The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space yesterday held the Senate's first hearing on the new science, signaling recognition of nanotechnology's growing importance to U.S. global competitiveness. But while government and business investment in nanotechnology is on the rise, it may not be enough to fix some of the research and funding problems affecting the industry, said experts who testified at the hearing.
The U.S. Defense Department has probably been selectively jamming signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) in Afghanistan since the start of the air campaign, according to nonmilitary GPS experts.
The Internet, so relentlessly hyped in the late 1990s, may actually be doing more to boost U.S. productivity than most people have imagined. Its unique ability to foster human interaction may prove to be a hidden catalyst for solving some of society's toughest problems.
Nationwide rolling blackouts could have a devastating impact on the economy, but experts also fear that the stress being placed on the nation's power grid could make it more susceptible to disruptions from hackers.
As hacker groups in the Middle East threaten to launch a "cyber-Jihad," or electronic holy war, against companies with ties to Israel, security experts said Internet security at most U.S. companies remains woefully inadequate to defend against such attacks.
The author wonders if we should trust computers with missile defense when they are consistently unreliable for far simpler tasks.