Cyborg drones created to fit insects

Dragonfly eyes

Research company Draper has come up with an exciting new technology.  It is using insects to power its miniature drone tech.

The DragonflEye project is aiming to produce cyborg drones that are fitted onto live dragonflies and can be steered by humans.

Tiny 'backpacks' fit onto the dragonfly and contain a sensor array and a solar power source so that the insect's flight path can be controlled.

The tiny, silent, almost undetectable insect drones have many applications in intelligence and military communities.

Plastic planet

Nasa scientists have found a chemical on a moon of Saturn that could form "membranes".

They have detected a chemical - acrylonitrile (also called vinyl cyanide) - in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan, that is useful in the manufacture of plastics.

The chemical is also thought to be capable of forming stable, flexible structures similar to cell membranes that can have many uses here on Earth.

Keeping your eyes on the road

Holograms in your car could soon be the thing car manufacturers use to keep your eyes on the road.

Since most current methods of providing directions require drivers to take their eyes off the road, even for a second, tech developers are thinking of ways to make driving safer.

New heads-up displays, increasingly common in high-end cars, project navigation, directions and speed onto the windshield to prevent you from taking your eyes off the road. 

• This article was originally published in The Times.