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NIST shows tiny sensor with biomedical, homeland security applications
Tiny sensor can detect magnetic field changes as small as 70 femtoteslas — equivalent to the brain waves of a person daydreaming; in addition to medical uses, sensor may be deployed in airport screening for explosives based on detection of nuclear quadrupole resonance in nitrogen compounds
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Going beyond Moore’s Law
Moore’s law states that the number of transistors in a microchip doubles every two years, but this is just not fast enough for current innovation; European researchers stack several functional chips into a single, extremely small, package
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Ensuring imports' safety offers lucrative business opportunities
Mounting worries about hazardous substances in food, toys, and other consumer goods is creating opportunities for makers of devices which detect such dangers; Bay State businesses seize opportunities
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Private equity firms focus on India's clean technology sector
Several PE firms allocate investments in India’s clean technology sector from their general funds, but others create India-only funds to focus on the sector even more
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Knowledge-based system to aid in suicide bomber detection
Viaspace to apply NASA’s SHINE IA system (the company calls it “real-time inference engine technology”) to develop suicide bomber detection tool
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Phononic computer processes information with heat
In addition to electronic computers and (theoretical) optical computers, we now have heat-based computers; such computers are based on logic gates in which inputs and outputs are represented by different temperatures; in run-of-the-mill electronic computers, inputs and outputs are represented by different voltages
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Former spooks run intelligence gathering and analysis outfit
Erik Prince’s security empire has an outfit called Total Intelligence Solutions which collects intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations, and global political developments for clients in industry and government
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Combining RFID tags with sensors
RFID tags are also in use to track the location of items to which they are attached; a German research institute develops RFID sensors to continuously monitor moisture, temperature, light, and acceleration; new tags will keep a closer eye items throughout the supply chain, and may be used to secure cargo containers
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Carnegie Mellon wins Urban Challenge
Tartan racing team wins DARPA’s robotic vehicles contest; Stanford comes in second, Virginia Tech third; cause of robotic driving machines advanced
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World's first: Fully functional nanotube radio
U.S.-Berkeley researchers develop world’s smallest radio: All four essential components of a radio — antenna, tuner, amplifier, and demodulator — are implemented within a single carbon nanotube; a carbon nanotube is one billionth of a meter in diameter and less than a micron in length
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DARPA-funded UCSD research yields world's most complex phased array
Tritons researchers develop world’s most complex phased array; the 16-element chip is just 3.2 by 2.6 square millimeters, can send at 30-50 GHz
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Lockheed Martin in successful test of THAAD
Lockheed Martin, U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully test missile defense system in detecting, tracking, and intercepting incoming unitary target above the Earth’s atmosphere
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Nanotechnology used in new anti-ballistic materials
Breakthrough in personal protection equipment: Aussie researchers use carbon nanotubes to create bullet-resistant materials for use in protection of first responders, law enforcement, and soldiers; material causes bullets to bounce off without trace or damage
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NEC successfully tests wideband wearable antenna
The major hurdle in using conductive fabrics was that soldering was not possible; NEC solves problem: Power is supplied to a small flexible print substrate by a soldered coaxial cable, so that power supply is possible through capacity coupling with the substrate
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A first: Reaper armed UAV fires first Hellfire missile in combat
The U.S. Air Force deployed MQ-9A Reaper armed reconnaissance UAVs to Afghanistan, and last week a Reaper launched a missile at enemy combatants some seventy miles from the UAV’s base at Kandahar; al-Queda operatives across the border in Pakistan’s North-West Territories would do well to go even deeper underground
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More headlines
The long view
Autonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks
Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.
Prototype Self-Service Screening System Unveiled
TSA and DHS S&T unveiled a prototype checkpoint technology, the self-service screening system, at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, NV. The aim is to provide a near self-sufficient passenger screening process while enabling passengers to directly receive on-person alarm information and allow for the passenger self-resolution of those alarms.
Falling Space Debris: How High Is the Risk I'll Get Hit?
An International Space Station battery fell back to Earth and, luckily, splashed down harmlessly in the Atlantic. Should we have worried? Space debris reenters our atmosphere every week.
Testing Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology
Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.
Strengthening the Grid’s ‘Backbone’ with Hydropower
Argonne-led studies investigate how hydropower could help add more clean energy to the grid, how it generates value as grids add more renewable energy, and how liner technology can improve hydropower efficiency.