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Man dies after stunned by a Taser gun
Taser stun guns are again in the news, as a man dies at Vancouver airport after being stunned by a gun for unruly behavior
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Opponnents say Social Security is not the way to track illegal immigrants
Opponents of DHS’s tightening of no-match rule say this is not a good way to control illegal immigration; AFL-CIO estimates that 600,000 of its workers could be vulnerable to firing
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A first: Quantum cryptography secures ballots in Swiss election
Quantum cryptograhpy finds real-world application in guaranteeing integrity of 21 October ballot in the canton of Geneva
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Quantum communication nearer as entanglement swapping realized
Security and computing experts cannot wait for quantum communcation to be mastered; good thing, then, that Swiss researchers show, for the first time, photon pairs entanglement swapping
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Exceedingly strong composite plastic for personal, vehicle protection
University of Michigan scientists, emulating the molecular structure found in seashells, create a composite plastic which is as strong as steel but lighter and transparent; ideal for personal and vehicle protection
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Formula One technologies help U.K. military
BAE collaborates with Motorsport Industry Association for the purpose of using suitable motor sports tehcnologies for making military vehicles more secure and durable
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Questions raised about certification of new nuclear warhead design
The Bush administrattion wants to replace cold war-era nuclear warheads with a newly designed Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW); trouble is, a 1992 U.S.-Russia treaty imposed a moratorium on all nuclear tests, so the new design cannot be tested
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Liquid explosives detection technology is almost here
After the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airlines with liquid explosives was uncovered in London in August 2006, pressure has grown to find new ways to detect liquids in baggage and on airline passengers and figure out what they are
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First true invisibility cloak created
University of Maryland researchers develop first true invisibility cloak; it is still small — well, at 10 micrometres in diameter, very small — and works only in two dimensions, but shows that true invisibility is practicable
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Army researchers develop IED-detecting radar
Researchers at the Army Research Lab develop new low-frequency, ultra-wideband radar which detects IEDs, senses through walls, and supports robotic ground vehicles
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Stanford researchers offer revolutionary design for computer chips
Moore’s law stipulates that the number of transistors squeezed onto a computer chip can be doubled about every two years; the law was threteaned by the damaging heat generated by the chips as their transistors become more densely packed; new design solves problem; “What we managed to do is basically get rid of the magnetic field,” says lead researcher
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NASA engineers develop FISMA compliance tool
NASA engineers are good at developing complex space exploration systems, but they were frustrated by the demanding FISMA compliance and reporting requirements; so they developed an automated tool to take care of it
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Argneitna warms up to UAVs
Argentina plans to increase use of UAVs for various homeland security and law enforcement missions
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DuPont to invest $500 million to expand Kevlar production
Growing demand for personal and vehicle protection conveniences company to increase Kevlar production capacity by 25 perent
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Mechanical mole seeks out disaster survivors under collapsed buildings
Robots already roll, walk, slither, and even “swarm” to locate or help survivors, so why not dig and burrow? University of Manchester rsearchers build a digging robot which imitates the common European mole
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The long view
Nuclear Has Changed. Will the U.S. Change with It?
Fueled by artificial intelligence, cloud service providers, and ambitious new climate regulations, U.S. demand for carbon-free electricity is on the rise. In response, analysts and lawmakers are taking a fresh look at a controversial energy source: nuclear power.
Huge Areas May Face Possibly Fatal Heat Waves if Warming Continues
A new assessment warns that if Earth’s average temperature reaches 2 degrees C over the preindustrial average, widespread areas may become too hot during extreme heat events for many people to survive without artificial cooling.
Exploring the New Nuclear Energy Landscape
In the last few years, the U.S. has seen a resurgence of interest in nuclear energy and its potential for helping meet the nation’s growing demands for clean electricity and energy security. Meanwhile, nuclear energy technologies themselves have advanced, opening up new possibilities for their use.