The leader of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office doubled down June 21 on the service’s refusal to release the overall contract value of the forthcoming B-21 stealth bomber program. Amid questions of cost transparency, Randall Walden, the RCO’s director and program executive officer, said that releasing the engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) contract award …
The Office of Naval Research “will perform a shipboard test of a 150 kilowatt laser weapon system in the near future,” said [vice chief of naval operations] Adm. Bill Moran during a speech at Booz Allen Hamilton’s Directed Energy Summit, which was held in Washington, D.C. The Navy’s 30-kilowatt laser weapon is currently onboard the …
One way to identify molecules with mirror versions – a property known as chirality – is to look at how they scatter light waves. The handedness is imprinted on the direction the waves vibrate, or their polarisation. But current techniques for measuring polarisation involve using multiple lenses and other optical elements like beam-splitters and filters, …
Researchers propose a novel combination therapy consisting of an agent for chelating redox-active metals (Fe2+) and an antioxidant to reduce damage caused by residual oxygen free radicals, in addition to resveratrol, a modulator of AMPK and sirtuin pathways (nuclear transcription). The addition of resveratrol may have the capacity to increase activity of the NAD+- dependant …
The board of China-backed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved $509 million in investments for its first four projects on Friday. Three of the four projects are co-financed with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Kingdom Department for International Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The projects, announced previously, …
There is a survey of wealth and affluence in the USA. IA = Investable Assets: includes education/custodial accounts, individually-owned retirement accounts, stocks, options, bonds, mutual funds, managed accounts, hedge funds, structured products, ETFs, cash accounts, annuities, and cash value life insurance policies The estimates how many people in the USA have over $100K to invest …
The 2016 CapGemini wealth report shows that Asia now has more superrich than North America. Over the last 20 years the global high net worth individuals (HNWI, millionaires and billionaires) have increased by four times. The Asia-Pacific region has 5.1 million HNWIs, compared to North America’s 4.8 million, but for the first time has also …
The Marine Corps is moving towards a future in which small dispersed units can protect themselves from incoming enemy drones with laser weapons and from missiles and aircraft with Stinger missiles, with both weapons netted into a detection system and mounted atop Humvees, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and other combat vehicles. Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, …
Britain votes to leave the European Union Pound crashes to 1985 low as sterling falls below $1.35 David Cameron will be stepping down. Scotland could leave the UK to remain with the EU The Economist explains that this departure will take two years or more Britain has voted for Brexit. What happens now? Nothing immediate …
DARPA has a new program called Data-Driven Discovery of Models (D3M). The goal of D3M is to develop algorithms and software to help overcome the data-science expertise gap by facilitating non-experts to construct complex empirical models through automation of large parts of the model-creation process. If successful, researchers using D3M tools will effectively have access …
Physicists from the Russian Quantum Center (RQC), MIPT, the Lebedev Physical Institute, and L’Institut d’Optique (Palaiseau, France) have devised a method for creating a special quantum entangled state. This state enables producing a high-precision ruler capable of measuring large distances to an accuracy of billionths of a metre. The results of the study have been …