This Week's News: Drone Swarms, Water on Mars, Dark Matter

General Atomics' photon cannon made its debut at a military expo, and in case you're wondering what that might be, the machinery can essentially transform any ordinary vehicle into a fully operational laser weapon. The Navy's Sea-Air-Space Exposition may have showcased the tech to a crowd of inquisitive onlookers, but there is still a lot we do not know, that they've kept in the dark. Just by glancing at the size though, you can tell it's made incredible gains since last year, when Lockheed had a similarly deadly version of their own but one that was much larger. Another feature that has noticed progress is the cannon's energy output, which has risen from 10 kilowatts -used to destroy rockets from miles away- to 75-300 in a matter of months. I don't usually enjoy talking about technology that can kill, but this photon cannon is just sick. Mount it to your car, even, for a roadway that molds to your bidding!

The U.S. Navy is kicking ass this week, not only with its photon cannon but also with drone swarms. These drones might soon be launched by the LOCUST program, and will work together to finish tasks that would normally require a great deal of human involvement. The potential uses are wide-ranging, too; there could be tasks like "autonomously overwhelming adversaries", defending allies from harm, or scouting a dangerous area. A group of 30 could rapidly shoot out of a tube and fly together like geese to dynamically approach a situation. They could be sent from large ships or ground vehicles, and commanded by personnel to carry out missions that demand cooperation and quick data-sharing. A video of the drones in action:

Throughout history, people living under harsh governmental regulations have had no other option than to silence their voices for good, but recently that is no longer the case. Citizens from Spain, calling on the help of others, created holograms and projected them onto city streets to send a message that they feared would be too dangerous to deliver in person. Activists invited worldwide citizens to send videos and/or text to simulate a real protest, which resulted in an awesome display of personal freedom fighting back against a corrupt institution. See the video at this link.


Findings from hundreds of researchers concerning the existence of dark matter just surfaced, and will be released during a meeting at the American Physical Society. Using a 570-megapixel camera attached to the Victor Blanco telescope, the scientists involved created a map to locate the dark matter indirectly, because of the lensing effect it has on stars that distorts an observer's view. To accomplish this dream of theirs they spent 2 years analyzing the night sky in incredible detail to determine how much dark matter was present. For the study, much has yet to come in the future, as they plan to to expand their map to 30 times its size to show that dark energy is the wrong way to explain gravitational lensing.

A honeybee brain, this week, was digitized and placed inside a standard quadcopter drone so  it could navigate hallways directed by a complicated biological system. Normal honeybees, despite their size, are still capable of performing complex tasks and coordinating their activity among others, which is why I find it significant that a team was able to place that system inside a collection of metal. This project is similar to the one that took place with the OpenWorm in November 2014, in which a worm's mind was implanted into a LEGO robot body. Now, workers on the Green Brain Project successfully inserted the mind of a honeybee.

The future of honeybees

Why, you may ask? The truth is that honeybee populations have been facing a severe decline since the 80's due to a mysterious disorder called CCD. Let's face it; they're essential to American agriculture as a whole, colonies are losing strength...it's time for a change. We need robot bees, not to act as a desired and everlasting replacement but rather as a way to ensure they continue their critical function. This first step laid down the groundwork for the project, and all that remains is shrinking down the size of the drones to mimic the behavior and appearance of the real animals almost perfectly.

The next video, for some, might be a bit of a downer but that's not how I see it. Yes, SpaceX crashed yet another of their reusable spacecrafts on the 14th (designed to reduce the cost of travel), but the trial-and-error could work wonderfully in the future as long as they try new methods and achieve a finished product that makes up for all the failed attempts. Remember:

See the crash here:



In ten years, when the company exceeds our expectations and comes up with a solution to a problem that is seriously hampering our ability to explore, we'll look back on this one event and brush it aside. Well, I hope.

The recently-discovered presence of a salt on Mars lends credence to liquid water that may be under its surface. Previously, scientists believed the environment of the red planet to be much too hot for water in liquid form to ever manifest, but the existence of calcium perchlorate gave rise to liquid brine. Martian soil is damp with the stuff, and although it's not likely to sway anyone's opinion about life on Mars, what with the several hostile conditions  we must also consider, I still find it miraculous.