1. Weirdwarp is on about one moon of Pluto that has been named Vulcan. This was proposed, appropriately, by William Shatner from Star Trek. The votes were taken online allowing the public to vote. The two moons without a name were boringly called P4 and P5. There are five moons around Pluto the other three …
The government will likely create a system to approve regenerative medicine products earlier than before as part of efforts to promote practical use of induced pluripotent stem cells and other such treatments. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry as been proceeding with a plan to create the system by granting production approval at an earlier …
Scientists at the University of Dayton have mapped out the process at the genetic level newts use to regenerate lenses, limbs and other tissue. The research, published this week in BioMed Central’s open access journal Genome Biology, identifies the protein families expressed during tissue regeneration in the common North American newt, laying the groundwork for …
a scientist from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore demonstrated a small box made of calcite optical crystal that made anything placed behind the box appear invisible to people watching the demonstration at the TED conference. Professor Zhang admitted that his research was in its early stages, and said that his team was still working out …
5 minutes ago Elon Musk tweeted Pods 1 and 4 now online and thrusters engaged. Dragon transitioned from free drift to active control. Yes!! SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on time this morning from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, sending a Dragon freighter into orbit on its way to the International Space Station. …
Project Icarus President Richard Obousy gave an overview of the projects and work of the Icarus interstellar starship studies to the Centuari Dreams website. Project Icarus is an engineering challenge and designer capability exercise to design an unmanned fusion based, interstellar starship capable of exploring a star system within 15 light-years. The total mission duration …
BigDog handles heavy objects. The goal is to use the strength of the legs and torso to help power motions of the arm. This sort of dynamic, whole-body approach is routinely used by human athletes and animals, and will enhance the performance of advanced robots. The control techniques and actuators needed for dynamic manipulation are …
Seamless integration of computing into everyday objects isn’t quite here yet, in large part because we still don’t have cheap, thin, flexible electronics. But the technology is already on a path toward ubiquity: radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are used to track goods (and, increasingly, pets and people), flexible sensors in car seats warn parents …
Advances in computational and experimental tools along with new technologies in materials, structures, and aircraft controls, etc. are enabling a high degree of integration of the airframe and propulsion system in aircraft design. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been investigating a number of revolutionary distributed propulsion vehicle concepts to increase aircraft performance. …
110 years ago, the Wrights took to the air on December 17, 1903, making two flights each from level ground into a freezing headwind gusting to 27 miles per hour (43 km/h). The first flight, by Orville, of 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds, at a speed of only 6.8 miles per hour (10.9 …