• New class of meterials offers many benefits

    Microspheres to carry hydrogen, deliver drugs, filter gases, and detect nuclear weapons development

  • New low-carbon technology center in London

    The Center for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings will provide a teaching, research and demonstration resource for the capital; the center is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom

  • Missing the energy-saving forest for the trees

    U.K. expert says that the beneficial effects of turning off standby lights, switching from bottled to tap water, washing clothes at a lower temperature, or having car tires at the right air pressure, pale in insignificance when compared with what was happening at the supply end of energy provision

  • Wrist-mounted translator

    Soldiers having to mix and converse with non-English speaking populations will appreciate the nifty device: a wrist-mounted translator developed at Derby University

  • Using herd mentality for protection

    New car security system acts as a herd of animals in the wild would: cars parked next to each other on the street or parking lot serve as look-outs for each other, alerting the authorities if one of the cars is being broken into

  • GE Energy, Schlumberger in clean-coal power plant venture

    Collaboration will bring together GE’s experience in integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) systems and Schlumberger Carbon Service’s carbon capture and storage (CCS), site selection, and project management expertise

  • Future weapons on display

    Last week the futuristic-looking XM-25 IAWS was displayed to lawmakers; the system, still under development, will eventually be used to address the defeat of defilade targets — those targets protected by obstacles such as hills or ridges

  • Phase II for AV's nano aircraft

    Tiny UAV — 7.5 cm wing span, 10 grams in weight — to be used by military, law enforcement to gather information outdoors and indoors

  • Stretchy spider silks can be springs or rubber

    Spider silk is stronger than steel and nylon, and more extensible than Kevlar; it would be ideal for personal protective gear for soldiers and law enforcement, and medical applications; “would be ideal” — because we do not yet know how to spin artificial silk; Canadian scientists have interesting ideas

  • U.S. Army to expand Land Warrior to an entire brigade

    Land Warrior is a modular fighting system that uses state-of-the-art computer, communications, and global positioning technologies to link soldiers digitally on the battlefield; it has proved itself in Iraq

  • Microwave: Nondestructive imaging technology of the future?

    Microwaves on a chip may replace X-rays for medical imaging and security

  • Pentagon wants laser attack warnings for satellites

    The U.S. economy and military capabilities are dependent on satellites for communication and information gathering; growing anti-satellite warfare capabilities — for example, by China — lead Pentagon to seek a measure of protection for space-based assets

  • Cheap carbon trap cleans up power station emissions

    Sequestering CO2 is a good way to fight global warming, but only about 10 percent of the gas produced in the process of burning fossil fuels is CO2; most of the rest is nitrogen, which is not a greenhouse gas; there is a new, inexpensive way to separate the two

  • IAEA: Iran evasive about its nuclear program

    Iran’s march toward the bomb continues unabated; the U.S. intelligence community may have concluded that Iran had “halted” its nuclear weapons program in 2003, but a UN atomic agency says indications are to the contrary

  • Torrefaction treatment for biomass

    Torrefaction is increasingly seen as a desirable treatment for biomass because it creates a solid product which is easier to store, transport, and mill than raw biomass