• 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

  • The Internet to be made more useful for the U.S. military

    DARPA awarded Lockheed Martin a $31 million contract to lead a team which will redesign the Internet to make it more suitable for military use

  • China ponders: Are a few big hydropower projects better than many small ones?

    China is moving aggressively to build dams along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, in part to protect the Three Gorges Dam, but can such hydropower development be done better? “It’s not just dams versus no dams,” one expert says; “It’s about elegant dams”

  • ASIS International wraps up successful seminar and exhibits in Anaheim

    More than 19,300 attending security professionals from industry, government, and law enforcement, along with product manufacturers and service providers from 90 countries around the world, and more than 715 exhibiting companies, justify ASIS’s claim that this annual forum is the most comprehensive education and networking event in the security industry

  • It's the people, stupid

    People are still the weakest link in computer and Internet security, study finds

  • New compartment design protects vehicle crew in battle

    By putting the backs of the crew toward the center of the crew compartment, the new design concept moves the crew away from the outside walls to reduce the likelihood of injury from side blasts, provides better visibility for the crew to monitor their surroundings, and allows blast-resistant seats to be frame mounted

  • New Bay Bridge span designed to endure major quake

    Twenty years ago a 250-ton section of the Bay Bridge fell into the water as a result of a 6.9 magnitude earthquake; the new bridge design will be able to withstand the largest plausible earthquake to occur within a 1,500-year period

  • Uganda to conduct Marburg and Ebola vaccine trials

    Ebola and Marburg are viral infections that have a high mortality, killing 90 percent of victims; no effective treatment exists for these highly infectious diseases, which cause extensive internal bleeding and rapid death

  • Asteroid collision: How to defend Earth, II

    Asteroid impacts are much rarer than hurricanes and earthquakes, but they have the potential to do much greater damage; moreover, what if an asteroid hits Earth in the Middle East or the Asian subcontinent? Such an event could be misinterpreted as a nuclear attack — both produce a bright flash, a blast wave, and raging winds; the result may be a nuclear war

  • TSB funds technology development

    The U.K. Technology Strategy Board will award £39.5 million investment to help U.K. businesses develop technologies that address global challenges

  • MIT researchers develop powerful object recognition system

    The new object recognition system could allow computers in the future automatically to search through hours of video footage for a particular two-minute scene; intelligence analysts should be happy

  • Michigan airport turns off Web site over malware risk

    The Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids temporarily pulled its site in response to an unspecified malware threat

  • Lockheed Martin show 360-degree IR sensor for better targeting

    The hand-launched Desert Hawk III is designed to operate in extreme temperatures and high altitudes and has provided the British Army with critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities in Iraq and Afghanistan; it will now be equipped with an upgraded 360-degree color electro optic (E/O) sensor, providing 10 times continuous zoom capability and aiding in contact identification