• DARPA looking to edit soldiers’ DNA to boost performance

    DARPA has budgeted $7.5 million in hopes of “increas[ing] by several decades the speed with which we sequence, analyze and functionally edit cellular genomes”; the agency is also looking for a cybersecurity system which will not rely on technicians to patch security holes once they are found, but will instead have the instincts to go it alone

  • Cold war offered odd benefit: it limited species invasions

    During the cold war, when an Iron Curtain divided the European continent, there were few introduced bird species in Western Europe; following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the removal of the Iron Curtain, trade and the movement of people between east and west increased – and with it the introduction of non-native bird species; these non-native species do not have natural enemies in the local habitat, so they do damage to agriculture and domestic birds, and carry disease

  • Climate change experts argue for international geoengineering effort

    Solar-radiation management (SRM) would involve releasing megatons of light-scattering aerosol particles in the upper atmosphere to reduce Earth’s absorption of solar energy, thereby cooling the planet; another technique would be to release particles of sea salt to make low-altitude clouds reflect more solar energy back into space; long-established estimates show that SRM could offset this century’s predicted global average temperature rise more than 100 times more cheaply than achieving the same cooling by cutting emissions

  • Obama keeps promise to boost science

    President Obama stressed in his State of the Union address on 27 January that he wanted to freeze “discretionary” government spending for the next three years to rein in the sprawling federal budget deficit – but investment in science not only escapes this freeze: in his 2011 budget proposal, obama is seeking $61.6 billion for research — 5.6 per cent more than this year’s agreed budget

  • Experts: U.K. must act now to prepare for rising sea level

    A joint study by the leading U.K. civil engineering and architectural associations says that steps must be taken now to protect coastal towns from rising sea levels; the reports says policy makes should consider three options for tackling rising sea level: “retreat” — moving critical infrastructure and housing to safer ground; “defend” — building town or city-wide sea defenses; and “attack” — extending the existing coastline and building out on to the water

  • Maximum height of extreme waves up dramatically in Pacific Northwest

    A new assessment concludes that the highest waves in a “100-year event” along the Pacific Northwest’s coast may be as much as 46 feet, up from estimates of only 33 feet that were made as recently as 1996, and a 40 percent increase; the new findings raise special concerns for flooding, coastal erosion, and structural damage; “The Pacific Northwest has one of the strongest wave climates in the world, and the data clearly show that it’s getting even bigger,” says one of scientists involved

  • Next-generation gear: Digital revolvers, personal rubber bullets, triple-tasers

    The Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas offers many futuristic gadgets for law enforcement and security-minded citizens; Armatix shows a hand gun with a wireless safety residing in a wrist watch: if you do not wear the wrist watch, the gun will not operate; Burris has built one of the most sophisticated rifle scopes ever seen: it has a laser rangefinder that can automatically adjust your sights to compensate for the fall of each bullet over long distances; there is much more

  • Researchers propose a new way to scan cargo containers

    In 2007 the U.S. government set itself the goal of screening all aviation cargo loaded onto passenger planes and all maritime cargo entering the country for both explosives and nuclear materials; this is an ambitious goal: there are more than ten millions containers entering the United States every year through sea ports and land border crossings, and there are more than 28,000 commercial flights

  • Researchers work to help secure the U.S. power grid

    The U.S. Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid (TCIPG) team explores the Smarter Grid — secure and reliable technology involved in the underpinnings of the U.S. electrical power infrastructure; as power grids are upgraded and connected to online systems to increase efficiency, they become vulnerable to malicious attacks and hackers; the TCIPG team will develop cyber security tools and technologies to ensure that power supplies are not disrupted

  • Digital technology and insects to replace cadaver-sniffing dogs

    Researchers are looking for an alternative to the cadaver-sniffing dog; researchers are working on training insects to locate and identify cadavers; other researchers are working on a digital sniffer

  • Terahertz scanners may detect what whole-body scanners miss

    A typical full-body scanner works by bouncing X-rays off an individual’s skin to produce an outline image of the person’s body; these images must then be studied by an operator who makes the call whether there is a potential explosive present or not; the operator’s subjective view makes the system more fallible; terahertz technology works by sweeping a terahertz beam across a person and then using sensors to detect the radiation that reflects back; explosives and benign substances such as candy have a different terahertz spectrum, or fingerprint, that can be classified by TeraView software

  • Battling against biological threats with ultrasonics

    A tweezers-like device uses ultrasonics to detect bioterror agents; when a small sample such as a powdery anthrax mix is placed inside the device, an array of piezoelectric transducers would generate an ultrasonic force field onto the sample; security officials would be able to detect anthrax from innocuous powders in the mix through differences in compressibility and density

  • Quake-proofing U.S. buildings

    An Indian civil engineer has invented a sleeved column braces which help buildings withstand earthquakes; the sturdy brace apparatus surrounds a core of high-performance steel, but is spaced from the sides of the core; the sleeve thus absorbs and dissipates energy, but does not buckle under pressure; several large buildings in California, built in the last few years, have adopted the technology

  • Shooting payloads into space with a cannon

    Using rockets to loft payloads into orbit costs $5,000 per pound; a proposed ling-barrel cannon can deliver cargo into orbit around $250 per pound; what is more, unlike a rocket, the cannon is re-usable; it will take seven years and about $500 million to build the cannon

  • Robot chooses from a menu of walking styles to escape trouble

    When a newly developed robot finds it cannot move freely, it scans through the many walking gaits it has taught itself and selects the best for the terrain; this means it can free itself should it get stuck; the robot has six triple-jointed legs each with several sensors; the sensors feed information to the neural network, which then determines the most appropriate gait for the terrain, and adjusts the robot’s eighteen motors accordingly