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The Russian Army, copying its adversaries in the Middle East, plans to deploy small drones capable of swarming enemies and showering them with grenade-sized munitions. Moscow plans to send large numbers of drones against enemy targets in wartime, giving defenders too many targets to engage and ensuring that at least some of them will get through.The drones, nicknamed “Jihadi aviation” by the Russian military, are based on low-cost drones originally used by terror groups and paramilitaries such as the Islamic State across the Middle East....

Hollywood is buzzing about 3D. Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has compared it to the introduction of color. Director James Cameron delayed the release of his stereoscopic epic Avatar in part to give theaters more time to convert to 3D capability. A dozen or more stereoscopic films will be released in 2009, and more than 30 movies are in production. But stereoscopic films are not a revolutionary concept; in fact, audiences have been paying for them since The Power of Love in 1922....

In humans, the cell development that takes place days after fertilization are critical for the baby: if anything goes awry, the pregnancy could fail to come to term, or result in health problems in babies later in life. Currently, doctors don’t have access to the embryo after fertilization, and have no way to treat potential problems. But researchers from Maastricht University and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in the Netherlands have created an artificial embryo that could soon change that....

A Chinese destroyer came within 45 yards of an American destroyer in the South China Sea. The encounter, which U.S. officials described as “unsafe and unprofessional," took place in a part of the Pacific Ocean that China considers Chinese territory. The Chinese destroyer swerved in front of the American ship in an apparent attempt to harass it into leaving. The incident took place on September 30th in the South China Sea, in the Spratly islands chain near Gaven and Johnson Reefs....

“Choose your story,” says Maj. Phillip Cain Baker, brushing past me on his way into the headquarters of Task Force Attack.Maj. Baker has many talents and abilities—he’s an Apache pilot with more than 600 combat hours and the executive officer of a task force comprising hundreds of people—but he’s also a master of concision. In a matter of seconds he’s filled me in on the twin crises that have befallen his command this Wednesday afternoon in eastern Afghanistan: A Kiowa scout helicopter patrolling roads for signs of improvised explosive devices has crash-landed due to an engine malfunction and needs to be retrieved; in addition, Special Forces are asking his aviators for support in hunting for the recently kidnapped father of the Afghan minister of education....

Later tonight, a spacecraft over 200 million miles away will make history by blowing up an asteroid—or, part of one, anyway. Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will launch a projectile at the Ryugu asteroid to create an artificial crater. After that, the spacecraft will collect a sample from the exposed region to learn more about the interior of our solar system’s asteroids.Hayabusa 2 has been orbiting the asteroid Ryugu for about a year, has deployed three bouncing rovers, and collected a whole lot of orbital photos....

Your PC’s desktop may seem more organized than your actual desktop, but, according to University of Toronto graduate student Anand Agarawala, the piles of paper that clutter your work space are a highly efficient system, allowing you to easily recognize and locate your files by sight. (The empty soda cans and candy wrappers, however, are trash, and you really should clean them up.)BumpTop, an operating system shell for Windows created by Agarawala, merges the searchability and interactivity of your computer’s OS with the instant access of your real desktop....

Stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight, carbon fiber is a brilliant invention. Has been for decades. Junior Johnson was building rule-bending Nascar racers out of the stuff back in the ’80s. But even with all that time to come up with new sourcing and production methods, carbon fiber just won’t stop being expensive. The cheapest new car with a carbon-fiber tub, the Alfa Romeo 4C, is sized for Stuart Little, yet costs as much as a Mercedes E-Class....

A generation ago, you could drop the car off at the corner gas station and ask for a tuneup. Times have changed. With federal regulations requiring car manufacturers to maintain like-new emissions output for 100,000 miles, a traditional tuneup has become a relic of the past. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore your car’s health. While fuel injection and ignition systems have been rendered nearly maintenance-free, it’s still necessary to change fluids and filters, check belts and hoses and generally poke around with a suspicious eye....

Media Platforms Design TeamPrice: $1.4 MillionAvailable: Sold OutMPG (City/Hwy, Est.): 13/181. It’s a HybridBecause the nutcase Ferrari engineers deemed the midmounted, 789-hp V-12 not powerful enough, they added an electric motor that generates 161 hp and 199 lb-ft of torque. It’s positioned behind the seven-speed, dual-clutch gearbox and sends juice directly to the transmission. The batteries add an extra 132 pounds, but they also give the car its ferocious punch.2. The Specs are Gasp-WorthyThe total output is 950 hp and more than 664 lb-ft....

Originally a highly successful reconnaissance platform used by the Air Force, the Predator B is finding its place among the ranks of civilian aircraft: Variants of the plane have been used in border security and NASA Earth science missions. Here’s the tech that makes the Predator tick – without a pilot on board.Media Platforms Design Team+ Click to enlargeThe turret on the underside of the Predator B’s nose houses cameras and other sensors....

A neighbor sets off bottle rockets every July 4 that land in our yard. Should I be worried about possible fires?—Robert W., Peoria, IllinoisYes. Every year bottle rockets are the source of house fires. I had a close call with this several years ago, when I found a handful of charred leaves in a gutter. Probing deeper into the mess, I found the remains of a bottle rocket. But it could have been worse: Another neighbor found a copper-jacketed ....

Floating FeelingMedia Platforms Design TeamDisintegrated float in the carburetor of your dune buggy? Make a fuel injector out of a Bic ballpoint. Gut the pen, leaving the plug in the top. Disconnect the fuel line from the carb, and push it over the Bic’s pointy end. Strap the pen–vent hole facing down–over the carb throat with a rubber band or a piece of wire. The gas squirts out the vent hole....

[youtube ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9F0MZEHq-M&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]Early Monday morning, an explosion shook the US Army Sagami General Depot in the city of Sagamihara, igniting a blaze that spread to nearby buildings. According to the Pentagon, no one was injured in the incident.A woman captured footage of the initial explosions, telling a broadcaster for local NHK news that the blasts continued for 10 to 15 minutes.Japanese firefighters arrived at the scene shortly following reports of the blast, but did not immediately begin fighting the blaze for fear of making the situation worse should the buildings contain something particularly toxic or volatile....

A U.S. Air Force F-16 shot down a simulated cruise missile over the Gulf of Mexico. The weapon used to shoot down the cruise missile, APKWS, is a guided rocket much cheaper than existing air-to-air missiles.The exercise proves that a single fighter armed with inexpensive weapons can easily shoot down cruise missiles … as long as it can find them.A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet shot down a simulated cruise missile with a rocket, proving that downing cruise missiles isn’t a difficult or expensive enterprise—as long as you can find it....

Caleb BrownMilpitas, CAMy 4-year-old son and I found it difficult to talk to each other during our bike rides because he was seated behind me, so I built this sidecar that lets him ride next to me.It has a unique independent suspension system that enables me to lean into or out of turns, and keeps the sidecar’s self-tracking wheel on the ground. The system consists of a Schwinn-type springer fork assembly with an expansion spring....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast fall Rutgers University ocean researcher Oscar Schofield headed a collaborative experiment called , which coordinated 15 aquatic, submersible research drones to sample the deep waters off the coastal Atlantic. About 5 feet long and shaped like tomahawk missiles, the gliders beam home their data every time they surface. The propellerless drones, jam-packed with scientific instruments, swim by changing their buoyancy—taking on and expelling a soda can’s worth of water to sink and float....

Getting a 70-year-old Lockheed C-121 Constellation ready to fly cross-country isn’t easy. Besides making sure the large airframe is structurally sound, you’ve got to get four enormous 18-cylinder, 2,500-horsepower radial engines running reliably. Karl Stolzfus had plenty of motivation to see this project through, though. In doing so, he’d be saving and preserving history: the first Air Force One. “The ol’ girl was up and getting it done!“First Lady Maimie Eisenhower named the airplane “Columbine II” after the official state flower of Colorado, her adopted home state....

The first line of London’s Underground, the earliest underground railroad in the world, was opened in 1863, before electricity, cars, or any of the other conveniences we associate with modernity. In this video from Real Engineering, we get a sense of how this was accomplished and what it meant for London. View full post on YoutubeDuring the urbanization of the 19th century, workers packed into cities to get manufacturing jobs created by the industrial revolution....

Japan’s military, which has spent decades focused solely on self-defense, is making a new kind of weapon to deliver an explosive payload at supersonic speeds. The unconventional tech is designed to soften up enemy defenses with precision strikes before Japanese marines hit the beach, in a bid to help the country take back territory seized by potential adversaries in the future. The “high speed gliding missile” fills the hole of long range precision attack in Japan’s defense capabilities....