• NIST researchers develop more sensitive explosives detection method

    NIST researchers develop a simple method for detecting and measuring small quantities of explosives which is more sensitive than conventional techniques

  • New NIST trace explosives standard slated for homeland security duty

    NIST, with support from DHS, has developed a new certified reference material — Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2905 (Trace Particulate Explosives)

  • New data protection approach

    New data security system developed by Israeli researchers automatically protects sensitive data because it travels with the data even when it is saved to removable devices like a USB flash drive

  • Using lasers in nuclear decommissioning

    High-power lasers could remove contaminated surfaces of concrete and cut up metal pipework and process vessels inside nuclear reactors, or other contaminated environments

  • Exoskeletons ready for troop tests in 2010

    Designer of the exoskeleton demonstrates invention for journalists; a wearer can hang a 200 lb backpack from the back frame and heavy chest armor and kit from shoulder extensions

  • Gravity tractor to steer asteroids away from Earth

    There are thousands of asteroids in close proximity to Earth, and scientists believe it is inevitable that sooner or later an asteroid will come close enough to be a real threat; British aerospace company designs a gravity tractor to steer a menacing asteroids away

  • Using waste to recover waste uranium

    Researchers find that a combination of bacteria and inositol phosphate can be used to recover uranium from the polluted waters from uranium mines; method may be used to process nuclear waste

  • ASIS selects 10 ASIS Accolades winners

    Panel of judges selects ASIS’s first ASIS Accolades winners — the security industry’s most innovative new products, services, or solutions

  • New business model for researching, producing vaccines

    Relying on venture capital-funded biotech research is problematic when it comes to vaccines for pandemics and bioterrorism; an expert proposes a private-public partnership within the HHS Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority

  • Code-breaking quantum algorithm runs on a silicon chip

    fifteen years ago, Peter Shor, a computer scientist at MIT, predicted that quantum computers could beat even the most powerful supercomputers and crack the widely used RSA encryption algorithm; he was right: University of Bristol researchers built a silicon chip that can do just that

  • Scientists closer to a safer anthrax vaccine

    The currently available, 40-year-old anthrax vaccine, can prevent disease, but it has significant drawbacks: Immunity is temporary, and five injections over the course of eighteen months are needed to sustain it; one in five vaccine recipients develop redness, swelling, or pain at the injection site, and a small number develop severe allergic reactions; researchers offer a better vaccine

  • Researchers develop steel Velcro

    Researchers say that their “Metaklett” metallic hook-&-loop material could be used to hold together buildings, or to tape car parts to one another

  • Climate models do not take inland water's carbon cycling into account

    Streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands play an important role in the carbon cycle that is unaccounted for in conventional carbon cycling models; inland waters represent only 1 percent of the Earth’s surface, but their contribution to the carbon cycle is disproportionately large

  • Boeing successfully tests airborne tactical laser

    Silent death ray from the skies may usher in a new chapter in warfare: the laser may cause a cell tower to stop working, a vehicle’s fuel tank to suddenly explode, or a single person to inexplicably be incinerated — all completely silently and tracelessly, without anyone knowing they were ever there and not so much as a spent bullet left behind

  • Saving the planet: Plan B

    Top U.K. science organization calls for coordinated geoengineering efforts as Plan B for protecting the planet from the negative consequences of climate change