prof accused of passing drone tech to china

from danger rom: A retired university professor is accused of passing information to China about high-tech work on drones.

J. Reece Roth, a 70-year old professor who used to work at the University of Tennessee's Plasma Sciences Lab got caught up in the complex web of regulations that surrounds non-classified data subject to export controls. On Monday he was formally indicted. The technology at issue involves using plasma - ionized gas - as actuators on aircraft.

"The charges involve work performed from 2004 to 2006 by Roth, the student and a university spinoff company for an Air Force contract to develop flight controls for unmanned aircraft, or 'drone'," the AP reports. "Prosecutors said Roth and the company he helped found, Atmospheric Glow Technologies Inc., failed to get government permission before involving foreign national Xin Dai in the work."