The remotely-operated robot tank is an old idea…’
Unmanned Boats Attack At Sea ‘The autofreighter smashed into the boat…’
Iron Drone Raider Counter-UAV Operations ‘You’ve got an aggressive machine up in the air now.’ — Robert Sheckley, 1953.
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets ‘The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.’ — Philip K. Dick, 1955.
3D-Printed Exoskeleton Learns From Your Hand ‘…small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables…’ — Fritz Leiber, 1968.
Smartwatch Powered By Slime Mold ‘Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system…’ — Philip K. Dick, 1966.
Carpentopod Walking Table ‘Twoflower’s Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs…’
A software vulnerability checker with the potential to become a repair shop could keep critical computer systems one step ahead.
High-profile cyberattacks, such as the one that compromised British retailer Marks & Spencer’s customer data in April 2025, highlight the need for better ways to detect software vulnerabilities in the computer systems that increasingly control everything, from oil pipelines to hospital records.
To help, an international research team including Khalifa University’s Merouane Debbah, has developed SecureQwen, a smart software checker that automatically detects and flags vulnerabilities for repair. Powered by an AI model trained in the language of computer code, SecureQwen could even identify weaknesses that it had not explicitly been taught or come upon before.
America’s deadliest hurricanes: The top 10 storms that left lasting scars.
The deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history show how flooding and surge turn storms into mass killers. Here are the top 10.
Over the past decades, energy engineers have been developing a wide range of new technologies that could power electronic devices, robots and electric vehicles more efficiently and reliably. These include solid oxide cells (SOCs), electrochemical devices that can operate in two different modes, as fuel cells or as electrolyzers.
Shen, X., Toenders, Y.J., Han, L.K.M. et al. Mol Psychiatry (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03136-4
Few people are aware of Marvel Whiteside Parsons (a.k.a Jack Parsons), co-founder of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Parsons made major contributions to rocket development, particularly in the area of solid fuel propellant. The solid motors on the Space Shuttle and the motors in the Minuteman missile were based on the solid propellant technology that he invented. He was a founding member of Aerojet Corporation, and he even has a crater on the dark side of the moon named after him. So why isn’t he as celebrated as the other founding fathers of spaceflight?
Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, was a British occultist, writer, mountaineer, philosopher, poet, mystic, drug experimenter, and chess player. He was an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and is best known today for his occult writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. He gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was infamously dubbed \.