• Environmental sensor network trials in Japan

    DoCoMo will launch the trial operation of a network of environmental sensors on 21 December that measure pollen, carbon dioxide (CO2), ultraviolet (UV) sunlight, and other atmospheric conditions

  • Oklahoma State rejects anthrax study over euthanasia of primates

    The U.S. National Institutes of Health wanted OSU to conduct research on treatment for anthrax; the study involves baboons, which must be destroyed after anthrax exposure to ensure they do not infect others; In April, OSU announced that animals will no longer be euthanized in teaching labs at the veterinary school; measure was the result of pressure by Madeleine Pickens, the wife of billionaire benefactor and OSU alumnus T. Boone Pickens

  • Computer scientists report progress on world-simulation tool

    Computer scientists say that advances in different fields now make modeling of world events more realistic as an aid in high-level decision making

  • Climate change threatens Canada North's infrastructure

    Climate change is felt more acutely in the arctic, and a Canadian government’s report says that winter roads melting earlier in the spring could force communities to airlift supplies, while increased snowfall and changing ice conditions can add stress to buildings as well as energy and communications infrastructure

  • U.S. Army funds a new discipline: Network Science

    The U.S. Army gives Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York State $16.75 million to launch the Center for Social and Cognitive Networks; the new center will link together top social scientists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists with leading physicists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in the search to uncover, model, understand, and foresee the complex social interactions that take place in today’s society

  • Experts call for changes in U.S. vaccine creation process

    The current U.S. vaccine-manufacturing plan was developed prior to the cold war, and has never been updated; currently, the United States grows its vaccines in eggs over the course of six to eight months, and as there has been no real financial incentive to upgrade the vaccine making process, pharmaceutical manufacturers have instead focused on more profitable medications rather than vaccines

  • Better method to detect cracks in nuclear plants

    At the moment, cracks in nuclear plant components are detected by using ultrasonic scanners that carry a number of different probes; new device will use a single phased-array probe that will be safer, cheaper, and more accurate than existing systems

  • Climate change will lead to more wars and deaths in Africa

    Researchers predict that spikes in temperature will lead to a 54 percent rise in the incidence of civil conflict in Africa by 2030, resulting in an extra 393,000 combat deaths;

  • Dutch build sand dunes to fight rising seas

    More than eighteen million cubic meters of sand are dredged from the bottom of the ocean and brought back to land to form new dunes; the new dunes — each 30 to 60 meters wide, and rising up to 10 meters above sea level — are built along a 20-kilometer stretch of the shore

  • MIT researchers develop a smart anchor which mimics the razor clam

    The razor clam is about seven inches long by an inch wide, but it can dig into the ocean floor at a rate of about a centimeter a second; researchers also say that in a measure of anchoring force, or how hard you pull before an anchor rips out of the soil compared to the energy required to embed the anchor, razor clams beat everything, including the best anchors, by at least a factor of 10

  • Using rope to fight pirates

    New antipiracy device uses compressed air to fire a plastic cylinder containing either a coiled rope or net up to a range of 400 meters; the coiled line of net or rope, which has a parachute attached to the end, will unravel and lay out across the surface of the water; as a pirate boat travels through the water its propeller shaft will pick up the line and become entangled

  • New antiterror technology tool uses human logic

    A new interactive image-based software can be used on touch-screen table-top displays and other large-screen systems better to manage the huge amounts of data collected in connection with alleged terrorist plots

  • Stopping rampaging elephants in their tracks

    Elephants are an integral part of many Hindu rituals; elephants often feel uncomfortable with all the noise and and distractions around them, and at time a herd of elephants may begin to rampage; an Indian inventor offers a solution to stop rampaging elephants in their tracks

  • U.S. Air Force looking for miniature weapons for UAVs

    Currently, UAVs in combat overseas mostly use standard air weapons; the lightest, most delicate option available to a prowling UAVs is the Hellfire missile, a hefty hundred-pound laser guided rocket which was originally developed for the purpose of taking out heavily-armored main battle tanks; the U.S. Air Force tasks Boeing’s Phantom Works with developing a smaller, lighter missile more suitable for fighting terrorists

  • "Fingerprinting" RFID tags will prevent counterfeiting

    RFID tags embedded in objects will become the standard way to identify objects and link them to the cyberworld; trouble is, it is easy to clone an RFID tag by copying the contents of its memory and applying them to a new, counterfeit tag, which can then be attached to a counterfeit product — or person, in the case of these new e-passports; researchers develop an electronic fingerprinting system to prevent this from happening