On May 31, 1915, the monstrous LZ 38 German zeppelin flew, unseen and unheard, over London during the First World War, dropping bombs on the sleeping city in the first London Blitz. Targeting civilians, the hydrogen-filled aircraft released 90 incendiary bombs and 30 grenades on a line that stretched from Stoke Newington south to Stepney,…
Top Tweets from #IMS2016
We rounded up some of the top tweets from this year’s International Microwave Symposium (IMS), taking place from May 22 to 27 in San Francisco, California. The show is the premier annual international meeting for technologists involved in all aspects of microwave theory and practice. Check out the tweets below, and join in on the…
Tech Throwback: Marconi and the Birth of Wireless
On May 10, 1894, Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmitted a radio wave three-quarters of a mile, having constructed his own “invisible wave”-generating equipment at his family’s estate in Pontecchio, Italy. After failing to impress the Italian government (weird, right?), Marconi traveled to England at the ripe age of 22, where he…
Military Truck, Giant Radio Transmitter, or Both?
Engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have come up with a creative way to boost the size and efficiency of military antennas to transmit communications over large distances. To be effective, antennas need to be at least a quarter of the length of the radio waves they transmit. Military communications utilize the HF band, where…
Tech Throwback: A Look Back in Photos—Navy Blue Angels Celebrate 70th Birthday
On April 24, 1946, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Chester W. Nimitz ordered the formation of the Blue Angels to keep the public interested in naval aviation. The U.S. Navy is now celebrating the 70th show season of this famed Flight Demonstration Squadron, which is scheduled to perform 66 demonstrations at 34 locations across the…
How Laser-Cloaking Could Protect Us From Alien Invasions
Using transit detection—looking for the dip in light when a planet passes in front of the star it orbits—is a technique we Earthlings have been utilizing in our search for other worlds. Thanks to projects such as NASA’s Kepler mission, this method has yielded the discovery of more than 1,000 planets—several of which are comparable in…
Tech Throwback: “Mr. Watson, Come Here…”
Prepare for your new weekly dose of history, as WDD recaps significant events that took place in the tech and engineering space. Consider this one small step for phones, one giant leap for selfies 140 years later… On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call, summoning Thomas Watson, his assistant, who…
The Latest Plot Twist in the Hunt for Cosmic Radio Bursts
Fast radio bursts (FBRs) are astronomical radio pulses of unknown physical origin. Lasting mere milliseconds, they appear to originate from extragalactic distances—making them extremely difficult to detect, identify, and study. Scientists, however, can use their information to help calculate the distribution of matter in the universe. According to a study, the “apparent non-repeating nature of…
Tech Throwback: Boeing’s 747 Takes Off…Literally
Prepare for your weekly dose of history, as WDD recaps significant events that took place in the tech and engineering space. February 9, 1969 marks the first test flight of the Boeing 747, a wide-body, long-range jet airliner also known by its aliases, Jumbo Jet and Queen of the Skies. At the time of its…
Drone of the Week: How Google is Using UAVs to Blast 5G Internet from the Sky
As part of Project SkyBender, Google is using drones to experiment with millimeter-wave radio transmissions, a technology integral to the development of 5G internet. The company envisions delivering internet across the world via thousands of high-altitude, self-flying aircraft, The Guardian reports. Millimeter wave taps into new (and therefore uncrowded) spectrum, capable of transmitting gigabits of…