• Messaging pictures as a safety device

    A Pittsburgh-based startup allows you to take pictures of threatening individuals you may encounter in hairy situations, and message these pictures to a secure “vault”; if you do not come back to your home or office by a specified time, the date- and time-stamped pictures are made available to the police

  • Pentagon interested in submersible aircraft

    DARPA asks for proposals for a submersible airplane; the agency admits that this has never been done before, and that many of the design requirements of airplanes contradict the design requirements of submarines; still, the agency says that we may solve the contradiction if we were to think not of a flying submarine, but of a submersible aircraft

  • EU votes down millimeter wave scanners

    Millimeter wave scanners offer a new level of security at airport checkpoints, but they also offer anatomically correct images of people’s private parts; EU votes against using them

  • New technique to detect individual molecules

    Even very small numbers of deadly infectious agents or allergenic pollen molecules can cause major problems for humans — but detecting such trace amounts has been difficult to accomplish with enough speed to do any good; new detection technique solves the problem

  • Better baggage security through simulation

    Aussie researcher develops software which allows airport managers to examine how baggage handling operations at a typical airport would cope with upgrades to security systems

  • New reactor design lessens risk of weapon proliferation

    Nuclear materials for power reactors cannot be stolen by those interested in using it for nuclear weapons while the material is in the reactor — it is too hot to handle; the risks of diversion are during the enrichment process, and while the material is being transported; to lessen the risk, researchers offer innovative reactor design

  • Debate over safety of taser-proof vests

    A U.S. body-armor company is selling taser-proof vests to police units; some argue that the vests make officers less safe because taser-toting bad guys would now aim for the officer’s head; the response: this is like arguing that bullet-proof vests make officer less safe because the bad guy would aim for the head

  • Closed Maine suspension bridge used for anti-terror testing

    DHS is using a closed Maine bridge for tests on how to fortify bridges against terrorist attacks

  • Debate over safety of taser-proof vests

    A U.S. body-armor company is selling taser-proof vests to police units; some argue that the vests make officers less safe because taser-toting bad guys would now aim for the officer’s head; the response: this is like arguing that bullet-proof vests make officer less safe because the bad guy would aim for the head

  • Innovative shoe scanner to make travel safer, lines shorter

    University of Manchester researcher develops a technology which allows security personnel to spot people with concealed items in their shoes as they walk through passport control or through traditional security checks

  • DHS to use TeraView's terahertz technology in chemical detection

    Goodrich chose U.K. terahertz technology specialist TeraView for developing a DHS-sponsored chemical detection system for government and public buildings, and on the battlefield

  • Using pre-cast abutments to build bridges faster

    Wisconsin contractor using pre-cast, segmental abutments for the first time to build a bridge in Wisconsin; technique may allow building bridges 30 percent faster

  • Unsettling lack of security at Level 4 Biosafety Labs

    Biosafety labs (BSLs) handle the world’s most dangerous agents and diseases; only BSL-4 labs can work with agents for which no cure or treatment exists; there are five BSL-4 labs in the United States, and GAO conducted a study of these labs’ perimeter security; you are not going to like what the GAO found

  • GE shows a chemical sensor that does not need batteries

    Researchers develop a chemical sensor that can detect minute quantities of chemicals in the air or water; it has no batters: it receives its power wirelessly from a sensor reader

  • Spanish mathematicians model submarine avalanches and tsunamis

    Mathematicians develop a new model to explain submarine avalanches and certain types of tsunamis.