• Scientists seek homes in the Seattle area in which to install quake monitors

    Scientists want to install seismic monitors in homes in the Seattle area to measure ground-shaking; with detailed information on the way the ground shakes in a particular spot, it may be possible to design buildings tailored to their exact locations; the instruments also will help construct “shake-maps” to pinpoint areas of heaviest damage after major earthquakes

  • New pipe-inspection technology detects leaks in aging pipes

    An aluminum ball slightly larger than a softball travel through hundreds of miles of water pipes and water mains; equipment inside the ball picks up the hissing sounds of any leaks, and the data are then wirelessly transmitted to a computer; after the pipe is drained, workers push the cart, which resembles a steel bike, through the pipe, and electromagnetic coils attached to a computer on the cart detect the location of the leak

  • Corps speeds testing of tubes for blocking breaches in levees

    Lightweight Universal Gasket, called a PLUG, is a fabric tube that can be floated into place and filled 80 percent with water using an attached pump; the tube is pulled into the breach in the levee by the current, blocking more water from going through the breach; the tube is dropped by helicopter near the breach.

  • Rise in sea levels forces drastic changes on Florida

    If sea levels rise by only two feet, Florida stands to lose almost 10 percent of its land area and the homes of 1.5 million people; the zone which is vulnerable to 27-inch rise in sea level includes residential real estate worth $130 billion, half of Florida’s beaches, two nuclear reactors, three prisons, 37 nursing homes, and much more; the Florida government is considering changes to building codes and other precautionary measures.

  • Rise in sea levels threatens California ports, infrastructure

    Scientists expect ocean levels to rise by at least 16 inches over the next 40 years, causing flooding and endangering facilities throughout the state of California; the California Climate Change Center has estimated that nearly half a million people, thousands of miles of roads and railways, and major ports, airports, power plants, and wastewater treatment plants are at risk; in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana region, sea level rise could expose $96.5 billion of infrastructure to damage.

  • Former OSU student turns professors’ research his business

    Two OSU professors developed a nanotechnology-based ink that changes color when it detects a certain type of explosive, and then neutralizes it; an OSU business student made the professors’ invention his business – literally – founding a company aiming to develop the commercial potential of the invention

  • DHS invites Kiwi research cooperation

    A DHS representative visited New Zealand to explore research collaboration with New Zealand institution; of special interest to DHS is work done at the Human Interface Technology (HIT) Lab at Canterbury University about finding new ways of interacting with large amounts of data, particularly unstructured data — enabling zettabytes (10 to the power 21 bytes) of data to be economically represented in ways that make patterns such as clusters of similarity and outliers readily appreciable by the human eye.

  • MIT wins DARPA's red-balloon competition

    To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA on Saturday launched ten red weather balloons in unannounced locations in the United States; the first team of spotters to identify the locations of the balloon received $40,000 in prize money; MIT researchers found a clever way to recruit hundreds of spotters, and the MIT team won

  • Battlefield walker machines received $3 million for more studies

    DARPA wants a robotic walker – in fact, a robotic pack mule — to help soldiers in the field by carrying their heavy gear; Boston Dynamics, the company developing the robot, has spoken previously of using the same walker technology in urban environments or indoors, and it has already developed a fairly advanced two-legged machine.

  • U.S. Air Force offers more details on stealth UAV

    After much speculation and many rumors, the USFA reveals that it has been using a new-design UAV — deep, fat centerbody blended into the outer wings – for surveillance missions in Afghanistan; observers note that with its low-observable design, the aircraft could be useful for flying the borders of Iran and peering into China, India, and Pakistan for useful data about missile tests and telemetry, as well as gathering signals and multi-spectral intelligence

  • Scientific conference in India to focus on explosives and advanced propellants systems

    Explosive detection is a pressing issue for military leaders and law enforcement, a challenging issue for scientists and researchers, and a growing and attractive field for businesses and investors; leading Indian research organizations host a major conference on the subject

  • Irish government urged to heed entrepreneurs to rebuild economy

    An Irish scientist and entrepreneur urges to government must do more to protect investment in research to encourage the creation of ‘‘world class’’ Irish companies; Donald Fitzmaurice said there were three ‘‘key enabling technologies’’ in the world — biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information and communications technology. ‘‘They are important on their own but when they converge, they open up new important possibilities, such as new materials, artificial intelligence, modified biological entities”

  • U.K. to launch IT skills school next year

    The U.K. government has given the green light for launching an IT skills school; the U.K. technology sector requires 140,000 new IT recruits each year; the skills academy aims to turn out the kind of IT pros the industry is crying out for: those with both technical and business skills

  • DHS looks to tamper-proof cargo containers

    DHS has been looking into many different technologies to protect U.S. boarders since 9/11. Now, the department is looking to the for ideas to help enhance security where some argue it is needed most — down by the docks.

  • Cyber security certification is not a panacea for cybersecurity woes

    The U.S. Congress is deliberating proposals to require cybersecurity certification for cyber security professionals; although a good certification standard might be a measure of a baseline level of competence, it is not an indicator of job performance; having certified employees does not mean firewalls will be configured securely, computers will have up-to-date patches, and employees won’t write passwords on the backs of keyboards