Military Funds Tiny Flying “Spy Hummingbird”
“It looks like a hummingbird!” But it’s an unmanned military aerial vehicle with a 5-inch wingspan for which DARPA is providing a second round of funding!
The ’spy hummingbird’ weighs just 10 grams (about the weight of two nickels) and can perform “controlled hovering flight” using only an on-board power source and flapping its two wings…
This article appeared in the latest edition of H+ magazine.
Could Nanotech Create Paper-Thin Solar Cells?
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs have “found a simple and yet powerful way to induce nanoparticles to assemble themselves into complex arrays,” and are now working on paper-thin printable solar cells!
Led by Ting Xu (one of Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10″ young researchers), their technique also “promises to revolutionize the data storage industry, eventually leading to the contents of hundreds of DVDs fitting into a space the size of a thumbnail,” and could also create ultra-small electronic devices.
