Bomb Detection: By Laser – MIT and Princeton Build a Terahertz Spectroscopy System

Researchers at MIT and Princeton have built a new laser-powered terahertz spectroscopy system capable of detecting chemicals used in explosives. Terahertz spectroscopy is the measurement of electromagnetic radiation between the frequencies of microwaves and infrared. Scientists have long realized the radiation’s potential for bomb detection, but traditional terahertz spectroscopy systems are bulky and use lots […]

Scientists Probe Traumatic Brain Injury at Explosive Technology Research Lab

Obscured beyond installation gates, an understated brown building here houses a state-of-the-art lab where a team of scientific researchers investigates “invisible war wounds” — long- and short-term effects of blast-induced mild traumatic brain injury, which has become increasingly prevalent in recent military conflicts. Thuvan Piehler, a research chemist with the Army Research Laboratory’s Explosive Technology […]

Military leaders discuss technology, maritime tactics at Sea, Air, Space Expo

NATION HARBOR, M.D. — Marines, sailors and government employees gathered at the Gaylord National Convention Center at National Harbor, Maryland, May 16-18 to participate in the Navy League of the United States Sea, Air, Space Exposition. Attendees had the opportunity to listen to senior leaders of the Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard as they […]

Pentagon: Secretive Space Unit in the Fight Against Daesh [ISIS/ISIL]

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter sees a variety of missions for the Pentagon’s new, secretive space center — and that includes fighting the Islamic State. The Pentagon chief said Thursday that the new Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center established by the Defense Department last fall has a role not only in preparing for potential […]

DARPA’s Plan X Gives Military Operators a Place to Wage Cyber Warfare

Since 2013, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Plan X cyber warfare program engineers have done the foundational work they knew it would take to create for the first time a common operating picture for warriors in cyberspace. Next month in Suffolk, Virginia, that work will pay off when Plan X is released from the […]

U.S. Spy Agencies Cut Off by Twitter

Twitter, cut off U.S. intelligence agencies from access to a service that sifts through the entire output of its social-media postings, the latest example of tension between Silicon Valley and the federal government over terrorism and privacy. The move, which hasn’t been publicly announced, was confirmed by a senior U.S. intelligence official and other people familiar […]

How Armenian Gangsters Blew Up the Fingerprint-Password Debate

As we learned in the San Bernadino iPhone case, phones are just about the most valuable real estate law enforcement can get its hands on. We also learned that the whole situation of laws and phones and threats and passwords is messy and baffling. Paytsar Bkhchadzhyan is a woman with a colorful past and a […]

Terror Pathways: Countering Daesh [ISIS/ISIL] Extremist Propaganda & Recruiting

When the militants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) descended on the Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014, they didn’t just march into town—they simultaneously launched a Twitter hashtag campaign, #AllEyesonISIS. It was blitzkrieg with a digital marketing strategy. Within hours, images of ISIS barbarity spread throughout the […]