• 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

  • Malicious hardware may be next hacker tool

    Next threat on the computer security front: Malicious hardware; malicious hardware is more problematic because it is more difficult to detect; China is already using an early, and simple, version of malicious hardware in its massive military and industrial espionage campaign against Western countries and companies

  • Senate Democrats criticize political involvement in toxic chemical decisions

    The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says extensive involvement by EPA managers, White House budget officials, and other agencies has eroded the independence of EPA scientists charged with determining the health risks posed by chemicals

  • Cybersecurity agenda for the next president

    Cybersecurity is not a technical issue, but a matter of culture, education, and self-interest; government cannot regulate information technology security, and industry cannot do the job by itself

  • Lessons from Kazakhstan about safe water

    A key UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015; research shows, however, that the MDG definition is too narrow and can be misleading

  • Scientists search for clues to Reno earthquake

    The shaking in Reno is unusual because the intensity of the quakes has increased over the past few weeks; generally, earthquakes tend to occur and are followed by smaller aftershocks

  • Security companies criticize Defcon virus contest

    Hackers’ event, Defcon, will hold a contest to see who can develop the best virus to beat antivirus software; prizes range from “Most elegant obfuscation” to “Most deserving of beer”; antivirus vendors upset

  • Reno urged to prepare for worse as earthquakes continue

    Scientists call on Reno residents to brace themselves for more earthquakes; more than 100 aftershocks were recorded on the western edge of the city after a magnitude 4.7 quake hit Friday night

  • Partnership to produce sugarcane-based diesel

    High corn prices have driven California-based biofuel specialist Amyris to join with a Brazilian company to produce sugarcane-based diesel

  • Straw power planned

    With more and more companies turning to biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels, a debate has erupted over the food-energy trade-off involved; a Welsh company bypasses this debate by planning to generate energy from straw

  • U.K. government split over mobile threat

    U.K. agencies divided over the scope and imminence of wireless systems which control the nation’s critical infrastructure

  • Herbicide-tolerant crops can improve water quality

    One of the major sources of water contamination is herbicide pollution; scientists find that using herbicide-tolerant crops — and replacing some of the residual herbicides with the contact herbicides —significantly reduces water pollution

  • DEET found in Chicago drinking water

    Low levels of bug repellent found in Chicago drinking water; the city water authorities say the amounts are too small to worry about, but a Duke University expert says finding raises a red flag

  • Earthquake in Illinois could portend an emerging threat

    Earthquakes in the Midwest section of the United States were mostly the result of the New Madrid Fault in Missouri’s bootheel; seismologists now worry that the 18 April, 5.2 Richter earthquake which shook the Midwest originated in the Wabash Valley Fault — meaning that another fault is becoming active

  • Desalination can boost U.S. water supplies

    More than 97 percent of the Earth’s water — seawater and brackish groundwater — is too salty to use for drinking water or agriculture; new report says that desalination would be a good way to meet water shortages in the United States, but that the environmental impact of large-scale desalination campaign should be carefully studied