• Landslide detector to be developed

    Researchers are working in developing an early-warning acoustic sensor for the detection of landslides; current devices available for the early detection of slope failures are costly and technically limited

  • Computer models predicts power outages during hurricanes

    Researchers develop computer model that can estimate how many power outages will occur across a region as a hurricane is approaching; having accurate estimates, prior to the storm’s arrival, of how many outages will exist and where they will occur, will allow utilities to better plan their crew requests and crew locations

  • Carbon fibers improve blast, impact resistance of conventional reinforced concrete

    Researchers find that adding longer carbon fibers to conventional reinforced concrete significantly improves a structure’s ability to withstand blasts, hurricanes, and other natural disasters

  • Robust hierarchical metropolitan quantum cryptography network

    The security of a majority of classical cryptography is based on the complexity of the cipher algorithms and the development of distributed computing and specific hacking chips; this may no longer be sufficient, as quantum computing has become a serious threat to classical cryptography; the solution: quantum encryption

  • Cosmic entropy could be 100 times greater than previously thought

    Entropy increases as the number of ways the system can be arranged microscopically without changing the external appearance increases; new study shows that cosmic entropy is a 100 times greater than earlier estimates; the entropy of the universe must be below the maximum theoretical value or life and other complex phenomena will cease to exist; as the entropy gradually increases it will eventually approach the theoretical maximum, a state many physicists have called the heat death of the universe; the new study thus shows that our universe is closer to its death than previously thought

  • The personal spy: the smartphone in your pocket may be spying on you, II

    The advances in smartphone technology could well be exploited in much the same way that e-mail and the Internet can be used to “phish” for personal information such as bank details

  • Unusual-looking truck to protect U.K. soldiers

    The U.K. armed forces may be better equipped to cope with IEDs threats in the future, not least through a a truck with an unusual V-shaped hull and a design philosophy that takes protecting the crew as its starting point

  • Tornado threat increases as Gulf hurricanes get larger

    New study predicted exactly the number of hurricanes seen for Hurricane Ike: 33; tornadoes that occur from hurricanes moving inland from the Gulf Coast are increasing in frequency

  • Growing demand for IT forensics experts

    As reliance on the Internet increases, so do Internet-related crimes; the growing need to investigate such crimes and find out the culprits and their methods has increased demand for IT forensics experts

  • Without water reform Asia will face food shortage by 2050

    There are three options for meeting the food needs of Asia’s population, which will expand by one-and-a-half billion people over the next forty years: The first is to import large quantities of cereals from other regions; the second to improve and expand rainfed agriculture; and the third to focus on irrigated farmlands

  • The personal spy: the smartphone in your pocket may be spying on you, I

    The advances in smartphone technology could well be exploited in much the same way that e-mail and the Internet can be used to “phish” for personal information such as bank details

  • Through the wall, clearly: Radio waves "see" through walls

    A network of radio transmitters can track people moving behind solid walls; the system could help police, firefighters, and others nab intruders, and rescue hostages, fire victims, and elderly people who fall in their homes. It also might help retail marketing and border control

  • Surveillance gear-equipped beetles to be the U.S. military's latest weapon

    A team of scientists has implanted miniature neural and muscle stimulation systems into beetles to enable their flight to be remotely controlled; beetles can be equipped with surveillance gear and fly over enemy positions

  • iRobot shows morphing blob robot

    Massachusetts-based robotics specialist shows a blob robot which moves forward by inflating and deflating, or “jamming”; the jamming techniques allows the robot to transition from a liquid-like to a solid-like state; the goal is to build a robot that can squeeze through tiny openings smaller than its own dimensions, which could be valuable in a variety of military, surveillance, and search-and-rescue missions

  • Backscatter technology: the future of airport security scanning?

    Manchester Airport is testing backscatter scanning technology from Rapiscan; the Rapiscan system works by bouncing X-rays off an individual’s skin to produce an outline image of the person’s body