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Wuhan and US scientists were planning to release enhanced airborne coronavirus particles into Chinese bat populations to inoculate them against diseases that could jump to humans, leaked grant proposals dating from 2018 show. New documents show that just 18 months before the first Covid-19 cases appeared, researchers had submitted plans to release skin-penetrating nanoparticles and aerosols containing “novel chimeric spike proteins” of bat coronaviruses into cave bats in Yunnan, China. They also planned to create chimeric viruses, genetically enhanced to infect humans more easily, and requested $14million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to fund the work. Papers,...

Physicists find ways to increase antihydrogen production 18 hours ago by Lisa Zyga feature Antihydrogen consists of an antiproton and a positron. Credit: public domain (Phys.org)—There are many experiments that physicists would like to perform on antimatter, from studying its properties with spectroscopic measurements to testing how it interacts with gravity. But in order to perform these experiments, scientists first need some antimatter. Of course, they won't be finding any in nature (due to antimatter's tendency to annihilate in a burst of energy when it comes in contact with ordinary matter), and creating it in the lab has proven to...

CANBERRA, Australia, Sept. 21, 2007 – The commander of U.S. Pacific Command wrapped up two days of meetings here today with Australian government and military leaders to explore ways to enhance their already rock-solid partnership in promoting stability in the region and beyond. Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating, right, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, renders a salute after inspecting a formation of Australian troops on his arrival at the Australian Defense Force headquarters in Canberra, Australia, Sept. 21, 2007. Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, Australia’s defense chief, looks on. Defense Dept. photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

3/29/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- An armed F-16 Fighting Falcon is “watching” the road below for the convoys rolling through a dangerous land. The concept of using fighter aircraft equipped with targeting pods to monitor the battlespace is known as non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or NTISR. Air Force NTISR operations began only four years ago and are the result of increased demand for complete battlespace awareness. With the production and development of traditional ISR capabilities struggling to keep pace, leveraging fighters, bombers, and air mobility aircraft in a similar role is helping ensure information dominance. “Before NTISR, we...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 18, 2005 – The Iraq/Syria border is a seemingly arbitrary line scratched into the sand, punctuated occasionally by cone-shaped stone marker piles, which are often the highest points around. It's only 250 miles from Baghdad, but with circuitous routing that goes from bad roads to no roads at all. By the time an advance party of the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence and contractor ECC International completed their 12-hour trip, no one was in the mood for surprises. "When we arrived, there were only three tents," recalled Ali Mommad Hadi, the first Iraqi civil engineer hired by...

U.S. experts warn of risky silicone 'pump parties' SAN DIEGO – A dangerous underground of "pump parties" has sprung up around the country catering to transgender individuals seeking more feminine features through cheap – sometimes deadly – black-market silicone injections, experts say. Two San Diego transgender women were near death Friday after unlicensed practitioners injected them with liquid silicone at a "pump party" five days earlier, officials said. Police are searching for a Los Angeles-area woman suspected of injecting as many as a dozen people at two parties that day. None of those at the second party has contacted police....

US Navy to order unique aircraft in Saratov 13:12 2004-04-23 The US Navy Department intends to subsidize the development of an advanced Russian aircraft, which will eventually be extinguishing forest fires on US territory. This UFO-shaped flying machine is currently being designed by the Saratov aviation concern. The Saratov aircraft enterprise, which is located in Russia's Volga region, started assembling UFO-shaped flying machines in the 1990s; however, this R&D project was then moth-balled because of financial snags. Many aircraft companies all over the world did their best to design similar flying machines. However, Saratov's aircraft designers managed to come with...

It would be hard to imagine improving on the intelligence of computer engineer Bjoern Stenger, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University. Yet for several hours, a pill seemed to make him even brainier. Participating in a research project, Stenger downed a green gelatin cap containing a drug called modafinil. Within an hour, his attention sharpened. So did his memory. He aced a series of mental-agility tests. If his brainpower would normally rate a 10, the drug raised it to 15, he said. "I was quite focused," said Stenger. "It was also kind of fun." The age of smart drugs is...