Science & Tech
Nanotechnology Is Shaping the Hypersonics Race
New materials to deflect massive amounts of surface heat don’t come from nature.
Science & Tech
Russia’s National AI Center Is Taking Shape
A famed technical university is helping to lead the push for public-private AI development.
Ideas
Ep. 55: Doomsday machines, nuclear hurricanes and Russian spies, with Vince Houghton
An interview with the author of 'Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board.'
Science & Tech
Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missiles Are a Terrible Idea. Russia’s Test Explosion Shows Why
A flying unshielded nuclear reactor would spew massive amounts of radiation, and that’s if it’s working correctly.
Science & Tech
The US Is Investing in AI for High-Powered Satellite Imagery Analysis
The Intelligence Community envisions a system combining archives with real-time surveillance footage from drones and other aircraft.
Science & Tech
The Pentagon Is Killing a Key Independent-Research Program
For decades, JASON studies helped DOD and other agencies get outside perspectives on scientific and technical topics.
Science & Tech
Lasers, AI, Hypersonics Top DARPA’s Small-Biz Wishlist
The defense research agency also announced plans for an accelerator to help move new tech from idea to product.
Threats
Security Clearance Delays Are Hurting the Pentagon's Tech Workforce
The Defense Department is also looking to build out its recruitment staff, officials told Congress.
Science & Tech
Are America's Companies Ready to Fight Russia & China? New Study Aims to Find Out
Reagan Institute panel sets out to identify the ‘National Security Innovation Base’ from workforce skills to technologies, labs, companies and academia.
Science & Tech
DARPA Thinks AI Could Help Troops Telepathically Control Machines
The Pentagon is looking to build artificial intelligence into neural interfaces to let humans control machines with their thoughts.
Science & Tech
DARPA Is Trying Bioelectric Implants to Help Heal Wounds
One of the Pentagon’s new research programs could see biosensors, actuators and even artificial intelligence implanted in soldiers to speed up the body’s healing processes.
Science & Tech
China’s Rapid AI Development Has Its Limits: Report
Chinese artificial-intelligence researchers are aware of ways their work lags the United States’ — and Beijing is working to fix those.
Science & Tech
New DNA Database Allows Far Faster Searches for Pathogen Genomes
For the first time, it’s possible to easily answer a question as simple as: “Have we seen this thing before?”
Science & Tech
DARPA Thinks Insect Brains Might Hold the Secret to Next-Gen AI
They’re small, efficient and capable of basic reasoning, and researchers want artificial intelligence tools to do the same.
Science & Tech
Quantum Computing That Can Crack Modern Encryption More Than a Decade Away
A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggests encryption-cracking quantum computers are possible, but won’t be built in the immediate future.
Business
Supersonic Bizjets May Attract Pentagon Interest
Three teams are pursuing latter-day SSTs. The U.S. military might have use for them.
Threats
China Is Secretly Enrolling Military Scientists in Western Universities
Dozens of scientists and engineers linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army obscured their military connections when applying to study overseas.
Science & Tech
Many of the US Military’s Newest Weapons Have Major Cyber Vulnerabilities: GAO
Testers achieved access with simple tools, default passwords, and long lists of known-yet-unfixed vulnerabilities.
Science & Tech
It’s Now Possible To Telepathically Communicate with a Drone Swarm
DARPA’s new research in brain-computer interfaces is allowing a pilot to control multiple simulated aircraft at once.
Science & Tech