Mystery immunity could boost swine flu protection

VACCINATING people against swine flu may be a lot easier than anyone dared hope, as it turns out that people have an unexpected degree of immunity to the pandemic now sweeping the world.

A seasonal flu in the same H1N1 family as the pandemic virus has been circulating since 1977, but until now it was thought that this seasonal virus did not induce immunity to the pandemic strain.

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Secrets of insect flight revealed

Researchers are one step closer to creating a micro-aircraft that flies with the manoeuvrability and energy efficiency of an insect after decoding the aerodynamic secrets of insect flight.

Dr John Young, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, and a team of animal flight researchers from Oxford University's Department of Zoology, used high-speed digital video cameras to film locusts in action in a wind tunnel, capturing how the shape of a locust's wing changes in flight. They used that information to create a computer model which recreates the airflow and thrust generated by the complex flapping movement.

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Taiwan Scientist develops Earthquake Early Warning System

A Taiwan scientist has made an earthquake early warning system, which will allow public a crucial 15-second warning before quake causes destruction.

The system depends on seismic waves, which move horizontally as well as vertically. The device detects and analyses these vertical waves, which travel faster.

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NASA Testing Breakthrough In Water Safety

NASA and University of Utah chemists are developing advanced tech for testing the drinkability of water.

The process just began a six month run aboard the International Space Station. Water will be sampled either from the Space Station's or Shuttle's galley using a syringe. It is then forced through a chemically-imbued membrane which changes color based on toxicity.

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Researchers make progress in optimizing solid oxide fuel cells

While our standard of life increases, so does the worldwide energy demand. In this vein, the application of technologies based on fuel cells is put forward as an alternative to the massive consumption of fossil fuels. One of the fuel cells of greatest current interest is the solid oxide one.

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Capturing tomorrow's satellite data with today's instruments

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) are participating in a project designed to bridge the gap between current satellite capabilities and the advanced technology that will be part of the next generation of geostationary satellites.

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Urban Hopper robot can leap over 25-foot walls

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has demoed its Precision Urban Hopper robot, a wheeled ground unit that can leap over 25-foot-tall obstacles and keep on truckin'.

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IAI to Supply Self-Protection System for Military and Civilian Planes

ELTA Systems Ltd., a group and wholly owned subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), has been awarded a contract to supply its self-protection systems, Flight Guard, for commercial planes in Israel. Contracts for various customers in Israel and abroad for the self-protection systems are estimated to be valued at tens of millions of dollars, over period of years. This is the only system to be tested and authorized by the Israel Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA).

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Boeing Flies Harpoon Missile With Updated Guidance Control

A Boeing [NYSE: BA] Harpoon Block II missile equipped with a redesigned Guidance Control Unit (GCU) flew for the first time in a test conducted on Sept. 10. It was launched from the USS Princeton off the coast of California and scored a direct hit on a land-based target on San Nicolas Island, Calif.

The new GCU, which controls most of the missile's functions, incorporates a Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to improve GPS security. In addition, the GCU resolves obsolescence issues and can accommodate possible future implementation of a data link for network centric operations.

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Scientists Create First Ever Magnetic Gas

For decades, scientists have debated whether or not gasses could display the same magnetic properties as solids. Now, thanks to some MIT scientists, they know the answer is a freezing cold yes.

MIT researchers have observed magnetism in an atomic gas of lithium cooled down to 150 millionths of a degree above absolute zero.

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Microvision commercially launches the first laser picoprojector

Microvision (Redmond, WA) has commercially introduced the world's first laser-based picoprojector, called SHOW WX, which is based on the company's proprietary PicoP display-engine technology.

The Microvision picoprojector uses the laser-based PicoP display engine that delivers large, colorful, bright, and vivid images that are in focus regardless of projection distance.

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U.S. Air Dominance Eroding

The U.S. military’s historic dominance of the skies, unchallenged since around spring 1943, is increasingly at risk because of the proliferation of advanced technologies and a buildup of potential adversary arsenals.

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CSBA outlines B-3 Next Generation Bomber

Thomas Ehrhard, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, has published a fascinating monograph today with a recommended long-haul strategy for the US Air Force. The paper covers a lot of ground, but contains a particular focus on the USAF's deeply classified plans to start fielding a next-generation bomber force within the next 10 years. Ehrhard, who previously helped resuce the US Navy's X-47B program from cancellation, proposes his ideal strategy for a notional B-3 next generation bomber force of 130 aircraft, with a $16 billion development bill and a flyaway cost per aircraft of about $425 million.

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Raytheon Team Demonstrate Underwater Launch

Raytheon marked a developmental milestone when it successfully demonstrated the underwater launch of a Raytheon AIM-9X air-to-air test missile shape from a submerged Tomahawk Capsule Launching System. This successful test is a significant step in demonstrating payload flexibility for submarines.

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Hawker Beechcraft And LM Team For USAF Light Attack And Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft

Hawker Beechcraft and Lockheed Martin have teamed to compete for the opportunity to provide a low-cost, low-risk solution to address U.S. Air Force (USAF) needs for a Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) aircraft. The USAF is expected to launch an acquisition program in fiscal year 2010.

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Northrop Grumman Wins $12.4M Contract for DARPA High-Power Transistor Research

Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems in Redondo Beach, CA won a $12.4 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to conduct research for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Nitride Electronic Next Generation Technology Program.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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