BBS

Drones are `Becoming Birds` in the sky. Absolutely..Commercial drones are going to become as ubiquitous as aeroplanes in the sky are right now. The civil aviation authority in Australia was one of the first in the world to legalise commercial flights by unmanned aerial vehicles, adding that the USA isn't due to follow until 2015. This gives the startup the opportunity to hone the technology over the next few years, ready to export worldwide. Flirtey is the world's first unmanned aerial vehicle delivery technology. Currently in Australia same-day delivery by post cost eight to 20 [Australian] dollars.Flirtey it will cost a fraction of that and the consumer won't have to cover it because it will be included in the marketing budget of the companies that we partner with.

`World's first` drone delivery service

 A Sydney company has launched a book delivery service that employs flying robots instead of postmen, and declared that `commercial drones are going to become as ubiquitous as aeroplanes`.

Flying drones to deliver text books:Sydney startup Flirtey has teamed up with text book rental service Zookal to use hexacopters - robots with six rotors - to deliver study materials. The service aims to reduce postal costs and avoid the problem of missed deliveries by tracking the location of the recipient's mobile phone. Flirtey co-founder Matthew Sweeney says  `We're taking technology that was previously only available to the military and universities, democratising it and commercialising it so that anybody can order any goods or services and have them flown straight to their smartphone.`Books are ordered using a smartphone app, then Zookal packages them before they're flown to the customer's phone rather than their address.Six battery-powered rotors control flight, which can continue even when one isn't working. `We've built the Flirtey as a hexacopter, so it can lose any one rotor and still fly, and can lose any one battery and still fly,` said Sweeney.

 Zookal CEO Ahmed Haider mentions another safety feature: `When the Flirtey arrives to its location it levitates above the location and lowers the parcel to the consumer. If there is anyone that pulls it a little too hard the parcel comes off, keeping the Flirtey safe and ready to go.` Amazon also tests drones that could deliver parcels too.

Nixie -Drone

Sure, Apple's new smart watch brings smartphone features to users' wrists, but can it fly free and take video in the air? The Nixie, which has none of the features of a watch other than wrist-wearability, is a drone for people who like robots as fashion statements, as well as aerial photography.

Nixie is a quadcopter with flexible arms, letting it cling to a pilot's wrist like a scared mechanical flying squirrel. Created by Christoph Kohstall and a team of designers and engineers, Project Nixie is a finalist in Intel’s `Make It Wearable` competition. Here's how Kohstall wants Nixie to work:

You should be able with a gesture to tell the quadcopter to unfold. Then it's going to take off from your wrist. It knows where you are, turns around, takes a picture of you, comes back. You can catch it from the air, and put it back on your wrist.

Gravity

If the planet's gravity turned off, and suddenly there was no force of gravity on planet Earth. This would turn out to be a pretty bad day. We depend on gravity to hold so many things down -- cars, people, furniture, pencils and papers on your desk, and so on. Everything not stuck in place would suddenly have no reason to stay down, it would start floating. But it's not just furniture and the like that would start to float. Two of the more important things held on the ground by gravity are the atmosphere and the water in the oceans, lakes and rivers. Without gravity, the air in the atmosphere has no reason to hang around, and it would immediately leap into space. This is the problem the moon has -- the moon doesn't have enough gravity to keep an atmosphere around it, so it's in a near vacuum. Without an atmosphere, any living thing would die immediately and anything liquid would boil away into space.

In other words, no one would last long if the planet didn't have gravity.

The surface gravity of the Moon is only about one fifth of that of the Earth. No wonder Apollo astronauts were able to jump so far on the Moon's surface! Prospective Mars colonists should note that they will only weigh about a third of their terrestrial weight on Mars. 

According to James Overduin, a physicist at Towson University in Maryland who specializes in gravitation, a universe without gravity would be "completely flat and featureless." Overduin explained that gravity is just another term for the curvature of space-time — how steep or shallow the fabric of the universe is in a given place (and thus how likely objects are to fall toward the source of curvature). Just as a bowling ball placed on a trampoline curves its surface, it is the presence of matter and energy that cause space-time to curve. So, if the universe can't curve (because gravity doesn't exist), then there can be no matter or energy within it. 

Earth's gravitational pull is responsible for the moon's orbit. Similarly, all planets, asteroids, and comets in our solar system orbit the sun due to this gravitational pull. The fact that celestial bodies millions of light years away orbit the sun debunks the myth of no gravity in space.

Gravity on Other Planets

Gravity differs depending on what planet we are on. This is because the planets vary in size and mass.

Mercury is the smallest planet with the least mass and the least density. The gravity on Mercury is only 38% of the gravity on earth. Considering Mercury only has a radius of 4,879 km, which is barely any larger than the Moon, the gravity is high. The high gravity is due to the high density of the planet.

Venus is similar in size to the Earth, which is why it is often called Earth’s twin. Its mass, density, and volume are all slightly less than Earth’s. This means that the gravity on Venus is slightly over 90% of the Earth’s gravity. Although you would weigh less on Earth’s twin than you would on Earth, you would not want to visit Venus because of its toxic, burning atmosphere.

Jupiter is the most massive planet in our Solar System, meaning it also has the highest gravity. If you stood on Jupiter – you cannot because it does not have a solid surface – than you would weigh two and a half times what you would on Earth.

A gas giant, Saturn is more massive than Earth, but it also has the lowest density of all the planets in the Solar System. If you were able to stand on Saturn’s surface, you would experience about 91% of the gravity you would on Earth.

Like Saturn, Uranus is massive, but has a very low density. Because of this combination, Uranus has a low gravity about 89% of the gravity that you would feel on Earth. This is very close to Venus’ gravity although Uranus is more than 14 times larger than Venus is.

Neptune is much more massive than Earth – 17 times Earth’s mass – but it is also much larger than Earth, so it has a lower density. This means that Neptune’s gravity is only slightly more than Earth’s gravity – 14% more. It would not be too uncomfortable walking on Neptune if you could walk on it, which is impossible because it does not have a solid surface.

The promise of life on Mars has intrigued people for centuries, but what would living on Mars really be like. Well, Mars has a smaller density and mass than our planet, which means that it has lower gravity. In fact, you would weigh less on Mars than you would on any other planet in our Solar System. The gravity of Mars is 38% the gravity of Earth.

Nobel Peace Prize laureates

Similar Heart

The animals are sometimes called `horizontal humans`. Although they are more distantly related to us than, for example, the great apes - pigs are about the right size, and so are their organs. A 75kg pig has the same-sized heart as a 75kg human, with the same pumping capacity. In theory it should be possible to farm pigs for their organs, much as we now farm them for bacon. But there are problems. Our immune system is designed to attack any foreign material that enters the body. Many human to human transplants are only possible with powerful drugs that suppress the immune system and prevent it from treating the new organ or tissue as a huge infection and rejecting it. Doctors try to match donors to recipients to keep rejection to a minimum, but the problems are greater with pigs. If an unmodified pig heart were given to a human, the reaction would be so violent that the heart would turn black in 15 minutes and be virtually destroyed in 30.They are an important step towards `knock-out` pigs, meaning animals where the specific gene that causes the human immune system to reject pig organs is made inactive - or knocked out. The all-female litter of five lacks one of its two alpha gal genes (which put a sugar on pig cells to which the human immune system reacts aggressively). When an all-male litter is born next month (also lacking one of its two alpha gal genes) it will be possible to mate the two animals. A new breed of pig will be created where every fourth offspring will have no alpha gal gene at all, making it a true `knock out` and an ideal source of spare parts for humans.

Ultimate pig.. 

David Ayares, vice president of research for PPL Therapeutics (the company that helped clone Dolly the Sheep), says it is only the first step and speaks of a need for further modifications before the company can create the `ultimate pig`. How to deal with adverse immune reactions and conduct trials with primates before human clinical trials can begin. There will also be a need to ensure that pig diseases do not cross to humans, and to establish whether a heart that will serve a pig for its 30-year life span will last longer in humans. 

Cloned Piglets..

The five cloned piglets - Noel, Angel, Star, Joy and Mary - have been genetically modified so humans will not reject their internal organs. This opens up the possibility of pig to human transplants, which may save the lives of many seriously ill people.

Are pig to human transplants necessary?

There are currently thousands of people in around world waiting for a transplant of a kidney, pancreas, heart, lungs, liver, or a combination of these organs. On average, adults have to wait more than one year for a new kidney. There is a clear demand. Efforts are being made to increase the donation of human organs - the supply is still not high enough, though some argue that pig to human transplants would be unnecessary if the taking of healthy organs from the dead was mandatory.

Would people accept pig organs?

There may be a degree of revulsion at killing an animal to save a human, but some could feel happier carrying the organ of a dead pig than a dead human. Pigs are already bred and killed for food, but some vegetarians and vegans might feel uneasy about making such use of an animal. People who follow Jewish and Muslim eating codes forbidding the consumption of pork may also have objections.