Important Innovations

$13 Billion Flying Drone Squad The US Navy just awarded Boeing an initial $805 million contract to build Stingray MQ-25A drones.  The Stingray's mission is to refuel aircraft in mid-air.  The Navy wants a Stingray flying by 2021 and 4 Stingrays in service by 2024.  It plans on deploying a total squadron of 72 with a price-tag of $13 billion.. Carrier-Based and Unmanned These are the Navy's first, carrier based, unmanned aerial refueling tankers.  They'll launch from ships and refuel Navy fighter jets in the air. They'll significantly extend the range of the carrier air wing's missions.  Currently, the Navy's using F/A-18 combat jets for refueling. Competitive Advantages This was a 3-way contest for the drone contract.  Boeing beat out Lockheed and General Atomic.  Analysts say the winner Boeing could have an advantage in developing future unmanned systems for the military.

Nanoscale Fingerprints Identify Counterfeiting Counterfeiting is one of the world's biggest scams.  Fakes, forgeries and knock-off imitations cost the global economy half a trillion dollars a year.  Emerging technology out of the UK could put a major dent into that and put phony products in full view. Quantum Security Scientists from Lancaster University in the UK are developing and patenting security solutions technology using quantum devices.  They're creating quantum security at the nanoscale level.  Literally, nanoscale fingerprints standing guard.  Quantum Base is a spin-out company from Lancaster University that is a driving force of the innovation. Ending Counterfeit Goods The new anti-counterfeiting method, developed by Lancaster University scientists uses 2 components.  There's a unique molecular pattern that can be put into a holographic label and picked up by a corresponding smartphone app.  Bottom-line: it alerts if the product is a counterfeit. It ap

Tiny Particles that Add Up Source:  NASA NASA Atmospheric Program The images of swirling dust over deserts and plumes of sea salt off the ocean are stunning and amazing.   It's a new and innovative illustration in which NASA showcases the invisible atmospheric world of the tiny particles swirling around us.  It demonstrates that dust clouds blanket large parts of the earth. Tiny Particles with Big Footprints The particles include sea salt, black carbon soot from wildfires and emissions from heavy industry. NASA combined data from multiple sensors on satellites as well as ground based sensors.  Massive storms that hit Hawaii and Japan spewed sea salt plumes into the atmosphere.  Landlocked winds over NW China and NW Africa unleashed huge dust clouds into the air. It's the Air We Breathe This map isn't a single image or a montage of images.  NASA used mathematics to bring together data from different sources to determine where the densest concentrations of partic

Successful Treatment on Dogs with the Disease London and Dallas Research Team  For the first time, there is real hope for a potential cure for Muscular Dystrophy.  A team of scientists from the Royal Veterinary College in London and UT Southwestern Medical College in Dallas used gene therapy on dogs with the disease.  They repaired a gene mutation that triggers the fatal condition. Editing DNA This is an important step in the process to edit DNA in people with the fatal disease.  20,000 children, mostly boys, are diagnosed with it every year.  Muscular Dystrophy is caused by a gene mutation that stops production of dystrophin, a protein that's essential to healthy muscle function.  Without the protein muscles dramatically deteriorate. More Research The research was published in the journal Science.  The scientists successfully used gene editing in 4 dogs with the disease.  The procedure restored the production of dystrophin in the animals.  Experts say much more res

Quadcopter Drones with Wheels MIT roboticists have created what may be the world's most versatile robots.  They can fly and drive.  They are also autonomous.  And, according to the scientists, they can find their own safe paths. No Collisions The MIT team took 8, 4-rotor quadcopter drones and equipped them with 2 small motors and wheels. They developed algorithms to make sure they don't collide.  In test simulations, they fly and drive perfectly. Combo Vehicles that Work The robots can fly for 295 feet and drive 826 feet until their batteries run out.  The scientists say the most important implication of their research is that vehicles which combine flying and driving have the potential to be more efficient and useful than vehicles that just fly or drive.  They believe their experiments are helping to explore and forward ideas for flying cars.

Germany's New Cybersecurity Agency German DARPA Germany just announced the creation of a DARPA-like agency.  DARPA is the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency whose mission is to develop game-changing technology to provide the US military overwhelming technological advantages.  It's behind the creation of the internet, drones, cloud computing and GPS. Hacking Problems German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen says the new federal agency allows Germany to invest in new technologies and the protection of critical digital infrastructure from cyberattack. Some German officials believe Germany needs better encryption and more open source software.  German ministries have had a problem with being hacked.  Some suspect Russia. Controversy The new agency is expected to be structured like DARPA.  The Ministries of Defense and Interior will manage it.  Some German lawmakers are very concerned about Defense management.  They fear the cybersecurity ag

Straight From MARS and Absolutely Amazing New Zealand-based MARS Bioimaging has created the world's first color X-rays of the human body.  The company is an award winning manufacturer of small bore spectral CT scanners.  The scans are 3D and used for pre-clinical medical research. In Depth, In Color The CT scanners produce color images where different materials can be separated.  In the above photo, soft tissue, fat, bone and the metal of a watch are all identified and differentiated. The company explains this is photon counting technology, originally created as part of MARS founder's work at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Medical Research Benefits The benefits for researchers is the wealth of precise chemical data on objects in the scanner.  The careful, multilayers of tissue scans, the company says, enable new precision in medical research.  To do this, MARS has placed sensors inside computed tomography (CT) scanners.  By matching the scans wit

Hotter Than the Core of the Sun Source:  Tokamak Energy   Tokamak Energy In the United Kingdom, a private nuclear fusion company has heated a plasma of hydrogen to 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.  The company is Tokamak Energy.  Their achievement is a world first.  They hope to be the first to produce electricity from nuclear fusion commercially by 2030. Next Test Tokamak's new nuclear fusion reactor will be put to the test again in 2019.  They're going to heat the plasma to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit.  That will put the reactor within the operating temperature needed for controlled nuclear fusion. Star in a Jar Nuclear fusion reactors are called Star in a Jar.  The reason is the nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium is the main nuclear reaction that keeps the stars and sun burning for billions of years.  There are a number of companies in the US, Europe and Canada working on fusion reactors to provide power to the grid. Nuclear fusion is renewable energy. There

DARPA's Satellite Servicing System RSGS Satellite Bodyguards The US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA is developing a robotic system to service satellites in geosynchronous orbit (RSGS).  Besides doing refuels, repairs and other services, RSGS is also designed to protect vital US satellites against adversaries' robotic systems used as antisatellite weapons.  RSGS is a satellite bodyguard system against space threats. Satellite Stalking Threat By early 2020, Russia and China will have robotic systems in geosynchronous (G) orbit.  Satellites in G-orbit are difficult to reach by other types of antisatellite weapons.  Experts are warning of a growing threat in space of satellite stalking. US Budget Issues The US Air Force wants to launch the US RSGS system in March 2021,  The US Senate just cut the $209 million in launch money from the USAF budget.  As Russia and China ramp up their systems, experts are warning of growing, US satellite v

Future of Food - Forgotten Crops, Measured by Nutrition Not Yield Wednesday Series:  Innovation Addressing the World's Most Pressing Needs - Food Land of Forgotten Crops At the global headquarters in Malaysia of "Crops for the Future", scientists are reviving and cultivating crops relegated to the sidelines.  They have a reason.  Just 4 crops - soybeans, wheat, rice and maize - provide 2/3 of the world's food supply.  The global dependency is huge and it's leading to increasingly uniform diets.  Diversifying the food supply with alternative crops is an urgent need. 7,000 Ignored Crops Go Back Thousands of Years There are 7,000 crops farmed for thousands of years that are now ignored and sidelined.  They are being re-cultivated at Crops for the Future.  An example is a tart berry called the kedondong.  It's being converted into a sugar-free juice that's high in Vitamin C and great in taste.  Another is the Moringa tree, whose leaves are being use as

Sunflowers Decontaminating Nuclear Radioactivity Source:  Stock Photo Plants as Biotechnology It's called phytoremediation.  It's the process of natural plants cleaning up contaminated soil.  Scientists at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia have identified native Australian plants that can decontaminate areas devastated by man-made disasters, such as chemical spills and nuclear accidents.  According to the scientists, it's also 10x cheaper than excavating, digging and hauling the waste away. Bioremediation Natural plant processes can make contaminated soil safe again.  An example is the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986.  Subsequent research has shown that sunflowers were able to soak up radionuclides in the soil from the accident.  The actual site is being used again for what's being called environmentally friendly sustainable power.  Mustard plants are also able to absorb heavy metals from the soil. Nature Giving Back Little is known about ho

All-Night-ers Don't Work Students should make sleep an educational priority.  A good night's sleep is essential for human memory.  Neuroscientists are just starting to understand why.  All-night-ers don't work for exams.  In fact, they're the worst thing you can do. UK Sleep Research Scientists at the Royal Holloway University in the UK have documented that sleep is essential to embedding knowledge in the brain.  Sleep affects memory, especially the recall needed to learn language. To Sleep or Not to Sleep The researchers documented two groups of students learning new vocabulary words.  The group that got a good night's sleep far outperformed the group that pulled-off all night-ers.  The bottom line:  prolonged sleep is actually good for kids and adults.  It's critical for brain function and healthy body rhythms.  And, for students, it's a priority for better test performance and grades.

From Square to Round and Back UC Boulder Shapeshifting Material University of Colorado Boulder scientists just developed a new shape shifting material that enables a square peg to morph and fit into a round hole.  All before it reverts back to its original shape. Broad Uses The material can change into complex, pre-programmed shapes when exposed to light or heat.  It may have a broad range of uses in robotics, 3D printing, medical devices, artificial muscles and biomaterials. It uses liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) which is the same tech in modern TV displays. Material Science Breakthrough The new material can go back and forth between 2 separate shapes repeatedly.  It achieves readily programmable 2-way transformations and was just reported by UC Boulder. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the results were just published in the journal Science Advances.  The researchers in UC Boulder's Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering are going