US Air Force chief scientist Mark Mayberry briefed the AirVenture symposium on the future of electric flight this morning, allowing your blogger the pleasure of one of our favorite games: Spot the funny-looking aircraft on the AFRL briefing slides! Hey, it’s one way to survive death-by-PowerPoint. 1. F-X is the new name for the USAF’s very preliminary programme (see this story) to replace... 

French-built Mistral class amphibious assault ship. France has transferred to Russia all the technology it asked for under a $1.7-billion deal for two French-built Mistral class amphibious assault ships for the Russian Navy, a Russian arms exporter said on Monday. Under the deal signed on Friday, the first warship will be delivered in 2014 and the second in 2015. “The French side has transferred... 

A new product from Apple may disable customer's iPhone cameras. Some of the newest technology out of Apple headquarters won’t be in tablet form or fit in your pocket. Rather, the computer gadget giants have filed a patent that will keep their customers from using the camera function on their own iPhones. Apple has been working on a plan that will allow concert halls, sporting arenas and other... 

Back in 1981, when Reagan was preparing to spend the Soviet Union into the ground, the U.S. developed an Airborne Laser Laboratory that could bring down missiles and planes with high-density rays. Never willing to be outdone, the Soviets launched the Beriev A-60, a jumbo-jet with a laser cannon installed in the nose. Only two Beriev’s were ever completed and U.S. intelligence officials never... 

Two weeks ago, the World Health Organisation warned for the first time that mobile phones may cause cancer – urging users to limit their use. The warning followed Interphone’s research from 13 countries that found that the even just using a phone for 15 minutes a day could substantially increase the risk of a brain tumour. But it could come to late for many mobile addicts, as it takes... 

Russia’s dream of developing its own hybrid cars is one step closer. The construction of the first Russian plant to produce a new generation of vehicles has started just outside St. Petersburg. ­Yo-Mobile cars were first introduced in January, and were an instant hit. The company got over 100,000 advance orders. Currently the Yo-Auto company is offering three car models – a crossover, a 5-door... 

Part of the ALPHA experiment at CERN. Some 309 antihydrogen atoms have been created by ALPHA Collaboration in Switzerland and stored in a magnified cylinder up to about 17 minutes for the first time in the history of science. The Geneva-based international team of scientists working in CERN announced on Tuesday that storing the antimatter atoms up to 1000 seconds (nearly 17 minutes) is a great step... 

A branch of the World Health Organization announced Tuesday cell phones are “possible carcinogens” a statement that was met with skepticism from many American cancer experts. The statement came from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which convened 30 international experts in Lyon, France, this past week to sort through data on cell phone safety, reports Lancaster Eagle Gazette. The... 

While we are still more than half a year away from the moment that Ivy Bridge will make its official appearance, Intel has already revealed a series of details about its 2013 processor architecture, which goes by the name of Haswell. Haswell will follow Intel’s tick-tock development cycle and the first chips to make their appearance in 2013 will be fabricated using the 22nm Tri-Gate technology. This... 

The future of lighting? The 'greener' 100-watt-equivalent LED bulbs are due to go on sale next year but are expensive. Although it sounds bad to pay as much as $50 for a light bulb, considering the fact that these LED light bulbs have an average life span of 25,000 hours (22 years) the price isn’t bad at all and if these bulbs would indeed last that long, this could really mean a technological... 

Some phones have “kill switches” built into them that allow the companies to remotely delete software. When you buy a video game from Best Buy, you don’t give the retailer the right to barge into your house whenever it wants. So why do we give that permission to software companies? Most popular smartphone operating systems and other electronic gadgets include what security researchers... 

Topol-M missile. In a thinly-disguised message to NATO, which remains uncommitted to the idea of co-operating with Russia in a European missile defense system, the commander of Russian Strategic Rocket Forces (RSVN) said its ICBMs will soon be “invincible”. According to the commander of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces (RSVN), Lt. Gen. Sergey Karakayev, Russia’s RS-24 new intercontinental... 

Microsoft Corp. is in talks to buy Skype Technologies SA to gain the world’s most popular international calling service and its 663 million customers, according to two people familiar with the matter. A deal would value Skype at about $8.5 billion and may be announced as early as today, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private, Bloomberg reports. Analysts... 

Open mode: The Safe House, on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland, is the ultimate in secure design. At the touch of a number of buttons, the whole building shuts into a concrete cube. Worried about an apocalypse, zombies or merely unwanted summer guests? The ‘Safe House’ may be right up your street. We all know about a panic room, but a team of architects literally thought inside the box to... 

From Moscow to St. Petersburg via rail transportation there are 649.7 kilometers. Russia will receive high-speed railway line Moscow – St. Petersburg in 2018. According to experts, the price of a one-way ticket for a high-speed train could reach $100. The expected passenger traffic is forecast at 12.8 million passengers a year, and the construction cost of the line will reach approximately 700...