• Paintballs may deflect an incoming asteroid

    With twenty years’ notice, paint pellets could cause an asteroid to veer off course; researchers say that, if timed just right, pellets full of paint powder, launched in two rounds from a spacecraft at relatively close distance, would cover the front and back of an asteroid, more than doubling its reflectivity, or albedo; the initial force from the pellets would bump an asteroid off course; over time, the sun’s photons would deflect the asteroid even more

  • U.S. shale gas drives up coal exports – and CO2 emissions

    U.S. CO2 emissions from domestic energy have declined by 8.6 percent since a peak in 2005, the equivalent of 1.4 percent per year; researchers warn, however, that more than half of the recent emissions reductions in the power sector may be displaced overseas by the trade in coal

  • Making toilets out of waste plastic

    Washington Open Object Fabricators (WOOF) has won the 3D4D Challenge, and awarded a prize of $100,000 to help toward implementing the winning project – which will enable waste plastic to be used as filament for 3D printing machines, to create new products; the winning team plans to use the winning technology to address local issues in water and sanitation in Oaxaca, Mexico

  • Understanding the effects of Fukushima by studying fish

    Japan’s “triple disaster,” as it has become known, began on 11 March 2011, and remains unprecedented in its scope and complexity; to understand the lingering effects and potential public health implications of that chain of events, scientists are turning to a diverse and widespread sentinel in the world’s ocean: fish; the data from Japan fisheries provide a look at how the ocean is faring eighteen months after the worst accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history

  • Safety glass – cut to any shape

    If an object slams into the glass façade of a high-rise building, the glass must not shatter and fall down, because it could harm pedestrians below; in addition, the window panes must hold if a person were to fall against it from the inside; architects and builders must therefore use something stronger than laminated safety glass on the façades of high rise buildings; scientists develop a method which offers more flexibility with the design and handling of safety glass

  • Carbon-negative fuel at projected cost of less than $1.50 per gallon

    Cool Planet Energy Systems the other day announced a major breakthrough in the commercialization and affordability of biofuels from non-food biomass that can run in any vehicle on the road today; a successful field testing was conducted at Google Campus

  • The DARPA Robotics Challenge begins

    The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) began yesterday, and DARPA wants to know whether you will be part of it; DARPA introduces teams for Tracks A and B, opens registration for Tracks C and D, and launches simulation software for download; the goal of the competition is to help advance robotic technology to the point where it can have a tangible impact on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief

  • Scientists improving process to recycle rare-earth materials

    Recycling keeps paper, plastics, and even jeans out of landfills. Could recycling rare-earth magnets do the same? Perhaps, if the recycling process can be improved; scientists are working more effectively to remove the neodymium, a rare earth element, from the mix of other materials in a magnet; initial results show recycled materials maintain the properties that make rare-earth magnets useful

  • Large-scale production of algae-based biofuels poses sustainability concerns

    Scaling up the production of biofuels made from algae to meet at least 5 percent — approximately thirty-nine billion liters — of U.S. transportation fuel needs would place unsustainable demands on energy, water, and nutrients, says a new report from the National Research Council; these concerns, however, are not a definitive barrier for future production, and innovations that would require research and development could help realize algal biofuels’ full potential

  • Looming sequestration causes Navy to looking at future technology, fleet size

    Adm. Mark Ferguson, vice chief of naval operations, offered a revealing look at the potential future for the Navy if sequestration, or automatic defense cuts, goes into effect in January; without some sort of adjustment by Congress, currently the subject of discussion on Capitol Hill, the nearly 10 percent across-the-board Department of Defense budget cuts are slated to commence in 2013 and continue for ten years

  • Assessing bridge resilience

    Across the United States, more than 600,000 bridges link travelers to millions of roadway miles, forming a critical part of the nation’s infrastructure; because bridges are typically more vulnerable than roadways to damage caused by natural and man-made hazards, they are also of interest to DHS, which funds cutting-edge research in various aspects of structural integrity testing and blast-resistant structural design

  • Ideas from nature on how to convert solar into liquid fuel

    It has long been a dream of scientists to use solar energy to produce chemicals which could be stored and later used to create electricity or fuels; a recent scientific breakthrough is providing hope that this may soon be possible; the development would offer many benefits, including the ability to store chemicals until needed — current solar power technology has difficulties in this area

  • Faster data analysis on tactical handheld devices

    The Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced a new program to optimize tactical handheld technology for quick decision-making in the field; the Exchange of Actionable Information at the Tactical Edge (EAITE) program, designed to sift through data from multiple sources for faster analysis

  • Analyzing the sound of rain falling on a bridge reveals bridge’s health, stability

    Engineers have found that by listening to how a highway bridge sings in the rain, they can determine serious flaws in the structure; employing a method called impact-echo testing, engineers can diagnose the health of a bridge’s deck based on the acoustic footprint produced by a little bit of water

  • Thriving in toxic environments

    Not long ago, a group claimed that these microorganisms, which live in an environment that is rich in the arsenic-based compound arsenate, could take up that arsenate and use it — instead of the phosphate on which all known life on Earth depends; the claim, since disproved, raised another question: How do organisms living with arsenate pick and choose the right substance? Scientists reveal how bacteria living in toxic environments identify and expel the poison