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The humble dragonfly, long a symbol of lazy summer days, has a secret: it’s actually one of the most skilled predators on the planet. Harmless to humans, dragonflies are absolutely lethal to other insects, missing only one prey in twenty. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratory want to learn what makes the flying insect such a talented killer in the hopes of someday improving missile guidance systems. Dragonflies are more than 300 million years old, and their ancestors were some of the first insects to develop wings....

For the first time ever on Monday, a drone delivered vaccines to a baby in the remote South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. One-month-old Joy Nowai is now the first person to be immunized by drugs delivered via commercial drone. The feat was made possible thanks to the Australian company Swoop Aero, which contracted with Vanuatu’s government to orchestrate the delivery with some help from UNICEF. The vaccine-carrying drone is the latest development in a trend that’s seen UAVs ferry medical supplies to rural communities in the U....

Get ready to explore the second-largest asteroid in the solar system from the comfort of your computer chair. NASA is releasing Vesta Trek, a web-based application compiled from the Dawn spacecraft’s data.Dawn, which has since moved on to explore Ceres, revealed a world with a surprising wealth of history when it visited Vesta last year. Vesta is considered the last of the protoplanets—the collection of worlds in the early solar system that smashed together to create the planets we see today....

Media Platforms Design TeamSuppose someone is considering buying a home, and the furnace works but is getting on in years. The seller is not required to replace it, but the potential buyer is leery about taking on a home in which the furnace might be on its last legs.That is where home warranties, also called home service contracts, come into play. These guarantees are designed to protect a homeowner from unexpected repair costs for major appliances like refrigerators, washers, and dryers....

The Jeep Gladiator is many things—convertible, off-roader, tow rig and pickup truck—but it never seats more than five passengers. As I see it, that’s a problem, because you might occasionally have more than five people who want to get in on some Gladiator antics. What do you do then? Buy a second Gladiator? Sure, you could. But I have a less expensive solution for you: add a third-row seat. As with so many aftermarket solutions, this one would be for off-road use only....

Media Platforms Design TeamAdding Yourself to Google PlusIf you don’t already have a Google account, have no fear. Here are the simple steps to take:1. Create a Google profile. The info that will show up in your Google Plus About tab comes from here. You can customize it to display only what you want to share. 2. Enter your attributes, interests, and anything else (cool or otherwise) you want people to know about you....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou won’t want to miss Tuesday’s transit of Venus in front of the sun—it won’t come again for more than a century.NASA’s website will tell you when to look depending upon where you live. Here’s how to watch:A pair of binoculars is great for watching the transit with large crowds—but do not look into the binoculars! Attach them to a tripod, position the sunlight on a white sheet of paper, and focus the binoculars until the outline of the sun is crisp....

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of the asteroid 2001 SE101 streaking in front of a faraway galaxy.Citizen scientist Melina Thévenot spotted the asteroid in a 2005 image of the Crab Nebula taken by Hubble. The Crab Nebula lies along the same elliptic that most of the asteroids in our solar system are on. In 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped a picture of an asteroid streaking across the Crab Nebula—a celestial photobomb, if you will....

India conducted a surprise test of an anti-satellite weapon today, smashing an obsolete friendly satellite to bits. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that the successful test proved the country was capable of defending itself on “land, water and air, but now also in space.” India is now the fourth country to test anti-satellite weapons. The test, code-named “Shakti” (“power”) in Hindi, used a missile to intercept a satellite, which experts believe was Microsat-r (SATNO 43947, 2019-006A)....

Call me paranoid, but I like to keep an eye on my home. Security companies offer surveillance systems with multiple cameras, alarms and 24-hour response services to guard against home invasions. But I don’t live in a high-crime area, and I can’t justify paying for an expensive installation and monthly fee when all I’m looking for is a little peace of mind.Fortunately, a resourceful homeowner can install a variety of camera systems that get the job done with no strings attached....

Just last week, Las Vegas announced it has reached its goal of powering the city governement entirely with renewable energy, meeting a goal the city has been working toward for nearly a decade. The goal was reached with the launch of Boulder Solar 1, a 100-megawatt solar plant located just outside the city.Las Vegas began its renewable energy project in 2008, reducing electricity usage through sustainability programs and installing solar panels on city buildings....

A group of researchers have created bubbles out of sand for the first time. While this might sound like child’s play, these bubbles act almost exactly like bubbles in liquids, a fact that help scientists understand more about the physics of granular materials.Historically, physics has done pretty well in describing solids, liquids, and gases. But physicists have struggled with granular materials like sand and salt. In some cases, these materials can act like liquids as they flow and take the shape of their containers....

Media Platforms Design TeamNorelco BodygroomPrice: Info:shaveeverywhere.com Erik Sofge$40 Reviewer:The Details: The Bodygroom electric razor is already the butt (puns are inevitable when talking about this device) of potty-mouth jokes from all manner of Web and print journalists. And yet, it’s a good idea: a razor designed for all points south of the neck, including—cue the adolescent giggles—there. To a certain extent the Bodygroom is simply a shaver that doesn’t cut very close, greatly reducing the chance of nicking sensitive areas or otherwise things that you seriously do not want to irritate....

Media Platforms Design TeamFighter pilots and spy satellites have long relied on accurate, real-time infrared imaging to find out threats. Reliapon Police Products have fit that surveillance power into a handheld package:The XT-II ThermalCam, a handheld IR camera, with a range over 1000 yards.Vincent Zucchero, Reliapon’s president, says the XT-II weighs only 4.12-pounds, and functions like a digital camera, storing up to 150 images.“It’s ergonomically designed for the user,” Zucchero says....

An Airbus commercial was nearly shot down by the air defenders of its own country, Syria.Syrian forces shot anti-aircraft guns and missiles at the airliner and still missed.The airliner made an emergency landing at a nearby Russian base, and Russia promptly blamed Israel.A Syrian airliner with 172 people on board nearly became the latest commercial jetliner shot down by ground fire. The airliner, on approach to Damascus International Airport, was engaged by Syrian military forces and forced to land at a nearby Russian military base....

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is designed to fight and win against the most technologically advanced adversaries in the world. One opponent it wasn’t ready for, however, was suburban sprawl. Across America, communities living near Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps bases up in arms over the single seat fighter flying over and near their neighborhoods, disrupting the tranquility of their homes and subjecting them to “vacuum cleaner” levels of noise....

Amid high expectations and flowing Champagne, Airbus on Monday handed over the first of its new wide-body jetliner, the Airbus A350, to Qatar Airways.The glitch-free takeoff followed a string of minor setbacks, including Qatar’s sudden (and as-yet-unexplained) decision several weeks ago to delay the delivery. Whatever issues they had have been settled, and today the 283-passenger jet lifted off the runway at Airbus’ Toulouse base en route to Doha, where the first paid flights to Frankfurt will start January 15....

The Pentagon has developed a new means of identifying people in conflict zones: laser beams.The Jetson prototype, developed for U.S. special forces, bounces a laser beam off a person to read their unique heartbeat signature, IDing them in seconds. The system is 95 percent accurate and can be used at distances of at least 200 meters, making them useful at locations such as military checkpoints (pictured above) and elsewhere. In the field, American special forces troops frequently must keep track of large numbers of individuals living and working in their operating areas....

This week, the Navy cleared Knifefish for low rate initial production, one step short of full production.Sea mines, commonly referred to as “weapons that wait,” are surprisingly effective weapon systems. Of the 19 U.S. Navy warships seriously damaged or sunk since World War II, 15 were the victims of mines.Theoretically, 30 Knifefish packages should give the Navy the ability to surge a large number of mine-hunting ships at a time when their minesweepers are in bad shape....

What’s it like to gaze through a telescope into the heavens? It’s a little something like this illustration, which shows the entire observable universe ranked from most distant in the outer part of the circle to our own solar system in the center.It’s not a map, but rather, a visualization showing fields of view. The outer rim roughly the outer boundaries of Hubble’s field of view, while the entirety of our solar system, Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud included, are in the center, stretching out to nearby stars, the Andromeda Galaxy, local galactic group, more distant universe, out to the Cosmic Microwave Background, and finally the Big Bang....