• The day of the "iSniff" nears

    Pocket-size pollution sensors hold promise of big improvement in monitoring personal environment; wearable sensors to be used for identifying air-borne causes of disease

  • How cloud computing can help the U.S. government -- and citizens

    The administration has seen benefits in the way private industry uses cloud computing, and intends to mirror these benefits; ultimately, the idea is to make it simple for agencies to procure the applications they need

  • Mafia's new business: sinking nuclear waste at sea

    The Sicilian Mafia had muscled in on the lucrative business of radioactive waste disposal; to increase the profit margin, mafia operatives blow up and sink the ships at sea rather than process the nuclear waste on board

  • More efficient nuclear fuel sought

    DoE funds research to address the shortcomings of uranium dioxide — the fuel most commonly used to generate nuclear energy

  • Methane mining in Africa could unleash deadly gas cloud

    Lake Kivu, on the Rwanda-Congo border, contains a vast reservoir of dissolved methane; many companies are extracting the gas to burn for electricity production, and both Rwanda and Congo are aggressively courting further investment in extraction plants; scientists say that the rush to extract the methane might trigger an outburst of gas that could wash a deadly, suffocating blanket over the 2 million people

  • Swayze's death, Williams's outburst, exploited to serve up fake anti-virus

    Cyber criminals exploit the interest of people in breaking news by creating Web sites designed to rip off users searching for more information; surfers visiting these sites are warned of non-existent security problems in a bid to trick them into buying software of little or no utility

  • California police employs nonlethal weapon used against pirates

    ATC’s long range acoustic device (LRAD) blast sounds at 150 decibels — 50 times the human threshold of pain — to fend off approaching pirates or massing insurgents; California law enforcement is now using the device at local political events

  • U.K. equips soldiers with thermal rifle sights

    The red dot sight is more accurate than iron sights, could be used with both eyes open, and is generally more effective at typical combat ranges (under a hundred meters)

  • Turning water fountains into infection control units

    Toronto’s Farrow Partnership Architects sees future in infection-control units

  • Detecting counterfeit pharmaceuticals

    Researchers develop a method which quickly and cheaply identifies counterfeit drugs in the health care industry

  • Electronic nose detects toxins

    Physicists have radiation badges to protect them in the workplace, but chemists and workers who handle chemicals do not have equivalent devices to monitor their exposure to potentially toxic chemicals; new electronic nose will change that

  • Surveillance software solves security snag

    Network security monitoring is currently limited by the inability of operators to recall the relationships between more than about 40 cameras in a network; the new software will automatically integrate data from thousands of security cameras in a video surveillance network into a single sensor, eliminating existing problems with huge information overloads

  • Cocoon Data: Securing Internet communication

    Cocoon Data’s Secure Envelopes is a way of electronically “wrapping” sensitive files, e-mail attachments, and other data to keep them from being seen by unintended eyes

  • Catalyst Interactive: Training for the security industry

    A conversation with Catalyst Interactive managing director Ken Kroeger; “What the public sees are the people on the front line, but its important to remember that putting those people on the frontline requires a fair bit of investment to their training. That’s were we come into play — to make sure that those people have the skills and the attitude they need to do their jobs”

  • Airborne laser ready for flight tests

    The coming months will be important for the airborne laser — the multibillion-dollar laser built into a customized Boeing 747 will try to shoot a ballistic missile as it rises above the clouds