• Body-armor manufacturer settles with U.S. Justice Department

    The U.S. Justice Department charged that a body armor manufacturer knowingly used Zylon fiber in body army it sold to the federal government and local law enforcement; Zylon fiber degrades quickly and is not suitable for ballistic use

  • Anti-invisibility cloak would render invisible objects visible again

    A perfect invisibility cloak guides rays so effectively that none reaches the cloaked object within, keeping it in total darkness — a disadvantage if invisibility cloaks are ever to be used to shield tanks, steer microwaves in space, or hide humans; scientists find a solution

  • Scientists to study synthetic telepathy

    Researchers are lookig into synthetic telepathy — for example, a soldier would “think” a message to be transmitted and a computer-based speech recognition system would decode the EEG signals and transmit the thought to its intended target

  • U.K. critical infrastructure vulnerable

    New report says last summer’s flood showed infrastructure’s vulnerability; funding for flood defenses was not sufficient or secure, undermining industry confidence, and there were not enough skilled engineers to deliver the protection from flooding needed

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  • Stretchy spider silks can be springs or rubber

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

  • New grants to create fabrics which render toxic chemicals harmless

    New fabrics made of functional nanofibers would decompose toxic industrial chemicals into harmless byproducts; potential applications include safety gear for soldiers and first responders —and filtration systems for buildings and vehicles

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  • Fighting crime in Mexico, gadget at a time

    Security companies are flocking to Mexico’s capital to sell some high-tech peace of mind

  • Robotic suit could usher in super soldier - and super first responder -- era

    “Exoskeleton” suit senses every movement the wearer makes and almost instantly amplifying it; suit multiplies the strength and endurance of the wearer by as many as twenty times; in tests, people who normally press 200 pounds found themselves pressing 500 pounds

  • Sea cucumber inspires new plastic for body armor, brain implants

    Sea cucumbers’ skin is usually supple, allowing them to slide through narrow spaces between rocks and corals; when touched, however, a defensive reaction makes their skin go rigid in seconds, thanks to enzymes that bind protein fibers together; researchers apply this process to clothing, creating garments which switch stiffness in response to a pulse of electricity

  • Wireless CCTV shows body-worn surveillance service

    U.K. company launches body-worn CCTV aiming to help security agents in the field; the equipment comes in both overt and covert configurations; devices help field agents gather information and evidence — and it also helps supervisors at HQ to monitor the situation in the field

  • Hazard protective suits made of new, "breathing" material

    Chemical protection suits can make the wearer hot, sweaty, and extremely uncomfortable, thus limiting the time such suits can be worn; Drexel University researcher develops better material for protective suits: The new material is a new class of polymer membrane incorporating nanopores filled with an ionic polymer that allows water vapor to pass through