Important Innovations

DARPA's Subterranean Robotic Olympics Robotic Race to Win DARPA, the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, gathered leading roboticists in a Kentucky cave recently and issued its most daring challenge yet.  Design robots to navigate some of the most unforgiving environments - a grueling course of tunnels and caves. Triathlon DARPA has split the competition into 3 fields.  Tunnel environments with a lot of passageways.  Caves with crags, slopes and tight squeezes.  And, an urban, bunker like environment with lots of stairs.  The winning robot will be the fastest at overcoming all 3 environments. Prestigious Competing Teams NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Caltech and Carnegie Mellon are among the competitors.  The race starts in August 2019.  The key to winning is developing a robot flexible enough to overcome cave, tunnel and urban environments.  Some uses of this emerging robotic tech:  search and rescue and ur...

24/7 Highly Advanced Medical Biomarker Monitoring DARPA's Biosensor Connects to Devices Like Smartphones You know when you don't feel well. But this advanced research would take monitoring your health to a whole new level. Implantable health trackers are futuristic technology being developed right now for delivery ASAP.  It's called tissue-integrated biosensor technology and it's being developed by the US Army Research Office and DARPA, the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency. Biosensors The biosensors are tiny, soft, hydrogel-based sensors implanted under the skin.  The purpose is to use them to measure biomarkers related to oxygen, lactate, urea, glucose and ion levels.  The sensors can stay in the human body for up to 2 years.  They can read out information to connected devices such as smartphones. General Public Use Every project that DARPA undertakes is aimed at providing the US military with overwhelming technological advan...

3-D Laser Mapping Unveils 61,000 Structures from 3000 Years Ago Mayan Kingdom 3-D Map Ancient Mayan Civilization Comes to Light Archeologists have uncovered 61,000 ancient Mayan structures hidden by rainforest overgrowth in the tropical lowlands of Guatemala.  They used highly advanced 3-D mapping to do it.  The tech is called lidar, which is similar to sonar & radar.  But lidar uses bursts of laser light to map an area.  It's a case of breakthrough technology unmasking the ancient past.  The discovery was led by University of Houston researchers. Rewriting History There are farms and canals in the swampland.  Huge fortresses and hidden pyramids in the jungle.  There are roads through the rainforest.  These are among the 61,000 structures discovered essentially by laser beams being shot from a plane.  The Mayan civilization lasted 2500 years from 1000 BC to 1500 AD.  The finding were just published in Science.  An...

Organic Sensor & Organic Solar Cell Combine to Monitor Heartbeats Source:  RIKEN Center Very Flexible, Taped Heart Monitor on Your Finger Scientists have developed an organic sensor powered by sunlight that performs as a self-powered heart monitor.  The scientists put a sensor device, an organic, electrochemical transitor, into a flexible organic solar cell.  The device successfully measures the heartbeats of humans under bright light conditions. New Generation of Self-Medical Monitoring This monitor, developed by scientists at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo, is human friendly, ultra flexible with a solar powered sensor.  It can also be used to monitor brain function.  The development was reported in the journal Nature.  It's being hailed as the next generation of self-medical monitoring.  Such self-powered devices placed on the skin have great potential for medical applications.

Genetically Putting Mosquitos on Self-Destruct Africa's Malaria-Endemic Countries DNA Editing Malaria is among the world's worst scourges.  In Africa in 2016, 194 million people were infected by malaria and nearly half a million died from it.  The deadly disease is caused by a parasite and transmitted by mosquito bites. Imperial College London Biologists A team of biologists at Imperial College London may have the weapon to end the scourge.  They've successfully gene-edited mosquitos to self-destruct.  They've targeted a patch of DNA that never varies.  By gene editing the female mosquitos into infertility, the population becomes extinct within 5 to 11 generations. Potential:  Malaria Eliminated within 2 Decades If this gene editing is as successful as lab tests have been, the scientists believe malaria could be eliminated within 2 decades.  Computer models indicate that in the wild mosquito populations could be made extinct by the techn...

Desert Agriculture Enabled by Seawater and Solar Power Jordan's Sustainable Solar & Seawater Farm Project Ambitious, Innovative Project Jordon has embarked on a very ambitious and innovative project to turn the desert green for farming. They have a pilot project underway in a location that's .62 miles from the Israeli border and 9.3 miles from the Red Sea. Feeding the World One of the most pressing needs facing humanity is feeding the world's growing population.  By 2050, food production needs to go up by 50% to feed the projected global population.  The problem is further complicated by the lack of good water, which is a big issue in Jordan.  Furthermore, food production totals 70% of global freshwater consumption and emits 25% of greenhouse gases.  Changes are clearly needed.  Jordan, which is the 2nd poorest water supply nation and three-quarters desert, is taking an innovative, problem solving lead. Jordan Playing to Its Strengths Jordan ...

Innovation to Increase Jet Fuel Efficiency Photo:  Courtesy of Texas A&M Potential to Reduce the Cost of Flying Texas A&M scientists have developed a group of new, smart materials that could significantly improve the efficiency of fuel burn in jet engines.  That has the potential of cutting the cost of flying. Brand New Materials with Great Potential The materials could also reduce airplane noise over residential areas.  Scientists say there are additional applications in a variety of other industries.  They believe they are just scratching the surface of something new that could enable brand new technologies and brand new scientific research.  The lead researcher is Dr. Ibrahim Karaman, Chevron Professor and head of the university's Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering. Smart Metals Changing Shape The Texas A&M team brought together 2 new areas of materials science involving metal alloys which are metals composed of 2 or mor...