U. S. military engineers are trying to miniaturize drones so these spying and assault machines could be deployed undetected and accurately identify enemies to minimize civilian casualties. The so-called Micro Aerial Vehicles or MAVs are being designed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio and military engineers hope to create a prototype the size of a bird by 2015 and another version the size of an insect by 2030.

Two government scientists from the Philippines have invented a cheaper and healing medical bandage using indigenous mushroom and fiber waste. The so-called non-woven medical bandage from microfungal fibers of Dr. Claro Santiago Jr. and Rhodora Flores of the Department of Science and Technology's Industrial Technology Development Institute is made from the fibers of the edible mushroom volvariella volvacea, fibrous materials from agro-industrial wastes, alginate or stabilizer and textile fiber.

A firm manufacturing aircraft that takes off and lands vertically, is building a car that can fly. Moller International's flying car called Autovolantor will be a Ferrari 599 GTB outfitted with retractable wings, eight fan thrusters and a booster.

A local wildlife guide has taught an orphaned heron how to fly by flapping his arms and squawking. Gary Zammit, a 42-year old wildlife expert at the Gwel an Mor complex in Portreath, Cornwall, said that he managed to teach Dude, a heron he raised from a chick to an adult, how to take to the skies by first running across the field with food in his pockets. The food led the bird to follow Zammit, who then spread his arms and flapped them.

The Air Force base that sparked a controversy last year because its B-52 crews unknowingly flew nuclear missiles has failed a nuclear security test from Defense Department inspectors. Personnel at the 5th Bomb Wing's Minot Air Force Base here failed to counter simulated nuclear security challenges that earned it an "unsatisfactory" grade in that category from inspectors on Sunday, based on a report of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency that was cited on the Air Force Times website. The tests were conducted for a week starting May 17.