Prosthetic limbs have come a long way from their start as wooden pegs but at the same time they fundamentally haven’t…..until now! The Massachusetts Institute of Technology have started development on new smart prosthetic that can be controlled by the user mentally. This smart limb technology will use a new method of limb amputation that will leave key nerves intact and with the use of muscle grafts they will be able to still send and receive nerve signals for moving the missing limb. This is key because they have started development of a control system that can translate those nerve signals into electrical inputs for a computer to read as well as send out signals that can be sent back to the brain as nerve signals. This will allow amputees to control a lost limb not only like a normal limb but with built in sensors it will allow them to feel forces exerted on the prosthetic. The example given in the MIT article is if a user was holding a weight with their prosthetic they would be able to feel the weight themselves. Read up on more below!

http://news.mit.edu/2017/making-prosthetic-limbs-feel-more-natural-0531

Nowadays everyone is about getting from point A to point B as fast and cheap as they can but in congested cities that is usually a lot easier said than done unless you ask Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing. Aurora FS has been working towards the goal of developing a flying taxi that will autonomously fly passengers around cities avoiding traffic all together. The aircraft, dubbed the PAV, will be an all electric, autonomous, vertical take off and landing aircraft that will be a clean and quite alternative to public transportation. The PAV has actually already flown a few very brief unmanned test flights with promising results and has been making steps towards making the PAV a reality. The PAV is planned to be affordable to the average person and will hopefully be available in big cities within the next few years.

First test flight article with video: https://www.boeing.com/features/2019/01/pav-first-flight-01-19.page

PAV’s website: http://www.aurora.aero/pav-evtol-passenger-air-vehicle/

Alot of crazy ideas are thought up by the military, must of which stay just that, ideas, but not all the time. Every so often that crazy idea you heard of become reality and that’s the case with new steerable bullet technology. This technology, named Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance or EXACTO, will see that bullets fired from large caliber rifles will be able to make adjustments in flight in order to hit targets that are moving or are behind cover. EXACTO has actually been in development by DARPA for the past few years and a successful prototype was developed and demonstrated, the demonstration showed the bullets trajectory being altered mid flight to hit a target off to the side. There will be a link to the demonstration video below. Since this is a top secret military technology alot about the bullets are unknown sadly, however, we do know that the bullets are optical tracking and is able to adjust itself in flight.

Best write up I could find: http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2018/07/guided-50-caliber-projectile-darpas-steerable-bullet/

Everyone hates those long 6+ hour drives that you do when going on vacation or going to see family, well what if those drives were no longer an issue? That’s Elon Musk’s newest vision with his new project, Hyperloop. Hyperloop is a train like transportation concept that Elon Musk has started developing that will see passengers traveling at speeds over 600 mp/h. Hyperloop will use induction motors and air pressure to propel the specially designed “train” through vacuum tubes at mind boggling speeds. Currently plans are under way to start construction of a tunnel that will run from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, that’s right this isn’t such a far fetched dream as you might of thought. Also worth mentioning is that there are currently a few different companies working on their own versions of this hyperloop technology, most notably is Virgin’s system which is being tested in Navada currently. Below are some links if you want to read more!

Hyperloop tunnel contruction approved: https://www.dailyitem.com/news/hyperloop-tunnel-eyed-for-pennsylvania/article_85d54630-4729-11e9-ad14-fb086acaff35.html

Run down on Elon’s system: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/what-is-the-hyperloop/