Aircraft Worth More Dead Than Alive

AMARC (Aerospace Maintenance and Recovery Center). This facility, out in the Arizona desert, stores nearly 5,000 military aircraft no longer needed for active service. Every year, some are recalled, refurbished and sent back to work. But most get "harvested" for spare parts, until what's left is sold for scrap.

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Researchers grow nanowire crystals for 3-D microchips

The scientists added tiny germanium crystals in the shape of nanowires to a sheet of silicon, and then topped it with a layer of germanium. With heat, the nanowires and the germanium topping took on the crystal structure of the silicon. This process is a potential solution to the difficult task of layering germanium onto silicon, a step toward fabricating three-dimensional integrated circuits, or microchips.

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Using fiber optics to detect sound

QinetiQ has perfected a technique that transforms a fiber optic cable into a highly sensitive microphone capable of detecting a single footstep from up to 40 km away.

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2 In 3 IT Managers Have Cloud Funding

IT managers disagree on a definition of cloud computing, but they agree that it's either already in their budgets or soon will be. And they expect to share responsibility for cloud computing with application developers and business stakeholders.

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Man with 25 IDs nabbed by face-recognition tech

Helms allegedly had all the correct paperwork and then posed for his photograph. However, in the evening after his application was approved, the photograph passed through the new facial recognition system, which spotted an allegedly remarkable similarity with 10 other licenses, according to the report.

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Who Owns Unix?

In an unexpected ruling, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the 2007 summary judgment decision by Judge Dale Kimball of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah that found that Novell owned the Unix and Unixware copyrights, according to a news report in ComputerWorld.

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Method for using bluetooth module to process non-bluetooth signals

An electronic device having a communications module with a first set of data rates can be enabled to use the communications module to process signals received from a source that uses a second set of data rates. The device may generate packets, frames, etc. at the first set of data rates using the communications module from the signals received from the remote source by sampling signals at one or more of the first set of data rates.

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“Never-Out-of-Touch” On-the-Move Communications

HUGHES and Ultra Electronics Partner to Demonstrate an Integrated “Never-Out-of-Touch” Tactical Communications Solution for Coalition Forces.

SATCOM Capabilities with High Capacity Line-of-Sight Tactical Communications Provide Seamless Connectivity and Range Extension While On-The-Move

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Ultra Hi-Res Surveillance Technology for US Army

Ultra hi-resolution US military images covering large expanses of battlefield may soon be available, in light of the US Army's newly-announced search for new military imaging technology to be carried aloft by manned aircraft or pilotless UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). The US Army's desire is to have cameras capable of capturing 2.3 gigapixel images - which would be supremely detailed - and weight is an issue too, since the requirement is for them to be lightweight and small-scale.

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Fixed Communication Systems

Fixed Communication Systems are connected to a remote station, in which acts as a server to cater the call, it is also wired or connected to a terminal in which performs the communication itself, so when a certain number or address is dialed in, it goes and basically connects to the station and on to the terminal, to make it happen. It is a basic structure that simply initiates the conversation and from there information is transferred.

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Air Force Organizes Cyberspace Units Under One Command

Air Force Space Command activated a new unit yesterday to better organize space and cyberspace capabilities and to keep pace with the rapid changes in information technology, the Space Command’s top military officer said.

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Cruise missile defense capabilities within reach

The U.S. Army's Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Sensor (JLENS) System, which uses aerostats to elevate sensors for long-range target detection and tracking for superior land-attack cruise missile defense, demonstrated its first flight today during a ceremony in Elizabeth City, N.C.

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Boeing SLAM ER Modified To Engage Moving Targets On Land

Boeing has modified the Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM ER) to engage land-based moving targets (LMT). The U.S. Navy declared the missile system, with its enhanced targeting software, operationally effective against LMTs on July 2 following a successful Operational Evaluation.

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Safety is not enough for bullet-proof wear

It's been called the Armani of armor, and the client list includes presidents, politicians, industry leaders and extraordinary folk with fat files in law enforcement agencies.

Miguel Caballero, the bulletproof wear specialist, is on the trail of whoever needs protection against death by gunshot but nonetheless is conscious of the latest fashion in street and party wear.

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$48.5M to Alion for Torpedo Detection System R&D and Testing

Alion Science and Technology in McLean, VA received a task order (N00178-04-D-4066) from the US Navy valued at $48.5 million to research, design, develop, prototype, integrate and test a new torpedo detection system in conjunction with the Navy’s anti-torpedo countermeasure technology effort.

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Magic ink offers full-colour printing in an instant

Engineers have long experimented with replicating these so-called structural colors in synthetic materials, and now Sunghoon Kwon's team at Seoul National University in South Korea has managed it.

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Lasers keep submarines in touch through the big blue

THE water that hides enemy submarines also makes it hard to contact the friendly ones from the air - unless they surface. Reaching submerged subs has required giant transmitters sending very low-frequency radio waves, which limits data transmission speeds. Now the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is turning to new blue lasers to get the message through.

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Microchip technology performs 1,000 chemical reactions at once

Flasks, beakers and hot plates may soon be a thing of the past in chemistry labs. Instead of handling a few experiments on a bench top, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer and instantly run thousands of chemical reactions, with results — literally shrinking the lab down to the size of a thumbnail.

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Autonomous underwater robot reduces ship fuel consumption

The best way to stop barnacles from colonizing is don't let them settle and colonize on the hull in the first place- advises McElvany. With that in mind, ONR recently conducted tests with a developmental ship hull grooming robot, called the Robotic Hull Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming tool or Hull BUG. The tests showed that this little groomer — similar in concept to a autonomous robotic home vacuum cleaner or lawn mower — has a lot of promise.

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UK firm wins funding for commercial nanotube process

Surrey NanoSystems, a University of Surrey spin-out working on a low-temperature growth process for carbon nanotubes, has secured second round funding of £2.5m

Surrey NanoSystems was established in 2006 as a spin-out from the University of Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) to develop intellectual property which supports the fabrication of carbon nanotubes at low temperature.

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Relativistic Navigation Needed for Solar Sails

A decent-size solar sail could accelerate out of the solar system in no time, and this raises new challenges for navigators.

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New Measure of Human Brain Processing Speed

A new way to analyze human reaction times shows that the brain processes data no faster than 60 bits per second.

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Bacteria Desalinate Water, Generate Power

Bacteria can be used to turn dirty salt water into electricity and drinkable water, according to new research from scientists at Penn State University and Tsinghua University.

The research presents a new spin on microbial fuel cells, which have been used in the past to produce electricity or store it as hydrogen or methane gas.

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Spray-on solar cells

Solar cells could soon be produced more cheaply using nanoparticle ‘inks’ that allow them to be printed like newspaper or painted onto the sides of buildings or rooftops to absorb electricity-producing sunlight.

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Behind the Scenes With the World's Most Ambitious Rocket Makers

An improbable partnership between an Internet mogul and an engineer could revolutionize the way NASA conducts missions—and, if these iconoclasts are successful, send paying customers into space.

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Smallest Laser Ever May Herald the Future Of Electronic Devices

For decades, electronic devices have been shrinking, in accordance with Moore's Law. Now, as circuits reach the size of single atoms, progress begins to bump up against the physical limitations of matter. Enter the spaser. This new kind of laser produces a beam so small that it could someday form the foundation of circuits made of light, not electrical impulses.

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Active Cloaking Could Counter Radar, Earthquakes, and Tsunamis

Today's stealth fighters, such as theF-22 Raptor, may do pretty well in concealing their radar signature, but mathematicians say that a new active cloaking technique could someday generate electromagnetic fields to hide submarines from sonar, or even protect buildings from earthquakes.

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A Portable Device for Frying Electronics

An enemy missile has no strategic value if its computer is down. A high-power-microwave emitter can disable a missile's electronics on the launchpad, leaving bystanders unharmed -- and now Texas Tech University engineers have a plan to scale down the truck-size tech.

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Powerful, Simple Rocket Fuel Made from Water and Aluminum

A new rocket propellant consisting of aluminum powder and water ice could point toward the future of space exploration.

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Controlling light becomes crystal clear

A simple way to fabricate 3D photonic crystals could find applications in next-generation laser diodes, LEDs and solar cells.

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