• Flying saucers, tiny helicopters compete in British war game

    The U.K. Ministry of defense held its first Grand Challenge technology competition last week; six finalists receive $600,000 each to develop their concepts into machines; finalists will meet for mock battle in August

  • U.S. wireless landascpe about to change

    Clearwire, Sprint Nextel to form $14.55 billion wireless company which will deploy WiMAX networks across the United States; WiMAX’s speed dwarfs current wireless technologies, holding the potential of rendering cable and phone line Internet obsolete

  • Lockheed Martin’s Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM)

    The Iranian nuclear weapons program is moving full-speed ahead — the December 2007 NIE strangely opined that Iran had “halted” its nuclear weapon program, but Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says Iran is “hell-bent” on acquiring nuclear weapons – and Lockheed Martin successfully tests the JASSM which aims not only to destroy high-value hardened targets, but also evade the sophisticated air-defense systems the Russians are building for Iran

  • IEEE-USA to host Boston-Area Homeland Security Conference

    A business panel with local and national experts on technology commercialization is to be the main feature of the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security

  • Plasma-powered flying saucer for surveillance

    Passing a current of magnetic field through a conducting fluid generates force; a new patent application shows how this phenomenon — magnetohydridynamics — may be used as a form of propulsion

  • HP CEO: Dwindling tech talent hurt U.S.

    Mark Hurd, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, laments declining technical competence in the United States; only 40 percent of HP’s 40,000 engineers are now based in the United States

  • Unassuming fungi lock depleted uranium out of harm's way

    Common fungi, found in most back gardens, could help clean up battlefields contaminated with depleted uranium

  • NTT shows commercial RedTaction security system

    NTT shows Firmo, a Human Area Network (HAN)-based system which uses the surface of the human body for communication; the Firmo Kit is used as an alternative to short-range wireless security card entrance/exit systems

  • German invents radar-camouflaging paint

    A German amateur inventor invents radar-camouflaging paint; planes, vehicles, and buildings may be coated with the paint and made invisible to radar

  • Smarter electric grid key to saving power, I

    Power providers and technology companies are making the electric grid smarter; it will stop being merely a passive supplier of juice; installing smart controls in homes would allow consumers to decide how much energy they need at what price

  • Electronic "pets" to tackle identity theft problem

    Forget passwords, PINs, or even biometric security measures; a new, if futuristic, solution is offered for the problem of identity theft: Electronic pets; the pets would recognize their owners’ voiceprint, fingerprints, or walking style; researchers say it will be important for owners to bond with and nourish their electronic pets by playing with them

  • A shoebox-size chemical sensor to detect toxins, pollution

    Quantum cascade lasers were first demonstrated by Harvard’s Federico Capasso and colleagues in 1994; now Capasso is using the technology to develop a portable array of lasers to be used to monitor pollution and detect toxins

  • Developing miniature robots to increase situational awareness

    The military wants to increase the situational awareness of of its officers and soldiers, and an alliance of industry and academia is set up to develop advanced robotic equipment for use in urban environments and complex terrain, such as mountains and caves

  • Existence of new basic element for electronic circuits proven

    There are three fundamental elements to electronic circuits: resistor, capacitor, and inductor; nearly forty years ago, Leon Chua of the University of California at Berkeley theorized that there was a fourth element — memristor — which had properties that could not be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements; HP researchers have now proven the existence of memristors; facial recognition biometrics will benefit

  • U.K. science's reputation damaged by funding fiasco

    In December 2007, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) — the U.K. main funding body for physics and astronomy, and a body which looks after some of the largest science centers in the country — was faced with a deficit of £80 million; a new report slams the SFTC funding decisions since then