Elon Musk wants us to build human colonies on Mars. Jeff Bezos has a slightly more measured take.
Onstage at the Code Conference on Tuesday, the Amazon founder and CEO said that we have to start bringing parts of the industrial economy to space in order "to save Earth."
Japan’s annual defence whitepaper underlines the importance Tokyo places on the industrial participation aspects of the Lockheed Martin F-35A programme, and casts a wary eye on airpower developments in China.
The whitepaper, produced annually by the Ministry of Defense, touches on all aspects of Tokyo’s security situation, from the disruptive potential of non-state actors to challenges posed by major powers, namely China. It also outlines Tokyo’s plans for developing its combat capabilities and the importance of the country’s defence industry.
In regard to specific weapons programmes, the report places strong emphasis on Japan’s F-35A acquisition. It notes that Japanese companies have been working to develop the manufacturing processes related to Tokyo’s 2011 decision to obtain 42 F-35As.
“It is important for Japanese companies to participate in the manufacturing process and to come into contact with cutting edge fighter aircraft technology and knowledge in order to ensure safety and high operational availability, resulting in the safe and efficient management of [Japan Air Self Defense Force] F-35As,” says the report.
“Following discussions with related parties such as the U.S. government, the participation of Japanese companies in the final assembly and check out (FACO) for airframe and the manufacture of certain engine and radar parts was decided in FY2013. In FY2014, the companies plan to further participate in the manufacturing process, in the engine FACO and the production of parts within the infrared detection device, the electro-optical distributed aperture system (EODAS).”
Produced by Northrop Grumman, the EO/DAS system is a core element of the F-35, effectively giving the aircraft’s pilot 360 degree visibility of the battlespace.
There are beer cans, and then there are Humvees. Ford Motor Co. will take pains to show its new, aluminum F-150 pickup has more in common with combat vehicles.
Ford will introduce an aluminum F series -- its anticipated and high-stakes redesign of the top-selling pickup in history -- at next month's Detroit auto show, according to people familiar with Ford's plans.
The automaker has asked Alcoa Inc., which makes aluminum blast shields for battlefield-bound vehicles, to lend some of its military-grade metal for the automaker's display, said one of those people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are secret.
Ford's sales job will be considerable: The company is eager to demonstrate the toughness of aluminum, which is lighter than steel, to pickup buyers who've made F-150 the bedrock of its business.
Any snafus would weigh on earnings that Ford already is projecting will decline next year and add to the challenges facing Mark Fields, likely the company's next chief executive officer.
At last year's Detroit show, he pledged that Ford would take as much as 750 pounds (340 kilograms) out of its next- generation trucks to meet tightening fuel-economy regulations.
"This is already the most significant debut at the auto show," said Joe Langley, a production analyst for researcher IHS Automotive. "Everybody's going to be dissecting that thing for a long time, especially since Ford will be taking such a big gamble."
In the life cycle of plants, most developmental processes are dependent on light. Significant biological processes such as germination, shade avoidance, circadian rhythms, and flower induction are all affected by light. Recent advancements in the use of LED lighting in plant and vegetable production systems has researchers looking for insights into the effects of these artificial lights on the growth and yield of crops. Scientists from the Department of Horticultural Science at Chungbuk National University published a study in HortScience that sheds some light on the advantages and challenges of LEDs in lettuce cultivation.
The increased use of LEDs in environmentally controlled closed-type plant production systems allows crop production throughout the year, regardless of external weather conditions. According to authors Ki-Ho Son and Myung-Min Oh, LEDs have some advantages over traditional lighting sources in plant cultivation. "LEDs have the advantages of high light-conversion efficiency with low radiant heat output, semipermanence, and small mass," they noted. "In addition, LEDs are available in a variety of narrow wavebands; hence, it is possible to optimize light quality to improve both crop yield and quality." They explained that blue and red LEDs are usually used for plant growth because chlorophyll a and b efficiently absorb wavelengths in the blue and red ranges.
The research design used red and green leaf lettuce subjected to six LED lighting treatments. The scientists examined growth characteristics including the fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots, shoot-to-root ratio, total leaf area, and chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll fluorescence, antioxidant capacity, phenolic concentration, and flavonoid concentration were also measured in the study. "The growth characteristic results for the two lettuce cultivars grown under various ratios of blue to red LEDs confirmed that red LED serves as a major light source that improves lettuce growth rate," the authors said.
The experiments confirmed that both blue and red LEDs have a positive effect on the accumulation of antioxidant phenolic compounds and lettuce growth, respectively. "Red light irradiation in the absence of blue light was effective at stimulating the biomass accumulation of lettuce plants; however, this lighting alone induced abnormal leaf shape and had a negative effect on polyphenolics and antioxidant levels," the scientists said. They recommended a mixture of blue and red LEDs to enhance lettuce crop quality and yield in closed-type plant production systems.
Since President Vladimir Putin appointed Sergei Shoigu to be Russia’s defense minister in November 2012, the defense ministry leadership has resorted to Soviet-era “snap inspections” of its Armed Forces to raise combat readiness and gain additional insight into the condition of various units. Such an approach, however, long abandoned by the member militaries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), illustrates the total absence of a culture of continuous assessment and professional development within Russia’s armed forces. Nonetheless, the motif of a “snap inspection” is also being applied as part of a wider effort to understand or try to curb the dangerously high levels of corruption within the Russian defense sector.
