The first test flight of NASA's Space Launch System

The Space Launch System, or SLS, is a Shuttle-derived heavy launch vehicle designed by NASA, following the cancellation of the Constellation Program, to replace the Space Shuttle. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 envisioned the transformation of the Ares I and Ares V vehicle designs into a single launch vehicle usable for both crew and cargo. It would be upgraded over time with more powerful versions.

The SLS will carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond. Additionally, it will serve as a backup for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station. It could also be used on missions to repair high-value telecom satellites, at orbits 36,000km above the Earth which were previously inaccessible to astronauts.*

The rocket design incorporates technology from the Space Shuttle and Constellation Programs - taking advantage of proven hardware and cutting-edge tooling and manufacturing

China launches an unmanned sample return mission to the Moon

Following the success of its first lunar lander in 2013, China attempts a more ambitious sample return mission.*Launched in 2017, this succeeds in obtaining about 2 kg (4 lb) of moon rock and bringing it back to Earth for study.

The robot deployed on the surface has a mission life of three months. It can choose its own routes, avoid obstacles and perform experiments with a mechanical arm. It comes equipped with a suite of sensors including cameras, X-ray and infrared spectrometers and a ground-penetrating radar. It has solar panels and a supplementary power source for night work in the form of a plutonium-238 nuclear battery - the same type of radioisotope thermoelectric generator system (RTG) installed on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

China has big plans for beyond 2017. The country intends to build its own space station by

Total solar eclipse in the USA

On August 21st of this year, a total eclipse occurs in the United States - the first visible from the US since 1991 (just from part of Hawaii), and the first visible from the contiguous US since 1979.

Totality occurs along a path curving from Oregon to South Carolina, and lasts for roughly 2 minutes and 40 seconds. The location and time of "greatest eclipse" is on the western edge of Christian County, Kentucky at 36.97 degrees North and 87.65 degrees West, occurring at

The M1A3 Abrams tank enters the battlefield

The original M1 battle tank – a third generation vehicle – was introduced to the U.S. Army in 1980. Since then, variants of the tank, primarily the M1A1 and M1A2, have seen extensive use in battle. They first entered combat in Operation: Desert Storm, during the Persian Gulf War, and have been used in every American military conflict since. They have also become the principal tank of the Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Kuwaiti and Australian armies, as well as the Army of Iraq following arms deals made with the United States.

The newest generation of the M1 – the M1A3 – is fielded this year.* The first prototypes were completed in 2014. Now, in 2017, they are entering the battlefield, primarily in the remaining American conflicts in the Middle East (which have dragged on in some areas for longer than expected).*

Various design improvements have been made. These include the latest in armour and ballistic shielding, of course, especially the underbelly armour, as well as hi-tech computer networking. The tank has been reduced in weight by almost one-fifth, providing more

India completes construction of the Dibang Valley Dam

Yet another energy project making the headlines this year is the Dibang Dam, located in northeast India. At 288m, this becomes the tallest concrete gravity dam in the world. It has a volume of 16.5 million cubic metres and can generate 3,000 MW of electric power.*

The project is not without controversy, however. There has been strong local opposition, due to the relocation of indigenous tribal communities, environmental damage, and questions being raised about its safety along with that of other nearby dams.* Over 100 are being constructed in Arunachal Pradesh during this time - 17 in the Dibang Valley - as hydroelectric power gains momentum.*

Tensions have also been raised with China, which is building dams of its own in the region

The Nabucco gas pipeline is completed

The controversial Nabucco pipeline commences operations this year.* This project had been in the planning stages since 2002 and was backed by the United States and the European Union, but financial issues and a lack of definite supply contracts caused continual delays. As a result of these problems, construction did not begin until 2013, after it became certain enough gas would be available to turn a profit.

The pipeline is over 2,500 miles long. It begins in eastern Turkey and then travels up through the Balkans, through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and finally into Austria. The main supply originates from Iraq, as well as Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, both of which have opened several new fields in recent years. Once fully operational in 2017, over 31 billion cubic meters of natural gas begin to pass along the pipeline. This gives Western Europe more direct access to the energy resources of the Middle East and Caspian Sea, as well as helping to lessen the

The first Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) platform begins operations

Due to the remoteness of many deepwater natural gas resources, large-scale exploitation of these areas has been next to impossible. A new project, however, undertaken by Royal Dutch Shell, seeks to overcome these barriers. The Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) platform, as it is called, begins operations this year off the coast of Northern Australia over Shell's Prelude natural gas field.

Essentially the world's largest "ship," the FLNG is anchored over several well heads in the isolated field, in water around 250 meters deep. It pumps up natural gas continuously, storing it within several massive tanks, chilled at -162°C which compresses its volume by 600 times. Every week, a gas tanker arrives to off-load the FLNG's stores. When fully loaded, the ship contains 600,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas. It produces at least 5.3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquids: 3.6 mtpa of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate and 0.4 mtpa of LPG. It is

The world's first kilometre-high skyscraper

After a six year construction period, the Kingdom Tower opens in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.* Standing at over 1,000m (3,280 ft) high, this takes the title of world's tallest building from the previous record holder - Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 828m (2,717 ft).

The tower is designed by Adrian Smith of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the firm behind the Burj Khalifa, and is developed by Emaar Properties. The project costs around $1.23 billion, actually less than it cost to build the Burj Khalifa. The skyscraper has over 200 floors, a world first, along with 59 elevators. It contains some 5.7 million square feet of retail, residential, office and hotel space and hosts the world's highest observation deck.*

Reusing the successful Y-shaped footprint of the Burj Khalifa allowed construction to reach higher than ever before. In order to handle the tremendous amount of weight involved, new

China establishes the largest megacity in the world

By now, China has merged nine of its cities into one, creating the largest metropolitan area on the planet. This new megacity has a population of 42 million - over 7 million greater than Tokyo, the previous record holder.

The cities being merged include Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the second and third largest cities in China with populations of 11.7 million and 8.9 million, respectively. This region covers much of China's manufacturing heartland, accounting for nearly a tenth of the Chinese economy.

Around 150 major infrastructure projects have meshed the transport, energy, water and telecommunications networks of these nine cities together, at a cost of some 2 trillion yuan

Worsening crisis in Yemen

At the turn of the 21st century, Yemen was already the poorest and least developed nation in the Arab world. Nearly 45% of its citizens were living below the poverty line, unemployment was running at 35% and its literacy rate was just 58%. It had dwindling natural resources and a ballooning population. Its economy was heavily reliant on hydrocarbons, which accounted for almost 75% of government revenues and 90% of foreign exchange earnings.

Yemen reached peak oil production in 2003 and witnessed a steady decline thereafter. In 2011, a popular uprising erupted due to worsening economic conditions, rising unemployment and government corruption. This was sparked by simultaneous protests in other Middle Eastern countries.

Over the next few years, the situation continued to deteriorate. Power blackouts and food shortages became a daily norm, while motorists were forced to queue their vehicles for hours at petrol stations. The country had no apparent way of transitioning to a post-carbon

The European Union has been expanded

By this date, the countries of Iceland, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and Serbia have all joined the ranks of the EU member nations.** This follows several years of negotiations in order to bring these countries in line with the rest of the Union, in terms of economics and law.* It comes at a time of severe economic decay for Europe, along with the rest of the world in general.

The process a country must undergo in order to join the European Union may take several years, often involving a long series of debates over the economic and political costs versus benefits. In order to become a recommended candidate, a country must be located in Europe and must be a stable, humane and democratic nation. According to the Copenhagen Criteria, a candidate must have a democratic government with respect for human rights and minorities, a functioning and secure market economy, as well as the ability to take on the obligations of membership concerning political, monetary and economic union.

Iceland was among the first to enter the Union. Prior to the 2008 economic crisis, public support for joining was low, with many viewing it as unnecessary. At the time, Iceland was only a member of the European Economic Area. Following the global economic downturn of 2008, the Icelandic economy crashed, with three of the country's largest banks failing and

Mitigating climate change? Guiding responsible research in geoengineering

Geoengineering, the use of human technologies to alter Earth's climate system – such as injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to scatter incoming sunlight back to space – has emerged as a potentially promising way to mitigate the impacts of climate change. But such efforts could present unforeseen new risks. That inherent tension, argue two professors from UCLA and Harvard, has thwarted both scientific advances and the development of an international framework for regulating and guiding geoengineering research.

In an article published yesterday in the journal Science, Edward Parson of UCLA and David

NASA rover finds conditions once suited for ancient life on Mars

Analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA's Curiosity rover has shown that ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.

Scientists identified sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon – some of the key chemical ingredients for life – in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater last month.

"A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable

New results indicate that particle discovered at CERN is Higgs boson

The ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have presented new results that further elucidate the particle discovered last year. Having analysed two and a half times more data than was available for the announcement last July, they confirm that the new particle is looking more and more like a Higgs boson, the particle linked to the mechanism that gives mass to elementary particles.

It remains an open question, however, whether this is the Higgs boson of the Standard Model of particle physics, or possibly the lightest of several bosons predicted in some theories that

World's largest radio telescope is operational after 30 years

After 30 years of planning and 10 years of construction, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) has become fully operational in northern Chile.

The $1.5bn project was inaugurated at an official ceremony attended by 500 people including the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera. This event marked the completion of all major systems of the giant telescope and its formal transition from a construction site to a fully-fledged observatory. ALMA is a partnership between Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. It was originally conceived as three separate projects in Europe, the USA and Japan in the 1980s, but merged to one in the 1990s. Construction started in 2003.

"One of our many natural resources is Chile's spectacular night sky," said Piñera. "I believe that science has been a vital contributor to the development of Chile in recent years. I am very proud of our international collaborations in astronomy, of which ALMA is the latest, and

World's largest concentrated solar power plant opens in Abu Dhabi

After three years of construction, a major milestone has been achieved for renewable energy in the Middle East, with the opening of a 100 megawatt (MW) solar power plant.

The Shams solar power station is located near Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. With 258,000 parabolic trough mirrors, covering 2.5 sq km (0.97 sq mi), it generates up to 100 megawatts (MW) of power, making it the largest station of its kind in the world. It will offset 175,000 tons of CO2 per year – the equivalent of planting 1.5 million trees or taking 15,000 cars off

A step closer to affordable water desalination

The defence contractor, Lockheed Martin, has reported a new method for desalination that is vastly cheaper and more efficient, using nanotechnology.

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a patent for "Perforene" – a new molecular filtration system that is designed to meet the growing global demand for potable water. This material works by removing sodium, chlorine and other ions from seawater and other sources.

Do we live in a computer simulation? Researchers say idea can be tested

A decade ago, a British philosopher put forth the notion that the universe we live in might in fact be a computer simulation run by our descendants. While that seems far-fetched, perhaps even incomprehensible, a team of physicists at the University of Washington has come up with a potential test to see if the idea holds water.

The concept that humanity might be living in a computer simulation was discussed in a 2003 paper published in Philosophical Quarterly by Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford. In the paper, he argued that at least one of three possibilities must be

LuminAR Bulb turns any surface into a touch screen

A new computer being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology can display interactive images on any surface, just by screwing into a light socket.

The team behind the device – led by student Natan Linder – aims to create "a new form factor for a compact and kinetic projected augmented reality interface."

LuminAR combines a laser pico-projector, camera and wireless computer, with software that can recognise objects and sense when a finger or hand is touching the surface. It also functions as a scanner with built-in wi-fi.

The project was developed through 2010, and demonstrated earlier this year at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. The team has now released a video of

Tactus morphing touchscreen keyboard

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a company called Tactus has been demonstrating the world's first fully-integrated dynamic touchscreen tablet.

This 7" device showcases the company's tactile touchscreen technology and introduces an entirely new category of product made possible through its Tactus Morphing Tactile™ surface.

By enhancing both function and usability with Tactus, it is now possible to merge the essential capabilities of smartphones, tablets and laptops through a true physical interface. In a world of flat, static devices, Tactus aims to bring new life to touchscreens by enabling real, physical buttons that rise up from a screen's surface on demand, then disappear back into

Researchers break million-core supercomputer barrier

Stanford Engineering's Center for Turbulence Research (CTR) has set a new record in computational science by successfully using a supercomputer with more than 1 million computing cores. This was done to solve a complex fluid dynamics problem – the prediction of noise generated by a supersonic jet engine.

Joseph Nichols, a research associate in the centre, worked on the newly installed Sequoia IBM Bluegene/Q system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL). Sequoia recently topped the list of the world's most powerful supercomputers, boasting 1,572,864

FDA clears first autonomous telemedicine robot for hospitals

RP-VITA, created by iRobot and InTouch Health, enables doctors to provide patient care from anywhere in the world via a telemedicine solution.

Credit: iRobot

US technology firm, iRobot Corp., has announced that its RP-VITA Remote Presence Robot has received 510(k) clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in hospitals. RP-VITA is the first autonomous navigation remote presence robot to receive such

Transparent smartphone being developed

Taiwanese company Polytron Technologies is working on a touchscreen smartphone that is almost entirely transparent. Due to its early stage of development, there is no software running yet, but the hardware is mostly in place. In this video from Mobile Geeks, the presenter claims that battery technology is "not even close" to becoming transparent yet. This is not true, however, as demonstrated by a breakthrough at Stanford University in

Major breakthrough in 3-D printing

Photonics West – the world's leading photonics, laser, and biomedical optics conference – took place this week in San Francisco. During the event, a German company called Nanoscribe GmbH presented the world's fastest 3D printer of micro- and nanostructures.

Nanoscribe's latest printer allows the smallest three-dimensional objects – often smaller than

Artificial intelligence could slash healthcare costs by more than 50%

New research from Indiana University has found that machine learning – the same computer science discipline that helped create voice recognition systems, self-driving cars and credit card fraud detection systems – can drastically improve both the cost and quality of health care in the United States.

Using an artificial intelligence framework, combining Markov Decision Processes and Dynamic Decision Networks, IU School of Informatics and Computing researchers Casey Bennett and Kris Hauser show how simulation modeling that understands and predicts the outcomes of treatment could reduce healthcare costs by over 50 percent while also improving patient

Google Glass features unveiled in preview video

Last year, Google announced "Project Glass" – a research and development program which aims to prototype and build an augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display. The project's intended purpose was to allow hands-free displaying of information currently found on smartphones, while providing interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands, in a manner similar to the iPhone application Siri.

Developers were given early access to the device for $1,500, with a consumer version expected in 2014. New details have now emerged on the company's website, including this video which shows the glasses in action. The search giant is offering trials of the product to "bold, creative individuals" and wants people to suggest ways in which they would make use

Stretchable battery could power wearable and implantable computers

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed the first stretchable lithium-ion battery – a device that could power a new generation of flexible electronics.

The power and voltage of the stretchable battery are similar to a conventional lithium-ion battery of the same size, but the flexible battery can stretch up to 300 percent of its original size and still function. It can work for eight to nine hours before it needs recharging, which can be done wirelessly.

The potential applications are diverse and may include wearable computers, or even implantable electronics, that could monitor everything from brain waves to heart activity – succeeding where flat, rigid batteries would fail.

Professor Yonggang Huang, who led the portion of the research focused on theory, design and modeling: "We start with a lot of battery components side by side in a very small space,

Brain-to-brain communication between rats

In a feat that sounds like science fiction, researchers have electronically linked the brains of pairs of rats for the first time, enabling them to communicate directly to solve behavioural puzzles. A further test of this work successfully linked the brains of two animals thousands of miles apart, via the Internet.

Credit: Duke University Medical Center

The results of these projects suggest the future potential for linking multiple brains, to form

Mobile data revenue will overtake voice by 2018

The rise of connected devices will drive mobile data revenues past voice revenues globally by 2018, according to a new report from the Global System Mobile Association (GSMA). This data explosion will provide better access to healthcare and education, help lift people out of poverty, fight hunger and reduce carbon emissions.

Mobile data is being driven by a surge in demand for connected devices and machine-to-

We are evolving into meta-intelligence group-minds

Peter Diamandis is the founder and chairman of X PRIZE Foundation, co-founder and chairman of Singularity University and the co-author of Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think. He is also co-founder of the asteroid mining company, Planetary Resources. In this video, he discusses the future of humans evolving into meta-intelligence group-minds and invites participants to the second international Global Future 2045 congress (June 2013).

3D printing helps replace injured patient's skull

In a world first, researchers have successfully replaced 75 per cent of an injured patient's skull with a precision 3D-printed polymer version. In the near future, any type of damaged bone could routinely be replaced with custom-manufactured implants.

Connecticut-based Oxford Performance Materials (OPM) was founded in 2000 with a simple purpose: to exploit a highly advanced molecule known as Polyether ether ketone (PEEK). PEEK is an ultra-high performance thermoplastic with a range of applications. Its advantages include high strength and toughness, chemical resistance and low toxicity.

After years of development, OPM has now gained FDA approval for its OsteoFab Patient Specific Cranial Device (OPSCD). This is the company's brand name for 3D-printed medical implants created from the PEEK polymer. These implants are "grown" layer by layer – directly from a digital CAD file, CT scan or MRI file – without the aid of tooling and with few practical limits on what can be produced. As such, OsteoFab is ideal for unique, one-off implants that are specifically shaped to an individual patient's anatomy.

One very desirable use of patient-specific implants is the replacement of bony voids in the skull. This was demonstrated by OPM's researchers on 4th March, when they scanned the head of an unnamed patient and replaced 75% of his skull with polymer components.

Scott DeFelice, President and CEO of OPM: "It is our firm belief that the combination of PEEK and Additive Manufacturing is a highly transformative and disruptive technology platform that will substantially impact all sectors of the orthopaedic industry. We have sought our first approval within cranial implants because the need was most compelling; however, this is just the beginning. We will now move systematically throughout the body, in an effort to deliver improved outcomes at lower overall cost to the patient and healthcare provider."

Up to 500 U.S. patients could use skull bone replacements every month, according to DeFelice. Possible patients include those with cancerous bone, as well as car accident victims, and military members suffering from head trauma.

FDA clearance for OPM marks the first approval of an additively manufactured polymer implant in the USA. The company now intends to seek well-qualified partners to bring this revolutionary process to market.

Last year, a similar procedure was undertaken in the Netherlands, when surgeons used 3D printing to replace the entirelower jawbone of an 83-year old woman.

Cloud computing platform for robots launched

Researchers of five European universities have developed a cloud-computing platform for robots. The platform allows robots connected to the Internet to directly access the powerful computational, storage, and communications infrastructure of modern data centers – the giant server farms behind the likes of Google, Facebook, and Amazon – for robotics tasks and robot learning.

With the development of the RoboEarth Cloud Engine, the team continues their work towards creating an Internet for robots. The new platform extends earlier work on allowing robots to share knowledge with other robots via a WWW-style database, greatly speeding up robot learning and adaptation in complex tasks.

Indestructible self-healing circuits

Imagine that the chips in your smart phone or computer could repair and defend themselves on the fly, recovering in microseconds from less-than-ideal battery power or total transistor failure. It might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but a team of engineers, for the first time ever, has developed just such a system.

The team, from the High-Speed Integrated Circuits laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has demonstrated this self-healing capability in tiny power

Samsung introduces the Galaxy S4

Samsung this week unveiled its latest flagship smartphone – the Galaxy S4. Even lighter and thinner than its predecessor, it features a 13-megapixel back camera, and a 5-inch display with 441 ppi (1920×1080) resolution. It will be available in late April, on 327 networks and in 155 countries.

Other new features include:

• Eye-tracking: pause video and scroll through pages using eye movements alone

• Dual Camera: take simultaneous photos and videos, using both rear and front cameras, and blend them together

• Air View: hover with your fingers to preview the content of an email, S-Planner, image gallery or video without having to open it

• Air Gesture: change a music track, scroll up and down a web page, or accept a call with a wave of your hand

• Story Album: curates content, such as SNS posts, memos, location and weather

A virtual "talking head" with realistic emotions

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a virtual "talking head" with realistic emotions, which could lead to improvements in human-computer interactions.

Credit: University of Cambridge

The system, called Zoe, bears a striking resemblance to Holly, the ship's computer in British sci-fi comedy, Red Dwarf. It is based on a template that, in the near future, could allow people to upload their own faces and voices. Users would be able to customise and personalise their own digital assistants for a range of applications – in mobile "face messages", gaming, audio-visual books, as a means of delivering online lectures or

Hitachi reveals self-driving mobility support vehicle

Japanese electronics firm Hitachi has unveiled "ROPITS" – Robot for Personal Intelligent Transportation System.

ROPITS is designed to aid the short-distance transportation of the elderly, or those with walking difficulties. The vehicle is equipped with a "specified arbitrary point autonomous pick-up and drop-off function" which can navigate to locations specified on a tablet or mobile device. Thanks to its small size and slow speed (3.7 mph, or 5.9 km/h), it can move safely