Researchers behind the Army's top 10 greatest inventions for 2006 were recognized recently at a ceremony in Arlington, Virginia. The Army's Greatest Inventions for 2006 are:Blow Torch Counter Improvised Explosive Device System, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. This vehicle-mounted system detonates IEDs at safe stand-off distances, minimizing vehicle damage and Soldier injuries.
"It's fairly easy to operate, and it gives a sense of security to the Soldiers when they're on convoy duty," said Maj. Brian Hackenberg, who helped develop the system.
Integrated Robotic Explosive Detection System, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. Capable of crossing rugged terrain, this remotely operated system incorporates an explosive trace detector onto a robotic platform.
Plastic Shaped Charge Assembly for Remote Destruction of Buried IEDs, U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. Remotely emplaced, the PSCA destroys known or suspected unexploded ordnance with higher accuracy than similar devices currently in use. Its low-fragmentation plastic housing eliminates collateral damage.
Humvee Crew Extraction D-ring, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. Combat locks on the up-armored Humvee provide security for Soldiers but often get so damaged the doors can't be opened. The D-ring provides solid anchor points for the hooks of a tow strap, chain or cable to pull open damaged doors.
"There was an issue of Soldiers getting trapped inside Humvees that had been damaged for whatever reason ... enemy fire or being flipped. Soldiers had problems getting the doors off these up-armored Humvees so we took their advice and created the D-ring," said Wesley D. Patterson, who is part of a Fast Assistance in Sciences Team that deploys to help Soldiers solve problems that can be resolved within six months.
M1114 Humvee Interim Fragment Kit 5, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. This kit was fielded as a ballistic improvement for the M1114 Humvee in April 2006. A prototype door solution with fabrication and mounting instructions was provided within one week with automotive testing and safety certification.
Remote Urban Monitoring System, U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, Fort Belvoir, Va. RUMS hardware combines emerging technologies in Wireless Local Area Network technology, night-vision cameras and unattended ground sensors to eliminate false alarms. Tripped sensors transmit an alarm signal to the camera module and operator after video and audio from multiple camera modules confirm the unattended ground sensor's alarm signal.
Constant Hawk, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Constant Hawk is a surveillance capability that uses an electro-optic payload to collect intelligence and identify areas that require increased surveillance by other assets.
OmniSense Unattended Ground Sensor System,
U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. OmniSense is an unattended ground sensor system used to detect and classify personnel and vehicles in perimeter defense.
EM113A2 Rapid Entry Vehicle,
U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny, N.J. The REV provides rapid entry, non-lethal crowd control and rescue-squad insertion capabilities into areas requiring non-lethal intervention. The vehicle increases Soldier survivability through improved situational awareness and the ability to move and fire from within an armored vehicle.
BuckEye System,
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Miss. BuckEye uses a digital camera to produce geospatial information for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. It also produces high-resolution 3D urban mapping.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Harper said the BuckEye System has been instrumental in allowing a maneuver commander to rapidly map battle space through high-resolution imagery and to collect elevation data to give a 3D view.
"What it gives to Soldiers is added situational awareness they need to fight in an urban terrain," he said. "BuckEye has essentially mapped almost every major city in Iraq thus far."
Using nanotechnology and MEMS technology in energy harvesting applications is a work in progress that nevertheless shows huge potential, experts said.
An experimental jet engine has been successfully tested at speeds of up to 11,000 km (6,835 miles) per hour, or 10 times the speed of sound, during trials in Australia's outback, defense scientists said on Friday.
Researchers have developed a new material that can fill in its own surface cracks. 
DARPA is now accepting applications for a new "smart tape" sensor patch to monitor the health of soldiers on and off of the battlefield.
Tiny array placed in auditory nerve may one day offer superior alternative to cochlear implants, U-M animal study suggests.
In a perfect world, there'd be no wires. They clutter the view, get tangled behind desks and limit how far networks can reach. That's why the telegraph gave way to the radio. Cell phones unstrung telecommunications. Wi Fi liberated computer data.
Last month, a man at a bar introduced himself as "Coyote," and told me he was working on the Pentagon's plans to build a string of satellites that beamed solar rays down to Earth.
A clean-cut vision of a future freed from the rat's nest of cables needed to power today's electronic gadgets has come one step closer to reality.
The usual choices for potatoes include baked, mashed or french fried, but a new study suggests another option: plastic.
The likes of Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, and Diego Maradona, besides their athletic ability, have an incredible sense of the players around them, which allowed them to display incredible plays in their respective sports.
For 900 years, Moenjodaro, a city in what is now Pakistan, was the urban hub of a thriving civilization, the New York or London of its day. Around 1700 B.C., residents suddenly abandoned the Indus Valley city, and it was lost in the sands of time until archaeologists began excavating it in the 1920s.
Texting on your mobile could soon be the quickest way to call for police help.
Ten years after the Air Force retired the SR-71 spy plane, Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works appears to be back at work developing a new Mach-6 reconnaissance plane, sources said.
The head of U.S. Air Force intelligence and surveillance on Thursday said data available commercially through online mapping software such as Google Earth posed a danger to security but could not be rolled back.
Researchers behind the Army's top 10 greatest inventions for 2006 were recognized recently at a ceremony in Arlington, Virginia. The Army's Greatest Inventions for 2006 are:
NASA recently tested the first nanotechnology-based electronic device to fly in space. The test showed that the "nanosensor" could monitor trace gases inside a spaceship. This technology could lead to smaller, more capable environmental monitors and smoke detectors in future crew habitats.
A new system that uses a computer program and sensors could identify passengers responsible for the release of chemical agents in a terrorist attack or the unintentional release of germs or a virus, such as the tuberculosis-infected man who recently flew on international flights.
Taking It to the Streets: UCLA Scientists Seek to Turn Cars Into a Mobile Communications Network
Google has launched a tool designed to make it easier for computer users to use online applications offline.
US cities are battling the problem of vandalism head on with a hi-tech system that analyses and tracks graffiti and its perpetrators.
New technologies will make online search more intelligent--and may even lead to a "Web 3.0." 
A moth which has a computer chip implanted in it while in the cocoon will enable soldiers to spy on insurgents.
New trafficking software will enable drivers to find the quickest route to their final destination.
University of Florida researchers used gene therapy to restore sight in mice with a form of hereditary blindness, a finding that has bearing on many of the most common blinding diseases.
NATO defense ministers agreed on Thursday that fast action was needed to tackle the threat of "cyber attacks" on key Internet sites after Estonia suffered a wave of assaults on its computer networks last month.
New rules by a Chinese government-backed Internet group maintain strict controls over the country's bloggers, requiring them to register with their real names and identification cards
Justin Wong, an aerospace engineering student from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was schmoozing on Facebook.com last fall when he came across a sleek Boeing job ad.
Terrorist groups can use the Internet to create a brand image, market themselves, recruit followers, raise capital, identify partners and suppliers, provide training materials, and even manage operations.
Civil rights and privacy rights groups have opposed radio frequency identification, or RFID, for years. But now, researchers in the field and some lawmakers are beginning to voice concerns about the security of the technology.
Pellets made out of aluminum and gallium can produce pure hydrogen when water is poured on them, offering a possible alternative to gasoline-powered engines, U.S. scientists say.
Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have built a new optical surveillance based on lasers. Their Laser-Based Item Monitoring System (LBIMS) is designed to protect high-value items in high security environments.
In September 2007, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch its Foton M3 microgravity mission from Baikonur. The spacecraft will carry the Young Engineers' Satellites (YES2) payload.
SLAM is an acronym for 'simultaneous localization and mapping,' and slamming robots are simply robots which at the same time build a map of their environment while keeping track of their own localization.
The Boston Globe describes the efforts of a Japanese-born scientist to develop new technologies for use in surgery. His last project is to build a swimming robot designed to explore the human gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) from esophagus to colon.
Scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have created a synthetic polymer-a building block of plastics-that doesn't burn, making it an attractive alternative to traditional plastics, many of which are so flammable they are sometimes referred to as "solid gasoline."
Military dictionaries say that what distinguishes war from peace is the massive use of weapons. But today this interpretation is desperately obsolete. The goal of a war of the future will not be to seize enemy territory but to deal surgical strikes against sensitive targets.
A new report drafted by the well-connected Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments makes a strong case for an accelerated development of unmanned combat aircraft for carrier battle groups.