Imagine a world in which severe storms, tornadoes and flash floods were no longer a threat to life. Or a time when flying from London to Australia took less than an hour. Technologies that could make these things possible are being worked on right now in a lab in Palo Alto, California.In May, tornadoes, flooding and other severe weather cost the US $4.5-billion (about R62.3-billion). During that one month - the wettest on record - there were 412 reports of tornadoes, according to AON's Global Catastrophe Recap.The geostationary lightning mapper could buy humanity more time than we've ever had before.The device picks up lightning activity, which greatly increases before tornadoes form, and its warnings could save many lives.The hi-tech weather tracker, which takes pictures of Earth at 500 frames a second, could also help planes to navigate around storms, and give ample warning when electricity supply grids on the ground are under threat.Lockheed Martin and the University of Arizona are building a super-sensitive near-infrared camera with the hope of being able to take pictures of the dawn of time.NIRCam will be launched into space in October 2018. It works by detecting light using coronagraphs, instruments that allow astronomers to take pictures of very faint objects in almost the same line of sight as a bright object.NIRCam will help us understand dark matter and dark energy, and how space and time work at a fundamental level.A number of commercial ventures are hoping to crack hypersonic air travel. Lockheed Martin is now developing Mach 20 - more than 24100km/h - and Mach 30 technologies. A Mach 30 flight gets from the UK to Australia in less than an hour.Before that though, engineers have to develop materials that can withstand the temperatures generated by friction at these speeds. ..