A new design concept for protecting passengers of military vehicles is based on building the rest of the vehicle around the occupant compartment to be protected, and also in a structure capable of absorbing the energy of the explosive devices focusing on it in return damage to rid of them at the occupant compartment. This design concept could improve the safety of the crew for future light armored vehicles for patrol duties.

The team of researchers at the Georgia Tech Research (GTRI) has developed and tested the design concept, called ULTRA II for the Office of U.S. Naval Research (ONR). This concept is based on previous work for the ONR GTRI in which an assessment was made of new designs for light armored vehicles. A test for the ULTRA II burst at Aberdeen Test Center has shown that the new class could protect the vehicle occupants’ unexpected explosion.

This design concept is based, among other things that instead of adding armor to or modify a standard vehicle; engineers build a protective bubble first and then deal with mobility around the vehicle. Thus, by making the design safety basis, the results are better. (more…)

A team of scientists from the University of California at Davis has identified the main scent produced naturally in humans and in birds that attracts the Culex mosquitoes, which feed on blood and transmit the West Nile virus and other diseases threatening.

The new research explains why mosquitoes added to humans as a food source, and paves the way for key advances in the control of mosquitoes and the diseases they spread.

Walter Leal and Zain Syed have found that nonanal is the chemical that awakens the powerful sense of smell in mosquitoes, guiding them to their feast of blood. The nonanal acts as a kind of beacon. Substances that do this are carrying a “message”, so to speak. (more…)

In a race through universe during last the 7,300 million years and having traveled with the same speed, two photons gamma ray practically arrived

at the same time, and not at clearly different moments, to the Space Telescope Fermi Gamma, an astronomical satellite of the NASA.

This “tie” proves the validity of the Theory of Relativity of Einstein because it was one of the photons a million times more energy than the other, a difference that according to recent theories, could have resulted in a slower rate for the particle with more energy, and that would have contradicted one of the highlights of Einstein’s theory. (more…)

A Yale University physicists have made the first definitive measurements of the “persistent current, but a small electrical current perpetual flows naturally through tiny metal wire rings even without an external power source.

The team used a new method, based on nanoscale devices and is comparable to that of a drawbridge or a diving pool, to indirectly measure the current through the magnetic strength changes that occur when electric current flows through the ring. (more…)