The easiest way to detect nuclear material is typically when it's already too late. By the time seismographs, infrasound sensors, and radiation readers pick up on a blast, it's already happened. Catching a nuclear weapon before it goes off is a lot trickier, which might be why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking at some rather unconventional ideas. The latest: a small, wearable radiation detector. Think of it like a FitBit, only instead of telling its user about calories burned, it lets them know if they're close to any nuclear weapons.
Nepal is still reeling from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck near Kathmandu on April 25. The quake has flattened three quarters of the city's buildings and killed at least 7,500 people. Beneath all those collapsed structures, more bodies await discovery--either to be rescued or given a funeral. If it is to be the former, then time is of the essence. To help out in the search-and-rescue efforts, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security have sent two portable heartbeat detectors to Nepal, and the machines are already saving lives.
The first time Popular Science wrote about stilbene, nuclear weapons were decades away from existing. Now, the Department of Homeland Security wants to take advantage of the properties of stilbene crystals and make nuclear detectors out of them.
A report first appearing onThe Gadgeteersounded like a hoax: a reader told the sitethey'd been been approached by the Feds for wearing Google Glass in an Ohio movietheater (and had their property mishandled in the process). But, it looks like at leastthe basic facts check out: although the FBI didn't approach someone at the theater, as the person originally thought,the Department of Homeland Security apparently did. (Update: AMC commented. Looks like it was the DHS.)
A sheriff's office in the US state of Texas is taking a big and potentially controversial step forward with a new piece of law enforcement technology. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Conroe, Texas, is prepping its deputies to fly a US$300,000 unmanned ShadowHawk helicopter --paid for with a Department of Homeland Security grant--that someday might carry a weapons payload.
