Practice makes perfect. That includes the ability to accurately fire some of the biggest, baddest, and deadliest weapons systems in the US Navy. But since the indiscriminate shelling of passing ships is generally frowned upon by the maritime community, here’s what US sailors take aim at instead.
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Even as the US begins to withdraw from Afghanistan, IEDs remain a constant threat to our forces. But the Army’s top brass is turning this threat into an opportunity using a new, integrated sensor suite. Now, with every IED attack, the Army learn how to better treat and prevent the destruction and mayhem they cause.
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Florida has its oranges, Georgia has its peaches, and California has its lettuce. These leafy greens are the Golden State’s biggest vegetable crop, bringing in $1.6 billion annually. Problem is, they require a lot of attention to raise properly. Historically, California has relied of its abundant, affordable work force. But with that labor pool shrinking and foreign competition increasing, lettuce farmers in America’s Salad Bowl are facing rising labor costs and worker shortages. And that’s where the fully automated Lettuce Bot comes in.
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After nearly a decade and billions of dollars in R&D costs, we’ve still barely scratched the surface of Mars. That sort of outlay just won’t work for exploring Jupiter’s moon Europa, especially since all the interesting parts of the moon—like its potential subterranean ocean—are encrusted with meters of ice. But with the help of the UK’s new space penetrator module, we may be able to inject our scientific devices meters deep into other celestial bodies.
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Just because Cern researchers discovered the Higgs Boson particle
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People who have been blind since a young age can sometimes learn to develop a sort of low-grade echolocation. This technique, used by the likes of Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Ronnie Milsap, and Ben Underwood, works much the same way as it does in bats and dolphins. But people who have just recently lost their sight can’t harness this ability innately. They need the vOICe to do it for them.
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Commander Chris Hadfield may be the new poster boy for the Canadian Space Agency, but before the Mustachioed Ontarian hit the scene that crown was held by the supremely versatile Canadarm telerobotic system. Now a new generation of robo-arms are taking to the skies, where they’ll act as orbiting satellite mechanics.
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The 2001 earthquake that brought down a length of State Route 99 running through downtown Seattle was a measly 6.8 on the Richter scale. But rather than rebuild the Alaska Viaduct, as the double-decker section was known, city officials instead decided to take the freeway underground in their very own Big Dig. To do so, Seattle’s using "Big Bertha:" the biggest Tunnel Boring Machine on Earth.
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Ground-based telescopes have long struggled to achieve the image clarity and resolution of their orbiting cousins due in large part to atmospheric distortions. That’s why we build observatories on mountain tops: to minimize the amount of atmosphere between the telescope and incoming starlight. But with the help of a cutting-edge adaptive optic system, astronomers are getting an unprecedented and undistorted look at deep space sans the perilous rocket launches.
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The Uranium-235 and -238 we use in modern nuclear fission reactors are humanity’s single most energy-dense fuel source (1,546,000,000 MJ/L), but that potent power potential comes at a steep price—and not just during natural disasters. Its radioactive plutonium byproducts remain lethally irradiated for millennia. That’s why one pioneering Nordic company is developing an alternative fuel that doesn’t produce it.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
