• Initial tests for buried victims rescue device completed

    New victim detection device has been developed as part of a project aiming to enable people to be found quickly from under collapsed buildings or from natural elements like mud or snow; the detection device could literally be a lifeline for victims of future earthquakes, landslides, or terrorist attacks

  • Rocket-propelled life preserver saves victims from drowning

    A new rescue device ingeniously buys more time for a rescuer to ready a response and reach a drowning victim; borrowing the design of a rocket-propelled grenade, the new rescue system fires an expanding foam bullet up to 500 feet; once the bullet hits the water, it expands forty-times its original size into a life preserver; because the bullet is made of foam, even if it strikes the victim, it would do as much damage as a tennis ball

  • Portable 3d map-maker developed

    UC Berkeley researchers develop a backpack system containing cameras, lasers, and inertial sensors which can be carried around indoors and generate a detailed, accurate 3D map of the spaces it moves through

  • The five fantastic flying machines from the Pentagon

    DARPA has given a Maryland-based company $3 million to develop a flying Humvee; the Pentagon’s restless research arm has an impressive track record when it comes to audacious flying machine ideas — some of which have never made it off the drawing board, while others are still being pursued

  • Daytime shotgun tracer ammunition developed

    Two companies collaborate to produce the world’s first non-pyrotechnic shotgun tracer; ChemiTracer creates a daytime visible trace that travels with the cloud of the shot allowing shooters instantly to determine how to correct their aim

  • Cold water-pumping submarines to reduce ferocity of typhoons

    Typhoon intensity tends to remain level when ocean surface temperatures are high; reduction in the surface-water temperature would reduce the ferocity of the typhoon; Japanese company receives a patent for a typhoon-intensity-reduction system based on submarines pumping cold water from the depth of the sea to the surface in the typhoon’s path

  • U.K. aerospace students to build human-powered aircraft

    Final year aerospace engineering students at the University of Bath, too, will be following in the footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci, designing and building a human-powered aircraft as part of their degree

  • Space plane that takes off from runway ready in 10 years

    An unpiloted, air-breathing space plane that takes off from an airport runway and carries up to thirty passengers could be ready to fly in ten years; it will cost an estimated $12 billion to develop the space plane, and an additional $10 million per launch, compared to the approximately $150 million cost of a rocket launch; the company predicts that a trip to orbit for two weeks would cost tourists about $500,000 per seat

  • A first: human-powered ornithopter achieves sustained flight

    Leonardo da Vinci sketched the first human-powered ornithopter in 1485, but the idea had to wait until 2 August 2010 to be realized; aviation history was made when the University of Toronto’s human-powered aircraft with flapping wings became the first of its kind to fly continuously; the wing-flapping device sustained both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds, and covered a distance of 145 meters at an average speed of 25.6 kilometers per hour

  • New TNT detector 1,000 more sensitive than sniffer dogs

    Israeli researchers develop an explosives detector that can detect extremely small traces of commonly used explosives in liquid or air in a few seconds; the device is a thousand times more sensitive than the current gold standard in explosives detection: the sniffer dog

  • Spray-on clothes to help injured soldiers

    Researchers develop spray-on clothing which could be used by people in a hurry, but also by first responders and soldiers in the field for spray-on sterilized bandages; drugs may be added to the spray-on bandage to help a wound heal faster

  • Insect-size air vehicles to explore, monitor hazardous environments

    High-performance micro air vehicles (MAVs) are on track to evolve into robotic, insect-scale devices for monitoring and exploration of hazardous environments, such as collapsed structures, caves and chemical spills

  • Revolutionary horizontal space launch nears

    Scientists examine a proposal that calls for a wedge-shaped aircraft with scramjets to be launched horizontally on an electrified track or gas-powered sled; the aircraft would fly up to Mach 10, using the scramjets and wings to lift it to the upper reaches of the atmosphere where a small payload canister or capsule similar to a rocket’s second stage would fire off the back of the aircraft and into orbit; the aircraft would come back and land on a runway by the launch site

  • Sandia Labs developed an IED-disabling water-blade device

    A device developed by Sandia National Laboratories researchers that shoots a blade of water capable of penetrating steel is headed to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to help them disable deadly IEDs; the portable clear plastic device is filled with water and an explosive material is placed in it that, when detonated, creates a shock wave that travels through the water and accelerates it inward into a concave opening; when the water collides, it produces a thin blade

  • New helmets to make soldiers more alert, reduce stress, pain

    New helmet to enhance U.S. soldiers’ cognitive abilities, improving long-term alertness, and reducing stress, anxiety, and pain; DARPA-funded research looking to equip helmets with noninvasive technology for “transcranial pulsed ultrasound,” which can remotely stimulate brain circuits