Eyeing the Future: How NASA’s Human Pilots Shape Autonomous Air Taxis
Air taxis may become an important part of the U.S. transportation ecosystem, quickly carrying people relatively short distances – and eventually, some may fly without…
DARPA News
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Founded in 1958 in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik, DARPA’s primary role is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research bridging the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use. DARPA is known for funding ambitious research projects that lead to significant breakthroughs in areas ranging from the internet and GPS to autonomous vehicles and aircraft systems. The agency operates with a small but flexible bureaucracy and empowers managers to take risks and innovate.
Could a Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine Power a Trip to Mars? NASA and DARPA Are Testing
NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently announced a collaboration to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, an enabling capability…
New Technique Dramatically Accelerates Computer Programs Without Fear of Errors
Computer scientists developed a new system that can make computer programs run faster, while guaranteeing accuracy. Researchers have pioneered a technique that can dramatically accelerate…
Solving the Tricky Challenges of Robotic Pizza-Making
A new technique could enable a robot to manipulate squishy objects like pizza dough or soft materials like clothing. Imagine a pizza maker working with…
How the MIT Mini Cheetah Robot Learns To Run Entirely by Trial and Error
CSAIL scientists came up with a learning pipeline for the four-legged robot that learns to run entirely by trial and error in simulation. It’s been…
Accelerating Development of New Medicines: Artificial Intelligence System Rapidly Predicts How Proteins Will Attach
The machine-learning model could help scientists speed the development of new medicines. Antibodies, small proteins produced by the immune system, can attach to specific parts…
MIT Physicists Watch As Ultracold Atoms Form a Crystal of Quantum Tornadoes
New observations of rapidly spinning ultracold atoms record a key crossover from classical to quantum behavior. The world we experience is governed by classical physics….
One Giant Leap for MIT’s Robotic Mini Cheetah
A new control system, demonstrated using MIT’s robotic mini cheetah, enables four-legged robots to jump across uneven terrain in real-time. A bounding cheetah dashes across…
Molecular Information Storage: Storing Data As Mixtures of Fluorescent Dyes
As the world’s data storage needs grow, new strategies for preserving information over long periods with reduced energy consumption are needed. Now, researchers reporting in ACS…
Innovative New mRNA Treatment Shows Promise for Stopping Both Flu and COVID-19 Viruses
The treatment uses a type of CRISPR to target viral RNA and appears to stop replication of both viruses in the lungs. With a relatively…
Researchers Develop Speedier Network Analysis to Boost Recommendation Algorithms and Internet Search
Graphs — data structures that show the relationship among objects — are highly versatile. It’s easy to imagine a graph depicting a social media network’s…
Going Beyond Human Brains: Deep Learning Takes On Synthetic Biology
DNA and RNA have been compared to “instruction manuals” containing the information needed for living “machines” to operate. But while electronic machines like computers and…
DARPA Invisible Man: Human Cells Engineered With Squid-Like Transparency
Bioinspired research project a first step toward intrinsically translucent tissue. Octopuses, squids, and other sea creatures can perform a disappearing act by using specialized tissues…
5 Weeks Instead of 50 Years: Neural Networks Optimize Search for New Materials
Neural Networks Facilitate Optimization in the Search for New Materials Sorting through millions of possibilities, a search for battery materials delivered results in five weeks…
Microwire Array Brings Silicon Computing Power to Brain Research and Prosthetics
A new device enables researchers to observe hundreds of neurons in the brain in real-time. The system is based on modified silicon chips from cameras,…
DARPA Underground Autonomous Robot Navigation Challenge
Whether robots are exploring caves on other planets or disaster areas here on Earth, autonomy enables them to navigate extreme environments without human guidance or…
Stinging Water Mystery Solved – “Mucus Grenades”
Jellyfish Can Sting Swimmers, Prey With “Mucus Grenades” Interdisciplinary research team discovers, describes new free-floating jellyfish stinging structures. In warm coastal waters around the world,…
Scientific Breakthrough: New State of Matter Discovered
A team of physicists has uncovered a new state of matter—a breakthrough that offers promise for increasing storage capabilities in electronic devices and enhancing quantum…