• Winners of the California Cyber Summer Camp Capture the Flag competition announced

    Cal Poly Pomona, in partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton and the U.S. Cyber Challenge, hosted the U.S. Cyber Challenge California Cyber Summer Camp in Pomona, California; the camp curriculum included in-depth workshops on a range of topics, including penetration testing, reverse engineering, and forensics; the week was capped off by a virtual “capture the flag” competition and awards ceremony on the last day

  • Researchers say spoofed GPS signals can be countered

    From cars to commercial airplanes to military drones, global positioning system (GPS) technology is everywhere — and researchers have known for years that it can be hacked, or as they call it, “spoofed”; the best defense, they say, is to create countermeasures that unscrupulous GPS spoofers can not deceive

  • Game lets players try their hand at computer security

    A new game — Control-Alt-Hack — gives teenage and young-adult players a taste of what it means to be a computer-security professional defending against an ever-expanding range of digital threats; the game’s creators will present it this week in Las Vegas at Black Hat 2012; educators in the continental United States can apply to get a free copy of the game while supplies last; it is scheduled to go on sale in the fall for a retail price of about $30

  • Capturing CO2 directly from air is chemically, economically viable

    With a series of papers published in chemistry and chemical engineering journals, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have advanced the case for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air using newly developed adsorbent materials

  • Pulling CO2 from air feasible, if still costly, way to curb global warming

    Emerging techniques to pull carbon dioxide from the air and store it away to stabilize the climate may become increasingly important as the planet tips into a state of potentially dangerous warming; lower-cost technology is a stumbling block so far

  • New U.S. biodedfense R&D network launched

    On Monday, Texas A&M System dedicated a new research center which is part of a national network of centers aiming to develop strategies and products to counter bioterrorism, chemical and radiological attacks on the United States, and better strategies to deal with pandemics; the network will have facilities in Texas, Maryland, and North Carolina; the Texas dedication is the culmination of a Manhattan Project-like program for biological countermeasures, launched in 2004 by the Department of Health and Human Services; the research network aims to develop “rapid, nimble and flexible approaches” to vaccine and therapy development, and train the next generation of professionals to sustain U.S. capabilities in these areas

  • You want to report a pothole? There’s an app for that

    The city of Boston offers residents a new app – Street Bump – which will automatically report potholes they encounter; all the driver has to do is install the app and place the smartphone on the dashboard or in the cup holder; the app uses the phone’s motion detector and GPS locator to report potholes

  • Temperature rise, CO2 follow each other closely

    The greatest climate change the world has seen in the last 100,000 years was the transition from the ice age to the warm interglacial period; new research indicates that, contrary to previous opinion, the rise in temperature and the rise in the atmospheric CO2 follow each other closely in terms of time

  • Selfish-herd theory confirmed

    Many animals spend time together in large groups not because they enjoy each other’s company, but rather because it lowers their own chances of being eaten should an uninvited guest arrive on the scene — or so the theory goes; now, researchers who have strapped GPS-enabled backpacks to flocking sheep and a herding dog provide some of the first hard evidence that this “selfish herd theory” is true

  • Engineering students race first 3-D printed boat in Milk Carton Derby

    University of Washington mechanical engineering students braved uncharted waters as they paddled to the finish line at the annual Milk Carton Derby at Green Lake in Seattle in what they believe is the world’s first boat made using a 3-D printer

  • Milestone for a Raytheon bomb which acquires, tracks, and then hits moving targets

    Raytheon said its Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) program achieved a milestone when it successfully engaged and hit a moving target during a flight test at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; the bomb, released from an F-15E, acquired, tracked, and guided to a moving target using its tri-mode seeker, scoring a direct hit

  • Replacing coal with natural gas would reduce global warming

    A new study finds that a gas substitution scenario, in which natural gas replaces all coal power production and any new oil-powered facilities by midcentury, would realize 40 percent of the reduction in global warming that could be achieved with a full switch to low-carbon fuel sources; this is a less costly, and more feasible, option, than switching all electricity generation immediately and aggressively to non-fossil fuel sources such as solar, wind, and nuclear

  • Using dolphins’ signal processing method for sea-mine detection

    One way for Iran to close the Straits of Hormuz to shipping is to place thousands of sea mines in the water; research examine how dolphins process their sonar signals, using the findings to provide a new system for man-made sonar to detect targets, such as sea mines, in bubbly water

  • Per capita CO2 emissions in China reach EU levels

    Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)  increased by 3 percent last year; an estimated cumulative global total of 420 billion tons of CO2 has been emitted between 2000 and 2011 due to human activities, including deforestation; scientists suggest that in order to limit the rise in average global temperature to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, cumulative CO2 emissions in the period 2000–50 cannot do not exceed 1,000 to 1,500 billion tons

  • New method for detecting, measuring bridge damage

    Researchers have created a bridge health index, which is a rating system that more accurately describes the amount of damage in a bridge; the health index can extend beyond bridges and apply to other structures, such as gas pipelines, dams, buildings, and airplanes