From The UberReview: Homing Bullets Are a Scary Idea

Whoa!! That is just pure craziness!!! o.O
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Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have successfully created a self-guided bullet prototype that is able to home in on a laser-designated target from more than a mile away.

The laser-guided bullet looks more like a small missile or dart than a conventional bullet. Regular bullets are held on course by their spin. The laser-guided bullet uses fins instead, so it doesn’t spin, it flies and its trajectory can be altered via the fins mid-flight.

The magic happens on board the bullet itself. An optical sensor collects information and relays it to an 8-bit central processing unit, which controls the electromagnetic actuators that adjust the fins. According to researchers Red Jones and Brian Kast, the tiny size of the bullet actually makes this feat relatively easy to perform (the bullet is more easily controllable than a cruise missile).

As far as precision goes, there is no comparison. Over a range of half-a-mile, a conventional bullet might be off target by as much as 10 yards. The laser-guided bullet will spread by as much as eight inches.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[PhysOrg via Geekosystem]

from The UberReview

From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Amazonian Rainforest Fungus Eats Polyurethane, Potentially Solving a Big Landfill Problem

Plastic Bags in Landfill Samuel Mann via Flickr

To the multitude of arguments for protecting rainforest biodiversity, here’s a new addition: An Amazonian fungus could eat our most durable landfill waste. A group of students from Yale found the fungus during an expedition to Ecuador and learned it breaks down polyurethane.

This plastic is one of those modern chemical compounds found in so many products, it’s pointless to count – from Spandex to garden hoses, for a start – and it is prized for both its flexibility and rigidity. The problem is that like many other polymers, it does not break down readily. This means it persists in landfills, as Fast Company points out. It burns pretty well, but that releases carbon monoxide and other gases into the atmosphere, so it’s a nonstarter in most situations. Something that can degrade it naturally would be a better solution.

The fungus called Pestalotiopsis microspora can subsist on a diet of polyurethane alone, and do so in an anaerobic environment, according to the researchers who found it. The Yale team isolated the enzyme that enables this fungus to do its work and noted it could be used for bioremediation.

It’s odd to think of a microorganism eating up a durable synthetic material, but this would not be a first, by a long shot; bacteria and fungi can break down lots of things. A bacterial species called Halomonas titanicae is eating the RMS Titanic, for instance. We just need to know where to find these hungry species – and the rainforest is a good place to look.

[Fast Company[

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Video: People Flying, Superhero Style, Over New York City

New York Finally Gets Its Real-Life Superheroes

Viral marketing agency Thinkmodo has been bringing sci-fi to life in the skies over New York City for the past couple of weeks, so if you thought you saw something out of the ordinary in the past few days–like perhaps a few people lazily looping around the skyline like superheroes–no need to adjust your medication. To promote an upcoming film, the agency custom built three remote controlled aircraft shaped like humans and put them in the air over New York and New Jersey.

The three main characters in 20th Century Fox’s upcoming film Chronicle have the ability to fly, so Thinkmodo thought the best was to build hype around the film would be to create some “flying people” sightings around NYC. So far, so good. Local news stations picked up the story, and a video the team released documenting the campaign (see it below) has garnered well more than half a million hits as of this writing.

Viral marketing can be so absolutely boring, but a gnarly RC airplane hack for the sake of sci-fi? Consider our hats tipped.

[YouTube]

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now