• New methods for detecting IEDs

    Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have exerted a painful toll on coalition forces in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan; DHS is worried that IEDs will soon make their deadly appearance on U.S. soil; Wolverines researchers offer a novel methods for detecting IEDs

  • Simulating hurricanes to test buildings' resilience

    Researchers built a system of “blower boxes” which exert pressure on buildings similar to the buffeting of winds from gusts exceeding 250 kilometers per hour; the goal is to find ways to construct sturdier, more resilient structures

  • One VC's view: "Water is the next oil"

    VC hopes to capitalize on an increasingly scarce resource

  • Armed robots pulled out of Iraq

    Last August, three gun-totting robots were deployed to Iraq — the first such deployment in military history; the armed robots had a short career as soldiers, though: For reasons yet to be determined, the robots kept training their guns on their operators; no shots were fired, but the military decided more work was required

  • Clean Diesel licenses WMF technology to China's Headway

    The U.S. EPA gave Clean Diesel’s Wire Mesh Filter technology high marks, and China needs it: At the beginning of the year it signed up to the Euro IV PM emission standards for light and medium duty trucks; a clean diesel technology will allow it to meet the treaty’s standards

  • EU selects Symantec for WOMBAT project

    WOMBAT aims to provide new means for understanding the existing and emerging threats which are targeting the Internet economy and its users; EU selects Symantec to do research for the project

  • Lockheed Martin in £100 million U.K. situational awareness contract

    Lockheed Martin will merge several technologies — its own and other companies’ — in a £100 million MoD contract to increase soldiers’ situational awareness

  • MIT start-up raises $12.4 million in a first round

    Start-up has developed an innovative silicon cell architecture and a complementary manufacturing methodology which will allow it to make the solar cells so inexpensive that they would produce electricity at a comparable cost to that generated from coal powered stations

  • CoreStreet's new access control technology making news

    CoreStreet’s Card-Connected technology creates a system of stand-alone electronic locks and physical access control systems which communicate by reading and writing digitally signed data (privileges and logs) to and from smart cards; card holders thus become an extension of the physical access network in which cards, rather than of wires, carry information to and from the standalone locks

  • This weekend: 32nd annual computing Battle of the Brains

    The 32nd annual collegiate programming contest will take place this weekend in Alberta, Canada; one hundred three-person teams from thirty-three countries have qualified; twenty of the teams represent U.S. colleges

  • Australia, Japan in joint clean-coal project

    The Australian and Japanese government, and several companies join in retrofitting a coal-fired boiler at Callide A power station in Central Queensland with oxy-firing technology which will burn coal in a mixture of oxygen and recirculated flue gases

  • Steve Ballmer talks of "fifth computing revolution"

    Microsoft’s CEO outlines the five pillars of the fifth computing revolution: Expanded processing power, huge amounts of storage, ubiquitous broadband, natural user interface (UI), and screens everywhere

  • Questions raised anew about space elevator stability

    As we place more systems in space — soon, perhaps, weapon platforms to counteract China’s growing anti-satellite warfare capabilities — there is a growing need to service and maintain these systems; one way to do so relatively on the cheap is to build a space elevator, but the stability of such an elevator is raising questions

  • Southern California utility to push solar power

    Southern California Edison, largest utility in California, will place 250 MW of photovoltaic generators on 65 million square feet of roofs of Southern California commercial buildings

  • Four-legged robot simulates human motion

    Four-legged, all-terrain robot can maintain its balance over rugged terrain while carrying a payload of up to 340 pounds; robot can also cope with man-made obstacles and gallop (well, something between “gallop” and “canter”) over impediments