• White House considering incentives for cybersecurity compliance

    The Obama administration is considering whether to back tax breaks, insurance perks, and other legal benefits for companies which bolster their digital defenses. The incentives, which include limited protections from legal liability and tax incentives, would be set up to persuade  power plants, water systems, chemical plants, and other critical infrastructure companies to comply with the voluntary cybersecurity rules which are being drafted as part of President Obama’s cybersecurity executive order.

  • Making power lines safer

    Last year, blackouts left 620 million people in India without power for a couple of days, and cost the U.S. economy more than $120 billion. Electric sparking has been blamed for major bushfires in Australia. Researchers have invented and patented a way of detecting and locating potential electrical faults along long stretches of power line before they occur.

  • New iceberg theory points to rapid disintegration, exacerbating sea level rise

    In events that could exacerbate sea level rise over the coming decades, stretches of ice on the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland are at risk of rapidly cracking apart and falling into the ocean, according to new iceberg calving simulations from the University of Michigan.

  • Budget cuts force DHS to scale back cybersecurity programs

    Sequestration-mandated federal budget cuts are beginning to have an effect on DHS cybersecurity efforts. Since March, the department has been forced to cancel two conferences and three training sessions for utility companies on how to defend against cyberattacks.Security experts are concerned that the budget cuts are affectingimpacting cybersecurity efforts at a time where more money needs to be put into securing critical infrastructure.

  • New underwater robots mimic designs found in nature

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    In recent years, robotic underwater vehicles have become more common in a variety of industrial and civil sectors. Now, a new class of underwater robot has emerged that mimics designs found in nature. These “biomimetic” vehicles promise to lead to new underwater technologies that could help the oil and gas industry, underwater humanitarian demining, environmental monitoring, search and rescue operations, anti-terrorist activities, harbor surveillance, coastal security and fisheries management, and more.

  • Young engineers compete in underwater robotics race

    Student-built autonomous underwater vehicles will speed through the depths of a Navy pool in a battle for supremacy at the 16th International RoboSub Competition. The competition is being held this week (22-28 July). In addition to building autonomous underwater vehicles, teams are also responsible for creating Web sites and writing journal papers that outline their work.

  • Spending on cybersecurity for critical infrastructure to reach $46 billion by end of 2013

    The digitization of critical infrastructures has provided substantial benefits — improved productivity, better connectivity, greater efficiencies. Yet this digitization also carries significant risks. Always-on Internet connectivity has ushered in a new cyber-age in which the stakes are higher. Better to shield critical infrastructure, cyber security spending for critical infrastructure protection will hit $46 billion globally by the end of 2013.

  • 130-year old seawall protected New Jersey town from Sandy's storm surges

    Bay Head and Mantoloking sit side-by-side in Ocean County, facing the ocean. In Bay Head, Sandy flooded 88 percent of the oceanfront homes, with just one oceanfront home destroyed. In Mantoloking, more than half of the oceanfront homes were damaged or destroyed. The reason for the difference between minor structural impacts and widespread destruction: a relatively small coastal obstacle — a forgotten, 1,260-meter seawall, built in 1882 and buried beneath the beach – which reduced potential wave loads by a factor of two.

  • Crawling robot examines, evaluates condition of load-bearing cables

    Severe weather events inflict damage and destruction. The condition of infrastructure and its components may contribute to the overall damage: weak components and damaged elements make infrastructure less likely to withstand the stress of a storm. Researchers have developed a crawling robot capable of examining and evaluating the condition of load-bearing cables, such as those found in bridges, elevators, and cable cars.

  • Mother Nature offers best protection for coastal communities’ infrastructure

    Extreme weather, sea-level rise, and degraded coastal ecosystems are placing people and property at greater risk of damage from coastal hazards. The likelihood and magnitude of losses can be reduced by intact ecosystems near vulnerable coastal communities. Scientists say that natural habitats such as dunes and reefs are critical to protecting millions of U.S. residents and billions of dollars in property from coastal storms.

  • Using crowdsourcing for earthquake monitoring

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other scientific institutions are using social media and crowdsourcing to learn more about earthquakes, according to a new report. These techniques provide inexpensive and rapid data to augment and extend the capabilities provided by traditional monitoring techniques.

  • U.S. ports vulnerable to cyberattacks

    New study says that the U.S. largest ports are vulnerable to cyberattacks.The study argues that the level of cyber security awareness and culture in U.S. port facilities is relatively low, and that a cyberattack at a major U.S. port would quickly cause significant damage to the economy.

  • Improving the reliability, resiliency of post-Sandy N.J. electric grid

    According to NOAA, prolonged electrical outages, largely because of storms, have been steadily increasing in frequency since 1995. Sandia Lab will help East Coast communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy boost the resiliency of their electric grids, so they can be better prepared to deal with natural disasters in the future.

  • Research network to search for extraterrestrial intelligence launched in U.K.

    A network has been launched to promote academic research in the United Kingdom relating to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The network brings together academics from eleven institutions across the country, and it covers a broad spectrum of research topics, including potential methods for detecting signals, the linguistic challenge of deciphering messages, the probability of an extraterrestrial civilization interacting with Earth, and the longevity of civilizations.

  • Earthquake-proofing precast buildings

    Precast or ready-made building structures offer a number of advantages when compared to more traditional construction techniques in terms of time and cost savings. The vulnerability of joints and connections between assembled precast elements, however, is widely recognized as a potential safety issue, especially in earthquake-prone areas. An EU-funded project has set out to develop new procedures and guidelines for designing precast structure joints and connections that can stand up to seismic forces.