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Better coastal defenses against large waves
Coastal defenses have to withstand great forces and there is always a risk of water overtopping or penetrating these structures; Liverpool University’s mathematician says we need new concepts for coastal defenses
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More on the danger of GPS spoofing
The military version of GPS includes security features such as encryption, but civilian signals are transmitted in the clear, unencrypted; a suitcase-size transmitting device can easily fool a GPS receiver; the power grid may be disrupted, and ankle-bracelet-wearing criminals walk about freely
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Northrop Grumman delivers first, if under-powered, raygun to U.S. military
The U.S. military wants a beam weapon capable of at least 100 KW to shoot down incoming artillery shells or missiles; Northrop’s Vesta II can offer only 15 KW — capable of disrupting cellphone towers, car engines, and unexploded munitions; it is a start
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DARPA seeks ultrasonic tourniquets
New device, placed on the arm or a leg of an injured soldier or first responder will use ultrasound scanning to pinpoint internal bleeding, before focusing “high-power energy” on the bleed sites
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UCLA group discovers largest Mersenne prime yet
Bruins researchers discover the 46th — and largest yet — Mersenne Prime; the 13 million-digit prime number is a long-sought milestone, and its discovery makes the researchers eligible for a $100,000 prize
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Invisibility cloak as a protection against tsunamis
Rather than fortifying sea platforms and coastal towns to withstand tsunamis, it may be possible to use invisibility cloaks to make off-shore platforms, islands, and even cities “invisible” to waves
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Northrop tests Guardian anti-missile system
On 8-9 September, Northrop Grumman successfully tested the Guardian anti-missile system; from heights exceeding 50,000 feet, the system successfully detected, tracked, and directed a laser to intercept a target missile
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Breakthrough: "Math dyslexia," not intelignece, makes people bad at math
Generations of students who struggled with mathematics in school accepted — and their teachers and parents accepted — that they were just “not good at math”; new research show that the cause was more likely “dyscalculia” — a syndrome which is similar to dyslexia
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More debate about how best to defend Earth against asteroids
U.C. Berkeley expert says protecting Earth against incoming asteroids “is not an astronomy problem. It is a financial problem, an accounting problem, an international problem, an organizational problem, a political problem”
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Seucring airports by reading people's minds (or bodies)
DHS is testing a machine which, from a distance, senses changes in individuals’ perspiration, respiration, and heart rate typically associated with anxiety one feels before committing a terrorist act
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Age-guessing software has security, commercial applications
Fighting Illini researchers develop an age-guessing software which can perform tasks such as security control and surveillance monitoring, and may also be used for electronic customer relationship management
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GPS vulnerable to spoofing
GPS technology is ubiquitous in civilian and military applications; Cornell University researchers raise uncomfortable questions by demonstrating how GPS navigation devices can be readliy duped by transmission of fake GPS signals that receivers accept as authentic ones
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"Thought helmets" for silent, secure communication among soldiers
U.S. Army funds research into helmets with embedded sensors which “read” a soldier’s thoughts (well, brain waves) and transmit them, telepathy-like, to their intended target
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U.S. military to be offered flying hover bike
An innovative Virginia company says its flying — or hovering — bike may be suitable for military missions; the machine offers vertical takeoff, range, and largely hands-off autopiloting
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Terminating the terminators: Anti-robot defense company launched
Dot.com 1.0 wonder boy Ben Way launches a company dedicated to anti-robot defense systems; unmanned systems proliferate on and above the battlefield, and more and more of these systems are endowed with autonomous life-and-death decision making capabilities; Way says he wants to make “sure we have control over our own weaponry”
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The long view
Leveraging U.S. Capital Markets to Support the Future Industrial Network
$56 trillion is nearly three times the size of the U.S. economy. This vast pool of capital in U.S. capital markets — $46 trillion in public capitalization and another $10 trillion in private money – dwarfs that of China. Tapping U.S. equity and debt markets would enable the Department of Defense to remedy current capability shortfalls, fund technological advances from leading private-sector innovators, invest in generational transformation efforts across the military services, and upgrade antiquated global infrastructure to sustain U.S. forces.
Using Blockchain to Increase Electric Grid Resiliency
Blockchain is best known for securing digital currency payments, but researchers are using it to track a different kind of exchange: It’s the first time blockchain has ever been used to validate communication among devices on the electric grid.
Hydrogen Changing Power Dynamics in Energy Sector
As the EU tries to finalize its hydrogen rules, Asian countries are moving fast to secure deliveries and the US is committing money to set up local supply chains. Can the Middle East collaborate with both continents?