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Cleaner water through nanotechnology
As global warming causes more and more countries to have less and less fresh water for human consumption and irrigation, the purification and re-use of contaminated water becomes more urgent; Aussie researchers offer a nanotechnology-based method to purify water which is more effective and cheaper than conventional water purification methods
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Utility plans first U.S. coal-fired plant to capture CO2
Tenaska proposes a new 600-megawatt, coal-fired power plant in Texas which would be the first to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions underground
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Blinding flashlight developed as new law enforcement tool
California company, working with DHS funds, develops a blinding flash light which may well replace taser guns, pepper spray, and rubber bullets as law enforcement’s non-lethal weapon of choice
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U.K. energy company to demonstrate its oxyfuel technology
Oxyfuel combustion is the process of firing a fossil-fueled power plant with an oxygen-enriched gas mix instead of air; oxyfuel combustion produces a CO2-rich flue gas ready for sequestration
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Graduate student invents gravity lamp
Virginia Tech engineering student wins second place in a Greener Gadgets Conference competition for inventing a floor lamp powered by gravity; lamp can last 200 years
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Protecting against cosmic radiation effects on aviation microelectronics
Cosmic radiation has a deleterious effect on aviation microelectronics — the effect on circuitry is 300 times greater at high altitude than at ground level, creating a potential risk to civil and military aircraft; U.K. scientists accelerate the effects of cosmic radiation so they can replicate the effect of thousands of hours of flying time in just a few minutes
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King coal, III: DOE makes case for FutureGen restructuring
The Department of Energy restructures its approach to FutureGen — the ambitious plan to develop clean coal technology which produces hydrogen and electricity and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions
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Nano-bristle clothes to generate power from body motions
Yellow Jackets researcher develops energy-generating fiber: If clothes are made from this piezoelectric fabric, the wearer’s body motions would produce useful amounts of power
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Submersible car to be unveiled
James Bond-inspired underwater car to be unveiled at Geneva show 6 March; vehicle promises to be able to drive on land, float on the surface of the water, and also dive to a depth of 10 meters
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King coal, II: Administration restructures approach to clean coal funding
DOE restructures FutureGen approach; under the new plan, DOE’s investment would provide funding for no more than the carbon capture and storage (CCS) component of the power plant — not the entire plant construction; the original 2003 FutureGen concept called for the federal government to cover 74 percent of the cost of the entire project; DOE requests $648 million in FY2009 budget for coal research, development, and deployment
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Researchers develop "whiskered" robots with rat-like tactile sensitivity
Whiskered robots could be used in a variety of applications — search and rescue, mine-clearing, planetary rovers in space, and domestic applications such as vacuum cleaners
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Ahura Scientific shows handheld FTIR chemical identification device
First responders — but also those in charge of chemical clean-ups, quality control, product verification, raw material inspection, pharmaceutical manufacturing, food production, petrochemical processing, and composite analysis — would welcome this small, light chemical identifier
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King coal, I: U.S. ends FutureGen funding; clean coal future unclear
The Bush administration, as part of a new approach to producing clean cole, has ended government participation in the FutureGen project; government says that the private sector can now pick up the tab; the administration unfolds new clean cole initiatives
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Life of U.K. project aiming to halve cost solar panels extended
U.K. government agency injects £6 million into research aiming to halve the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells; in the first four years of the project, scientists created platform technologies in crystalline silicon, thin film silicon, thin film cadmium telluride, and thin film copper indium diselenide; now they will narrow down the research
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World's first thermal glider takes off
The world’s first thermally powered robotic vehicle takes off; the new glider draws its energy for propulsion from the differences in temperature — thermal stratification — between warm surface waters and colder, deeper layers of the ocean
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More headlines
The long view
Autonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks
Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.
Prototype Self-Service Screening System Unveiled
TSA and DHS S&T unveiled a prototype checkpoint technology, the self-service screening system, at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, NV. The aim is to provide a near self-sufficient passenger screening process while enabling passengers to directly receive on-person alarm information and allow for the passenger self-resolution of those alarms.
Falling Space Debris: How High Is the Risk I'll Get Hit?
An International Space Station battery fell back to Earth and, luckily, splashed down harmlessly in the Atlantic. Should we have worried? Space debris reenters our atmosphere every week.
Testing Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology
Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.
Strengthening the Grid’s ‘Backbone’ with Hydropower
Argonne-led studies investigate how hydropower could help add more clean energy to the grid, how it generates value as grids add more renewable energy, and how liner technology can improve hydropower efficiency.
The Tech Apocalypse Panic is Driven by AI Boosters, Military Tacticians, and Movies
From popular films like a War Games or The Terminator to a U.S. State Department-commissioned report on the security risk of weaponized AI, there has been a tremendous amount of hand wringing and nervousness about how so-called artificial intelligence might end up destroying the world. There is one easy way to avoid a lot of this and prevent a self-inflicted doomsday: don’t give computers the capability to launch devastating weapons.
The Tech Apocalypse Panic is Driven by AI Boosters, Military Tacticians, and Movies
From popular films like a War Games or The Terminator to a U.S. State Department-commissioned report on the security risk of weaponized AI, there has been a tremendous amount of hand wringing and nervousness about how so-called artificial intelligence might end up destroying the world. There is one easy way to avoid a lot of this and prevent a self-inflicted doomsday: don’t give computers the capability to launch devastating weapons.