Nextbigfuture will have several articles over the next few weeks reviewing developments in 2016 and looking ahead to developments over the next few years. Here we look at 2016 in computers. Later articles will look at medicine, life extension, energy, space and other areas. The biggest developments in computing * The Google Deep mind AI …
NASA peer reviewed paper showed that they had tested the propellentless EMdrive propulsion on a highly sensitive device in a vacuum and detected 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt of propulsion. Many remain unconvinced. Despite having a setup that has been pretty much operating for years, how many data points are in the paper? Eighteen. Now, if …
In November 2016, a Chinese J-16 strike fighter test-fired a larger and longer range hypersonic missile and successfully destroying the target drone at a very long range. The missile is about 28 percent of the length of the J-16, which measures 22 meters (about 72 feet). The puts the missile at about 19 feet, and …
Space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow said Nov. 17 that he believes that the Trump administration should as much as double NASA’s budget in the coming years and make plans for a human return to the moon. The Obama administration, in its fiscal year 2017 budget proposal, requested $19 billion for NASA, less than half a percent …
President elect Trump claimed during his campaign that he would designate China as a “currency manipulator,” imposing a 45 percent tariff on imported Chinese goods. He has also urged opposition to TPP and globalization. Experts at a seminar held by the Center of China and Globalization think opportunities can be found to improve the China-U.S. …
The troubled General Atomics Advanced Arresting Gear program is doing well in its delayed testing program on land and on carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the head of Naval Sea Systems Command told reporters on Wednesday. Last month, Naval Air Systems Command successfully landed an F/A-18E Super Hornet at its land-based test facility in Joint …
Spinach is no longer just a superfood: By embedding leaves with carbon nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone. This is one of the first demonstrations of engineering electronic systems into plants, an approach that the …
A new sea-based, armed vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone the size of the Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper should be operating in 2018 The MQ-9 has almost two tons of payload capacity Competing VTOL drones are * Bell Helicopter has the V-247 Vigilant * Northrop Grumman’s TERN * a tiltrotor drone by Karem Aircraft Brian …
Harvard University researchers have made the first entirely 3D-printed organ-on-a-chip with integrated sensing. Built by a fully automated, digital manufacturing procedure, the 3D-printed heart-on-a-chip can be quickly fabricated and customized, allowing researchers to easily collect reliable data for short-term and long-term studies. This new approach to manufacturing may one day allow researchers to rapidly design …
Five years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astronomers for their discovery, in the late 1990s, that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace. Their conclusions were based on analysis of Type Ia supernovae – the spectacular thermonuclear explosions of dying stars – picked up by the Hubble space telescope …
TALIOS is the first optronic pod to cover the entire critical decision chain from intelligence gathering to weapon delivery. Capabilities range from deep strike with long-range missiles and bombs to air-to-air target identification and close air support, and include the rapidly emerging requirement of Non-Traditional Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (NTISR). Thales’ new-generation TALIOS laser targeting …