Narrator: This is Science Today. Remote-controlled truck stopping technology may protect government buildings, power plants and other sensitive facilities from threat of attack by a hijacked truck or tanker. Pat Lewis of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was part of a team that developed and demonstrated the device for the California Highway Patrol, in an effort to prevent hijacked vehicles from becoming ‘bombs on wheels.'

Lewis: An officer would insert the box in between the truck and the trailer. It's fairly simple – you'd remove the glide hands going to the trailer, apply those now to the box and then the box is now in line with the original braking system going to the trailer.

Narrator: The handheld device controls the brakes very much like a radio-controlled toy. Lab researchers also developed a system of continuous signal antennas that could be placed around various buildings to prevent an attack.

Lewis: It can be operated from a number of difference sources, via the Internet or you can do it via a small handheld device – any wireless, Bluetooth or Blackberry-type device that you can get on the Internet would also work to send this out.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.