3-tonne robot flying saucer offered to world's militaries

DSEi A struggling British firm, restored to life by an anonymous private backer, is exhibiting a concept "flying saucer" aircraft able to lift a payload of one tonne, as well as smaller surveillance models down to pocket size. Company reps say that the firm is in contention for a significant European naval contract.

Read More

New AFOSR Magnetron May Help Defeat Enemy Electronics

Researchers funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) at the University of Michigan invented a new type of magnetron that may be used to defeat enemy electronics. A magnetron is a type of vacuum tube used as the frequency source in microwave ovens, radar systems and other high-power microwave circuits.

Read More

A blueprint to secure Car-To-Car Connections on the road

A European research project works out how to keep car-to-car data transmissions private and secure from malicious hackers.

The SEVECOM project brought together leading car and equipment manufacturers and ICT research institutes to agree on a security architecture that everyone could easily ‘bolt on’ to their proprietary C2C applications and ensure secure data transmission.

Read More

Two chips in one: Researchers combine microprocessor materials

An MIT team led by Tomás Palacios, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has succeeded in combining two semiconductor materials, silicon and gallium nitride, that have different and potentially complementary characteristics, into a single hybrid microchip. This is something researchers have been attempting to do for decades.

Read More

Nanoparticles could pose threat to humans: scientists

They can make fabric resistant to stains, improve the taste of food and help drug research, but nanoparticles could also pose a danger to human health, experts warned.

Read More

Implanted tooth helps blind US woman recover sight

A 60-year-old US grandmother, blind for nearly a decade, has recovered her sight after surgeons implanted a tooth in her eye as a base to hold a tiny plastic lens, her doctors said Wednesday.

Read More

SFC Smart Fuel Cell Wins The Technology Innovation Awards

SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG, based just outside Munich, won the Energy category for developing small, lightweight fuel cells that can be used by soldiers instead of much bulkier, heavier batteries to power communications and navigation devices and other battlefield equipment.

Read More

Are ESL bulbs better than CFL or LED?

A novel design for energy-efficient lightbulbs can produce incandescent-quality light and does not contain mercury like compact fluorescents (CFLs), according to manufacturer Vu1.

The Seattle-based firm has been working on an alternative to CFLs and LED lights for five years.

Vu1's Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) lights can last up to 6,000 hours, about three to four times the lifespan of incandescents and comparable to CFLs. They produce 50 percent less heat than incandescents.

Read More

Most Powerful MRI Has Stronger Magnet Than the LHC’s

The world’s most powerful MRI machine used on humans packs a 45-ton magnet that generates a 9.4-Tesla magnetic field.

If you’re counting Teslas at home — which are a standard measure of magnetic force — that’s stronger than the magnets in the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.

Read More

Wireless heart pump technology

Scientists at the University of Auckland have developed a technology to power a wireless heart pump that could save the lives of thousands of heart patients, and eventually offer an alternative to heart transplants.

Read More

Air Force Displays Its New "Focused Lethality Munition"

The Focused Lethality Munition, on display at the Air Force Association show, puts the emphasis on precision, with a GPS-guided inertial guidance system that supposedly has hardening against possible jamming.

The bomb's killing power comes from a "multiphase-blast explosive fill" developed by the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). That explosive fill probably refers to the fine tungsten powder found in Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) technology, which becomes an extremely lethal cloud upon impact, but only travels a short distance, to minimize collateral damage.

Read More

New Hopping Robot Technology for US Military

Details have emerged into the public domain of a new military robot design capable of jumping heights in excess of 25 feet and, thus, capable of sailing over fences, walls and other structures. This small robot is intended for future US military service and - named the Precision Urban Hopper - is the product of Sandia National Laboratories. Future Precision Urban Hoppers, though, will be built by Boston Dynamics - a US firm that specialises in robotics.

Read More

New Technology Could Prevent Air Collisions

Equipment that could have prevented the midair collision between a single-engine plane and a sightseeing helicopter on Aug. 8 will be available nationwide by 2013, a federal aviation official told a Senate panel on Tuesday. But its use will not be required until 2020.

Read More

LockMart C-5M Super Galaxy Sets World Aviation Records

A joint U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin flight crew flying a C-5M Super Galaxy strategic transport claimed 41 world aeronautical records in one flight on September 13.

The flight from Dover AFB broke eight existing world marks and established standards in 33 other categories where there had been no previous record attempt.

Read More