Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: military – Page 186

New Military Test Detects COVID-19 Before It’s Infectious

The test came out of DARPA, the U.S. military’s research division, and may be granted an accelerated emergency use authorization by the FDA by the end of the week, according to The Guardian.

If the test works as expected, it could play a major role in preventing future outbreaks by letting people know they need to self-isolate well before they start spreading the coronavirus.

“The concept fills a diagnostic gap worldwide,” Dr. Brad Ringeisen, head of DARPA’s biological technologies office, told The Guardian. He added that, should the FDA approve the test for use, it could be “absolutely a gamechanger.”

‘I Could Solve Most of Your Problems’: Eric Schmidt’s Pentagon Offensive

Mr. Schmidt is pressing forward with a Silicon Valley worldview where advances in software and A.I. are the keys to figuring out almost any issue. While that philosophy has led to social networks that spread disinformation and other unintended consequences, Mr. Schmidt said he was convinced that applying new and relatively untested technology to complex situations — including deadly ones — would make service members more efficient and bolster the United States in its competition with China.

The former Google C.E.O. has reinvented himself as the prime liaison between Silicon Valley and the military-industrial complex.

The U.S. military has been “stuck in software in the 1980s,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s former chief executive. Credit… Winni Wintermeyer/Redux.

DARPA Is Creating a Travel Adapter That Will Be Implanted in Soldiers’ Bodies

‘Through advances in medical devices and synthetic biology, DARPA’s new Advanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness (ADAPTER) program aims to develop a travel adapter for the human body, an implantable or ingestible bioelectronic carrier that can provide warfighters control over their own physiology. The integrated system will be designed to entrain the sleep cycle – either to a new time zone or back to a normal sleep pattern after night missions – and eliminate bacteria that cause traveler’s diarrhea after ingestion of contaminated food and water,’ reads a DARPA statement on the new device.”

The adapter is meant to regulate sleep patterns and protect against diarrhea.

Kim Jong Un surfaces — North Korea leader spotted at factory visit on May Day

Seoul/New York: Kim Jong Un ended his almost three-week absence from public events with a factory visit, an appearance that will ease, but not end, concern about the stability of the North Korean regime and control of its nuclear arsenal.

Kim presided over a May Day ceremony to mark the completion of the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory northeast of the capital Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency reported early Saturday. State media released photos showing the North Korean leader in a black Mao suit cutting a ribbon outside the facility, which non-proliferation experts say could be used to help produce fissile material for nuclear bombs.

U.S. President Donald Trump declined to comment on Kim’s reemergence besides telling reporters before heading to Camp David for the weekend that he “may” speak with the North Korean leader. “We’ll have something to say about it at the appropriate time,” Trump said.

Researchers see path to quantum computing at room temperature

Army researchers predict quantum computer circuits that will no longer need extremely cold temperatures to function could become a reality after about a decade.

For years, solid-state quantum technology that operates at room temperature seemed remote. While the application of transparent crystals with had emerged as the most likely route to this milestone, the plausibility of such a system always remained in question.

Now, Army scientists have officially confirmed the validity of this approach. Dr. Kurt Jacobs, of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory, working alongside Dr. Mikkel Heuck and Prof. Dirk Englund, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became the first to demonstrate the feasibility of a quantum logic gate comprised of and optical crystals.

Can Electric Cars on the Highway Emulate Plane-to-Plane Refueling?

Jet fighters can’t carry a huge tank of fuel because it would slow them down. Instead they have recourse to air-to-air refueling, using massive tanker planes as their gas stations. If electric vehicles could pull off the same kind of peer-to-peer charging scheme it could eliminate range phobia and speed the adoption of EVs.

On-the-road peer-to-peer charging depends on steerable booms to make the connection.

Robots Will Replace Soldiers In Combat, Says Russia

Russia continues it’s pursuit of Killer Robots. Battlefield deployment can be expected soon. Civilian deaths caused by the erroneous decisions of a robot are imminent.

Ban Killer Robots!

While some Russian robots have underperformed expectations in combat, the Ministry of Defence is working on a new generation of combat machines for training and possible future use. At the center of this design is the Marker UGV, or uncrewed ground vehicle. Resembling a miniature tank with treads and turrets, the Marker is as much a test bed as it is a machine expected to see battle.

“The Ministry of Defence is discussing the eventual use of robotic swarms in combat— and Marker is definitely the platform to test that out,” says Bendett, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at CNAS. “As envisioned, it will be able to launch swarms of UAVs or loitering munitions, making it a truly versatile robotic platform.”

The development parallels many robotic programs under way in the United States. It is remarkable, too, that both nations have hit upon swarms of ground robots as a way to supplement existing human formations in combat. Russia plans to test swarms of ground robots later in 2020.

Engineers, medical team design 3D-printed ventilator that requires no electricity

A research collaboration and ensuing friendship between a trauma surgeon in Oregon and a handful of engineers in Florida has resulted in a new ventilator design that requires no electricity and could be a game-changer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Albert Chi, who specializes in critical care and prosthetics, was keeping a close eye on COVID-19 during the early days. He immediately began working with his team at Oregon Health and Science University to develop a new, easy way to replicate ventilators that could be deployed anywhere. Specializing in trauma, Chi as a retired commander of the U.S. Navy Reserve and well versed in extreme conditions.

When Chi had a design, he called his friend and clinical-trial collaborator Albert Manero CEO and co-founder of Limbitless Solutions in Orlando, Florida.

Air Force Wants 30 Flying Cars in the Next 10 Years

“Most of the vendors have a plan to have a pilot as well as autonomous operations,” he added.

“Since we have put our hand up and said, ‘We want to accelerate this market so that it’s dual-use, the military wants to buy the exact same vehicle that would be available domestically,’ companies have shared with us privately that they have seen the amount of investment given by venture capitalists go up,” Roper said. “And they expect that that will continue the further we go through the door on competition.”

The Air Force plans to request funding for flying car research in the fiscal 2022 budget request, in addition to the research funding the service already set aside for the experiment, he said.