New Scientist: The Age of the Internet

Who can deny that the Internet has become the marvel of society? A web of social networks, communities, information storage as well as countless other uses that not many of us know. However we must consider that the Internet is now in grave peril. Corporations aiming to reshape the internet in their image, cybercriminals and hackers alike vowing to destabilize mayor networks as well as authoritarian governments that restrict any content that may prove to be rebellious or a threat in any way to their rule. These are true problems facing us today and we need real solutions. And to look for those solutions we must look back at the history of the Internet and see the effects that society and politics has had on it and vice versa.

It all started in the RAND corporation in Santa Monica, USA in 1958 when a US Air Force scientist Paul Baran managed to create a communications network that could withstand a nuclear attack. The idea was to pass informations from one point to another without a centralised router or switching station. Dividing the message into small packets scattered all over the network. From then on the Internet grew into a world wide web that became commercially available since 1991. And what has happened to the Web over these 20 years? Almost every company in the world operates in some way through the internet whether they sell products through it or if they simple have a website. The giants such as Amazon, Google and Apple who have achieved the greatest success because of the revolutions they have made to the Internet and to computers in general.

If Apple, Google and Amazon start to fragment the web, can anything be done to stop them?

Recently, however, many problems started to arise such as the Wikileaks launch of many classified documents which stimulated the formation of Anonymous (a group of hackers hell-bent on making all classified documents available to the general public no matter the content as well as caring for free speech in the web) Although this seems like a noble cause one cannot forget the consequences of such actions.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128211.900-welcome-to-the-age-of-the-splinternet.html

New Scientist: Plane Sailing

Most of us have probably witnessed an airplane flying in the sky. We all remember the noise it makes, the gaseous fumes it leaves behind. What if a plane would quite simply glide, making no sound, releasing no smoke and using very little energy in the process. For this to work it must also be light as a feather so this means no passengers on board or any other large baggage. That is what the autopilot system on the new glider created by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and the Australian Center for Field Robotics in Sydney.

This particular plane flew autonomously for 5.3 hours beating the previous record by 60 minutes. The glider chooses a particular route of thermal currents and winds which favours its direction thus allowinf the plane the fly like an albatross or any other type of birds. It first travels through a high speed current to gain momentum and then moves on to a region of slower winds. The energy gained from the higher winds will allow the glider to lift. It can reach speeds of 600 km/h and has a large range.

Using the accelerometer and altimeter the autopilot can work out and create a local wind map of varying speeds and directions. The inventors say that the greatest danger to the plane can actually be the wear and tear caused by friction, heat and air resistance. This glider could be another example of benefits gained from observing nature.