NASA develops new RADAR which can detect human heart beat under 30 feet of rubble

NASA FINDER disaster relief radar heartbeat detectorI happen to live in an earthquake prone state, so the fear of being buried alive under a collapsed roof is very real.

NASA has developed a new tool to aid disaster relief first responders. A small box the size of a carry-on suitcase (an actual carry-on, not those gi-normous bags YOU try and cram into overhead space) utilizes RADAR to detect human heart beats through tens of feet of rubble and debris.

FINDER, which stands for “Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response”, isn’t just a tech proof of concept either. NASA has worked on fleshing out the device’s ecosystem focusing on ease of use and portability. FINDER’s battery will allow for up to 14 hours of use, and it’s controlled via tablet. NASA believes that most people should be capable of using FINDER after only a few minutes of introduction, and that it’s little different in operation than pointing a flashlight down a dark tunnel.

Lastly, even though FINDER is bleeding edge rescue tech, NASA estimates that individual units could sell for around $10,000. In terms of speeding up disaster response, that’s not a difficult price to pay.

(pic via PhysOrg)

Caltech makes Richard Feynman Physics Lectures available for free!

richard feynman physics lectures free caltech somegadgetguySCIENCE!!!

No really. We can learn more about science, physics specifically, for free. The California Institute of Technology, home to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is opening up a wealth of lectures from Richard Feynman on a variety of subjects. Pages and pages of lectures, and related scientific materials. The first section alone is broken into 52 chapters dealing with subjects like relativity, light, color, time, quantum theory, and sound. Enough reading material to keep us science-y geeks busy for weeks. I’ve already started chewing into his lectures on acoustics… Gonna learn me some sound…

Did I mention free? It’s free.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics

(pic courtesy CalTech, via Reddit)

NASA’s Voyager 1 Leaves Our Solar System For Interstellar Space. V’Ger to return in 2273.

Voyager spacecraft solar system interstellar travel somegadgetguyThere’s something kind of amazing that Voyager 1 is not only the first man made craft to leave the confines of our solar system, but that NASA believes it will continue to function, sending data to back to us until around 2025.

Voyager 1 has been in operation for 36 years, and has traveled more than 16 Billion miles during that time. From John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington:

“Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors. Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey.”

Perhaps even more amazing, the entire operations budget for the Voyager program, including both Voyager 1 & 2 spacecrafts has been less than $1 Billion. Not a bad bang for buck from a research perspective.

For more info on the Voyager program: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager

Read a Reddit AMA with the Voyager scientists and engineers: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m9wke/were_scientists_and_engineers_on_nasas_voyager/

And some day, maybe in the late 23rd century, after the Klingons report a strange disturbance featuring a humongous space craft, and we’re all wearing pastel jumpsuits, we’ll know what’s up…

Full NASA Press Release after the jump. SCIENCE!

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