Pentagon funds flying snakes

The United States Department of Defense has put money into airborne snake research. But sadly it doesn’t involve hiring Samuel L. Jackson to help train the Air Force against unexpected passengers. Instead the funding, which comes from the DoDs Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (which is known for backing some pretty unusual research), went to […]


News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch Planning iPad Newspaper

News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch’s international media giant, is reportedly working on an iPad-only newspaper that won’t exist in printed form. Murdoch’s main involvement in online technology to date has been putting some of his leading titles behind a subscription-only “paywall”, making the newspapers available to paying users only. So far that project has attracted customers […]

China denies “hijacking” traffic

A Congressional report claims a state-run communications firm in China “hijacked” internet traffic for 18 minutes in April. China Telecom has denied the charge. The claims come in the annual report of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which appears to be based on the policy that “If you can’t beat them, join them… […]

Action games “improve visual attention”

Yet another study has been produced showing that video gaming has potential medical benefits. The new research, carried out at the University of Rochester, looked into gaming’s effect on the processing of visual information. In particular, it examined the ability to pick up on a specific image within all the visual detail that falls into […]

Carnegie Mellon University To Add Autonomous Flight to Transformer

Yes, you read that right. Transformers are in our future– at least our proposed future. Looks like Carnegie Mellon University have secured a whopping grant to the tune of $1 Million to further develop the flying Lockheed Martin Transformer vehicle concept for DARPA, by adding autonomous capabilities. The point of this military vehicle isn’t just […]

Maths skills boosted by electrical impulse

Researchers at Oxford University have found that an electrical current applied to the brain could improve mathematical performance. It doesn’t mean we’ll all be zapping our brains and retraining as mathematicians, but it could bring new ways to treat the effects of strokes and degenerative conditions. The study involved passing a one milliamp current through […]