• Silkmoth inspires novel explosive detector

    Scientists, imitating the antennas of the silkmoth, Bombyx mori, designed a system for detecting explosives with unparalleled performance; made up of a silicon microcantilever bearing nearly 500,000 aligned titanium dioxide nanotubes, the device is capable of detecting concentrations of trinitrotoluene (TNT) of around 800 ppq 1 (that is, 800 molecules of explosive per 1015 molecules of air), thus improving one thousand-fold the detection limit attainable until now

  • Can UAVs emulate bats’ flight capabilities?

    The natural world has countless examples of creatures with extraordinary flight capabilities, but bats have evolved with truly extraordinary aerodynamic capabilities that enable them to fly in dense swarms, avoid obstacles, and fly with such agility that they can catch prey on the wing, maneuver through thick rainforests, and make high-speed 180 degree turns; researchers want to know whether UAVs can emulate bats

  • Geoengineering may lead to whiter sky

    One idea for fighting global warming is to increase the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere, scattering incoming solar energy away from the Earth’s surface; scientists, however, theorize that this solar geoengineering could have a side effect of whitening the sky during the day

  • Livermorium and Flerovium added to the periodic table of elements

    The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) the other day officially approved new names for elements 114 and 116, the latest heavy elements to be added to the periodic table; the names of the two new elements: Flerovium for element 114, with the symbol Fl, and Livermorium for element 116, with the symbol Lv, late last year

  • Veterinary profession trends short-change biosecurity, food security, public health

    More than half of veterinary students in the United States seek training in companion animal or pet medicine – with fewer and fewer graduate veterinary students pursuing Ph.D. training which would prepare them for academic careers, key jobs in the public sector, and some positions in industry; the result is a dwindling supply of veterinarians to fill jobs overseeing and enforcing food safety and animal health standards, conduct research in human drug development and advances in pet health, and participate in wildlife and ecosystem management, infectious disease control, biosecurity, and agro-terrorism prevention

  • Sandia Labs technology used to clean up Fukushima after disaster

    A Sandia Lab-developed technology — crystalline silico-titanate, or CST — is a molecular sieve that can separate highly volatile elements from radioactive wastewater; the technology has been used to remove radioactive material from more than forty-three million gallons of contaminated wastewater at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

  • NSA launches cyber operations academic program

    The NSA has launched National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Operations Program; the program is intended to be a deeply technical, inter-disciplinary, higher education program grounded in the computer science (CS), computer engineering (CE), or electrical engineering (EE) disciplines, with extensive opportunities for hands-on applications via labs and exercises

  • Robotic jellyfish to patrol oceans, clean oil spills, detect pollutants

    Scientists are working on developing life-like autonomous robot jellyfish which will be put in waters around the world; the robot jellyfish would be used for military surveillance, cleaning oil spills, and monitoring the environment

  • Movie-like emergency training system for law enforcement

    Raytheon’s VIRTSIM law-enforcement training system employs licensed motion-capture technology similar to that used in movies such as “Lord of the Rings,” “Avatar,” and, most recently, “The Avengers”; the system is being offered to the law enforcement community as an affordable, twenty-first century alternative to outdated training practices that do little to replicate real-life situations

  • Groundwater depletion in Texas, California threatens US food security

    The U.S. food supply may be vulnerable to rapid groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture; for example, from 2006 to 2009, farmers in the south of California’s Central Valley depleted enough groundwater to fill the U.S. largest man-made reservoir, Lake Mead near Las Vegas — a level of groundwater depletion that is unsustainable at current recharge rates

  • Removing CO2 from the flues of coal-fired power plants

    The current method of removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the flues of coal-fired power plants uses so much energy that no one bothers to use it; scientists have developed an entirely new catalyst for separating out and capturing CO2, one that mimics a naturally occurring catalyst operating in our lungs

  • Explaining uneven rise in sea levels

    If there is a global warming trend, one of its consequences would a rise in sea levels, which will require massive mitigation efforts to protect coastal infrastructure; rather than a uniform rise in sea level, however, the records show sea levels rising in some areas and dropping in others; Harvard researchers offer an explanation for this phenomenon

  • Solving southwest U.S. water shortage by water cap and trade?

    Lake Mead, on the Colorado River, is the largest reservoir in the United States, but users are consuming more water than flows down the river in an average year, which threatens the water supply for agriculture and households; researchers suggest that to solve this imbalance, a water cap-and-trade system, successfully implemented in Australia, should be considered for interstate water trading

  • Bios of female terrorists contradict stereotypes: study

    Much like their male counterparts, female terrorists are likely to be educated, employed, and native residents of the country where they commit a terrorist act, new research finds

  • Groundwater pumping causes sea level rise, canceling out effect of dams

    Those in charge of infrastructure protection must now worry about another source of sea level rise: water pumped out of the ground for irrigation, drinking water, and industrial use; this water ends up emptying into the world’s oceans, and scientists calculate that by 2050, groundwater pumping will cause a global sea level rise of about 0.8 millimeters per year