• Technology

    The Future of the Military -- Perhaps

    By Laura Silver Posted on 4.7.2009 10 Comments

    The Army wants to modernize -- and Defense Secretary Robert Gates isn't sure he wants to pay. Among the budget cuts he announced yesterday was a major hit to the Army's most ambitious new weapons program, Future Combat Systems (FCS). Under Gates's proposed budget, a set of FCS fighting vehicles that was supposed to provided light-brigade speed with heavy-brigade punch will be axed entirely. And you know what? Maybe that's okay. The core of what makes FCS futuristic is its ambitious wireless network, which will connect soldiers, surveillance drones and sensors, giving everyone more and better information than ever before. Author James Vlahos explains how it's all supposed to work in this article, from our May issue. Wall-E went to Iraq. The small robot rolled out of the desert scrub into a village, paused between two houses, and then approached the closer one. His square head swiveled around, unblinking camera eyes surveying the structure. The sound of shuffling boots filled the air as six U.S. Army soldiers rushed in behind him, assault rifles drawn. Reaching the building he'd scoped, they took cover inside. The robot, meanwhile, whirred on tank treads to investigate the second house. The building had no door, and he rolled inside easily. The soldiers followed. Bang, bang! Gunfire erupted, and moments later the Americans emerged unscathed. The two insurgents inside the house weren't as lucky.

  • Technology

    A Lunar Rocket Designed To Crash

    By Paul Adams Posted on 3.10.2009 5 Comments

    In the 1960 cartoon "Hits and Missiles," Popeye the Sailor Man accidentally crashes a rocket into a moon made of cheese. Popeye soon realizes he needs more fuel, "so we can gets back to Oyth," and he goes looking for help. When a group of NASA scientists deliberately crashes a rocket into the moon this summer, they'll be looking for fuel, too -- in a way.

  • The Environment

    Birth Control for Animals

    By Paul Adams Posted on 3.3.2009 18 Comments

    "Mother Goose" might soon be an anachronism. In wildlife biology, concerns about animal populations often stem from unnatural declines; in a few cases, however, that concern can be a result of too many animals, not too few, as some once-threatened species have returned with a vengeance. Now a group of researchers is fighting back with a familiar (to humans, at least) tactic: birth control.


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February 2012: The Future of Fun

Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?


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