March 2010 Issue: Aerobot Invasion

March 2010 Cover

Features

The Present and Future of Unmanned Drone Aircraft: An Illustrated Field Guide

Inside the wild kingdom of the world’s newest and most spectacular species of unmanned aircraft, from swarming insect ’bots that can storm a burning building to a seven-ton weaponized spyplane invisible to radar By Eric Hagerman

Frontiers of Medicine: Rebooting the Body

The ability to reprogram the immune system is one of the most sought-after goals in medicine. Now researchers are closer than ever to pulling it off in patients with Type 1 diabetes, one of whom happens to be our correspondent By Catherine Price

Frontiers of Medicine: Radical Cures

Neuroscientists can reconstruct mental images—like the hamburger you’re picturing—using a common brain scanner and complex math. Reading your thoughts may well be next. By Corey Binns

The Man Who Was Allergic to Radio Waves

Your cellphone does not in itself cause cancer. But in the daily sea of radiation we all travel, there may be subtler dangers at work, and science is only just beginning to understand how they can come to affect people like Per Segerbäck so intensely By James Geary

Headlines

• Will Brain-Scanning Lie Detectors Free the Innocent or Jail Them?
• Networked Sensors Track Firefighters to Get Them Out Alive
• Bigger, Better, Faster: The Quake Proof Airport, Floating Freighter and Fast-Acting Fake Platelets
• The Telescope-Toting 747 That Sees More than Hubble
• An Implantable Glucose Sensor Could Help Diabetics Live Healthier

What's New

• Boogie Board: A Battery-Powered Notepad as Convenient as Pen and Paper
• Tech Reborn: Greener Pastures
• Tech Trend: Control Your Car With Your Smartphone
• The Map-Equipped Treadmill That Can Recreate Any Hike On Earth

How 2.0

• You Built What!? A Closer Look at The Jet-Powered ATV
• Build It: A Compact Car-Mount Megaphone
• Gray Matter: DIY LEDs
• Ask a Geek: What’s the Safest and Cheapest Way to Back Up My Computer?

FYI

• Can We Dispose of Radioactive Waste in Volcanoes?
• Why Do Ducks have Orange Feet?

Megapixels

• Coincidence or Consequence?
• A Ping-Pong-Playing Terminator