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More debate about how best to defend Earth against asteroids
U.C. Berkeley expert says protecting Earth against incoming asteroids “is not an astronomy problem. It is a financial problem, an accounting problem, an international problem, an organizational problem, a political problem”
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Briefly noted
Smart cluster bomb hunts down targets… Anthrax-case documents reveal bizarre Ivins’s behavior… New FISMA bill receives committee OK… L-1 in $5.9 million Mississippi driver’s license contract…
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Seucring airports by reading people's minds (or bodies)
DHS is testing a machine which, from a distance, senses changes in individuals’ perspiration, respiration, and heart rate typically associated with anxiety one feels before committing a terrorist act
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Age-guessing software has security, commercial applications
Fighting Illini researchers develop an age-guessing software which can perform tasks such as security control and surveillance monitoring, and may also be used for electronic customer relationship management
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GPS vulnerable to spoofing
GPS technology is ubiquitous in civilian and military applications; Cornell University researchers raise uncomfortable questions by demonstrating how GPS navigation devices can be readliy duped by transmission of fake GPS signals that receivers accept as authentic ones
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"Thought helmets" for silent, secure communication among soldiers
U.S. Army funds research into helmets with embedded sensors which “read” a soldier’s thoughts (well, brain waves) and transmit them, telepathy-like, to their intended target
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U.S. military to be offered flying hover bike
An innovative Virginia company says its flying — or hovering — bike may be suitable for military missions; the machine offers vertical takeoff, range, and largely hands-off autopiloting
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Terminating the terminators: Anti-robot defense company launched
Dot.com 1.0 wonder boy Ben Way launches a company dedicated to anti-robot defense systems; unmanned systems proliferate on and above the battlefield, and more and more of these systems are endowed with autonomous life-and-death decision making capabilities; Way says he wants to make “sure we have control over our own weaponry”
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Three companies compete for a long-endurance UAV concept
DARPA’s quest for a long-endurance surveillance UAV — “long endurance” means staying in the air for five years — is not yet a reality, but it is no longer regarded as a pipe dream
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IBM shows hardware-based encryption tool
System x Vault protects data when a server’s hard drive is disposed or stolen, without affecting server performance
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Small robotic drones to join Air Force's arsenal
Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, will add surveillance capabilities to the military and law enforcements; scientists have studied the flight of fruit flies, the crawling of insects, and the perching of birds as they look for ideas for smaller and more effective surveillance machines, and MAVs are one result of these studies
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Using quantum physics to make better detectors
MIT researcher shows how entanglement, a peculiar property of quantum physics, may be harnessed for surveillance systems which are as much as a million times more efficient than existing systems
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FDA hires 1,300 new doctors and scientists
Staffing drive, launched just five months ago, will result in an estimated 10 percent increase in the FDA’s work force
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Drug-resistant plague may be a bioterrorism concern
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have located a gene that could mutate to make Yersinia pestis resistant to many common drugs; the bacteria might be used as a potential bioterrorism agent
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Xoma in $65 million anti-botulism drug development contract
First human monoclonal antibody drug program to target multiple botulinum toxins
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The long view
New Technology is Keeping the Skies Safe
DHS S&T Baggage, Cargo, and People Screening (BCP) Program develops state-of-the-art screening solutions to help secure airspace, communities, and borders
Factories First: Winning the Drone War Before It Starts
Wars are won by factories before they are won on the battlefield,Martin C. Feldmann writes, noting that the United States lacks the manufacturing depth for the coming drone age. Rectifying this situation “will take far more than procurement tweaks,” Feldmann writes. “It demands a national-level, wartime-scale industrial mobilization.”
How Artificial General Intelligence Could Affect the Rise and Fall of Nations
Visions for potential AGI futures: A new report from RAND aims to stimulate thinking among policymakers about possible impacts of the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) on geopolitics and the world order.
Smaller Nuclear Reactors Spark Renewed Interest in a Once-Shunned Energy Source
In the past two years, half the states have taken action to promote nuclear power, from creating nuclear task forces to integrating nuclear into long-term energy plans.
Keeping the Lights on with Nuclear Waste: Radiochemistry Transforms Nuclear Waste into Strategic Materials
How UNLV radiochemistry is pioneering the future of energy in the Southwest by salvaging strategic materials from nuclear dumps –and making it safe.
Model Predicts Long-Term Effects of Nuclear Waste on Underground Disposal Systems
The simulations matched results from an underground lab experiment in Switzerland, suggesting modeling could be used to validate the safety of nuclear disposal sites.