Cybugs

Okay, cool new DARPA thing . . .

The military and spy world no doubt would love tiny, live camera-wielding versions of Predator drones that could fly undetected into places where no human could ever go to snoop on the enemy. Developing such robots has proven a challenge so far, with one major hurdle being inventing an energy source for the droids that is both low weight and high power. Still, evidence that such machines are possible is ample in nature in the form of insects, which convert biological energy into flight . . .

Instead of attempting to create sophisticated robots that imitate the complexity in the insect form that required millions of years of evolution to achieve, scientists now essentially want to hijack bugs for use as robots.

Originally researchers sought to control insects by gluing machinery onto their backs, but such links were not always reliable. To overcome this hurdle, the Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (HI-MEMS) program is sponsoring research into surgically implanting microchips straight into insects as they grow, intertwining their nerves and muscles with circuitry that can then steer the critters. As expensive as these devices might be to manufacture and embed in the bugs, they could still prove cheaper than building miniature robots from scratch.

Next time you slap a mosquito, you could be smashing thousands of taxpayer dollars!

Meet Mr Fusion

DARPA's attempt to produce a microchip-sized fusion reactor has dropped out of the budget.

Chip-scale integration offers precise, micro actuators and high electric field generation at modest power levels that will enable several order of magnitude decreases in the volume needed to accelerate the ions. Furthermore, thermal isolation techniques will enable high efficiency beam to power converters, perhaps making chipscale self-sustained fusion possible.

Or so the project was described in 2009's budget. So why was the project dropped? Guesses as follows:

(1) The project failed. (DARPA hasn't actually said this, however.)
(2) The project was a success, and now it's gone commercial.
(3) The project was a success, and now it's classified.

Personally I'm looking forward to my fusion-powered laptop and my fusion-powered phone, which can be turned into nuclear grenades in the event of a terrorist attack.

Just Another Long Day at the Blood Pharm

Blood is in short supply. We don't donate as often as we used to, and a lot of people with tattoos and piercings can't donate on account of hepatitis. And a lot of blood received by people in need--- particularly wounded soldiers--- is blood that's been sitting on a shelf for a while.

So our friends at DARPA have handed out a grant to Arteriocyte, based in Cleveland, to ramp up their already-proven method of creating brand new blood from stem cells. " For that, Arteriocyte is relying on a technique developed at Johns Hopkins University that uses nanofibers to mimic the three-dimensional structure of bone marrow, which manufactures blood in the body. Parent stem cells readily multiply in the matrix."

Story here.