As military and security agencies do everything from coordinating action in Iraq to sifting through telephone and banking records on the home front, they collect mountains of data that are difficult to organize and manipulate, and in which intelligence connections can get lost. Now, database tricks borrowed from the world of particle physics are helping intelligence and law enforcement agencies-and any other organizations that manage large, complex databases-to act on their data more nimbly.

The Stanford Linear Accelerator in Palo Alto, CA, is home to a particle collider that has generated the world's largest database. The company that designed the database, Objectivity of Mountain View, CA, is now attracting a wave of new customers in the areas of defense, telecommunications, and intelligence systems, says Leon Guzenda, the company's chief technology officer. TRW of Redondo Beach, CA (recently acquired by Northrop Grumman), says it uses Objectivity's technology in a data analysis system built for an unnamed U.S. government agency that collects and analyzes scientific data. And SYColeman, a defense contractor in Sherman Oaks, CA, employs the technology in a system for controlling battlefield simulations. While Guzenda says security restrictions prevent him from describing specifics, he says the technology was used to help manage complex military operations in the Iraq war.