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Smiths Group plays its cards tight
Smiths Groups sells its aerospace division to GE for $4.8 billion, proposing investors a £2.1 billion return — and then forms a detection JV with that company, with both companies hopingt o benefit from increased spending on WMD dection
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ICRC delivers first responder vehicles to Michigan National Guard
Heavy-duty truck is first to incorporate IRCS’s national guard vehicle information system for interoperability and networking; flexible communications, NBS detection, and nighttime surveillance among the features of this interesting vehicle
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Implant Science explores teaming up with RAE's senor networks
Companies will discuss technology-sharing possibilities; RAE’s AreaRAE system looks to expand into the explosives detection business; ISC’s device identifies TNT, black powder, ammonium nitrate, and more
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New radiation countermeasure to be tested on humans
As worries about radiation attack by terorists — whether on a large scale, or for the killing of a single individual, as was the case in the recent London poisioning of Alexander Litvinenko — the FDA approves human trials of new radiation countermeasure from a Minnesota company
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Bruker Daltonics wins $1.7 million Army contract
RAID-M chemical weapons detectors already a hit with German and Danish forces; devices will support the National Guard WMD Civil Support Teams’ Analytical Laboratory System
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DHS releases 2007 state and municipal grant funding levels
Urban Areas Security Initiative and Citizen Corps Program receive mild funding boosts; other programs see minor losses; DHS gives risk assessment the old college try
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Colorado researcher to test natural mustard gas cure
Milk thistle has shown remarkable ability to prevent skin cancer; $2.7 million contract will explore whether similar mechanism may obtain for mustard gas exposure; researcher hopes to create an ointment to be applied post-attack
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UPDATE: NNSA chief fired for Los Alamos security lapses
Linton Brooks gets the axe after a series of breaches expose the weakness of lab cyber-security; failure to do away with removable storage devices in weapons-related computers cited; Energy Department starts the hunt for a replacement
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SAIC wins $53 million deal to move WMD models on-line
Integrated Weapons of Mass Destruction Toolset has been in development since 2004; moving on-line critical to dispersing data to first responders; physics-based models assess terrain, wind patterns, and other factors
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Michigan professor offers polymerase assay for fifty pathogens
Portable, polymerase-based, hand-held device relies on a DNA biochip; flexibility a major selling point; field testing to be done by university spin-off AquaBioChip
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SRI wins 9.5 million NIH contract to counteract chemical attacks
Contract awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as part of the CounterACT program; SRI to focus on preclinical development that can lead to potential therapeutic candidates
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JMAR delisted from NASDAQ; will soon be quoted on OTC BB
Down but not out: JMAR has been delisted from NASDAQ, having failed to satisfy the $1 bid price requirement and the $2.5 million shareholders’ equity requirementbut; it will soon be quoted on the OTC Bulletin Boardw; company says move alleviated the need to pursue a reverse stock split
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Berkeley study shows humans as natural scent trackers
Student test subjects put their nose to the ground to find chocolate; after training, results dramatically improved; new discovery holds insight for the explosives detection business
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BWX fined for improperly disassembling nuclear warheads
Employees three times applied too much pressure to a W56 warhead; detonation a real possibility after safety mechanism fails; watchdog group says company forced workers to stay on the job 72 hours each week; BWX to pay $110,000, partly for not properly reporting the incidents
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DHS solicits bids for long-range radiation detectors
$25 million at stake for a lucky company; system must distinguish between naturally occurring radioactive material and medical isotopes; prototype must be compatible with an existing vehicle-sized detector; bids due at the end of January
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The long view
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.