To Clear Deadly Land Mines, Science Turns to Drones and Machine Learning

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September 13, 2022

Dear Reader, Millions of active land mines are buried around the globe, even in areas where conflict is no longer active. These deadly munitions kill thousands of people each year. Now researchers are training a machine-learning algorithm to analyze drone footage in order to better detect hidden land mines and flag them for removal.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Artificial Intelligence To Clear Deadly Land Mines, Science Turns to Drones and Machine Learning In a field in Oklahoma, researchers are using new technology to spot deadly munitions built to maim and kill By Andrew Robinson,Dominic Smith

Aerospace Could Dragons from Game of Thrones Actually Fly? Aeronautical Engineering and Math Says They Could Dragon flight in Game of Thrones comes from wing area, weight, speed and hints of a different atmosphere than that of Earth By Guy Gratton,The Conversation US

Space Exploration NASA's Next Launch Attempt for Artemis I Will Occur on September 3 Technical glitches and questionable weather forecasts continue to delay liftoff for NASA's landmark lunar mission By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Artificial Intelligence This Artificial Intelligence Learns like a Baby Engineers at the company DeepMind built a machine-learning system based on research on how babies' brain works, and it did better on certain tasks than its conventional counterparts. By Christopher Intagliata | 02:36

Computing Making Computer Chips Act More like Brain Cells Flexible organic circuits that mimic biological neurons could increase processing speed and might someday hook right into your head By Kurt Kleiner,Knowable Magazine

Materials Science Recycled Wind Turbines Could Be Made into Plexiglass, Diapers or Gummy Bears A new resin can hold fiberglass wind turbines together for years and then be recycled into valuable products, making green energy even greener By Sophie Bushwick

Engineering Sandcastle Engineering: A Geotechnical Engineer Explains How Water, Air and Sand Create Solid Structures Building the ultimate sandcastle By Joseph Scalia,The Conversation US

Materials Science Poem: 'Aerogel: A Quintain' Science in meter and verse By Christopher Norris

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The idea behind the Fairphone is that if you want a phone with new technology, you can get it without having to replace your current device entirely--and if something goes wrong with the phone, like you drop it, it can be easily fixed. That makes the Fairphone the antithesis of most smartphones today and shows how tech companies can design the gadgets differently, for durability and sustainability." Brian X. Chen, The New York Times

FROM THE ARCHIVE Drones Used to Find Toylike "Butterfly" Land Mines Quadcopters with thermal imagery cameras can help detect vicious mini-mines that often kill or maim children By Jeremy Hsu | December 2018

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