• Better method to detect cracks in nuclear plants

    At the moment, cracks in nuclear plant components are detected by using ultrasonic scanners that carry a number of different probes; new device will use a single phased-array probe that will be safer, cheaper, and more accurate than existing systems

  • MIT researchers develop a smart anchor which mimics the razor clam

    The razor clam is about seven inches long by an inch wide, but it can dig into the ocean floor at a rate of about a centimeter a second; researchers also say that in a measure of anchoring force, or how hard you pull before an anchor rips out of the soil compared to the energy required to embed the anchor, razor clams beat everything, including the best anchors, by at least a factor of 10

  • Using rope to fight pirates

    New antipiracy device uses compressed air to fire a plastic cylinder containing either a coiled rope or net up to a range of 400 meters; the coiled line of net or rope, which has a parachute attached to the end, will unravel and lay out across the surface of the water; as a pirate boat travels through the water its propeller shaft will pick up the line and become entangled

  • Stopping rampaging elephants in their tracks

    Elephants are an integral part of many Hindu rituals; elephants often feel uncomfortable with all the noise and and distractions around them, and at time a herd of elephants may begin to rampage; an Indian inventor offers a solution to stop rampaging elephants in their tracks

  • U.S. Air Force looking for miniature weapons for UAVs

    Currently, UAVs in combat overseas mostly use standard air weapons; the lightest, most delicate option available to a prowling UAVs is the Hellfire missile, a hefty hundred-pound laser guided rocket which was originally developed for the purpose of taking out heavily-armored main battle tanks; the U.S. Air Force tasks Boeing’s Phantom Works with developing a smaller, lighter missile more suitable for fighting terrorists

  • "Fingerprinting" RFID tags will prevent counterfeiting

    RFID tags embedded in objects will become the standard way to identify objects and link them to the cyberworld; trouble is, it is easy to clone an RFID tag by copying the contents of its memory and applying them to a new, counterfeit tag, which can then be attached to a counterfeit product — or person, in the case of these new e-passports; researchers develop an electronic fingerprinting system to prevent this from happening

  • GE Global Research to develop wearable RFID chemical sensor

    GE Global Research will develop a wearable radio-frequency-identification (RFID) sensors to alert people to the presence of chemicals in the air; as the sensors can be made at a size smaller than a penny, they could form part of an identification badge that would provide an early warning for people about the presence of chemical agents

  • NASA develops chemical-detection app for iPhone

    NASA’s Homeland Security Cell-All program has developed an intriguing application to Apple’s phone in the form of a stamp-sized chemical sniffing device; the prototype chemical sensor can sniff small amounts of chemicals like methane, ammonia, and chlorine gas

  • Interference-free radio from Cambridge Consultants

    Cambridge Consultants shows a novel “spectral sensing” cognitive radio technology that will allow any radio product to transmit without interference over the so-called “whitespace” frequencies recently vacated by the U.S. digital TV switchover

  • DARPA looking for methods to freeze soldiers with brain injuries

    Traumatic brain injuries are caused by repeated exposure to blasts, specifically the “supersonic wave” of highly-pressurized air they emit; within a fraction of a second after impact, brain cells, tissues, and blood vessels are stretched, torn, and distorted; over the hours, days, and months that follow, altered brain processes create a snowball effect of damage — which is why symptoms often don’t show up until troops come home; in its solicitation, DARPA notes that a portable brain-cooling unit, deployed in the field, could “extend the golden hour of patient survivability and increase the chances for full recovery”

  • E.coli helps mend cracked pipes

    Aberdeen University students show how specific strains of E. coli, which are not deadly or poisonous to humans, could be used automatically to mend cracks that occur in household water pipes, cooling pipes in laboratory experiments, or water pipes in power plants

  • Imperial College London awarded £4.9 million to research cloaking properties of metamaterials

    Metamaterials have properties that could lead to the development of invisibility “cloaking” devices, sensitive security sensors, and flat lenses that can be used to image objects much smaller than the wavelength of light; Imperial College London receives a £4.9 million grant to do research on metamaterials

  • Ricin antidote ready for production

    U.K. scientists develop the first antidote to ricin poisoning; security experts say ricin — roughly 1,000 times more toxic than cyanide — could be used in a bio-terror attack; what worries experts about ricin is not only its toxicity, but its ready availability: Ricin is extracted from castor beans, which are processed throughout the world to make castor oil; the toxin is part of the waste “mash” produced when castor oil is made

  • Downtown airport boasts a new runway safety system

    Safety barriers made of new type of absorbing concrete are installed at a Kansas City airport; the barriers are made of concrete blocks which collapse to absorb the energy of the airplane while minimizing the damage to the aircraft and allowing the aircraft to be slowed without hurting passengers

  • U.S. Congress holds hearings on geoengineering

    Geoengineering — the effort to design systems which would change the world’s climate — was once a fringe phenomenon; it has been moving into the mainstream, though, as more and more scientists are growing increasingly concerned that, even if we commit to cutting emissions drastically, we have already waited too long, and that by the time we actually reduce emissions, enough greenhouse gases will have accumulated to cause serious climate disasters