• DARPA-funded new engine brings flying car closer

    DARPA awards Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne a $1 million contract to develop its EnduroCORE engine, which the company says offers “a high power-to-weight ratio comparable to gas turbines”; the engine will bring the Transformer TX flying car closer to reality

  • SIGA wins $500 million contract to produce smallpox antiviral

    SIGA has received a $500 contract — the contract will be worth as much as $2.8 billion if the government exercises all of its options — to produce the first specialized treatment for smallpox bioterror attacks and related infections; before the company can begin work, it must fend off a legal challenge from Chimerix, Inc., an unsuccessful bidder for the contract; Chimerix claims SIGA misrepresented itself as a small business in order to win this small-business set-aside

  • Six years later, U.S. pilot's licenses still not secure

    In 2004 Congress told the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to come up with a pilot’s license that included the pilot’s photo and could contain biometric information like fingerprints or iris scans; critics charge that today, the only pilots pictured on FAA licenses are flight pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright, and the licenses lack biometric data

  • U.S. to sell Saudis $60 billion in arms

    The United States has agreed to sell Saudi Arabia $60 billion of arms, including helicopters and jets; this is the most lucrative single arms deal in U.S. history and could support 75,000 jobs; the Saudis could buy up to 84 new F-15 fighters and upgrade 70 more older models. The F-15s, made by McDonnell Douglas, will not be outfitted with long-range weapons in deference to Israeli concerns. The Saudis would also purchase 70 Boeing-made AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters, 72 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters (Sikorsky), 36 AH-6i light attack helicopters (Boeing), and 12 MD-530F light training helicopters (McDonnell Douglas); Israel will not object

  • Intel to invest up to $8 billion on U.S. manufacturing

    Intel will invest $8 billion to build a new factory in Oregon and upgrade four existing plants in Arizona and Oregon; Intel’s new investment will support its transition to 22-nanometer manufacturing technology. Intel’s last major investment was a $7 billion outlay announced in February 2009

  • Revolutionary forensic fingerprinting technique also detects corrosion

    Two years ago, Dr. John Bond at the University of Leicester developed a revolutionary method for identifying fingerprints on brass bullet casings, even after they have been wiped clean; now, Bond has applied the same technique to industry by developing a simple, handheld device which can measure corrosion on machine parts

  • Fujitsu develops inter-cloud data security technology

    With the advent of cloud computing, the boundary separating internal and external data has become increasingly blurred due to the utilization of external services; as a result, existing methods of preventing data leakage, such as only using a gateway to block the outflow of confidential data, have become insufficient, and there is increased demand for new security technology to allow the safe use of confidential data even in the cloud; Fujitsu offers a new data leakage prevention technology in cloud computing environments

  • China to cut rare Earths minerals export by 30 percent

    China controls more than 95 percent of the global market for rare Earth elements; China has cut rare earths exports by five to 10 percent a year since 2006; China Daily reported yesterday that the government would again cut rare earths export quotas by up to 30 percent next year, “to protect the metals from over-exploitation”; critics charge China’s real goal is to cripple important industrial segments of Western economies

  • Spray-on skin to be commercialized

    Sheffield, U.K.-based Altrika set to produce a spray version of its Cryoskin donor skin cell product that can be applied in hospitals outside of a sterile surgical environment in order to reduce treatment time; the spray would be stored in individual doses so the right number of skin cells can be selected once the wound is assessed; the cells would then be thawed as the patient is being prepared

  • GAO faults DHS, Boeing for SBInet problems

    GAO says that DHS failed adequately to oversee Boeing Co.’s work on SBInet — a troubled high-tech border security system; GAO said that DHS had not properly monitored Boeing’s progress in meeting deadlines and that some “essential controls” had never been implemented

  • Simlat in a UAV simulator contract with an Asian air force

    Israeli maker of UAV simulation and training solutions wins an award from an unnamed Asian country to deliver the company’s UAV training system to that country’s air force; the company will deliver its Simlat INTER (Integrated Trainer) solution, which includes high’fidelity simulation of the relevant UAV platform and its sensors, as well as the mission environment, including synthetic terrain and target modeling

  • PG&E to improve pipelines safety

    Following the deadly natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California, on 9 September, PG&E said it would upgrade its California pipeline system to boost safety; a key element will be the installation of hundreds of automatic shutoff valves to replace the current manual valves; the company would also contribute $10 million to a nonprofit group to develop better diagnostic tools to determine the condition of underground pipelines

  • Unease grows about China's rare Earth elements monopoly

    Rare Earth elements are quite abundant in the Earth’s crust, but environmental concerns and aggressive subsidies by China’s government to Chinese manufacturers have led to a Chinese near-monopoly: 90 percent of the world’s rare Earth elements are now being mined and processed in China; growing unease with this Chinese dominance has led to renewed efforts around the world to develop alternatives to rare Earth elements, and find environmentally sound ways to mine them

  • U.K. security firms say GCHQ's cyberattack warning overwrought

    U.K. cybersecurity industry insiders say last week’s warnings by Britain’s cybersecurity chief about the cyber threat the U.K. was facing may have over-hyped threats — and may have been related more to the run-up to the U.K. government’s comprehensive spending review announcement than to new threat information

  • New nuclear detection method does not use helium

    Current nuclear detection technology uses helium 3, which was a by-product of the U.S. earlier nuclear weapons programs and which is in increasingly short supply; Dynasil’s new “dual mode” detectors are designed to work without helium 3 and can replace two separate nuclear detector systems for gamma radiation and for the neutrons from nuclear materials