Georgetown Security Law Brief

Three NYU scientists accepted bribes from China, US says

05/21/13:  The New York Times reports three researchers at the New York University School of Medicine who specialized in a magnetic resonance imaging technology had been working on research sponsored by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. But, prosecutors on Monday, the three had their eyes on other business as well. They conspired to take bribes from a Chinese medical imaging company and a Chinese-sponsored research institute to share nonpublic information about their NYU work, according to the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. The defendants, all Chinese citizens, included Yudong Zhu, 44, of Scarsdale, NY, an associate professor in the school’s radiology department who was described by the authorities as “an accomplished researcher and innovator.” He was hired by the university around 2008 to teach and conduct research related to innovations in MRI technology, the authorities said. After the National Institutes of Health awarded the university millions of dollars over five years to pay for Professor Zhu’s research, he arranged for the two other defendants to move to New York from Chinato work with him, prosecutors said. He also arranged for them to receive financial support from an executive of the Chinese imaging company who was also affiliated with the government-sponsored institute, officials said. Preet Bharara, the United States attorney, who announced the charges with George Venizelos, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office, said the defendants had “colluded with representatives from a Chinese government entity and a direct competitor of the university for which they worked to illegally acquire NIH-funded research for the benefit of those entities.”        

 

Pakistan adopts Chinese rival GPS satellite system

05/19/13:  Phys.Org reports Pakistan is set to become the fifth Asian country to use China's domestic satellite navigation system which was launched as a rival to the US global positioning system, a report said Saturday. The Beidou, or Compass, system started providing services to civilians in the region in December and is expected to provide global coverage by 2020. It also has military applications. Thailand, China, Laos and Brunei already use the Chinese system, which currently consists of 16 operational satellites, with 30 more due to join the system, according to English-language China Daily. Huang Lei, international business director of BDStar Navigation, which promotes Beidou, told the newspaper the company would build a network of stations in Pakistan to enhance the location accuracy of Beidou. He said building the network would cost tens of millions of dollars. American website Defensenews.com reported early May that Pakistani military experts were in favour of using the Chinese system, even though the availability of the signal could not be guaranteed in case of conflict.

Weekly Tech Updates 05/18/13

05/18/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security:

• US Navy's X-47B, first unmanned jet to take off from an aircraft carrier's catapults
• Samsung claims 5G mobile data transmission breakthrough
• Google and NASA create artificial intelligence lab
• Pilotless flight trialled in UK shared airspace
• New 'smart rifle' decides when to shoot and rarely misses
• DARPA gives up on formation-flying satellites
• Laser scanner can detect someone watching you a kilometer away
• Satellites provide risk warning for Southern California fire season
• New software spots, isolates cyber-attacks to protect networked control systems
• DARPA seeks technology to radically improve dismounted squad situational awareness
• Solar panels as inexpensive as paint possible due to new research
• A new tool for radioactive contamination mapping
• A new laser paradigm: An electrically injected polariton laser
• Engineers design cells that can compute logarithms, divide and take square roots
• Researchers develop new tool to provide radiation monitoring in Japan
• GPS data could improve tsunami early warnings
• Naturally occurring mineral for thermoelectric power generation
• Embryonic stem cells: Advance in medical human cloning

 

US sees China launch as test of anti-satellite muscle -source

05/16/13:  Reuters reports the US government believes a Chinese missile launch this week was the first test of a new interceptor that could be used to destroy a satellite in orbit, a US defense official told Reuters on Wednesday.  China launched a rocket into space on Monday, but no objects were placed into orbit, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The object re-entered Earth's atmosphere above the Indian Ocean. The rocket reached 10,000 km (6,250 miles) above Earth, the highest suborbital launch seen worldwide since 1976, according to Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. China has said the rocket, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in western China, carried a science payload to study the earth's magnetosphere. However, a US defense official said US intelligence showed that the rocket could be used in the future to carry an anti-satellite payload on a similar trajectory. Neither the US official nor the Pentagon released details of what the Chinese rocket carried into space.

Russia building up missile systems while seeking to limit US defenses

05/16/13:  The Washington Times reports Russia is engaged in a major buildup of both nuclear and conventional missile defense systems at the same time Moscow is seeking legal limits on US missile defenses, according to US officials. The Russian military is developing and deploying an array of new and modernized anti-missile interceptors that are part of a strategic doctrine that calls for defending against what Moscow believes to be an increasing threat posed by offensive ballistic missiles, said US officials with access to intelligence reports. New systems monitored by US intelligence agencies under development or in the deployment phase include an advanced S-500 missile defense system currently being built in addition to the already available, and very capable, S-400 and S-300 defenses. Additionally, the Russians are upgrading the SH-08 nuclear-tipped anti-missile interceptors that have been deployed around Moscow for more than two decades. US officials said the defenses are assessed as effective against cruise missiles, bombers, jet fighters, short- and intermediate-range ballistic missile, and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Disclosure of the Russian missile defense buildup comes as the Obama administration is seeking to reach an agreement that critics say could result in legally binding restrictions on US defenses.

Weekly Tech Updates - 05/11/13

05/11/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security:

 

• Testing the world's first 3D-printed gun, the Liberator [note: blueprints removed]
• Iran unveils new drone, names it 'Epic'
• Los Alamos lab has had a secret quantum internet for two years
• Pentagon unveils 7 new Chinese weapons
• Biosensor that detects antibiotic resistance brings us one step closer to fighting superbugs
• Rapid threat assessment could mitigate danger from chemical and biological warfare
• Nano-scientists develop new kind of portable water purification system
• Portable nanodevice provides rapid, accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis, other bacterial infections
• Drone cargo helicopters prove worth in Afghanistan, leading way to civilian uses
• More than a good eye: Robot uses arms, location and more to discover objects
• World's first handheld sound camera ready for market
• Researcher construct invisibility cloak for thermal flow
• Researchers use graphene quantum dots to detect humidity and pressure
• In first head-to-head speed test with conventional computing, quantum computer wins
• Team develops in vivo flexible large scale integrated circuits
• Researchers develop metamaterials able to control spread of light
• New magnetic graphene may revolutionise electronics
• Researchers extend electron spin in diamond for incredibly tiny magnetic detectors
• Landsat 8 satellite appears to be working flawlessly
• Terahertz technology: Seeing more with less
• Houseplants: The solar cells of tomorrow

 

US government orders removal of Defcad 3D-gun designs

05/10/13: The BBC reports the US government has demanded designs for a 3D-printed gun be taken offline. The order to remove the blueprints for the plastic gun comes after they were downloaded more than 100,000 times. The US State Department wrote to the gun's designer, Defense Distributed, suggesting publishing them online may breach arms-control regulations. Although the files have been removed from the company's Defcad site, it is not clear whether this will stop people accessing the blueprints. They were being hosted by the Mega online service and may still reside on its servers. Also, many links to copies of the blueprints have been uploaded to file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, making them widely available. The Pirate Bay has also publicised its links to the files via social news site Reddit suggesting many more people will get hold of the blueprints. The Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance emailed Mr Wilson a document demanding the designs be "removed from public access" until he could prove he had not broken laws governing shipping weapons overseas by putting the files online and letting people outside the US download them. Mr Wilson said that Defense Distributed had complied with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) rules. He said the rules were pretty convoluted, but he believed his project was exempt as Defense Distributed had been set up specifically to meet requirements that exempted it from ITAR. "Our gun operations were registered with ITAR." He said the letter was unclear in that the Office was conducting a "review" yet at the same time he had to remove the files. He welcomed the US government's intervention, saying it would highlight the issue of whether it was possible to stop the spread of 3D-printed weapons.

Weekly Tech Updates 05/04/13

05/04/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security:

• Experimental Air Force aircraft goes hypersonic
• Robotic insect: World's smallest flying robot takes off
• Touch sensor by mapping a building's electromagnetic field
• Clean, efficient, silent: New generator can power a command center with less than a whisper
• DARPA shows off its cheap, unstoppable robotic hand
• 8 electrocopters coming to conquer the skiesRobots able to reach through clutter with whole-arm tactile sensingDARPA: Tag team threat-recognition technology incorporates mind, machine
• Researchers create design for nanometer-scale material that can speed up, squeeze light
• Virgin Galactic spaceship ignites engine in flight
• Gecko-like drone can land on walls and ceilings
• Snake robot teams up with search-and-rescue dog in US
• Printable 'bionic' ear melds electronics and biology
• Bug's eye inspires hemispherical digital camera that delivers unmatched field of view
• Solar-powered nanofilters pump in antibiotics to clean contaminated water
• Researchers develop 'smart' paper and antennaless RFID tags
• New nanowire transistors may help keep Moore's Law alivePerpetual motion is as simple as breaking time
• Supercapacitors, the near-ish future of batteries
• Graphene breakthrough could mean buildings powered by solar paint
• Huge solar plane begins slow flight across US

China makes waves as new force in drone warfare

05/04/13:  The Washington Times reports China is emerging as a real force in the drone warfare market, with aerospace firms developing and showcasing unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, that rival what’s produced in the United States. The Associated Press reported that Chinese firms have recently unveiled UAVs that are eerily similar to the Predator, Global Hawk and Reaper models used by the CIA and by the US Air Force. Military analysts say Chinese drone technology is still behind America’s and Israel's — but that it’s catching up quickly. The emerging drone technology represents China’s growing military intelligence. It also suggests that China is preparing a military challenge for dominance in the Asia-Pacific, a role currently filled by America. The concern is China — which said its drones can carry bombs and missiles — could take that technology and use it to intimidate neighbors, AP reported. Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines are among those who are watching.

UN report wants moratorium on killer robots

05/04/13:  The Associated Press reports killer robots that can attack targets without any human input "should not have the power of life and death over human beings," a new draft UN report says. The report for the UN Human Rights Commission posted online this week deals with legal and philosophical issues involved in giving robots lethal powers over humans, echoing countless science-fiction novels and films. The debate dates to author Isaac Asimov's first rule for robots in the 1942 story "Runaround:" `'A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." Report author Christof Heyns, a South African professor of human rights law, calls for a worldwide moratorium on the "testing, production, assembly, transfer, acquisition, deployment and use" of killer robots until an international conference can develop rules for their use. His findings are due to be debated at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on May 29. According to the report, the United States, Britain, Israel, South Korea and Japan have developed various types of fully or semi-autonomous weapons.

Commentary: Xi's War Drums

05/02/13:  Foreign Policy published an article by John Garnaut: China's new leader is using the military to consolidate his power. But has he unleashed forces beyond his control? Xi has taken charge at a moment when China has been building up its military power as never before, surprising the United States and shocking its neighbors with the speedy development of new hardware and the aggressive manner in which it has deployed those tools to support its expanding ambitions. Top US intelligence analysts and generals have admitted to being caught out by the 2011 flight-testing of China's new J-20 stealth fighter. They were dumbfounded by China's subsequent deployment of the East Wind 21D, the world's first anti-ship ballistic missile, dubbed "the carrier killer" in the West. And now China is on track to nearly triple its fleet of maritime strike aircraft by 2020. China is simultaneously developing and producing seven types of submarine and surface warships. That's after a decade in which it quadrupled its number of modern submarines, including nuclear submarines designed to carry nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. It has massively expanded production of corvettes, frigates, amphibious ships, and destroyers. In September, China launched its first aircraft carrier.  But the specter of war is not the only possible explanation for Xi's saber rattling and demands for combat readiness. For even as Japanese leaders and US officials were publicizing their concerns this winter about a region on the brink of naval conflict, it became clearer that Xi and his close military confidants are squarely focused on domestic politics. Xi, then, has ultimately chosen to defend the Communist Party against internal political threats rather than prepare it to face external military threats. There is little doubt the Communist Party has been sharpening its identity in a post-communist world by defining itself against the West, fanning nationalist fervor, and promising a restoration of China's ancient grandeur. Xi thus has little choice but to keep pumping enormous resources into a war machine if he is to justify his party's continuing monopoly on power.

Panel seeks to fine tech companies for noncompliance with wiretap orders

04/30/13:  The Washington Post reports a government task force is preparing legislation that would pressure companies such as Face­book and Google to enable law enforcement officials to intercept online communications as they occur, according to current and former US officials familiar with the effort. Driven by FBI concerns that it is unable to tap the Internet communications of terrorists and other criminals, the task force’s proposal would penalize companies that failed to heed wiretap orders — court authorizations for the government to intercept suspects’ communications. But law enforcement officials say the cloak drawn on suspects’ online activities — what the FBI calls the “going dark” problem — means that critical evidence can be missed. “The importance to us is pretty clear,” Andrew Weissmann, the FBI’s general counsel, said last month at an ANA discussion on legal challenges posed by new technologies. “We don’t have the ability to go to court and say, ‘We need a court order to effectuate the intercept.’ Other countries have that. Most people assume that’s what you’re getting when you go to a court.” There is currently no way to wiretap some of these communications methods easily, and companies effectively have been able to avoid complying with court orders. While the companies argue that they have no means to facilitate the wiretap, the government, in turn, has no desire to enter into what could be a drawn-out contempt proceeding. Under the draft proposal, a court could levy a series of escalating fines on firms that fail to comply with wiretap orders. A company that does not comply with an order within a certain period would face an automatic judicial inquiry, which could lead to fines. Instead of setting rules that dictate how the wiretap capability must be built, the proposal would let companies develop the solutions as long as those solutions yielded the needed data. That flexibility was seen as inevitable by those crafting the proposal, given the range of technology companies that might receive wiretap orders. Smaller companies would be exempt from the fines. The proposal, however, is likely to encounter resistance, said industry officials and privacy advocates.

 

Weekly Tech Updates 04/27/13

04/27/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security:

• Tracking gunfire with a smartphone
• Parachuting canister detects chemical weapons
• Lasers bring new urgency to electric power research
• Lockheed Martin plans world's largest thermal energy power plant
• Brain cells will control the power plants of the future
• NASA successfully launches three smartphone satellites
• Inkjet-printed graphene electrodes may lead to low-cost, large-area, possibly foldable devices
• Discovery yields supertough, strong nanofibers
• 'Quantum internet': Towards realization of solid-state quantum network
• New battery design could help solar and wind power the grid
• New device could make diagnosing disease as simple as breathing
• New atomic magnetometer doesn't need to be shielded from Earth's magnetic field

US tries new aerial tools in Caribbean drug fight

04/27/13:  The Miami Herald reports drug smugglers who race across the Caribbean in speedboats will typically jettison their cargo when spotted by surveillance aircraft, hoping any chance of prosecuting them will vanish with the drugs sinking to the bottom of the sea. That may be a less winning tactic in the future. The US Navy on Friday began testing two new aerial tools, borrowed from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, that officials say will make it easier to detect, track and videotape drug smugglers in action. One of the devices on display aboard the High Speed Vessel Swift is a large, white balloon-like craft known as an aerostat, which is tethered up to 2,000 feet (600 meters) above the ship's stern. The other tool on board for tests in the Florida Straits is a type of drone that can be launched by hand from the deck. Together, they expand the ability of Navy and Coast Guard personnel to see what's beyond their horizon, according to officials from both military branches and the contractors hoping to sell the devices to the US government. The devices should allow authorities to detect and monitor suspected drug shipments from afar for longer sustained periods, giving them a better chance of stopping the smugglers. They also should allow them to make continuous videotapes that can be used in prosecutions.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/27/3367756/us-tries-new-aerial-tools-in-caribbean.html#storylink=cpy

Norway extends period for buying F-35 fighter jets

04/27/13:  Reuters reports oil-rich Norway is stretching out its purchase of 52 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters from Lockheed Martin, the Defense Ministry said on Friday, a move that will nudge up the total cost but reduce the annual burden on the defense budget. The country is about to place firm orders for six of the fighter planes and will extend the timeframe for the purchase of all 52 from four years to eight years, the ministry said. The F-35 is designed to be the next-generation, radar-evading fighter for US forces and their allies, but costs have risen sharply and production has been delayed, leading some countries to scale down or rethink their orders. The ministry said it had asked parliament to approve the purchase of six planes to be delivered in 2017, one year earlier than previously planned, but it would also take longer to complete the remaining purchases. That means Norway, which formally ordered the first four aircraft last June, will complete the purchases during the period 2017-2024, instead of the original plan of 2018-2021. Extending the period for the biggest weapons procurement ever for the Nordic country will bring the program's total cost to 62.6 billion crowns ($10.65 billion) in 2013 crowns rather than 60 billion crowns in 2012 terms. But stretching out the period will lessen a burden on the annual defense budget. Norway will buy six planes each year for eight years, instead of 12 planes each year for four years.

Weekly Tech Updates 04/20/13

04/20/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security.

• DARPA: smaller pixels, smaller thermal cameras for warfighters
• Small in size, big on power: New microbatteries the most powerful yet
• Trident submarine robot successfully tested at sea
• Engineers craft new material for high-performing 'supercapacitors'
• Efficient, intelligent, content-aware networks
• Nanosponges in your blood could soak up infections and poison
• Navy develops high impact, high integrity polymer for air, sea, and domestic applications
• Hybrid energy harvester generates electricity from vibrations and sunlight
• Nanosuits help small creatures survive a vacuum
• New nanotechnique to deliver life-saving drugs to the brain
• Mice skin cells transformed into brain cells
• The first app-controlled bionic hand
• Chemists discover simpler method of making 'wonder material'
• Maine company unveils high-tech SWAT team robot
• Food safety and bioterrorism defense may benefit from improved detection test developed at MU
• Robot hands gain a gentler touch, cheaply
• Scientists spin photons to send light in one direction
• Graphene and graphExeter combine to create a new flexible, transparent, photosensitive device

Strong quake in China kills dozens, injures thousands

04/20/13:  CNN reports a strong earthquake struck the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on Saturday, killing more than 100 people and injuring thousands of others in a region that suffered a catastrophic quake five years ago, authorities said. Thousands of emergency workers, including soldiers, rushed to reach the affected zones in the hilly region, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang traveled to the area from Beijing, state media reported. The death toll rose steadily through the day. It currently stands at 113, with more than 3,000 people injured, the China Earthquake Administration said, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Xu Mengjia, the Communist Party chief of Ya'an, the city that administers the area where the quake struck, told CCTV that because of landslides and disruption to communications, determining the total number of casualties may take some time. The quake struck just after 8 a.m. local time about 115 kilometers (70 miles) away from the provincial capital, Chengdu, at a depth of around 12 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There was conflicting information about the earthquake's strength, with the USGS putting the magnitude at 6.6 and the China Earthquake Networks Center gauging it at 7.0. The event stirred memories of the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan in 2008, killing more than 87,000 people.
 

Army policeman gets 16 years for trying to sell secrets to Russia

04/16/13:  The Washington Times reports a military policeman serving in the US Army was sentenced to 16 years in prison and given a dishonorable discharge for trying to sell secrets to an agent he believed was a Russian spy. Spc. William Colton Millay pleaded guilty to the spying charge last month, The Associated Press reported. A panel of eight military officials handed down the ruling Tuesday. Prosecutors said Millay was a white supremacist, sick and tired of the military and his country, and didn’t care that his sale of secrets would put his fellow soldiers in harm’s way, AP said. Defense lawyers countered that Millay was emotionally immature and that his attempt at espionage was aimed only at getting him some attention, AP reported. During testimony, an FBI official said Millay “expressed his disgust with the U.S. military” and offered to work for Russia. Millay said he could provide information on America’s Warlock Duke jamming system, which is used by the military to scan for roadside bombs, the agent testified, as AP reported.  Millay ultimately was arrested when he traded an envelope of information to the man he believed was a Russian official for $3,000, AP reported.

Weekly Tech Updates 04/13/13

04/13/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security:

• Petman the robot soldier put through his paces
• Satellite sandwich technique improves analysis of geographical data
• Tiny chip is world's smallest, fastest DNA testing lab
• Boeing bills its huge hydrogen-powered drone as massive flying cell tower
• Laser camera makes 3-D photos of objects a kilometer away
• Extreme miniaturization: seven devices, one chip to navigate without GPS
• Robot mimics human stabilization and balancing
• Tiny laser-printed 'chipsets' are like intelligent grains of sand
• How to detect a nuclear test on your iPhone
• Aircraft sensors without batteries or cables
• Mind-controlled devices reveal future possibilities
• Overcoming a major barrier to medical and other uses of 'microrockets' and 'micromotors'
• Six weapons that love the new Pentagon budget
• Safety reflector technology from footwear getting new life in detecting bioterror threats
• Big Pentagon research funds: jamming pods, carrier drones, special operations tech, and soft weapons
• NASA shoots for asteroid, new manned missions
• Innovative self-cooling, thermoelectric system developed

 

Navy deploying laser weapon prototype near Iran

04/09/13:  The New York Times reports the Navy is going to sea for the first time with a laser attack weapon that has been shown in tests to disable patrol boats and blind or destroy surveillance drones. The Navy is going to sea for the first time with a laser attack weapon that has been shown in tests to disable patrol boats and blind or destroy surveillance drones. The laser will not be operational until next year, but the announcement on Monday by Adm. Greenert, the chief of naval operations, seemed meant as a warning to Iran not to step up activity in the gulf in the next few months if tensions increase because of sanctions and the impasse in negotiations over the Iranian nuclear. The Navy released video and still images of the laser weapon burning through a drone during a test firing. The laser is designed to carry out a graduated scale of missions, from burning through a fast-attack boat or a drone to producing a nonlethal burst to “dazzle” an adversary’s sensors and render them useless without causing any other physical damage. The Pentagon has a long history of grossly inflating claims for its experimental weapons, but a nonpartisan study for Congress said the weapon offered the Navy historic opportunities.Navy officials acknowledge that the first prototype weapon to be deployed is not powerful enough to take on jet fighters or missiles on their approach. That capability is a goal of researchers.

Weekly Tech Updates 04/06/13

04/06/13:  Here are this week's updates for technology related to national security:

• Air Force wants new energy weapons to cause non-lethal ‘bioeffects’
• DARPA's two-armed robot handles tools at less cost
• New instrument will quickly detect botulinum, ricin, other biothreat agents
• Reinventing the power line cable
• Need Ships? Try a 3-D printed Navy
• Better understanding of the human brain supports national security
• Breakthrough in hydrogen fuel production
• Robots, deep-sea sensors help DARPA hunt future submarines
• Bladeless wind turbine
• Physicists successfully transmit secure quantum code from aircraft to ground station
• DARPA's 3D chip cooling
• Ion engines could power the spy planes of the future

 

Weekly Tech Updates 03/30/13

03/30/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security.

 

• One of these drones will be the Navy’s next aerial combat drone
• New sensor cable enables remote monitoring of miles of perimeter fencing
• Cambridge scientists develop graphene ink for printed electronics
• Navy wants lasers on Marines’ trucks to shoot down drones
• Breakthrough in race to create 'bio-batteries'
• Invisibility cloak research moves forward at MTU
• Magnetic soliton: Nano-droplet discovery presents opportunities for telecommunications
• Novel rotary actuator provides greater torque, accuracy, and speed
• Researchers develop quantum computer algorithm for counting prime numbers
• How graphene antenna research could pave the way for terabit wireless data speeds
• New chip that thinks like a brain
• This massive jellyfish is really an aquatic spy robot
• Raytheon project to give military pilots superhuman hearing
• NRL develops polymer nanofibers for chemical and biological decontamination
• US Marine Corps indefinitely extends K-MAX unmanned cargo helicopter in theater
• Pentagon’s mad scientists want a tattoo that tracks troops’ vitals
• Phinergy demonstrates aluminum-air battery capable of fueling an electric vehicle for 1000 miles
• World record silicon-based millimeter-wave power amplifiers may unlock applications in low-cost satellite communications
• Cloud Warriors: US Army Intelligence to arm field ops with hardened network and smartphones
• Team develops advanced video and image processing
• Compact W-band radar takes an inside view
• Cellular computers: 'Genetic circuit' biological transistor enables computing within living cells
• NSF-supported Stampede opens the gates of advanced computation to thousands of research teams
• Another step toward quantum computers: Using photons for memory
• Is it real? With new technology has Activision crossed the 'Uncanny Valley?'
• NRL researchers develop new monolayer materials for chemical vapor sensors
• Hyper-realistic robot dragonfly is the drone of the future, now
• Sensory helmet could mean firefighters are not left in the dark
• Robot powers itself by cleaning your house

 

US jails Chinese engineer for exporting trade secrets

03/26/13:  The BBC reports a US court has sentenced a Chinese national to more than five years in prison for illegally exporting military trade secrets to China. Liu Sixing, who formerly worked in US company L-3 Communications, was accused of taking information on US missile, rocket and drone technology to China. He was convicted of exporting military information, possessing stolen trade secrets, and lying to the authorities. Liu says he did not break the law, or intend to pass secrets to China. Liu Sixing, who was also known as Steve Liu, worked in L-3 Communications' space and navigation unit in New Jersey from 2009-2010 as a senior engineer. Prosecutors say he stole thousands of computer files in 2010, and took them to China on his personal computer, where he gave presentations about the technology he was working on to universities and conferences linked to the Chinese government. Prosecutors say he transported the files, which included information on the performance and design of guidance systems for missiles, rockets and unmanned drones, in the hope that it would help him gain future employment in China. Technical military data covered by US export regulations cannot be taken out of the country without a license.

China reportedly to buy Russian submarines, fighter jets

03/26/13:  NPR reports China has reportedly signed a deal to buy new submarines and Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, the first such arms deal in nearly a decade. The agreement, long in the works, was inked during last week's visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow, according to China Central Television CCTV.  But, somewhat oddly, Russia's ITAR-TASS has denied the reports. According to Chinese media, the agreement was for four Amur-1650 class diesel-electric submarines and 24 Su-35s, one of Russia's most advanced fighters. The submarines would supplement China's existing fleet of about 65 subsurface vessels, including indigenously built nuclear and ballistic missile submarines. China has also produced several of its own variants of Russia's Sukhoi Su-27, Su-30 and Su-33 warplanes and is in the process of developing its own stealth fighters. The BBC quotes China's People's Daily as saying the advanced Su-35s from Russia would "effectively reduce pressure on China's air defense" as China moved ahead with its stealth planes. The reports come as Beijing and Moscow have moved closer in an apparent desire to counterbalance U.S. interests in Asia and Europe and The China Daily described Xi's visit to Russia as a "well-deserved riposte to Washington for America's military 'pivot' to Asia. Xi is executing China's own 'pivot' — the visit to Moscow to cement ties with" Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the BBC.

Weekly Tech Updates 03/23/13

03/23/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security:

• Next generation of bio-based binders to be developed
• DARPA envisions the future of machine learning
• Lockheed unveils commercial-ready quantum computing
• Salamandra robotica II, the only robot able to swim, crawl and walk (w/ video)
• Autonomous cars patrol Israeli border
• Materials scientists make solar energy chip 100 times more efficient
• DARPA seeks more robust military wireless networks
• More efficient and reliable robotic-control systems
• NRL Nike Laser focuses on nuclear fusion
• Progress stalls in California on earthquake warnings
• Battery pack turns your iPhone into a satellite phone
• A brain scanner, a robotic snake: Obama views Israeli gadgets of the future
• Researchers develop a way to remotely detect landslides
• Teachable moments: Robots learn our humanistic ways
• Robot snake automatically wraps around an object when thrown
• Under the skin, a tiny blood-testing laboratory
• Evidence of magnetic superatoms could open doors to new spin electronics
• Inside an Israeli defense lab
• New engine shakes up auto industry

Database is shut down by NASA for review

03/23/13:  The New York Times reports NASA has shut down a large public database and is limiting access to agency facilities by foreign citizens as part of a broader investigation into efforts by China and other countries to get information about important technology. NASA announced the security procedures this week, after the FBI arrested a Chinese citizen at Dulles International Airport in Virginia who had boarded a plane to Beijing. The man, Bo Jiang, had been working as a contractor at NASA’s Langley Research Center in southern Virginia. According to an affidavit filed on Monday, Mr. Jiang is being charged with making false statements to federal agents — failing to disclose that he was carrying a laptop, hard drive and SIM card that were discovered after a search of his belongings. On Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr, the NASA administrator, told a House committee that he has ordered a review of the “access which foreign nationals from designated countries are granted at NASA facilities,” and had issued a moratorium on any new requests for access from citizens of several countries, including China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. But it is another step that General Bolden announced — shutting down a giant NASA database used by scientists, engineers, academics and students — that some have criticized as draconian and unnecessary. The NASA Technical Reports Server is an online repository of millions of journal articles, videos, PowerPoint presentations and other scientific material that for decades has been an indispensable resource on aeronautics and aerospace.

 

Weekly Tech Updates - 03/16/13

03/16/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security:

• 5 ways to fix the troubled F-35B
• NASA's first laser communication system integrated, ready for launch
• Project aims to develop environmentally friendly, energy-autonomous wireless microsensors
• Breaking the final barrier: Room-temperature electrically powered nanolasers
• Optical-sensing device may lead to quicker, more efficient diagnostics
• Navy wants you to write algorithms that automatically ID threats
• Ultra-high-speed optical communications link sets new power efficiency record
• On-site electric current measurement to improve Smart Grid design
• India aborts testing of new cruise missile
• Super strong metallic composite by harnessing the extraordinary mechanical properties of nanowires
• High-performance, organic nanowire phototransistors open the way for optoelectronic device miniaturization
• SpaceX Grasshopper demos take-off and landing
• Lockheed's better, faster way to desalinate water
• First optical-transmission technology to achieve 100 Gbps using 10 Gbps transmission components
• China to more than double air monitoring network

US 'to boost missile defences', to counter North Korea

03/15/13:  The BBC reports the Pentagon is expected to announce plans to boost missile defences on the US West Coast to counter the threat from North Korea. The US plans to add 14 interceptors, which can shoot down missiles in flight, to 30 already in place in California and Alaska, officials say. US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel is set to outline the decision at 15:00 (19:00 GMT) on Friday. Tensions have escalated after North Korea's third nuclear test last month. Only last week, the Pyongyang regime, which is known for its fiery rhetoric, threatened the US with a pre-emptive nuclear strike. However, analysts say that North Korea's missiles do not have the capability to reach the continental United States. In a speech on Tuesday, James Miller, defence undersecretary for policy, noted that the Pentagon had the ability to deploy the additional missile interceptors "if needed". He did not say in that speech that a decision had been reached to do so.

Taiwan’s massive, powerful radar system is finally operational

03/08/13:  Wired's Danger Room reports this weird, sloped 10-story green building gives the tiny island nation of Taiwan something that it’s wanted for 15 years: early warning of ballistic missiles and warplanes launched from over 3,000 miles away. For Taiwan, it’s a must-have. Neighboring China has over a thousand ballistic and cruise missiles pointed at it. Once launched, the missiles will slam onto the breakaway Chinese province within 10 minutes. Taiwan needs as much early warning as humanly possible if those missiles ever reach the air. This 105-foot system is about as advanced as early-warning radar arrays get. Known as PAVE PAWS, for Phased Array Warning System, the slopes of the building shown above are huge antennas built into the facade. Only a handful of countries — the U.S., Russia, maybe China itself — have this kind of early-warning system. Constructed on the top of a mountain in the country's north, the Raytheon-built system cost approximately $1.4 billion.  But with little international notice, Taiwan declared its PAVE PAWS operational last month.

Weekly Tech Updates - 03/02/13

03/02/13:  Here are the rest of this week's technology updates related to national security.  Check out yesterday's post for the rest of them.

• DARPA: Common starting point for phased array programs may save billions, years off development
• Teaching robots lateral thinking: New algorithms could help household robots work around their physical shortcomings
• Weird new property of quantum electronic material breaks all the rules
• Israel says it conducts successful test of Arrow 3 anti-missile system
• Stretchable lithium-ion battery can twist, bend, return to normal shape
• HAL robotic suit gets international safety certificate
• New exoskeleton is Japan's RoboCop-style disaster recovery suit
• Pentagon will open its network to iOS and Android devices
• The US Army's new 84-ton tank is nearly IED-proof
• More fun gesture control tools
• Scientists increase lithium-sulfur battery lifetime by a factor of 10
• Navy seeking less cumbersome deep-sea diving suits
• NRL scientists produce densest artificial ionospheric plasma clouds using HAARP
• Engineered bacteria make fuel from sunlight
• PaperTab: World's first 'paper tablet PC' rethinks multitasking
• 4D printed objects make themselves
• Production of rare isotope beams with aligned nuclear spins opens up new possibilities for high-energy physics research

Weekly Tech Updates - 03/01/13

03/01/13:  For those of you who follow our Saturday weekly technology updates, you are probably already aware that on heavy news weeks, we provide some of the updates early.  This is one of those weeks.  Here are some of this week's updates on technology related to national security.

 

• DARPA program for Next Gen VTOL aircraft
• Infrared digital holography allows firefighters to see through flames, image moving people
• Next generation smartphone technology capable of diagnostic biological detection
• Stuxnet missing link found
• New framework allows for asynchronous communication in exascale machines
• US teen designs compact nuclear reactor
• Lockheed Martin powers on the first GPS III satellite
• NOAA and NASA's next generation weather satellite may provide earlier warnings
• 3-D printed gun advancements
• Harvesting energy to power nanoscale sensors

 

Grounded US F-35 fighter jet fleet to resume flights

03/01/13:  The BBC reports the Pentagon has said it will resume flights on its F-35 fighter jets, after the whole fleet was grounded last week. A cracked turbine blade found on a plane prompted the suspension. But tests showed that this was a "unique" problem and not a design flaw, engine maker Pratt and Whitney said. Thousands of F-35s are due to be made for the US and its foreign partners. The F-35 is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons programme, with a cost of nearly $400bn (£260bn). The fault was detected during a routine inspection of an air force version of the jet (F-35A) at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Extensive tests on the plane's engine revealed the crack was a result of the "unique operating environment" of the test flight, and was not a widespread issue, he added. The engine had been running at high temperatures for four times longer than a normal F-35 flight, causing a separation of the "grain boundary" on one blade, Mr Bates explained. The Pentagon later confirmed that all its 51 planes had been cleared to resume flights. Last week's order to ground the planes - in the US air force, army and Marine Corps - marked the second time in two months planes from the F-35 range have been grounded.

China navy launches new stealth frigate

02/26/13:  The BBC reports China's navy has taken delivery of the first of a new kind of stealth frigate, as tension continues with neighbouring countries over maritime borders. The Type 056 stealth frigate has a sleek design that helps it evade radar detection, and needs just one-third of the crew used by its predecessor. The first ship was delivered to the Chinese navy in Shanghai on Monday, state-run news agency Xinhua said. China said the new vessel is part of a systematic upgrading of naval hardware. The frigate - one of 20 being built - will mainly be deployed on escort missions and for anti-submarine operations. Xinhua said it would enhance the country's ability to safeguard national security and defend maritime sovereignty. The arrival of the new vessel comes at a time when China is in dispute with a number of neighbouring countries over national boundaries in the East and South China Seas. Mostly recently Beijing has been arguing with Tokyo over the Senkaku Islands - known as the Diaoyu Islands in Chinese - which are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China.

US to install radar to boost Japan missile defense

02/25/13: The Space War blog reports the US and Japan plan to install an American early-warning radar system at a coastal base near Kyoto to bolster defenses against the North Korean missile threat.  X-band radar, capable of precisely tracking the trajectory of a ballistic missile, allows US forces to launch intercept missiles from the ground and sea once a ballistic missile has been detected.  The X-band radar system will be built at a base northwest of Kyoto, on the coast of the Sea of Japan.  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Barack Obama confirmed in their Friday meeting in Washington that the two countries would work together on the radar installation.

Israel, US successfully test missile defense system

02/25/13: The Miami Herald reports Israel and the US on Monday carried out a successful test of the next-generation Arrow 3 missile defense system, for the first time sending an interceptor into outer space, where it could destroy missiles fired from Iran.  The Arrow 3 is part of a multilayered system that Israel is developing to protect against a range of missile threats, from short-range rockets in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon to medium and longer-range missiles in the hands of Syria and Iran.  The Arrow is designed to stop sophisticated Iranian-made Shahab ballistic missiles.  Israel’s Defense Ministry said it was the first flight test of the Arrow 3 interceptor.  It was conducted at an Israeli test range over the Mediterranean Sea.  The system is about three years away from becoming operational.

Weekly Tech Updates 02/23/13

02/23/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to National Security:

• Skunk Works promises fusion power in four years
• Dressed to kill: MIT scientists forging new uniform to help soldiers communicate on the battlefield
• Mini-quadcopter is as small, fast, and agile as an insect
• New imaging device that is flexible, flat, and transparent
• Scientists give mice ability to sense infrared light
• NYPD's Domain Awareness System by Microsoft
• Scientists building crash-proof computer that repairs itself
• First bionic hand with sense of touch to be transplanted
• NASA scrambles for better asteroid detection [see also Discovery News]
• The nuclear reactor in your basement
• NRL's stop rotor - rotary wing / fixed wing aircraft
• Obama seeking to boost study of human brain
• Wearable display meets blindfold test for sensing danger
• Beyond radiation: Pentagon seeks better ways to detect nuclear weapons
• Radio telescope, GPS use ionosphere to detect nuclear tests
• New classes of magnetoelectric promises advances in computing technology
• NRL using microbes to generate electricity
• DARPA seeks to diffuse the threat of ionizing radiation [see also Wired]
• Ultra-low power processor operates at near-threshold voltage
• New light source for quantum computers
• New device better traps viruses, airborne pathogens
• Better power grid syncronization may allow smart-grids to self-recover from failures
• Researchers develop new technique to scale up production of graphene micro-supercapacitors
• Solar-copter offers a portable, flying power plant
• New technology in magnetic cooling of chips
• Self-healing protective coating for concrete
• Targeted video surveillance to spot fires in soccer stadiums
• A building block for optical quantum networks
• MARCIMS helped Marines manage, track and analyze construction projects, health engagements and civil affairs
• Researchers generate electron Airy beam
• Researchers build robotic bat wing
• Biometrics seen as password replacement on DoD networks

F-35 fighters are grounded by the Pentagon

02/23/13:  The New York Times reports the Pentagon said on Friday that it had grounded all of its stealthy new F-35 fighter jets after an inspection found a crack in a turbine blade in the engine of one of the planes. The suspension of flights comes at an awkward time for the military, which is facing automatic budget cuts that could slow its purchases of the planes. The Pentagon grounded all three versions of the jets — for the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines — on Thursday while it investigated the problem. Lockheed Martin, which makes the high-tech plane, said 64 of the jets would be affected. The Pentagon estimates that it could spend as much as $396 billion to buy 2,456 of the jets by the late 2030s. But the program, the most expensive in military history, has been plagued by cost overruns and delays, and it could easily become a target for budget cutters. The Pentagon office that runs the program said the crack in the turbine blade was discovered on Tuesday in a routine inspection.

US speeds access to publicly financed research

02/23/13:  The New York Times reports if you paid for it, you should be able to read it. For publicly financed science research, the Obama administration agrees.  In a memorandum issued on Friday, John P. Holdren, science adviser to President Obama, called for scientific papers that report the results of federally financed research to become freely accessible within a year or so after publication. The findings are typically published in scientific journals, many of which are open only to paying subscribers. The new policy would apply to federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Agriculture, that finance more than $100 million a year of research. The agencies have six months to submit plans for how they would carry out the new policy. The hope is that broad access to scientific results will encourage faster progress on research and will let anyone apply the knowledge for technological advances.

Drone pilots found to get stress disorders much like those in combat

02/23/13:  The New York Times reports in the first study of its kind, researchers with the Defense Department have found that pilots of drone aicraft experience mental health problems like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress at the same rate as pilots of manned aircraft who are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. The study affirms a growing body of research finding health hazards even for those piloting machines from bases far from actual combat zones. “Though it might be thousands of miles from the battlefield, this work still involves tough stressors and has tough consequences for those crews,” said Peter W. Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who has written extensively about drones. He was not involved in the new research. That study, by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, which analyzes health trends among military personnel, did not try to explain the sources of mental health problems among drone pilots.

Weekly Tech Updates 02/16/13

02/16/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security.

• Swimming pool ships make waves in modular robotics
• Pentagon downgrades spec for its premier stealth - again
• Ruggedized biosensors will help keep troops safe from bio-warfare agents even in extreme environments
• Combining quantum information communication and storage
• Army cancels hybrid airship project
• World's first retinal prosthesis receives FDA approval
• Researchers invent 'acoustic-assisted' magnetic information storage
• Researchers build self-repairing "systemic" computer
• DARPA wants teeny-tiny fluids to cool down next-gen microchips
• Tool turns smart phone into biometric scanner

Technical difficulties delay DHS plan for upgraded sensors on US-Mexico border

02/11/13: Wired reports the US Government’s plan to install new advanced ground sensors at the Mexican border has been delayed due to bandwidth and frequency problems the.  The delay isn’t the first, and it comes as thousands of aging sensors along the border trigger false alarms that have proved deadly to Border Patrol agents.  The Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) originally planned to blanket the border with a new generation of “unattended ground sensors” (UGS’s).  According to CBP, the plan hasn’t been canceled outright, but it has been delayed for much, if not most, of 2013.  The problem: the sensors can’t communicate with the rest of the tech along the border.

Weekly Tech Updates 02/09/13

02/09/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to national security.

• Palm-sized nano-copter is the Afghanistan War's latest spy drone
• Sneaky robot uses background noise to mask its presence
• Free government-owned 'Super Wi-fi' proposal
• System uses video surveillance to alert security agents to dangerous situations
• Using fiber lasers for ground-breaking particle acceleration technologies
• Scientists notch a win in war against antibiotic-resistant bacteria
• Navy's next-gen binoculars will recognize your face
• Birth of a very-high-field superconductor
• Scientists develop new materials for board-level photonics
• Massive airship off to a flying start
• Light-emitting triangles may have applications in optical technology
• 3D printing to layer stem cells into organs
• Major GPS III flight software milestone completed
• France tests seismic cloaking device
• The secrets of spider silk
• 'GPS' for indoor use
• Europe's Galileo GPS plan limps to crossroads
• Study seeks biomarkers for invisible war scars
• Vulnerability lets hackers control building locks, electricity, elevators, and more
• Creator of most efficient supercomputer to start working on drone-bugs
• New classes of electromagnetic materials promise advances in computing technology
• Engineer designs self-powered nanoscale devices that never need new batteries
• 3D printing on micrometer scale
• Physicists develop method for quantum computers
• UK needs defending against space weather 'superstorm'
• People in disaster areas can be useful informants
• 11 inventions which help make the grid obsolete
• China claims successful test of microwave relativity engine
• Anybody can be a sniper

Video Iran says was recorded by US drone is broadcast on State TV

02/07/13:  The New York Times reports the state television report includes aerial views of what the narration describes as the American air base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, mixed in with still photographs of an RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone at that base made public in 2011, and images of the craft being recovered in 2011 by Iran’s military.  The report features an interview with Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, identified as the head of the aerospace division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, who denied that the drone had simply crashed because of a computer malfunction, as American officials have claimed.  More footage said to have been recorded by the drone can be seen in a copt of the 24-minute Iranian report posted on YouTube on Wednesday.  In an analysis of the footage for Foreign Policy, the national security reporter John Reed observes that in one segment of the Iranian report, “the camera on this aircraft is positioned behind a rather complex nose landing gear assembly — a layout that matches grainy Web images of the Sentinel that show what looks like a compartment that could contain a camera positioned on the bottom of the airplane, just behind the front landing gear.”

Weekly Tech Updates 02/02/13

02/02/13:  Here are this week's technology updates related to National Security.

• Suicidal sensors: DARPA wants next-gen spy hardware to dissolve
• ABM flight test success
• Iran unveils home-made 'stealth' fighter
• Navy seeks odor-sniffing robots to haul bombs onto ships
• Nanophotonics technology enables new kind of optical spectrometer
• License will lead to faster-charging batteries for phones, electric vehicles
• Researchers find accelerometers may pose security risk for cell phones
• Laser cooling techniques could shrink MRIs, night vision goggles, satellite cameras
• Substance may be better antidote for cyanide poisoning and faster for mass-casualty events
• Physicists create new 3D microchip
• New generation of 'intelligent' micro and nano-motors
• Superomniphobic surfaces for effective chemical shielding: possible protection from chem/bio agents, fuel leaks, and coffee stains
• New device traps particulates, kills airborne pathogens
• Nanoparticles that look like and act like cells
• Researchers develop hybrid materials out of plastics and graphene
• Researchers build bench size laser-pulse neutron source
• NRL publication on Warfighting in a Highly-Contested Electromagnetic Environment
• Development of high-resolution infrared color night-vision imaging technology

Qaher F313: Iran unveils home-made 'stealth' fighter

02/02/13:  The BBC reports Iran has unveiled a new home-made combat aircraft, which officials say can evade radar. The single-seat Qaher F313 (Dominant F313) is the latest design produced by Iran's military since it launched the Azarakhsh (Lightning), in 2007. President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said it had "almost all the positive features" of the world's most sophisticated jets. He said the "development of the Iranian nation's military power is... for deterrence and defensive purposes".

Weekly Tech Updates 01/26/13

01/26/13: Here are the rest of this week's technology updates related to national security. Some were posted yesterday as well. 

• Innovative sensor technology for efficient and portable gas detection devices
• Image sensors out of a spray can: organic sensors increase light sensitivity of cameras
• Simple ScanEagle drones a boost for US military
• Mini satellites give soldiers on-demand views of the battlefield
• Firefighters swallow data delivery pills to measure vitals
• Novel antimicrobial hydrogel prevents antibiotic-resistant microbes from forming on wounds, medical devices and implants
• Researchers develop grammar-aware password cracker
• Innovations in soil science will grow solutions to global food security
• Scientists discover genetic key to efficient crops
• Materials scientists create highly water repellent ceramics
• Researchers keep electronics cool with nanotechnology
• World class circuits by chip architects
• Nanosilicon rapidly splits water without light, heat, or electricity
• Controlled crumpling of graphene forms artificial muscles
• DNA gun tags criminals with UV light-detectable evidence

Weekly Tech Updates - 01/25/13

01/25/13: Due to the number of items on this week's tech updates, we are posting some of the updates today.  Join us tomorrow for the rest of the updates with our normal posting tomorrow.

 

• DARPA putting laser turrets on fighter jets next year
• Pentagon's wall-of-light laser shield
• DARPA: Using connections to stay ahead of the cyber threat
• 11 body parts defense researchers will use to track you
• Live pathogens: Rapid detection technique developed
• IBM's warmth-activated gel can break up tough bacterial biofilms and kill superbugs
• DARPA's robots practice scavenging space junk from satellites
• Self-healing, stretchable wires using liquid metal
• One kilogram of new polymer can turn swimming pool to jelly
• Peugeot unveils petrol hybrid using compressed air: 81 mpg
• Exotic new chemical compound could be useful in batteries, semiconductors, electronic memory devices
• Multi-tasking micro-lights could spark a communications revolution

 

Pentagon watchdog clears DARPA in ethics probe

01/25/13:  Wired's Danger Room reports the Pentagon’s far-out research agency is something of a revolving door. Program managers enter; defense consultants and academics leave; and then they come back a few years later. The Pentagon’s watchdog has concluded that’s completely above board.  DARPA’s ethics training “appropriately mitigated the potential for conflicts-of-interest," concludes Jacqueline L. Wicecarver, the Pentagon’s assistant inspector general, in a report released on Thursday. Its ethics policies are consistent with federal standards, and its employees tend to follow them. In the major test case for conflicts of interest that the inspector general studied, DARPA came out with a clean bill of good-government health.  The report, however, shows the depth of conflicts among Darpa employees. The 40 employees the inspector general selected for ethics review — the agency employees around 200 people — filed 53 reports notifying the government of some sort of conflict of interest with supervising agency contractors or grantees. And that was just in a two-year period.

Research to resume on modified, deadlier Bird Flu

01/24/13:  The New York Times reports experiments with a deadly flu virus, suspended last year after a fierce global debate over safety, will start up again in some laboratories, probably within the next few weeks, scientists say.  The research touched off a firestorm in 2011 when it became known that two groups, one in the Netherlands and another in the US, had genetically altered a dangerous bird flu virus to make it more contagious in mammals. Some scientists warned that a deadly pandemic could break out if the mutant virus leaked out of the lab accidentally or if terrorists stole it or made it themselves, using articles in scientific journals for the recipe.  The outcry led scientists conducting the experiments to declare a voluntary moratorium a year ago, in part to let research organizations and governments decide what safety rules to require.  A letter from 40 scientists — the same ones who called the moratorium last year — was published on Wednesday in the journals Science and Nature, saying it is time for the work to begin again in countries ready to allow it.

North Korea vows nuclear test and threatens US

01/24/13:  The New York Times reports North Korea vowed on Thursday to launch more long-range rockets and conduct its third nuclear test, saying that it would build up its capability of striking the United States after the United Nations’s expansion of sanctions against North Korea.  The North’s threat was the boldest challenge its new, untested leader, Kim Jong-un, has posed at his country’s longtime foe, the United States, and its last remaining major ally, China, and rattled governments in Northeast Asia that are undergoing sensitive transitions of power.  A statement issued through state-run media said that “a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the D.P.R.K. one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it” will be “targeted” at “the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people.”