DSIAC collects and publishes articles related to our technical focus areas on the web to share with the DoD community.
Carbon nanotubes bound for electronics need to be as clean as possible to maximize their utility in next-generation nanoscale devices, and scientists at Rice and Swansea universities have found a way to remove contaminants from the nanotubes. Rice chemist Andrew Barron, also a professor at Swansea in the United Kingdom, and his team have figured
U.S. Marine Corps operations are demanding. Weapons need to be ruggedized and mobile for quick assaults. And high-energy laser weapons such as those the Navy is developing will be large and draw high levels of power. For the Marines to be able to employ these laser weapons, the technologies must be as efficient and as
As next-generation material development drives advances in Air Force technology, understanding the ability of new materials to perform in the operational environment is paramount to transition success. This is particularly important to scientists working to develop new, high performance Air Force coating technologies that meet strict environmental compliance needs in diverse operational conditions. Through a
SpaceX’s successful static firing of its Falcon Heavy rocket Wednesday in preparation for the rocket’s expected maiden flight next month is important for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. Why? It could lead to big savings. Today, United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has a tight grip on
Rice researchers show how to optimize nanomaterials for fuel-cell cathodes. Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes or modified graphene nanoribbons may be suitable replacements for platinum for fast oxygen reduction, the key reaction in fuel cells that transform chemical energy into electricity, according to Rice University researchers. The findings are from computer simulations by Rice scientists who set
“Two-dimensional materials” — materials deposited in layers that are only a few atoms thick — are promising for both high-performance electronics and flexible, transparent electronics that could be layered onto physical surfaces to make computing ubiquitous. The best-known 2-D material is graphene, which is a form of carbon, but recently researchers have been investigating other
Arsenal including electromagnetic railguns and microwave weapons aims to neutralize web of satellites that give US its main strategic edge. China’s military is developing powerful lasers, electromagnetic railguns and high-power microwave weapons for use in a future “light war” involving space-based attacks on satellites. Beijing’s push to produce so-called directed-energy weapons aims to neutralize America’s
A multi-institutional team led by the U.S. Department of Energy”s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) discovered a way to create new alloys that could form the basis of next-generation semiconductors. Semiconductor alloys already exist-often made from a combination of materials with similar atomic arrangements-but until now researchers believed it was unrealistic to make alloys of
Some biodegradable plastics could in the future be made using sugar and carbon dioxide, replacing unsustainable plastics made from crude oil, following research by scientists from the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath.
What exactly do we mean by an “enhanced” human? When this possibility is brought up, what is generally being referred to is the addition of human and machine-based performances (expanding on the figure of the cyborg popularised by science fiction). But enhanced in relation to what? According to which reference values and criteria? How, for
The emergence of inexpensive small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) that operate without a human pilot, commonly known as drones, has led to adversarial groups threatening deployed U.S. forces, especially infantry units. Although the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) are developing tactics and systems to counter single sUASs, a new report by
Scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the Georgia Institute of Technology are focused on the development of batteries that improve the safety and energy density of ones currently found on the battlefield. The joint modeling and experimental work reports on the progress towards the discovery of novel solid state electrolytes that would allow