• Day of ultra-clean engine nears

    One of the major obstacles facing the development of ultra-clean car engines is the need for permanent-magnet electric motors to operate well at temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius; Iowa researchers offer a way to create such magnets

  • Reviewing -- and fixing -- Open Source code security holes

    Popular open source projects such as Samba, the PHP, Perl, Tcl dynamic languages, and Amanda were found to have dozens or hundreds of security exposures; some are quicker than others in fixing the problem

  • Tiny sensors detect toxic gasses

    MIT researchers developed a small detector the size of a match box which will detect minute quantities of hazardous gases, including toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents, much more quickly than current devices

  • Australia's biggest wind farm to be built in western New South Wales

    Germany’s EPURON and local company will develop, finance, and construct Australia’s biggest wind farm; Between 400 and 500 wind turbines with a peak capacity of 1,000 MW will supply 4.5 percent of the annual energy needs of NSW

  • Towns overhauling infrastructure maps

    The GIS Consortium was established in 1999; it enables police, fire, and public works employees the ability to bring computer-based mapping applications onsite, and allows mapping and updating of towns’ infrastructure — everything from sewer and water lines to the location of valves, fire hydrants, street lights, trees and signs

  • Interim government review of U.K. summer flooding published

    Interim review addresses the issues of managing flood risk, groundwater monitoring, local and national planning and response, public information, and public preparedness; the Review draws seventy-two interim conclusions, awaiting further information and evidence before being put forward in firm recommendations next summer

  • CN expands rail holding, banking on increasing northern oil production

    As the price of oil increases, the attractiveness of extracting oil from oil sands in Canada’s northern regions increases apace; CN acquires yet more rail to ensure rail links to Alberta’s oil sands region

  • Weapon-grade plutonium shipped cross-country

    The Department of Energy plans to scale down U.S. nuclear weapons program by consolidating special nuclear materials — read: weapon-grade material — at five federal sites by the end of 2012 and reducing the square footage and staff within those sites by 2017; nuclear materials will have to be shipped from different labs around the country to these five sites

  • DOE IG offers details of 24 October Oak Ridge security breach

    Certain areas of the U.S. nuclear labs are designated “limited areas” by DOE; employees are prohibited from bringing into these secure areas any equipment capable of transmitting data wirelessly; at Oak Ridge, 38 laptops had been allowed into restricted areas, and IG finds that nine of these laptops had later been taken on foreign travel — two of them to countries on DOE’ sensitive countries list

  • Storage offers investors intriguing opportunities

    More and more surveillance cameras are placed around critical infrastructure facilities, above city streets, and long highways; these cameras generate mountains of visual material — and there is a need to store all this material; storage solutions will be a major business in the coming years

  • SSE acquires wind farm operator Airtricity

    Dublin-based Airtricity develops and operates wind farms in the United Kingdom, Ireland, continental Europe, and China; Scottish and Southern Energy, eager to have more of a presence in renewable energy, acquires it

  • Two Florida companies see their stock prices increase 35% in 2007

    Melbourne, Florida, is home to two security companies: Communication manufacturer Harris and biometrics specialist Authentec; both companies saw the price of their stock increase by more than 35% in 2007

  • U.K. nuclear power plan draws fire

    A group of academics issue a report arguing that the established nuclear-power industry would inevitably move on to the use of fast-breeder reactors to manufacture plutonium for use as fuel, increasing the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation

  • Energy bill to save U.S. more than $400 billion between now and 2030

    The energy efficiency portions of the energy bill which passed the Senate save U.S. consumers and businesses more than $400 billion between now and 2030; this is triple the savings from legislation passed by Congress in 2005

  • A new Wi-Fi security worry: Sidejacking

    Two hackers’ tools — Ferret and Hamster — “sidejack” machines using Wi-Fi and accesses their Web accounts; Hamster hacks the cookies and URL trail left behind by a Wi-Fi user, and the attacker then can pose as the victim and read, send, and receive e-mail on his or her behalf