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Archive for the ‘military’ category: Page 178

Mar 22, 2020

DARPA is Building a Robotic Space Mechanic to Fix Satellites in Orbit

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, military, robotics/AI, satellites

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that’s responsible for developing emerging technologies for the U.S. military, is building a new high-tech spacecraft — and it’s armed. In an age of Space Force and burgeoning threats like hunter-killer satellites, this might not sound too surprising. But you’re misunderstanding. DARPA’s new spacecraft, currently “in the thick of it” when it comes to development, is armed. As in, it has arms. Like the ones you use for grabbing things.

Armed robots aren’t new. Mechanical robot arms are increasingly widespread here on Earth. Robot arms have been used to carry out complex surgery and flip burgers. Attached to undersea exploration vehicles, they’ve been used to probe submerged wrecks. They’ve been used to open doors, defuse bombs, and decommission nuclear power plants. They’re pretty darn versatile. But space is another matter entirely.

Mar 22, 2020

Military Trucks take coffins out of Bergamo, Italy

Posted by in category: military

So pathetic 😢😢😢.



A column of military vehicles crossed the heart of Bergamo last night, from the monumental cemetery to the highway.

Mar 21, 2020

A Military-Funded Biosensor Could Be the Future of Pandemic Detection

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military

If it wins FDA approval next year, the two-part sensor could help spot new infections weeks before symptoms begin to show.

Why are pandemics so hard to stop? Often it’s because the disease moves faster than people can be tested for it. The Defense Department is helping to fund a new study to determine whether an under-the-skin biosensor can help trackers keep up — by detecting flu-like infections even before their symptoms begin to show. Its maker, Profusa, says the sensor is on track to try for FDA approval by early next year.

The sensor has two parts. One is a 3mm string of hydrogel, a material whose network of polymer chains is used in some contact lenses and other implants. Inserted under the skin with a syringe, the string includes a specially engineered molecule that sends a fluorescent signal outside of the body when the body begins to fight an infection. The other part is an electronic component attached to the skin. It sends light through the skin, detects the fluorescent signal and generates another signal that the wearer can send to a doctor, website, etc. It’s like a blood lab on the skin that can pick up the body’s response to illness before the presence of other symptoms, like coughing.

Mar 19, 2020

US military sets laser PHASRs to stun

Posted by in category: military

Circa 2005


The “non-lethal” laser rifle aims to dazzle suspects without causing permanent harm, but it will need to comply with a UN protocol on laser weaponry.

Mar 19, 2020

Scientists create quantum sensor that covers entire radio frequency spectrum

Posted by in categories: military, particle physics, quantum physics

A quantum sensor could give Soldiers a way to detect communication signals over the entire radio frequency spectrum, from 0 to 100 GHz, said researchers from the Army.

Such wide spectral coverage by a single antenna is impossible with a traditional receiver system, and would require multiple systems of individual antennas, amplifiers and other components.

In 2018, Army scientists were the first in the world to create a quantum receiver that uses highly excited, super-sensitive atoms—known as Rydberg atoms—to detect communications signals, said David Meyer, a scientist at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory. The researchers calculated the receiver’s channel capacity, or rate of data transmission, based on , and then achieved that performance experimentally in their lab—improving on other groups’ results by orders of magnitude, Meyer said.

Mar 19, 2020

Why are Russian military aircraft flying in Irish airspace?

Posted by in category: military

Analysis: there have been reports of recent incursions of Russian bombers like the Tupolev TU–95 in airspace controlled by Ireland

There have been a number of recent incursions into Irish controlled airspace by the Russian air force. Most recently Tupolev TU–95, the so called “Bear” strategic bomber aircraft, triggered UK Royal Air Force fighter jets to scramble in order to confront the Russian aircraft. Reliable sources indicate that there is an agreement between the UK and Ireland permitting the Royal Air Force to enter Irish airspace if deemed necessary, though the specific nature of this arrangement is not clear.

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Mar 15, 2020

US Military Scientists Hope To Have Coronavirus Therapeutic

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military

A new approach would use RNA or DNA to help the body develop antibodies to the rapidly spreading illness.

A U.S. military research program that seeks a new way to boost a body’s immunity to viruses could change how governments and militaries prepare for pandemics — and might even arrive soon enough to help with the COVID −19 outbreak.

DARPAs Pandemic Prevention Platform isn’t looking to create a vaccine, which can take years to produce and weeks to take effect in the body. Rather, the goal is to identify the specific monoclonal antibodies that the body naturally produces when it encounters a virus, and then trick the body into producing the one that guards against a specific illness. That could serve as a temporary, months-long shield that can protect the individual from the pathogen until a vaccine can be brought online.

Mar 15, 2020

2017 North Korean nuclear test

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military, nuclear weapons

North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test on 3 September 2017, stating it had tested a thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb).[6].

Mar 15, 2020

HIV ‘Created by Scientist’ for Biological Warfare, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Says

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military

Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai — who on Friday became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize — on Saturday repeated her previous claims that HIV was “created by a scientist for biological warfare,” reports. In August, Kenya’s quoted Maathai as saying that HIV/AIDS was created by scientists “for the purpose of mass extermination,” according to. “We know that the developed nations are using biological warfare, leaving guns to primitive people. They have the resources to do this,” the quoted Maathai as saying during a workshop on Aug. 30 in the central Kenyan town of Nyeri, according to. “AIDS is not a curse from God to Africans or the black people. It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists, but we may not know who particularly did,” she added, according to the, reports (, 10/9) Saturday, Maathai repeated her belief that HIV was deliberately “devised to destroy black people,” according to. She added that her comments published in the were “intended to promote an inquiring attitude” toward HIV/AIDS among Africans and “combat the fatalistic notion that it was a curse from God,” reports. “Would you solve the problem if you believed it was a curse from God?” Maathai asked, adding that she was “encouraging people to ask questions.” Although Maathai said she never indicated that a specific region or nation was responsible for creating HIV/AIDS, she is “suspicious” about the “secrecy surrounding the origin of the virus,” according to. “Some people say it came from the monkeys, and I doubt it. … But I say it cannot be that only black people are cursed because we are dying more than any other people on this planet, and that’s a fact” (Kanina„ 10/9).

Reaction

Although the United States “congratulated” Maathai on Friday for winning the Nobel Prize, officials also “tempered [their] praise” about her claims that HIV/AIDS was created as a biological weapon, according to South Africa’s. “She’s had many long years of environmental activism,” Department of State spokesperson Richard Boucher said, adding, “We’re delighted to see that she’s the first African woman to have been selected for this unique honor.” However, an unnamed State Department senior official said that the department “vehemently” objected to Maathai’s comments concerning the origin of HIV, the reports. “She said HIV/AIDS was invented as a bioweapon in some laboratory in the West,” the official said, adding, “We don’t agree with that” (, 10/9).

Mar 15, 2020

Battelle-Led Team Wins DARPA Award to Develop Injectable, Bi-Directional Brain Computer Interface

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, government, military, neuroscience, robotics/AI

Here’s an exciting concept that was actually first discussed in 1959 by Richard Feynman in an article entitled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”.

I am most interested in this technology for mind uploading.

“Battelle’s N3 concept for a minimally invasive neural interface system, called BrainSTORMS (Brain System to Transmit Or Receive Magnetoelectric Signals), involves the development of a novel nanotransducer that could be temporarily introduced into the body via injection and then directed to a specific area of the brain to help complete a task through communication with a helmet-based transceiver.”

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