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July 24, 2008 11:37:55 PM CDT

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Pentagon Inventing Group Hits 50, Looks to Next Strides

Posted Apr 8, 08 7:15 PM CDT in US,  Science & Health,  Technology 

(Newser) – A small Defense Department agency credited with inventing the Internet and rockets that sent men to the moon is turning 50, the Washington Post reports, and is fine-tuning its next innovations. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's work spans biology, satellites and aircraft; it has no permanent labs and its staff has been called “100 geniuses connected by a travel agent.”

Founded in response to the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik, DARPA has only two management layers and short-term contracts (4-6 years), helping avoid bureaucratic freeze. The group’s new projects include a two-way speech system that could serve as a full-time electronic translator—and prosthetic limbs that could mimic natural ones.

Source Washington Post

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Visitors pass by the Saturn V rocket at Johnson Space Center Wednesday, July 18, 2007 in Houston.   (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
In a photo provided by Tartan Racing via General Motors a driverless tricked out Chevrolet Tahoe made by GM is driven in a mock city in California with other driverless cars in Nov. 2007.   (AP Photo/Tartan Motors via General Motors, Vincent Zeng)
X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle, a joint DARPA effort   (Getty Images)
The U.S. military is currently using the pilotless Predator.   (AP Photo/Air Force)
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Defense Department  • moon  • DARPA  • inventions  • Sputnik  • rockets


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