Circumventing Antivirus via Transmutation

Researchers at Kumatori Accelerator-driven Reactor Test Facility (KART) (Economist article, if you subscribe) have discovered a way to forcibly decay radioactive waste (neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, etc.) into less-lethal isotopes of elements that are only radioactive for years, instead of tens of thousands or tens of million years. Essentially, they slam radioactive waste with a neutron beam that adds mass to the radioactive waste, causing it to transmutate into another element, which in turn causes it to decay faster. This got me thinking, if you can slam an element with with a neutron beam to create a new element, well, maybe you can do the same thing to a file in order to avoid "pesky Anti-Virus"?read more

Space camera streams data during flight

Take the risk of not recovering your hardware out of a near-space camera launch by streaming the data during flight. [Tim Zaman] is part of a team that developed the rig seen above. It sent 119 image back during the recent balloon launch. This included transmissions from as high as 36 kilometers.

The main hardware included a BeagleBoard with connected Webcam housed in a Styrofoam cooler for thermal protection. Pair that with a GPS module for location tracking, and a GPRS module for data transmission and you’re in business.

But that’s not all that went up. The team built a backup hardware module in case the primary failed. This one also had a GPS and GPRS radio, but was driven by an Arduino.

The radio connection made it easy to recover the hardware. GPS data led the team directly to the landing site. The package came to rest on the roof of a building, but we guess that’s more convenient than getting snagged at the top of a huge tree.

Don’t miss the hardware detail video that we’ve embedded after the breakread more