• Using kites to generate electricity

    The amount of power available from wind is related to the cube of its speed; blades at higher altitudes could thus generate up to five times the amount of electricity as at lower altitudes; why, then, not place blades at higher altitudes?

  • Smart Grid would contribute to U.S. energy security and sustainability

    New report from the Reform Institute examines benefits of a next generation electric power grid for national resilience and energy efficiency

  • Decision on national biolab nears

    Five states are vying to host to new, $450 million national biolab which will replace the aging Plum island facility; some lawmakers are questioning the selection process: an internal DHS review ranked the Mississippi site in Flora 14th out of 17 sites originally considered, yet it made it to the final five

  • UTD students place 2nd in Robotic submarine competition

    Students’ 11th-hour changes help propel team to top Ranks in underwater challenge

  • DHS prepares for attack during transition

    Elaine Duke, DHS’s undersecretary for management: “A lot of acts of terror take place in times of political change, and there’s an awareness of that…. So we’re looking at — when our political employees leave — who acts in their place … in case of an incident”

  • San Diego event to discuss robotic platforms -- their role and management

    Robotic platforms perform core and more military and first response missions; the Security Network event in San Diego will discuss these platforms, their missions, payload, and management

  • Edible optical sensor to watch for bacteria in food

    Tufts University researchers demonstrate for the first time that it is possible to design “living” optical elements that could enable an entirely new class of sensors; these sensors would combine sophisticated nanoscale optics with biological readout functions, be biocompatible and biodegradable, and be manufactured and stored at room temperatures without use of toxic chemicals

  • Self-healing wire to bolster avaiation safety

    In 1996 an explosion downed TWA flight 800 off the shore of Long Island, killing all 230 passengers and crew; University of Dayton researcher who identified a plausible cause of the explosion has developed a self-healing wire designed such explosions in the future

  • Military use of robots increases

    The U.S. military goal is to have approximately 30 percent of the army be robotic forces by somewhere around 2020; it is well on its way

  • Bullet-tagging technology to help combat crime

    U.K. researchers develop new bullet-tagging technology: tags are applied to gun cartridges by being embedded in cartridge coatings made from polylactic acid, sucrose ester, and tetrahydrofuran; the tags attach themselves to the hands or gloves of anyone handling the cartridge, but a portion of the tag remains on the cartridge even after it has been fired, making it possible to make a definite link between a cartridge fired during a crime and whoever handled it

  • China establishes itself as a physics powerhouse

    Published journal articles in nanoscience, with at least one co-author based in China, have seen a 10-fold increase since the beginning of the millennium, rising to more than 10,500 in 2007; China has already overtaken the United Kingdom and Germany in the number of physics papers published and is beginning to nip at the heels of the United States; the verdict on the quality of many of these papers is still out

  • NIST tighten rules after plutonium spill in lab

    On 9 June about 1/4 gram of powdered plutonium spilled from a vial at a NIST lab in Boulder, Colorado; an investigative committee found that a failure in the safety management system was exacerbated by a “casual and informal research environment that appears to have valued research results above safety considerations”

  • Harris shows new multiband software-defined radio

    New Unity XG-100 provides direct interoperability to federal, state, and local public safety agencies across multiple frequency bands

  • Day of optical communications nears

    New technique to compress light could open doors for optical communications; scientists at the University of California-Berkeley have devised a way to squeeze light into tighter spaces than ever thought possible, opening doors to new technology in the fields of optical communications, miniature lasers, and optical computers

  • GM opens new powertrain development center

    GM, looking to bring more fuel-efficient cars to market more quickly, opens state-of-the-art powertrain development lab