NVIDIA Unveils Next Generation CUDA GPU Architecture - Codenamed 'Fermi

NVIDIA Corp. today introduced its next generation CUDA(TM) GPU architecture, codenamed "Fermi". An entirely new ground-up design, the "Fermi"(TM) architecture is the foundation for the world's first computational graphics processing units (GPUs), delivering breakthroughs in both graphics and GPU computing.

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Rensselaer researchers to develop and test next-generation radar systems

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have received a grant for $792,000 from the U.S. Air Force to create a new laboratory for developing and testing next-generation radar systems that overcome one of the key limitations of conventional radars.

The new test bed, led by Birsen Yazici, associate professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering, will allow simulations of radar systems that are comprised of hundreds of miniature sensors communicating with ground sensors, unpiloted aerial vehicles, and satellites. Such a system could allow radars to be used in crowded cities and other urban environments.

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New technology lets users set data to self-destruct

Consider the technology that a quartetof computer scientists at the University of Washington introduced to the world in July. It's called Vanish, and it's designed to make your electronic messages do just that.

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Raytheon Demos Enhanced Long-Range Target Validation Capability

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) demonstrated an enhanced long-range electronic identification capability that helps soldiers better validate targets on the battlefield and reduce fratricide.Part of a U.S. Army-sponsored demonstration, Raytheon integrated its Target Validation System technology with a Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System (LRAS3).

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Portable Camera inspects small diameter industrial pipe

PILIT(TM) Industrial Push Camera or pipe inspection camera inspects pipe lines up to 200 ft long with diameters as small as 1 in. Camera weighs 32 lb and features SS construction along with ac or dc power with up to 3 hr battery operation, 60 GB hard drive with USB file transfer of inspection files, and 7 in. LCD monitor with mini keyboard.

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Graphene at a stretch

Researchers say they have found a simple way to improve the semiconducting properties of the world's thinnest material – simply by stretching it.

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NASA funds micro propulsion

Five Boise State University engineering professors have been awarded a $630,479 (£396,044) NASA grant to develop a micro-propulsion system that could strategically point small satellites and enable them to maintain position while in orbit.

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Slime-Dispensing Hulls Could Boost Fuel Efficiency For Ships

Slime ships ahoy! A vessel that oozes a continual slick layer of slime from its hull could shed barnacles and other marine life forms, and possibly cut its fuel consumption by up to 20 percent.
Such a novel idea tackles the problem of removing marine plants, barnacles and tube worms from ship hulls every year, lest the buildup cut into both speed and fuel efficiency.

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3-D Scanning Brings the Future of Fingerprinting

Fingerprinting with ink or even sensor plates poses a chore for everyone involved, except possibly 10-year-old kids. But that could change with a 3-D system that projects light patterns onto a finger and analyzes the image within a second.

The method works by beaming a series of striped lines so that they wrap around a finger. A 1.4 megapixel camera captures the lines at almost 1,000 pixels per inch, and creates a highly detailed 3-D map of the fingerprint ridges and valleys.

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DARPA Sat Project Could Change Industry

A fractionated satellite concept that replaces large satellites with clusters of wirelessly-linked modular spacecraft flying in loose formation has the potential to drive cultural change and reinvigorate a “mature” U.S. space industry, proponents say.

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Small, Accurate Missile In High Demand

Spike--a 2-ft.-long, high-speed, guided missile capable of hitting relatively fast-moving targets--for an estimated $5,000.

he Spike program is a poster child for cheap innovative weaponry. The missile comes with a spectrum of operational advantages--all associated with survival--for those who fire it.

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Perfect Image Without Metamaterials And A Reprieve For Silicon Chips

It is the waviness of light that limits the resolution of lenses. Apparently, nobody had tried to calculate the imaging of light waves in Maxwell's fish-eye. The new research proves that the fish-eye has unlimited resolution in principle, and, as it does not need negative refraction, it may also work in practice.

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New findings could help hybrid, electric cars keep their cool

Understanding precisely how fluid boils in tiny “microchannels” has led to formulas and models that will help engineers design systems to cool high-power electronics in electric and hybrid cars, aircraft, computers and other devices.

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Ants vs. worms: New computer security mimics nature

In the never-ending battle to protect computer networks from intruders, security experts are deploying a new defense modeled after one of nature's hardiest creatures — the ant.

Unlike traditional security devices, which are static, these "digital ants" wander through computer networks looking for threats, such as "computer worms" — self-replicating programs designed to steal information or facilitate unauthorized use of machines. When a digital ant detects a threat, it doesn't take long for an army of ants to converge at that location, drawing the attention of human operators who step in to investigate.

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Discovery brings new type of fast computers closer to reality

Physicists at UC San Diego have successfully created speedy integrated circuits with particles called "excitons" that operate at commercially cold temperatures, bringing the possibility of a new type of extremely fast computer based on excitons closer to reality.

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Cosmic rays hit space age high

Planning a trip to Mars? Take plenty of shielding. According to sensors on NASA's ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) spacecraft, galactic cosmic rays have just hit a Space Age high.

"In 2009, cosmic ray intensities have increased 19% beyond anything we've seen in the past 50 years," says Richard Mewaldt of Caltech. "The increase is significant, and it could mean we need to re-think how much radiation shielding astronauts take with them on deep-space missions."

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Panasonic Develops 50-inch Full HD 3D PDP and High-Precision Active Shutter Glasses

Panasonic Corporation has developed a 50-inch Full HD 3D compatible plasma display panel (PDP) and high-precision active shutter glasses that enable the viewing of theater-quality, true-to-life 3D images in the living rooms. Aiming to bring Full HD 3D TVs to the market in 2010, the company steps up its efforts in developing the related technology.

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A fuel cell that harvests electricity from glucose and other sugars

A spoonful of herbicide helps the sugar break down in a most delightful way.

Researchers at Brigham Young University have developed a fuel cell – basically a battery with a gas tank – that harvests electricity from glucose and other sugars known as carbohydrates.
The human body’s preferred energy source could someday power our gadgets, cars or homes.

“Carbohydrates are very energy rich,” said BYU chemistry professor Gerald Watt. “What we needed was a catalyst that would extract the electrons from glucose and transfer them to an electrode.”

The surprising solution turned out to be a common weed killer.

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Avalex partnering with Gyrocam on surveillance system for U.S. Marine Corps

Avalex Technologies is proud to partner with Gyrocam Systems and the U.S. Marine Corps on the Expeditionary FlyAway Rapid Deployment Surveillance System.

These free-standing, portable systems include a telescoping 32-foot mast that can be raised and lowered in minutes. They can be easily deployed at strategic locations, even in the most extreme terrains, and provide a bird's eye view of activity in an area.

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ISS Could Get its Own Electron-Beam Fabrication 3D Printer

Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3, takes place in a vacuum chamber in which an electron beam is focused on a source of metal that is constantly fed into the beam. The electron beam melts the metal atop a rotating surface, applying the molten feedstock in layers as directed by a detailed 3-D drawing of the object being produced. The process continues until the object is done, rendered completely from drawing to usable metal part.

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SpaceX successfully tests DragonEye LIDAR on Space Shuttle

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX; Hawthorne, CA) announced the successful demonstration of a proximity sensor or laser imaging detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor called DragonEye, launched aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-127 mission on July 15th, 2009. DragonEye was tested in proximity of the International Space Station (ISS) in preparation for future visits by SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.

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Photonics Breakthrough for Silicon Chips

Light pressure equals beam power divided by c, the speed of light. A one-milliwatt laser pointer, therefore, presses its object with the force of 3.3 piconewtons.

Why not use light as an actuator, reaching right into the guts of an integrated circuit to throw tiny switches, either to control electronic circuits or, better yet, to reroute light itself, and the data that it carries?

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Hacking DNA

A relatively new oxymoron is synthetic biology, coined by the geneticist Waclaw Szybalski in 1974. Synthetic biology (also called synbio) uses engineering methods to produce something new by treating a living system not so much as a biological entity but as a kind of technology. Hence synthetic biology is also called biological engineering or just bioengineering.

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The Spaser Nanolaser

n late August, two groups of researchers reported the construction of a new kind of nanometer-scale laser. Surface plasmon resonance nanolasers, or spasers, are the smallest lasers yet made, and their creators say the devices could pave the way toward ultrafast optical computing.

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The Brain-Machine Interface

Wireless brain-machine interfaces would be much more practical and could be implanted in several different areas of the brain to tap into more neurons. A typical scheme would have electrodes penetrating brain tissue, picking up neuronal electrical impulses, called spikes. A chip would amplify and process the signals and transmit them over a broadband RF connection through the skull to a receiver.

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Raytheon Delivers First Joint Standoff Weapon C to Australia

aytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) delivered the first Joint Standoff Weapon C to Australia in July for the Royal Australian Air Force's new F/A-18F Hornet fighter aircraft.

In addition to the JSOW C, the RAAF has placed an order for the JSOW C-1, which is currently in production; deliveries will begin in 2010. The JSOW C-1 maintains the land attack capability of JSOW C and adds a moving maritime target capability by incorporating a datalink.

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Melting memory chips in mass production

South Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics announced this week that it has begun mass production of a new kind of memory chip that stores information by melting and freezing tiny crystals. Known as phase-change memory (PCM).

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Microchip can detect type and severity of cancer

University of Toronto researchers have used nanomaterials to develop a microchip sensitive enough to quickly determine the type and severity of a patient's cancer so that the disease can be detected earlier for more effective treatment.

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Time Lens Speeds Up Optical Data Transmission

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a device called a "time lens" which is a silicon device for speeding up optical data. The basic components of this device are an optical-fiber coil, laser, and nanoscale-patterned silicon waveguide.

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Researchers unravel brain's wiring to understand memory

Using a powerful microscope, Karel Svoboda, a brain scientist at the Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Va., peers through a plastic window in the top of a mouse's head to watch its brain's neurons sprout new connections -- a vivid display of a living brain in action.

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NASA Sets Target Date for Ares I-X Rocket's Test Launch

NASA is targeting Tuesday, Oct. 27, for the flight test of the Ares I-X rocket, pending successful testing and data verification. Senior managers made the decision after a meeting Monday at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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Explaining Intel's Turbo Boost technology

Intel promotes the Turbo Boost technology in its new Core i7 Mobile processors as a way to adapt to the needs of the software and get more performance from the chip, but this isn't the real reason the technology exists.

The new "Clarksfield" Core i7 Mobile processors introduced at the Intel Developer Forum last week are certainly very impressive. They're huge high-performance quad-core chips with Hyper-Threading, support for two channels of DDR3-1333 DRAM, and an on-die PCI Express controller for the fastest possible connection to discrete graphics chips.

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Is Qualcomm's Mirasol The Future of Low-Power Displays?

It's not that Qualcomm is trying to keep its Mirasol display technology under wraps—the tech is now in a handful of products and has won six technology awards—it is just that the product hasn't yet found its killer app. This unique reflective display tech has not yet been packed into a touchscreen e-reader, a computer tablet or a smartphone. If it makes it to one of these mainstream devices (or a combination thereof), Mirasol could quickly become a household name.

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Self-Regulated Morphine Delivery for Wounded Warfighters

Medics still use morphine to relieve the pain of wounded soldiers on the modern battlefield, but have to watch out for morphine reducing breathing and blood pressure to dangerous levels. That may all change with a DARPA-backed combination drug that has successfully limited morphine delivery when it detects low blood oxygen levels.

The drug relies upon nanotech particles that carry both morphine and its antagonist, known as Naloxone. That creates a self-regulating feedback system where Naxolone only activates to suppress morphine when blood oxygen levels drop too low.

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New hybrid solar cell promises higher efficiency

RoseStreet Labs Energy, Inc. (RSLE; Phoenix, AZ) claims to have demonstrated the world's first nitride/silicon tandem solar cell. Utilizing the same nitride material technology as solid-state lighting and blue lasers, the company fabricated and tested a working photovoltaic cell that couples a silicon solar cell with a nitride thin film.

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Pentagon Pushes For Unblinking Surveillance

U.S. plans to deploy an unmanned surveillance airship to Afghanistan are moving forward, with a contract for the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) demonstration expected to be awarded by year-end.

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Adobe, McAfee to Combine DRM and Data-loss Prevention

Adobe Systems and McAfee will jointly develop a product that combines digital rights management capabilities with technology designed to prevent data from leaking outside corporate networks, the companies said Monday.

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Panasonic Shows Prototype 3D Plasma TV

Panasonic has unveiled a prototype 50-inch television and companion glasses that together give the viewer the illusion of three dimensions. The TV is being unveiled less than a month after Panasonic said it plans to commercialize 3D home entertainment products next year.

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Alcatel Claims New Optical Network Speed

Alcatel-Lucent researchers said they have figured out how to multiply the speed of the fastest undersea cables by a factor of 10, an achievement that someday could send the contents of 400 DVDs hurtling from Paris to Chicago in one second.

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Is plasma starting to fade out?

Plasma televisions, while still the finest made in the eyes of purists, are rapidly losing ground to LCD-based models, say analysts and industry observers. That's because Liquid Crystal Display TVs have plunged in price and innovated their way to near-parity with plasma in terms of image quality.

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Stealth finally meets its match

Since the 1991 Gulf War, the USAF has launched thousands of stealth bombing sorties against the hardest targets offered by Baghdad, Belgrade and Baghdad again, yet suffered only one recorded combat loss when an F-117 was shot down over Serbia in 1999.

Perhaps no other technology in history has dominated the battlefield as long or as absolutely as the stealthy airframe.But technology marches on. Ask any World War II battleship captain. Lt. Col. Arend G. Westra, a plans officer at the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, writes that counter-stealth technology -- namely, passive radar -- is quietly achieving parity with the likes of the B-2, the F-22 and, eventually, the F-35.

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AGS: NATO’s Battlefield Eye In The Sky

Northrop Grumman’s E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (J-STARS) uses powerful ground-looking SAR radars mounted on a Boeing 707-300 airframe, in order to give American commanders outstanding battlefield surveillance and communications relay capabilities. The Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system aimed to create a similar capability as a pooled NATO asset, based on a mix of smaller Airbus A321 airframes and RQ-4B Gobal Hawk UAVs, coupled with ground stations. In the end, however, the program was slashed by deleting its manned aircraft and advanced radar entirely.

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Focused Lethality Munition

ALICE Propellant

Kinetic Energy Interceptors

X-ray Lasers

Solution To Missing Aircraft Black Box

3D Laser Scanner GLS-1000

Super Artillary

laser microphone

DARPA's Bionic Arm

Code breakthrough delivers safer computing

Computer researchers at UNSW and NICTA have achieved a breakthrough in software which will deliver significant increases in security and reliability and has the potential to be a major commercialisation success.

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Computer scientists successfully boot one million Linux kernels as virtual machines

Sandia National Laboratories computer scientists Ron Minnich (foreground) and Don Rudish (background) have successfully run more than a million Linux kernels as virtual machines, an achievement that will allow cybersecurity researchers to more effectively observe behavior found in malicious botnets. They utilized Sandia's powerful Thunderbird supercomputing cluster for the demonstration.

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The Challenge of Making Real 'Surrogate' Skin

The new movie "Surrogates," starring Bruce Willis, depicts a world in which people live through "surries", highly realistic humanoid robots. But without realistic skin, robots will never have that humanlike personal touch, and will not have the degree of social acceptance that robots would need to have to share the world with the rest of us.

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DARPA Wants Space Cleaning Ideas

James Hollopeter of GIT Satellite has a plan for getting rid of orbiting junk. He wants to launch rocket-loads of water into space to create a liquid wall for debris to slam into, so the pieces can slow down and eventually drop out of orbit.

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Missile-tracking satellites launched on demo flight

A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket roared to life and thundered away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Friday, successfully boosting a pair of experimental missile-tracking satellites into orbit for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

With its roots in the old "Star Wars" program, the goal of the $1.5 billion Space Tracking and Surveillance System mission is to demonstrate the ability to detect and track enemy missiles from launch, through the so-called mid-course phase of flight to atmospheric entry, providing more accurate targeting data for interceptors.

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Intel's Moblin 2.1 to compete with Windows

At this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the chipmaker debuted a beta version of its Moblin 2.1 open-source operating system targeted to run on a variety of devices, including smartphones, Netbooks, nettops, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), and in-car systems.

Moblin 2.1 will compete with other open-source operating systems like Google's Android and bump up against Microsoft in the burgeoning nettop arena.

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The World's First Laser Microphone

David Schwartz, who laid the foundation for MP3 with his undergraduate and graduate work in the ’80s, has another big idea: a microphone that uses lasers and smoke to detect the minute variations in air pressure the rest of us call “sound.”

His invention appears to be the world’s first laser microphone, and it works by streaming smoke across a laser beam aimed at a “very, very fast and sensitive” photocell designed for fiber-optic networks. The photocell converts variations in the beam into electrical signal that carries the audio signal.

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iRex Announces e-Reader with Barnes & Noble Catalog, Verizon 3G

Barnes and Noble first tipped their hand in July, when they announed their new e-book store and its 700,000 titles would be made available on the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms. Then in August, the bookseller announced a partnership with e-reader maker iRex, in addition to love for Plastic Logic and their devices. And today (drumroll, please) the company officially announced the iRex DR800SG reader, the first e-book reader with access to the Barnes and Noble catalog.

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Micron awarded stimulus funding for LED lighting project

Micron Technology (Boise, ID) announced it will get $5 million from the federal stimulus package to advance a program to produce light-emitting diode (LED) lighting technology.

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OPTICALLY PUMPED SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS: Green OPSLs poised to enter scientific pump-laser market

Optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSLs) have been optimized for an increasing number of applications based on continuous-wave (CW) visible and, most recently, UV laser light. Specific applications include bioinstrumentation at 488 and 355 nm with less than 0.5 W output power, multiwatt portable forensic and lightshow systems at 460, 532, and 577 nm, and multiwatt 532 and 577 nm lasers for ophthalmology. All these applications have benefited from OPSL technology because of features that include wavelength flexibility and power scalability, among others, in a compact package.

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GE: Solar business is our 'next wind'

General Electric plans to give its solar business a charge in two years with the introduction of panels with the same solar cell material used by industry cost leader First Solar.

In 2011, the energy giant expects to produce solar panels made with cadmium telluride, a thin-film solar cell material, said Michael Idelchik, vice president of advanced technologies at GE Global Research at the EmTech conference here on Wednesday.

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Natick Brainstorms Future Soldier

Outfitted with blast-resistant armor, an external skeleton that provides super-human strength and the ability to command drones with a wave of the hand, the U.S. Army’s Natick Soldier Systems Center’s vision of the future is forward-looking and ambitious.

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USAF To Run 'Best Value' Tanker Race, Use Fixed-Price Contract

Senior Pentagon officials said Sept. 24 they will select the proposal that offers the "best value" in the soon-to-be relaunched KC-X aerial tanker competition, which they said will culminate with a fixed-price contract in summer 2010.

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Nanoparticle-based battlefield pain treatment moves a step closer

University of Michigan scientists have developed a combination drug that promises a safer, more precise way for medics and fellow soldiers in battle situations to give a fallen soldier both morphine and a drug that limits morphine's dangerous side effects.

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Online payment startup Zuora wants to rescue newspapers

Z-Commerce provides simple tools for news organizations to customize price schemes based on their needs or preferences, with options ranging from charging small amounts per story to offering monthly or annual subscriptions.

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Intel unveils system-on-a-chip for TVs

A system-on-a-chip for TVs introduced Thursday at the Intel Developer Forum heralds a new generation of silicon from Intel.

The CE4100 packs a number features onto one piece of silicon--the same design goal for future Intel chips that will be used in smartphones and Netbooks. The chip is designed to bring Internet content and services to digital TVs, DVD players, and advanced set-top boxes.

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Raytheon Receiver Surpasses Milestone in Satellite Tracking

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has surpassed another milestone on its Modernized User Equipment program by achieving live satellite M-code tracking with its MUE receiver.A Raytheon-led team developed modernized versions of the avionics and the ground-based module that receives signals from the Global Positioning System. Delivery of the pre-production receiver to the government is expected in November 2009.

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Butterflies Use Antenna GPS to Guide Migration

Scientists have finally located the 24-hour clock that guides the migration of monarch butterflies. Instead of being in the brain where most people expected, it turns out the circadian clock is located in the butterflies’ antennae.

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U.S. Army Plans to Send Giant Spy Blimp to Afghanistan

Next time you're in Afghanistan, make sure to keep an eye out for the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command's giant blimp-like surveillance airship.

The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), as it's called, will be 250 feet long, autonomous, and able to float at up to 20,000 feet for an impressive three weeks at a time.

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Video: DARPA's Remote-Controlled Cyborg Beetle Takes Flight

In January, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, told a stunned conference audience that they had managed to create a remote-controlled cyborg beetle by attaching a computer chip to the brain of a giant insect. Now, the paper explaining how they did it has been published in the journal Frontiers In Neuroscience, and they have released a video of the cyber-bug in action.

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NASA Shoots Laser From Maryland to Hit the LRO Spacecraft, 250,000 Miles Away

Fancy yourself a sharpshooter at laser tag? The team at Goddard Space Flight Center might just have you beat. After all, since launching the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, they've been firing a laser across 250,000 miles of space, hitting the minivan-sized LRO as it orbits the moon at nearly 3,600 miles per hour. It's no lucky shot either; they do it 28 times per second.

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BD&E to develop hyperspectral imaging system for U.S. naval periscopes

Bodkin Design & Engineering (BD&E; Newton, MA) has been awarded a $70,000Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 contract from the U.S. Navy to develop a hyperspectral-imaging system for integration into Type 18 periscopes and AN/BVS-1 Photonics Masts to perform contact recognition and identification in marine environments.

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Assessing the Tikhomirov NIIP L-Band Active Electronically Steered Array

Tikhomirov NIIP in Moscow are developing an L-band AESA radar system intended for embedding in the leading edges of fighter wings. A demonstrator of the L-band AESA subsystem was publicly displayed at MAKS2009.

Tikhomirov NIIP's marketing material for this product describes it as intended for the “Su-27 (30) and Su-35 family of aircraft” thus presenting it as a component for new build aircraft and retrofit to existing fleet aircraft.

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Boeing Offers Reborn OV-10

Boeing is hoping that a counterinsurgency aircraft designed during the Vietnam War can be reborn to meet the U.S. Air Force's growing irregular warfare requirements.

The company is offering an updated OV-10 Bronco to meet the Air Force's Light Attack Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) specification, and believes the design could perform some of the companion Light Mobility Aircraft's (LiMA) requirements.

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Intel to Ship New Pineview Netbook Chips in Q4

Intel will ship a new line of Atom processors for netbooks and nettops during the fourth quarter of this year, a company official said late on Wednesday.

Processors codenamed Pineview will succeed the Atom chips that currently go into most netbooks.

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For First Time, AIDS Vaccine Shows Some Success

Scientists said Thursday that a new AIDS vaccine, the first ever declared to protect a significant minority of humans against the disease, would be studied to answer two fundamental questions: why it worked in some people but not in others, and why those infected despite vaccination got no benefit at all.

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Up to $250M from US SOCOM for L-3’s Viking UAVs

L-3 Communications Geneva Aerospace of Carrollton, TX received a not-to-exceed $250 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for U.S. Special Operations Command’s Expeditionary Unmanned Aircraft System. The competed contract is for 1 year with 4 option years, with a minimum of $5 million and orders to be issued as desired (H92222-09-D-0051). That minimum was met immediately in the initial $6.6 million delivery order.

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Sierra Nevada Gets $106.9M in Dismounted Counter-IED Jammer Orders

Sierra Nevada Corp. in Sparks, NV received 2 follow-up orders to supply Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (JCREW) 3.1 dismounted systems to meet the requirements of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dismounted JCREW systems are electronic jammers designed to prevent the initiation of radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (RCIED).

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Intel: World’s First Working Chips Built on 22nm Process Technology

The 22nm test circuits include both SRAM memory as well as logic circuits to be used in future Intel microprocessors.

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SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Products Finally Available

The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) announced the first certified SuperSpeed USB 3.0 commercially available product.

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 boosts the data transfer rate up to ten times faster than Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0), with optimized power efficiency.

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Drop Test for An Inflatable Heat Shield

NASA successfully tested a device to slow and protect a spacecraft descending on a planet's surface.

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(Image NASA)

GE Grabs Gearless Wind Turbines

Instead of gearboxes, ScanWind uses a novel direct-drive generator technology in its 3.5-megawatt turbines. This makes the turbines more reliable, the company says, by cutting downtime and repair costs--an especially important consideration for turbines offshore, where it's more expensive to send technicians for maintenance.

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Intel's Plan to Replace Copper Wires

Intel plans to sell inexpensive cables with fiber-optic-caliber speed to connect, for instance, a laptop and an external hard drive, or a phone and a desktop computer. At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco Wednesday, the company announced a new type of optical cable that it hopes will be fast, cheap, and thin enough to make it an attractive replacement for multiple copper wires.

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Microsoft DRM Patent Could Revive Peer-to-Peer Music Nets

Microsoft has just been awarded a U.S. patent for a distributed DRM system -- it works over peer-to-peer networks -- which uses encrypted public and private keys as the licensing mechanism. This is significant because, while centralized music stores like Apple's iTunes have forsaken DRM, the Microsoft patent would enable peer-to-peer networks to reemerge as viable, albeit protected, content sources.

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SGI aims at 'personal supercomputing' that's cheap, easy to use

Silicon Graphics International Corp. on Monday released its first so-called personal supercomputer. The new Octane III system is priced from $7,995 with one Xeon 5500 processor. The system can be expanded to an 80-core system with a capacity of up to 960GB of memory.

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RFID Keeps Assets From Getting Lost

A ZigBee-based system lets the California hospital continually monitor the location and condition of high-priced equipment throughout its nine-building campus.

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Component of asphalt eyed as new fuel source

The pavement material that cars drive on may wind up in their fuel tanks as scientists seek ways of transforming asphaltenes -- the main component of asphalt -- into an abundant new source of fuel, according to the cover story in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

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Are Magnetically Levitating 'Sky Pods' the Future of Travel?

A company in California, called Unimodal Systems, has designeda transport system that allows individualized travel, but that is also a form of mass transit. The key lies in the use of "sky pods" that magnetically levitate from their rails.

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Intel brings Nehalem to notebooks, makes light of cables

Intel has moved its latest desktop and server chip architecture to the laptop with the announcement of its 45nm Core i7 mobile processor, based on its new Nehalem microarchitecture.

Officially launched at the Intel Developer Forum here Wednesday morning, the chip is initially available in two standard and one Extreme Edition versions. Formerly known as Clarksfield, the quad-core chip combines Intel's Turbo Boost and Hyperthreading technologies.

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Ground-based Augmentation Landing System OK’d

Honeywell’s SmartPath precision-landing system yesterday became the only ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) to receive FAA approval. GBAS monitors GPS signals to detect errors and augment accuracy by transmitting correction messages to aircraft, providing precision-approach guidance to all qualifying runways at an airport.

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Neurocinema Aims to Change the Way Movies are Made

New practice of neuromarketing — where MRI technology is used to determine a shopper’s preferences and actual brain reactions to a particular product or idea — is being applied to the film industry, starting with the horror genre.

MindSign Neuromarketing is leading the charge in applying neuroscience to feature films, with assistance from film producer Peter Katz. They are calling this new hybrid of neuromarketing and how it applies to film, rather than commercials or movie trailers, neurocinema.

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River turbines could electrify New York City

A network of floating docks could harness clean energy for New York City and provide new space for parks, researchers now propose.

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US Navy: ALQ-99 pods no match for "today's" threat

The core of the US military's airborne electronic attack weapons are useless against Russian S-400 integrated air defense systems currently for sale on the export market.

In unusually blunt language for an unclassified source, a US Navy document soliciting sources for a next generation jammer (NGJ) dismisses the current system as out-classed.

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Israeli troops get plasma screens

The Israeli military has launched a program to provide combat units with portable digital maps of their operational areas and a three-dimensional picture of the battlefield.

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U.S. Army Tests Precision Mortar Round

The U.S. Army and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD) are test-firing a new GPS-guided 120mm mortar designed to bring precision accuracy to conventional rounds by adding a small receiver and micro-controller to existing mortars, service and company officials said.

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U.S. Army Tests Precision Mortar Round

The U.S. Army and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD) are test-firing a new GPS-guided 120mm mortar designed to bring precision accuracy to conventional rounds by adding a small receiver and micro-controller to existing mortars, service and company officials said.

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Killer fungus breaks chemical stalemate

A killer fungus may break the chemical stalemate that is hampering anti-malaria efforts.

The fungus killed mosquitoes resistant to the three classes of chemicals commonly used in Africa.

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A flash of light turns graphene into a biosensor

Biomedical researchers suspect graphene, a novel nanomaterial made of sheets of single carbon atoms, would be useful in a variety of applications. But no one had studied the interaction between graphene and DNA, the building block of all living things. To learn more, PNNL's Zhiwen Tang, Yuehe Lin and colleagues from both PNNL and Princeton University built nanostructures of graphene and DNA. They attached a fluorescent molecule to the DNA to track the interaction. Tests showed that the fluorescence dimmed significantly when single-stranded DNA rested on graphene, but that double-stranded DNA only darkened slightly – an indication that single-stranded DNA had a stronger interaction with graphene than its double-stranded cousin.

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EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour"

A five-year research programme, called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which act as "agents" to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers.

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Superior 3D Graphics for the Web a Step Closer

The development of improved three-dimensional graphics in Web-based applications took a step forward recently, when programmers began building WebGL into the Mozilla Firefox nightly builds, and into WebKit, which is used in Google Chrome and Apple's Safari browser.

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Fabrics that fight germs, find explosives go to market

Two Cornell researchers have launched iFyber LLC, which markets fabrics with embedded nanoparticles to detect explosives and dangerous chemicals or to serve as antibacterials for hospitals.

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Diamonds May Be the Ultimate MRI Probe, Say Quantum Physicists

The candidate system, formed from a nitrogen atom lodged within a diamond crystal, is promising not only because it can sense atomic-scale variations in magnetism, but also because it functions at room temperature. Most other such devices used either in quantum computation or for magnetic sensing must be cooled to nearly absolute zero to operate, making it difficult to place them near live tissue. However, using the nitrogen as a sensor or switch could sidestep that limitation.

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Intel Shows Off Future Technology

Demonstrating that it remains on schedule for developing smaller and faster chips, Intel (NSDQ: INTC) on Tuesday showed off technology not due until 2011 and demonstrated a desktop chip due in about a year, that will run Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Windows 7 operating system.

During his opening keynote at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Paul Otellini, president and chief executive of Intel, held up a silicon wafer of SRAM chips, a type of semiconductor memory, built with Intel's not-yet available 22-nanometer technology.

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Inside dynamic workload management

Dynamic workflow management -- the ability to sense changes in demand and automatically invoke requisite application and server resources to meet new workloads -- is quickly becoming a fundamental requirement in the new data center. Besides increasing compute efficiencies, the technology helps overcome the shortage of critical data center resources such as floor space and available cooling and power capacity.

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First details of Microsoft's secret tablet

Courier, Microsoft's astonishing take on the tablet.

Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the "late prototype" stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers.

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Intel shows off Larrabee graphics chip for first time

Heads up, Nvidia. Intel demonstrated its Larrabee graphics chip for the first time Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum.

Larrabee will be Intel's first discrete, or standalone, graphics processor in about 10 years and is expected to compete with graphics chips from Nvidia and AMD's ATI unit. The demo used an early "stepping," or version, of Larrabee, which is expected to come out commercially sometime next year.

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BAE, Quest Launch Pathogen-killing Cabin Air Filter

BAE Systems and Quest International of the UK have combined to launch a cabin air system that they say can destroy airborne viruses and bacteria, including swine flu, Sars, bird flu and eColi. AirManager has been flight tested on BAE 146/Avro RJ regional airliners operated by five European carriers, and has been selected by one undisclosed carrier for its fleet.

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Shrinking ferroelectric RAM

Ferroelectric RAM is different to other kinds of RAM because it uses a ferroelectric layer instead of a dielectric layer for non-volatile storage, which is computer memory that can retain stored information even when not powered.

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Raytheon-led Littoral Warfare Weapons Team Demonstrates Successful Underwater Launch

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) marked a developmental milestone when it successfully demonstrated the underwater launch of a Raytheon AIM-9X air-to-air test missile shape from a submerged Tomahawk Capsule Launching System. This successful test is a significant step in demonstrating payload flexibility for submarines.

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How the Air Force Is Solving Its 3 Biggest Problems

The Air Force has been knocked around recently. The service has generated some bad press about the way it operates, flies, fights and plans for the future. At last week's Air Force Association annual convention, held outside of Washington, D.C., senior leadership discussed the ways the service is working to stay relevant and bolster its reputation.

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Fewer Fighters, New Bomber - CSBA's Air Force Plan

The underlying theme is that the USAF needs a strategy in order to survive as an effective force, rather than a series of short term, reactive decisions. The biggest challenges are changing threats - including the need to form a credible counter to Chinese power in the Pacific, advanced SAMs and improved fighters - and a combat and tanker force that is already too old, and too large to be replaced quickly.

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New microphone technology is based on lasers

Laser-Accurate technology uses a laminar stream of air in a chamber in which microscopic particles are suspended. Air-pressure changes cause particle movement that is detected by a laser beam aimed at a photoelectric cell, producing accurate and precise transduction of any sound. The Laser-Accurate technology, which uses a 650 nm, 5 mW laser and a silicon detector from Thorlabs, captures sound unadulterated by the mechanical motion of the diaphragm and the inevitable time lags caused by that movement.

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3-D Laser Scanner

The scanner creates an exact representation of an object and generates files that can be exported to most CAD platforms. It features simultaneous texture and geometry acquisition, real-time rendering, true color acquisition via a built-in lighting system, adjustable uniform texture resolution, and automatic texture mapping. It requires no external reference system and no external tracking or positioning devices.

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FCC Expands and Strengthens Net Neutrality Stance

As expected, but not without controversy, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski yesterday outlined in a speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC his plan to preserve the principle of "Net Neutrality."

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Lockheed Martin Eyes ISR Testbed Spinoffs

With a month's flying under its belt on the Airborne Multi-intelligence Laboratory (AML), a modified Gulfstream III business jet, Lockheed Martin says it is already talking to customers interested in offshoots from the program.

Although the countries have not been named, discussions are under way with two customers for Gulfstream G550-based versions, and for a roll-on/roll-off system that could be used on EADS CASA C295-type transport aircraft, says Charles Gulledge, manager for strategic programs with Lockheed Martin's C4ISR Systems division.

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Ahmadinejad Warns Iran Will Confront Any Attack

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Tuesday that Iran would confront any attack on the Islamic republic, addressing an army parade which was marred by the reported crash of a military plane.

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KC-X Process Is High Stakes for USAF

The U.S. Air Force fully understands the significance of getting back the right to pick which company will replace its aging refueling tanker fleet, the service's top uniformed leader assured defense experts and industry leaders September 21.

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LED headlights hit the road

Headlights using LUXEON Altilon LEDs from Philips Lumileds (San Jose, CA) have until now been fitted only to the Audi R8, but the introduction of relevant EU regulations has cleared the way for other automotive manufacturers to adopt them.

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Alternative to "Black Boxes" Takes Flight

Air France crash renews interest in real-time flight-data reporting systems.

There are an estimated 10 000 planes in the air around the world at any given time and only so much spectrum available. And no one single band of spectrum would be ideal. While planes might make do with a VHF band over land, those flying over oceans rely on more expensive satellite communications.

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DARPA awards Duke $19.5 million to detect viral infection before symptoms appear

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, has awarded Duke University $19.5 million for an effort led by the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) to design a portable, easy-to-use diagnostic device that can reveal who is infected with an upper respiratory virus before the first cough or sneeze.

DARPA is interested in such a device because it could offer military commanders in the field valuable information about which soldiers are likely to become sick and potentially unfit for duty.

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A tiny, tunable well of light, and a string theorist's toolbox

Photonics, the science of using photons to carry information, promises to continue improving a wide variety of technologies, from computing to high-speed communication. Now an international team of researchers from the UK, Taiwan, and Spain have discovered a compact way to produce infrared light, by firing electrons through a miniscule tunnel in a stack of gold and silica layers.

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A New Language Could Improve Home Computer Security

Korean scientists have developed a security language for home networks that could make us more secure from cyber attack in our homes.

The specification also takes into account authentication, authorization, security policy deployment so that all users in the home are not only protected from malware but also can help ensure everyone can use the network when they need to.

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MIT's hybrid microchip to overcome silicon size barrier

Researchers have developed a 'hybrid microchip' that could advance electronics beyond the limits of Moore's Law.

According to Moore's Law, the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years, leading to an exponential improvement in electronics.

However, as devices get smaller, it is increasingly difficult for manufacturers to continue the trend on conventional silicon microchips.

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Springs built from nanotubes could provide big power storage potential

New research by MIT scientists suggests that carbon nanotubes -- tube-shaped molecules of pure carbon -- could be formed into tiny springs capable of storing as much energy, pound for pound, as state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries, and potentially more durably and reliably.

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Nanoresearchers challenge dogma in protein transportation in cells

New data on signaling proteins, called G proteins, may prove important in fighting diseases such as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer. For many decades scientists have puzzled on "How signaling proteins transport and organize in specific areas of the cell?" Researchers from Nano-Science Center and Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, provide yet unrecognized clues to solve this mystery.

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IBM Develops Denser, Faster Chip Memory

IBM has developed a prototype of what the company claims is the smallest, densest and fastest on-chip memory, which could lead to higher performing electronics from servers to consumer gear.

IBM built the technology for use in next-generation 32-nanometer processors. The embedded dynamic random access memory, or eDRAM, is integrated on the same die as a multi-core processor, instead of using external DRAM modules and transistor-based static random access memory, or SRAM, that's typically used for caches.

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Shipboard Protection System Achieves Milestone Decision

The SPS program is an Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection initiative to provide multiple classes of U.S. Navy ships with an enhanced ability to accomplish self-protection against asymmetric threats. SPS is a system of systems that coordinates command and control of sensors, ship's equipment, software, personnel and procedures.

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Submarine robot for shallow waters

A new type of swimming robot developed by researchers at Bath University could lead to improved submersible devices for applications such as the inspection of oil rigs.

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New diamond Raman laser is highly efficient

Physicists in Australia have demonstrated a highly efficient 532-nm-pumped external cavity diamond Raman laser generating output mostly at the 573 nm first Stokes. According to the researchers, crystalline Raman lasers are efficient converters of pump lasers to longer wavelengths and higher beam quality. Existing Raman lasers typically use crystals of silicon, barium nitrate or metal tungstate to amplify light created by a pump laser.

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RFID Makes Check-in Faster for Air France Passengers

France'sNice Côte d'Azur Airport is testing the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID technology to eliminate the need for plastic customer-loyalty cards, and to speed up and simplify such processes as passenger identification, security checks and the awarding of airport loyalty points.

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Israel Unveils New Precision Weapon Systems for the Ground Forces

New Israeli hardware was unveiled today at the Latrun 3rd annual conference discussing maneuver in complex terrain. Many of the new systems were unveiled by the Ground Forces Command's (GFC) weapons development department, responsible for the maturization of new weapon systems, command for the armor, infantry, combat engineering and artillery corps.

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Transportable Communication Systems

Simple radio lines and cable connections are not enough to satisfy this growing thirst for a much wider coverage and Communication Systems Transportable. So what are these satellite telephones and how have they managed to take such big strides in the field of communication?

A satellite telephone is capable of transmitting and receiving signals from the orbiting satellites which provide good coverage for the whole world or just specific regions.

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China Defense Minister: We Can Compete with West

China's military capability has taken a "quantum leap" thanks to a modernization drive and its weaponry rivals that of Western countries, the nation's defense minister said in an interview Sept. 21.

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Riding a Slingshot into Space

Engineers at NASA have created a prototype of an electromagnetic propulsion system that would use a linear motor and ramjet engine--instead of a rocket propulsion system--to fling a vehicle into space. It is the first system that would operate beyond the sound barrier using an air-breathing ramjet engine.

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A Kevlar killer comes to market

Lashmore's company, Nanocomp Technologies, is the first in the world to make sheets of carbon nanotubes -- microscopic tubes stronger than steel but lighter than plastic. The Pentagon has financed much of the Concord, N.H., firm's work; stakes include the $500 million U.S. market for body and vehicle armor, which is currently dominated by DuPont's Kevlar.

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Omni-ID Launches New High-Performance UHF Gen 2 Tags

Passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tag manufacturer Omni-ID has launched a new RFID platform to improve the performance of its EPC Gen 2 tags across a broader spectrum of UHF frequencies, as well as three new tags that use the platform to provide longer read ranges and higher reliability, regardless of where on Earth those tags are read.

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Alien Unveils Dynamic Security App for Higgs 3 Chip

Morgan Hill, Calif. RFID hardware manufacturer Alien Technology has announced a new security application designed to make RFID tags made with its Higgs 3 chip impossible to clone. The feature, known as Dynamic Authentication, relies on a challenge/response algorithm to verify that a tag is authentic, explains Victor Vega, Alien's marketing director.

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Sharp's New Semiconductor Laser for Triple- and Quadruple- Layer Blu-ray Discs

Sharp Corporation has announced the development of a new 500 mW semiconductor laser for triple- and quadruple- layer Blu-ray discs.

The semiconductor laser is blue-violet, producing an optical output up to 500 mW and 405 nm wavelength of oscillation under pulsed operation. The new laser has been proven reliable over 1,000 hours of testing.

The device is designed to be used in Blu-ray Disc recorders, and can write at 8 x speed on both triple- and quadruple- layer discs

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First Test of New X-ray Laser Strips Neon Bare

It takes a lot of energy to strip all ten electrons from an atom of neon. Doing it from the inside out, knocking away the most-closely-held, innermost electrons first, is an even rarer feat. But the brilliant X-ray pulses of the Linac Coherent Light Source have done just that, in the successful first test of the unprecedented X-ray laser with its first scientific instrument. The result demonstrates the machine's unique capabilities—with the world's brightest and shortest X-ray laser pulses—and marks the first of two milestones in readiness for the launch of LCLS scientific user experiments this October.

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Magnetic drug delivery device

A drug delivery device that uses magnetism and nanotechnology could be used to treat conditions such as chronic pain, cancer and diabetes.

The research team, led by Dr Daniel Kohane, has created a small implantable device, less than 1cm in diameter, that encapsulates a drug in a specially engineered membrane, embedded with nanoparticles composed of magnetite, a mineral with magnetic properties.

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The Flying Future for America's Missile Shield

This week the Obama administration said that it will likely scale back plans to install ground-based missile defense interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic. While the Iranian long-range rocket threat is now downgraded, missile defense interceptors are still part of U.S. military strategy. The move away from ground-based interceptors in Europe could signal a technological shift—to the air. Could air-launched interceptors be the answer for missile defense?

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Flying Bot Swarms You Control With Body Language

Robot swarms could someday hover, spin, and attack in response to a simple gesture or graceful pirouette from a human operator. And yes, Boeing has filed a patent on that future vision.
"The method may involve defining a plurality of body movements of an operator that correspond to a plurality of operating commands for the unmanned object.

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Raytheon, Lockheed May Win in Obama Missile Plan

Raytheon Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. may be winners in President Barack Obama’s decision to shift a proposed missile-defense network in Europe toward a more flexible system, said Rob Stallard, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Inc. in New York.

Obama’s plan would place anti-missile systems aboard destroyers at sea and include mobile land-based radar. The previous plan by former President George W. Bush would have put land-based missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic to defend against hostile nations, primarily Iran.

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UCSF researchers control cell movement with light

University of California, San Francisco researchers have genetically encoded mouse cells to respond to light, creating cells that can be trained to follow a light beam or stop on command like microscopic robots.

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Air Force officials fund super-fast, secure computing

Air Force Office of Scientific Research-supported physicists at the University of Michigan are developing innovative components for quantum, or super-fast, computers that will improve security for data storage and transmission on Air Force systems

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Computers Meet Cell Biology

The sequencing of the human genome has resulted in the emergence of an enormously important new branch in the biotechnological sciences. The most common terms for this field are bioinformatics or computational biology.

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No More Service Packs for Windows XP

Looks like an era is coming to an end, as Microsoft is now shifting its focus away from supporting old-timer Windows XP on a service pack level, and looking at the hot new chick in town, the sexy Windows 7. According to Softpedia, SP3 was the last service pack for the 32-bit version of Windows XP (x86); SP2 was the last major update for the 64-bit version (x64).

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Aurora Unveils Orion Persistent UAV

Aurora Flight Sciences is waiting to hear whether it has been selected for a U.S. Defense Department joint concept technology demonstration (JCTD) of an affordable, persistent medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to begin in fiscal 2010.

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USAF Readies For Multiple Launches

The U.S. Air Force is about to enter the most intense period of fielding new space systems since the height of the Cold War almost 50 years ago, says Space and Missile Systems Center commander, Lt. Gen. John Sheridan.

"We're poised to deliver six brand new space systems in the next 24 months. Nothing as ambitious as this has been attempted since the 1960s.

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New DRASH Command and Control Equipment Hits the Market

DHS Systems LLC recently unveiled several changes to their Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter (DRASH) Deployable Command and Control Equipment (DC2E).

First introduced last November, the DC2E Large Screen Display is a projector system designed for users operating in larger workstations, including the company’s 1,250-square foot J Series Shelters.

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WiMax Is (Still) on Its Way. Maybe

By the end of 2010, users in more than 80 U.S. cities may be able to ditch their cable modems, T1 setups and DSL lines -- and the Wi-Fi routers that go with them -- in favor of WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) broadband wireless technology.

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Boeing Flies Harpoon Missile With Updated Guidance Control

A Boeing Harpoon Block II missile equipped with a redesigned Guidance Control Unit (GCU) flew for the first time in a test conducted on Sept. 10. It was launched from the USS Princeton off the coast of California and scored a direct hit on a land-based target on San Nicolas Island, Calif.

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Japan missile-interception test successful: govt

Japan said it successfully shot down a mock ballistic missile late Wednesday in its second test of a US-developed surface-to-air interception system, the defence ministry said.

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Abercrombie: F135 Mishap Shows Second JSF Engine a Must

Congressional supporters of building a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are seizing upon a faulty test of the fighter's primary power plant to drum up support.

In a Sept. 14 "dear colleague" letter, Rep. Neil Abercrombie, House Armed Services air and land subcommittee chairman, said a mishap during a test of the F-35's main engine, being built by Pratt & Whitney, shows two engines are necessary. The incident took place Sept. 11.

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Obama Sharply Alters U.S. Missile Defense Plans

In a major policy reversal, U.S. President Barack Obama has scuttled plans to build a massive ground-based missile defense system based in the Czech Republic and Poland that the Bush administration intended to counter the threat posed by Iranian ballistic missiles.

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Mystery immunity could boost swine flu protection

VACCINATING people against swine flu may be a lot easier than anyone dared hope, as it turns out that people have an unexpected degree of immunity to the pandemic now sweeping the world.

A seasonal flu in the same H1N1 family as the pandemic virus has been circulating since 1977, but until now it was thought that this seasonal virus did not induce immunity to the pandemic strain.

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Secrets of insect flight revealed

Researchers are one step closer to creating a micro-aircraft that flies with the manoeuvrability and energy efficiency of an insect after decoding the aerodynamic secrets of insect flight.

Dr John Young, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, and a team of animal flight researchers from Oxford University's Department of Zoology, used high-speed digital video cameras to film locusts in action in a wind tunnel, capturing how the shape of a locust's wing changes in flight. They used that information to create a computer model which recreates the airflow and thrust generated by the complex flapping movement.

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Taiwan Scientist develops Earthquake Early Warning System

A Taiwan scientist has made an earthquake early warning system, which will allow public a crucial 15-second warning before quake causes destruction.

The system depends on seismic waves, which move horizontally as well as vertically. The device detects and analyses these vertical waves, which travel faster.

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NASA Testing Breakthrough In Water Safety

NASA and University of Utah chemists are developing advanced tech for testing the drinkability of water.

The process just began a six month run aboard the International Space Station. Water will be sampled either from the Space Station's or Shuttle's galley using a syringe. It is then forced through a chemically-imbued membrane which changes color based on toxicity.

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Researchers make progress in optimizing solid oxide fuel cells

While our standard of life increases, so does the worldwide energy demand. In this vein, the application of technologies based on fuel cells is put forward as an alternative to the massive consumption of fossil fuels. One of the fuel cells of greatest current interest is the solid oxide one.

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Capturing tomorrow's satellite data with today's instruments

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) are participating in a project designed to bridge the gap between current satellite capabilities and the advanced technology that will be part of the next generation of geostationary satellites.

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Urban Hopper robot can leap over 25-foot walls

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has demoed its Precision Urban Hopper robot, a wheeled ground unit that can leap over 25-foot-tall obstacles and keep on truckin'.

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IAI to Supply Self-Protection System for Military and Civilian Planes

ELTA Systems Ltd., a group and wholly owned subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), has been awarded a contract to supply its self-protection systems, Flight Guard, for commercial planes in Israel. Contracts for various customers in Israel and abroad for the self-protection systems are estimated to be valued at tens of millions of dollars, over period of years. This is the only system to be tested and authorized by the Israel Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA).

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Boeing Flies Harpoon Missile With Updated Guidance Control

A Boeing [NYSE: BA] Harpoon Block II missile equipped with a redesigned Guidance Control Unit (GCU) flew for the first time in a test conducted on Sept. 10. It was launched from the USS Princeton off the coast of California and scored a direct hit on a land-based target on San Nicolas Island, Calif.

The new GCU, which controls most of the missile's functions, incorporates a Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to improve GPS security. In addition, the GCU resolves obsolescence issues and can accommodate possible future implementation of a data link for network centric operations.

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Scientists Create First Ever Magnetic Gas

For decades, scientists have debated whether or not gasses could display the same magnetic properties as solids. Now, thanks to some MIT scientists, they know the answer is a freezing cold yes.

MIT researchers have observed magnetism in an atomic gas of lithium cooled down to 150 millionths of a degree above absolute zero.

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Microvision commercially launches the first laser picoprojector

Microvision (Redmond, WA) has commercially introduced the world's first laser-based picoprojector, called SHOW WX, which is based on the company's proprietary PicoP display-engine technology.

The Microvision picoprojector uses the laser-based PicoP display engine that delivers large, colorful, bright, and vivid images that are in focus regardless of projection distance.

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U.S. Air Dominance Eroding

The U.S. military’s historic dominance of the skies, unchallenged since around spring 1943, is increasingly at risk because of the proliferation of advanced technologies and a buildup of potential adversary arsenals.

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CSBA outlines B-3 Next Generation Bomber

Thomas Ehrhard, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, has published a fascinating monograph today with a recommended long-haul strategy for the US Air Force. The paper covers a lot of ground, but contains a particular focus on the USAF's deeply classified plans to start fielding a next-generation bomber force within the next 10 years. Ehrhard, who previously helped resuce the US Navy's X-47B program from cancellation, proposes his ideal strategy for a notional B-3 next generation bomber force of 130 aircraft, with a $16 billion development bill and a flyaway cost per aircraft of about $425 million.

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Raytheon Team Demonstrate Underwater Launch

Raytheon marked a developmental milestone when it successfully demonstrated the underwater launch of a Raytheon AIM-9X air-to-air test missile shape from a submerged Tomahawk Capsule Launching System. This successful test is a significant step in demonstrating payload flexibility for submarines.

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Hawker Beechcraft And LM Team For USAF Light Attack And Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft

Hawker Beechcraft and Lockheed Martin have teamed to compete for the opportunity to provide a low-cost, low-risk solution to address U.S. Air Force (USAF) needs for a Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) aircraft. The USAF is expected to launch an acquisition program in fiscal year 2010.

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Northrop Grumman Wins $12.4M Contract for DARPA High-Power Transistor Research

Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems in Redondo Beach, CA won a $12.4 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to conduct research for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Nitride Electronic Next Generation Technology Program.

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3-tonne robot flying saucer offered to world's militaries

DSEi A struggling British firm, restored to life by an anonymous private backer, is exhibiting a concept "flying saucer" aircraft able to lift a payload of one tonne, as well as smaller surveillance models down to pocket size. Company reps say that the firm is in contention for a significant European naval contract.

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New AFOSR Magnetron May Help Defeat Enemy Electronics

Researchers funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) at the University of Michigan invented a new type of magnetron that may be used to defeat enemy electronics. A magnetron is a type of vacuum tube used as the frequency source in microwave ovens, radar systems and other high-power microwave circuits.

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A blueprint to secure Car-To-Car Connections on the road

A European research project works out how to keep car-to-car data transmissions private and secure from malicious hackers.

The SEVECOM project brought together leading car and equipment manufacturers and ICT research institutes to agree on a security architecture that everyone could easily ‘bolt on’ to their proprietary C2C applications and ensure secure data transmission.

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Two chips in one: Researchers combine microprocessor materials

An MIT team led by Tomás Palacios, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has succeeded in combining two semiconductor materials, silicon and gallium nitride, that have different and potentially complementary characteristics, into a single hybrid microchip. This is something researchers have been attempting to do for decades.

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Nanoparticles could pose threat to humans: scientists

They can make fabric resistant to stains, improve the taste of food and help drug research, but nanoparticles could also pose a danger to human health, experts warned.

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Implanted tooth helps blind US woman recover sight

A 60-year-old US grandmother, blind for nearly a decade, has recovered her sight after surgeons implanted a tooth in her eye as a base to hold a tiny plastic lens, her doctors said Wednesday.

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SFC Smart Fuel Cell Wins The Technology Innovation Awards

SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG, based just outside Munich, won the Energy category for developing small, lightweight fuel cells that can be used by soldiers instead of much bulkier, heavier batteries to power communications and navigation devices and other battlefield equipment.

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Are ESL bulbs better than CFL or LED?

A novel design for energy-efficient lightbulbs can produce incandescent-quality light and does not contain mercury like compact fluorescents (CFLs), according to manufacturer Vu1.

The Seattle-based firm has been working on an alternative to CFLs and LED lights for five years.

Vu1's Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) lights can last up to 6,000 hours, about three to four times the lifespan of incandescents and comparable to CFLs. They produce 50 percent less heat than incandescents.

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Most Powerful MRI Has Stronger Magnet Than the LHC’s

The world’s most powerful MRI machine used on humans packs a 45-ton magnet that generates a 9.4-Tesla magnetic field.

If you’re counting Teslas at home — which are a standard measure of magnetic force — that’s stronger than the magnets in the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.

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Wireless heart pump technology

Scientists at the University of Auckland have developed a technology to power a wireless heart pump that could save the lives of thousands of heart patients, and eventually offer an alternative to heart transplants.

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Air Force Displays Its New "Focused Lethality Munition"

The Focused Lethality Munition, on display at the Air Force Association show, puts the emphasis on precision, with a GPS-guided inertial guidance system that supposedly has hardening against possible jamming.

The bomb's killing power comes from a "multiphase-blast explosive fill" developed by the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). That explosive fill probably refers to the fine tungsten powder found in Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) technology, which becomes an extremely lethal cloud upon impact, but only travels a short distance, to minimize collateral damage.

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New Hopping Robot Technology for US Military

Details have emerged into the public domain of a new military robot design capable of jumping heights in excess of 25 feet and, thus, capable of sailing over fences, walls and other structures. This small robot is intended for future US military service and - named the Precision Urban Hopper - is the product of Sandia National Laboratories. Future Precision Urban Hoppers, though, will be built by Boston Dynamics - a US firm that specialises in robotics.

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New Technology Could Prevent Air Collisions

Equipment that could have prevented the midair collision between a single-engine plane and a sightseeing helicopter on Aug. 8 will be available nationwide by 2013, a federal aviation official told a Senate panel on Tuesday. But its use will not be required until 2020.

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LockMart C-5M Super Galaxy Sets World Aviation Records

A joint U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin flight crew flying a C-5M Super Galaxy strategic transport claimed 41 world aeronautical records in one flight on September 13.

The flight from Dover AFB broke eight existing world marks and established standards in 33 other categories where there had been no previous record attempt.

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New Video Surveillance Software eliminates Huge Information Overloads

University of Adelaide has developed the new network surveillance software that will automatically integrate data from thousands of security cameras in a video surveillance network into a single sensor, eliminating existing problems with huge information overloads of airports, shopping malls and large sporting and entertainment venues around the world.

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$21 Billion Orbiting Solar Array will Beam Electricity to Earth

The Japanese are preparing to develop a two trillion yen (approximately $21 billion USD) space solar project that will beam electricity from space in the form of microwaves or lasers to around 300,000 homes in Japan within three decades.

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Salt and Paper Battery May One Day Replace Lithium Batteries

Salt and paper battery can be used in many low-power devices, such as medical implants, RFID tags, wireless sensors and smart cards. This battery uses a thin-film which makes it an attractive feature for many portable devices that draws a low current.

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A Unique Solution to prevent Friendly Fire accidents

A new and unique product for the prevention of Friendly Fire accidents during combat has been developed by TAR Ideal Concept in light of the accidents in the Second Lebanon war and in the recent Gaza fights. The TL5 is a component relying on Infra-red technology that is positioned on the soldiers' helmet, weapon or gear and enables precise identification of the person by other forces in the combat area. The new development will be presented for the first time at the Israel Defense 2009 Exhibition this coming October in Tel Aviv.

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Lockheed Debuts New Stealth Drone Concept

After almost 15 years of spying on America's enemies, and occasionally blowing them up, the venerable Predator and Reaper drones currently used by the Air Force will have to be replaced, sooner or later.

The new UAV would have stealth features, the ability to fly at 0.8 Mach and a 24-hour flight life. For comparison, that's twice as fast as the Reaper, and almost six times as fast as the Predator, with comparable flight life.

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Oxley Launch ‘NEW’ Ships Flight Deck Lights

Utilizing knowledge and expertise in the field of night vision lighting, Oxley has designed and manufactured a suite of LED deck lights for naval and marine platforms. Compromising deck edge units, deck wash and line up lights they are designed as a complete fit and forget replacement for incandescent technology.

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LockMart Airborne Lab Demonstrates Advanced Intelligence Collection Capabilities

The power of one multi-intelligence aircraft collecting, correlating then distributing diverse types of intelligence to those who needed it was demonstrated by Lockheed Martin during the U.S. Army's C4ISR On-The-Move exercise.

Lockheed Martin's Airborne Multi-intelligence Laboratory (AML) demonstrated how its onboard sensors, interacting with the Army's intelligence and battle command enterprises can dramatically improve the speed and quality of situational awareness available to friendly forces.

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Raytheon Awarded Contract For Lightweight Torpedoes

Raytheon has received a $19.3 million U.S. Navy contract to provide MK54 lightweight torpedo hardware. With this award, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) is under contract to deliver 241 MK54 kits, of which 100 kits will be delivered to the Turkish Navy via a Foreign Military Sales agreement.

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USAF Strengthens Nuclear Deterrence Operations

New initiatives underway within the Air Force to consolidate commands, modernize systems and strengthen personnel emphasize nuclear security.

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$29.9M to Lockheed Martin for Thin Line Towed Arrays

Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors in Syracuse, NY received a $15.2 million firm-fixed-price contract for the production of 5 TB-29A thin line towed arrays (TLTAs), which are passive underwater acoustic sensors attached by tow cables to surface ships and submarines.

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LED Spraycan Grafitti

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The Halo LED Spraycan Let’s You Graffiti Without The Paint

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Electronics 'missing link' united with rest of the family

In the 18 months since the "missing link of electronics" was discovered in Hewlett-Packard's laboratories in Silicon Valley, California, memristors have spawned a hot new area of physics and raised hope of electronics becoming more like brains.

Memristor

First predicted in 1971, the memristor could help develop denser memorychips or even electronic circuits that mimic the synapses of the human brain, says Stan Williams who made the discovery with colleagues at Hewlett-Packard's lab in Palo Alto, California.

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CIA invests in low-power Wi-Fi Intel spinoff

Low-power Wi-Fi specialist and Intel spinoff company GainSpan has announced a strategic investment and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel, the CIA's independent strategic investment firm.

According to GainSpan, its technology provides the lowest power consuming Wi-Fi single chip solution for wireless sensor networks and other embedded applications, allowing devices to run for up to 10 years on a single AA battery.

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Airborne intelligence platform joins Army exercise

An aircraft system that can take information from multiple sensors and distribute that information to military units participated in the Army’s C4ISR On-the-Move exercise held last month.

Designed by Lockheed Martin Corp., the Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory (AML) flew support missions for the Army’s Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate and was one of several sensor-gathering platforms participating in the event.

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Marines to get help with counter-IED systems

he Marine Corps will get assistance with technology designed to defeat radio-controlled improvised explosives through a new contract awarded to Science Applications International Corp.
SAIC will serve as the program support integrator for the Marine Corps Counter Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (CREW) Program.

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Army picks two for driver’s vision devices

The Army has awarded contracts to DRS Technologies and BAE Systems to fulfill orders for infrared driver’s vision enhancers (DVEs) through an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with a $1.9 billion ceiling.

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Microprocessor diversity threatens X86 hegemony

Intel has managed to expand its lead in the struggling global microprocessor sector by capturing 80.6 percent of the segment's revenue during the second quarter of 2009. However, the company's traditional X86 hegemony may soon be threatened by an increasingly diverse microprocessor market.

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Japanese consortium to develop solar powered CPU

The solar powered CPU that will consume 70% less energy is being developed by a consortium of seven Japanese companies.

The main idea behind this move is to lessen the dependence on foreign technologies. This is going to be a challenge for AMD and Intel.

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Master Gene That Switches On Disease-fighting Cells Identified By Scientists

The master gene that causes blood stem cells to turn into disease-fighting 'Natural Killer' (NK) immune cells has been identified by scientists, in a study published in Nature Immunology Setember 13. The discovery could one day help scientists boost the body's production of these frontline tumour-killing cells, creating new ways to treat cancer.

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