• Smart Grid offers savings, vulnerabilities

    A bill to be presented in Congress today aims to stop utility hackers; experts, legislators call for regulations on smart power meters to reduce new grid’s vulnerability to hacking

  • Skin-patch deliver flu vaccine

    Researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech develop a microneedle skin patch that delivers flue vaccine; the patches contain an array of stainless-steel microneedles coated with an inactivated influenza virus

  • DARPA awards Lockheed $399.9 million for blimp

    Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, receives nearly $400 million from the Pentagon to develop a blimp-carrying radar; the radar would be about 6,000 square meters (7,176 square yards) in size

  • Dutch flying car company, well, takes off

    Dutch flying car company PAL-V is gearing up for market launch of its flying car; it is Europe’s response to Massachusetts-based Terrafugia’s Transition

  • Experts: Levees will not save New Orleans from Katrina-like storm

    National Academy of Engineering panel says that even the strongest levees and flood walls cannot be guaranteed to save New Orleans from another hurricane like Katrina

  • Chemical robot shows possibility of electronics-free robots

    The Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction is one of a class of chemical systems in which the concentration of one or more compounds periodically increases and decreases; the oscillation thus generated creates an autonomous material that moves without electronic stimulation; door opens for future chemical robots: they will be “self organized” and generate their own control and mechanical signals from within

  • New sensor system protects ports, bridges, and distribution centers

    Sensor networks are an efficient, cost-effective way to monitor critical infrastructure facilities, distributions centers, and more; trouble is, to work effectively you need a very large number of them, and they all have to work collaboratively; a Dutch university researcher offers a better way of achieving this

  • Studying U.K.'s transportation system's resilience

    The U.K. government funds a four-year study to examine whether the U.K. transportation system is resilient enough to withstand climate changes

  • Silk tougher and lighter than steel

    German scientists develop a technique to make silk tougher and lighter than steel — and even more elastic than spider’s silk; material may be used in surgical threats, bullet proof vests, and artificial tissue

  • DHS: brain music to relax first responders

    DHS to use technique which measures a first responder’s brain signatures by using an electroencephalogram, then turn them into synthesized piano music — either a stress-reducing relaxation track, or an alertness-boosting one “for improved concentration and decision-making”

  • Financial crisis offers opportunities for start-ups

    A world of failing corporate titans and changing government policy is chaotic, but chaos creates opportunity and leaner times bring focus; savvy and nimble start-ups are in a position to exploit the situation

  • Self-healing concrete for safer, durable, and cheaper-to-maintain infrastructure

    Wolverines researchers develop self-healing concrete; the concrete self-heals itself when it develops cracks; no human intervention required — only water and carbon dioxide

  • Robots closing in on humans

    Last week’s Robo Business 2009 conference in Boston showed what we sensed already: robots are narrowing the gap between themselves and humans

  • Army to complete Fort Detrick Lab probe

    For a year now, U.S. Army investigators have been trying to find out what happened to three vials of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus that were unaccounted for at Fort Derrick bio research lab; as they are about to complete the probe, investigators say that there were no signs of criminal misconduct found yet

  • U.K. government's budget proposal attracts lukewarm reaction

    Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling’s budget — described by the chancellor as “the world’s first carbon budget” — offers support to U.K.’s fast-growth technology sector, but some say it is not enough; EFF’s Gilbert Toppin: “The measures are helpful though he should have gone further to make a real difference”