1. Two further nuclear power reactors are to be constructed and plans for four coal-fired plants have been dropped in the latest 15-year basic energy plan released by the South Korean government today. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) published its 7th basic power supply plan for the period up to 2029, the …
Israel is reorganizing some of its special operations units by putting four separate special operations battalions together into one brigade. The new brigade will be part of the parachute division and will make the special skills of these four battalions available on a wide scale. Some members of these four units are complaining because the …
The size and specifications of the Indian Navy’s future aircraft carrier have been officially acknowledged. The navy has written to at least four major global shipbuilders, asking for proposals to help in designing a 65,000 tonne carrier that would be about 300 metres long. The letter of request, issued by the Indian Navy on Wednesday, …
The T-14 is Russia’s first truly new tank design since the T-72, designed in the early 1970s. Based on the Armata Universal Tracked Platform, the T-14’s most attention-grabbing feature is its unmanned turret, with all of the MBT’s three crew (commander, driver, gunner) seated in a well-protected crew compartment at the front of the hull. …
Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego developed a gel filled with toxin-absorbing nanosponges that could lead to an effective treatment for skin and wound infections caused by MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), an antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This nanosponge-hydrogel minimized the growth of skin lesions on mice infected with MRSA – without the use of antibiotics. …
An all memristor chip, built by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Stony Brook University, processes data not with digital logic circuits but with elements that mimic, in simplified form, the neurons and synapses of biological brains. When a network like that is exposed to new data, it “learns” as the synapses …
The Wing Ship Technology Corporation, a South Korean company, is trying to revive the wing in ground effect idea. South Korea’s armed forces have already agreed to buy some and the firm says it hopes to announce its first commercial sales (to an oil-and-gas firm and a Mediterranean ferry company) shortly. In Korea, Wing Ship …
In a world first, Chinese scientists have reported editing the genomes of human embryos. The results are published in the online journal Protein and Cell and confirm widespread rumours that such experiments had been conducted—rumours that sparked a high-profile debate last month about the ethical implications of such work. In the paper, researchers led by …
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Abdulaziz on Tuesday ordered the deployment of an elite ground unit in the country’s ongoing campaign against Yemen’s Shiite Houthi militant group, Saudi’s official news agency has reported. King Salman has issued a royal decree to deploy National Guard Forces in its ongoing military operation against Yemen’s Houthis – a campaign …
Martin Aircraft, the jetpack company, raised $27 million by issuing shares in the company, most of which were taken up by China-based investor KuangChi Science. The Shenzhen-based Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology has a 52 per cent stake in Martin Aircraft. The funds raised by the listing will go toward a commercial jetpack planned for …
United Launch Alliance Monday unveiled the name of its next rocket and it will be called Vulcan. The new rocket could launch as soon as 2019. It is ULA’s response to competition from SpaceX and political pressure to phase out use of the Russian RD-180 engine powering its workhorse Atlas V rocket. ULA CEO Tory …