governed by the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) protocol; since stricter port regulations came into effect following the 9/11 attacks, zero containers have been stolen from the Port of Los Angeles

  • Nuclear power faces waste, weapons proliferation problems

    New report concludes that nuclear power will continue to be a viable power source but that the current fuel cycle is not sustainable; due to uncertainty about waste management, any projection of future costs must be built on basic assumptions that are not grounded in real data; the “once-through” policy, mandated by the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, creates a lot of highly radioactive waste; reprocessing and recycling of spent fuel lessens the waste problem, but significantly increases the risk of weapons proliferation

  • Declining energy quality root cause of current recession

    A new concept — the Energy Intensity Ratio (EIR) — measures how much profit is obtained by energy consumers relative to energy producers; the higher the EIR, the more economic value consumers (including businesses, governments and people) get from their energy; to get the U.S. economy growing again, Americans will have to increase the U.S. EIR by producing and using energy more efficiently

  • Haiti's escalating crises come down to lack of clean water

    Haiti’s corrupt and indifferent government has done little to improve water and sanitation since a 12 January earthquake, making it likely that the cholera epidemic there will continue to spread; even before the quake, more than a third of Haitians lacked access to clean water; now, more than two-thirds of Haitians have no access to clean water; less than one-fifth of the population has access to a simple latrine or toilet

  • Nature's desalination: bacteria turn salty water fresh

    The growing global shortage of water has led to a growing interest in desalination to produce fresh water from seas and estuaries; conventional desalination plants, however, consume large amounts of energy; the solution: a bug-powered desalination cell that takes salt out of seawater

  • Royal Society paints unsettling picture of a world 4 °C warmer

    If present warming trends continue, the world could warm by 4 °C by 2060; a new, detailed study by the U.K. Royal Society would make global water shortages acute; most of sub-Saharan Africa will see shorter growing seasons, with average maize production will drop 19 percent and bean production by 47 percent compared with current levels; the extreme weather, sea-level rise, and water shortages will drive many people to migrate