• Cold water-pumping submarines to reduce ferocity of typhoons

    Typhoon intensity tends to remain level when ocean surface temperatures are high; reduction in the surface-water temperature would reduce the ferocity of the typhoon; Japanese company receives a patent for a typhoon-intensity-reduction system based on submarines pumping cold water from the depth of the sea to the surface in the typhoon’s path

  • DARPA to put manufacturing equipment in 1,000 high schools

    DARPA launches a $10 million program aiming to put manufacturing equipment in 1,000 high schools around the world; the program will challenge students to design and build things like go-carts, mobile robots, and small unmanned aircraft; while the program is aimed at bolstering the U.S. manufacturing industry, DARPA wants international students to participate as well

  • Japan develops vehicle motor free of rare Earth elements

    More than 90 percent of rare earths worldwide are produced in China; China had restricted exports of crucial rare Earth elements in order to cripple certain segments of the economies of other industrial countries; in response, Japanese automakers develop new engines

  • U.K. aerospace students to build human-powered aircraft

    Final year aerospace engineering students at the University of Bath, too, will be following in the footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci, designing and building a human-powered aircraft as part of their degree

  • Is rare Earth elements war in the offing?

    China has just 37 percent of the world’s estimated reserves of rare Earth elements (REEs), but a whopping 97 per cent of world production of REEs now comes from China; only a few other countries have REEs on their territory, but environmental and cost issues have so far made mining REES unattractive; the biggest threat may come from the availability of elements needed in agriculture, most particularly phosphorus

  • Livermore scientists to begin fusion quest before end of month

    Before the end of the month, scientists at Livermore’s National Ignition Facility will conduct an experiment backed by billions of dollars — and which promises to change the world’s energy supply; the scientists are preparing to meet an end-of-month deadline for the first set of experiments in the final stretch of a national effort to achieve the long-sought goal of fusion — a reaction in which more energy is released than put into it

  • Space plane that takes off from runway ready in 10 years

    An unpiloted, air-breathing space plane that takes off from an airport runway and carries up to thirty passengers could be ready to fly in ten years; it will cost an estimated $12 billion to develop the space plane, and an additional $10 million per launch, compared to the approximately $150 million cost of a rocket launch; the company predicts that a trip to orbit for two weeks would cost tourists about $500,000 per seat

  • America losing brainpower advantage, competitive edge

    The United States is losing its competitive edge, as stagnated federal research funding and a dysfunctional educational system are taking their toll; the United States is still a leader in innovation and produces a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth, other countries such as China are investing heavily in research and education and, as a result, are threatening America’s competitiveness; though most of the world’s top universities are located in the United States, the World Economic Forum ranks the U.S. 48th in math and science education; only 4 of the top 10 companies receiving U.S. patents in 2009 were American companies

  • Scientists: More than 4 million barrels of oil entered Gulf

    Scientists conclude that following the 20 April explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon well, 4.4 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico; knowing the total volume of oil is critical to understanding how much oil could be lurking in the Gulf and nearby marshes — a highly contentious issue

  • Worldwide groundwater depletion rate accelerating

    In recent decades, the rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled; if water was siphoned from the Great Lakes as rapidly as water is pumped out of underground reservoirs, the Great Lakes would go bone-dry in around 80 years

  • A first: human-powered ornithopter achieves sustained flight

    Leonardo da Vinci sketched the first human-powered ornithopter in 1485, but the idea had to wait until 2 August 2010 to be realized; aviation history was made when the University of Toronto’s human-powered aircraft with flapping wings became the first of its kind to fly continuously; the wing-flapping device sustained both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds, and covered a distance of 145 meters at an average speed of 25.6 kilometers per hour

  • New TNT detector 1,000 more sensitive than sniffer dogs

    Israeli researchers develop an explosives detector that can detect extremely small traces of commonly used explosives in liquid or air in a few seconds; the device is a thousand times more sensitive than the current gold standard in explosives detection: the sniffer dog

  • Police warm to predictive analysis crime fighting tools

    Memphis made an 863 percent return on its investment in Blue CRUSH — a predictive analysis crime fighting effort; the ROI was calculated using the percentage decline in crime and the number and cost of additional cops that would be needed to match the declining rate; Memphis has paid on average $395,249 a year on the Blue CRUSH initiative, including personnel costs, for a $7.2 million return; MPD operates on a $255.9 million annual budget

  • Multi-touch control search-and-rescue robot swarms

    The new Dream controller for Microsoft Surface could help speed up search-and-rescue operations; . when disaster strikes, search-and-rescue teams must quickly gather and assimilate the data needed to find survivors; a team of robots can help scout out for persons stuck in rubble or create new maps of the landscape; first responders, though, need ways to control those robots, and process incoming information quickly

  • A first: a Master's degree in infrastructure protection

    Ottawa’s Carleton University has unveiled a first-of-its-kind degree program: a Master of Infrastructure Protection; the program was launched last week, is offering a unique mix of courses related to engineering and national security policy; the aim is to educate infrastructure designers and engineers about policy-related issues, and policy makers about the design and engineering of the interconnected systems that form Canada’s economic and societal backbone