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Turning water fountains into infection control units
Toronto’s Farrow Partnership Architects sees future in infection-control units
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More scandalous revelations about Kabul embassy security
The State Department outsourced the security of the U.S. embassy in Kabul to a private security company; the company cut costs by extending shifts from 8 to 12 hours; one security contractor had to be forcibly removed from a brothel during working hours
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Detecting counterfeit pharmaceuticals
Researchers develop a method which quickly and cheaply identifies counterfeit drugs in the health care industry
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Most expensive RAF aircraft in history takes to the skies
More than ten years ago BAE signed a contract to upgrade, by 2000, 21 Nimrod MR2s — the last De Havilland Comet airframes left flying in the world — so that they can perform antisubmarine duties; it is now nine years later, and the number of Nimrods was reduced from 21 to 9; the first of them, now renamed Nimrod MRA4, has just taken to the skies; cost to retrofit one plane: $660 million at current rates (not to mention to price for the original planes); the cost of the 9 Nimrods is equal to the cost of 3½ space shuttles
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Cyber criminals go after small businesses
Small and medium-sized businesses that do not have the resources to keep updating their computer security; cybercriminals find it easier to target such businesses
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Surveillance software solves security snag
Network security monitoring is currently limited by the inability of operators to recall the relationships between more than about 40 cameras in a network; the new software will automatically integrate data from thousands of security cameras in a video surveillance network into a single sensor, eliminating existing problems with huge information overloads
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Cocoon Data: Securing Internet communication
Cocoon Data’s Secure Envelopes is a way of electronically “wrapping” sensitive files, e-mail attachments, and other data to keep them from being seen by unintended eyes
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Locata Corporation: Location hot spots -- beyond GPS
A conversation with Locata CEO Nunzio Gambale; “It has been an adventure and we have already come a long way. I hope to live long enough to see positioning technology implemented in a place like New York City to be able to locate the position of someone in an emergency down to a couple of feet. That’s my dream”
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Catalyst Interactive: Training for the security industry
A conversation with Catalyst Interactive managing director Ken Kroeger; “What the public sees are the people on the front line, but its important to remember that putting those people on the frontline requires a fair bit of investment to their training. That’s were we come into play — to make sure that those people have the skills and the attitude they need to do their jobs”
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Australia: Innovation, pragmatism, common sense
A culture of self reliance and an emphasis on solving problems have combined to create an climate in which innovation thrives; enlightened government policies in supporting education and R&D have also made an important contribution to fostering such a climate
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Australia's public safety sector
The Australian public safety industry has 578,614 paid and volunteer personnel; the States/Territories and Commonwealth spend approximately AUS$26.38 billion per annum on the provision of policing, fire, emergency services, and national security; in addition, major natural disasters cost Australia an average of AUS$10.87 billion per annum in property losses to individuals, government, and companies
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Airborne laser ready for flight tests
The coming months will be important for the airborne laser — the multibillion-dollar laser built into a customized Boeing 747 will try to shoot a ballistic missile as it rises above the clouds
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U.K. orders helmet-mounted displays
BAE’s The Q-Sight display is a key element of the Gunner’s Remote Sighting System (GRSS), a system that will allow the image from a machine-gun-mounted thermal weapon sight to be displayed remotely on a see-through display mounted on the weapon operator’s helmet
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Home power plants project unveiled in Germany
Two German companies unveil plans for installing gas-fired power plants in people’s basements; in the coming year the program will install 100,000 of the mini plants, producing among them 2,000 megawatts of electricity, the same as two nuclear plants
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Instantly dimmable bullet-resistant windows
Company awarded a contact to develop instantly dimmable bullet-resistant windows for military and law enforcement vehicles; company says the new product will have its initial application in the global counter-terrorism market for government VIP Armored Personnel Vehicles, but that it also has real value in the civilian VIP market
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More headlines
The long view
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
A Brief History of Federal Funding for Basic Science
Biomedical science in the United States is at a crossroads. For 75 years, the federal government has partnered with academic institutions, fueling discoveries that have transformed medicine and saved lives. Recent moves by the Trump administration — including funding cuts and proposed changes to how research support is allocated — now threaten this legacy.
Bookshelf: Preserving the U.S. Technological Republic
The United States since its founding has always been a technological republic, one whose place in the world has been made possible and advanced by its capacity for innovation. But our present advantage cannot be taken for granted.
Critical Minerals Don’t Belong in Landfills – Microwave Tech Offers a Cleaner Way to Reclaim Them from E-waste
E-waste recycling focuses on retrieving steel, copper, aluminum, but ignores tiny specks of critical materials. Once technology becomes available to recover these tiny but valuable specks of critical materials quickly and affordably, the U.S. can transform domestic recycling and take a big step toward solving its shortage of critical materials.
Microbes That Extract Rare Earth Elements Also Can Capture Carbon
A small but mighty microbe can safely extract the rare earth and other critical elements for building everything from satellites to solar panels – and it has another superpower: capturing carbon dioxide.