Pentagon Inventing Group Hits 50, Looks to Next Strides

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. (More DARPA stories.)