Flying Cars, Superfast Trains, Venusian Waves and the Squirrel Problem...

A familiar element in sci-fi , the flying car is fast becoming a reality.
Tom Enders, the CEO of Airbus, plans to have a working prototype by the end of this year, and Uber are also investing in VTOL technology.
Stealing a march on driverless cars from Google, the Airbus cars will be fully automated-
but they will not time - travel.

Airbus' flying car will not time-travel

Miracle material graphene has exhibited superconductivity in its natural state.
As well as being a unique one - atom thick material which is two dimensional , super-flexible, tougher than diamond and harder than steel it also has unrivalled superconductivity.
Previously, superconductivity only happened at very low temperatures, an expensive process.
Offering superconductivity at normal temperature could make serious improvements to the cost and efficiency of  devices such as maglev trains and MRI scanners.
The current fastest maglev train recorded was 500 kmh in  Japan - but the potential increase in speed could reach over a 1000 kmh...suddenly commuting from London to Tokyo might be feasible.
Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has rightly gained a reputation as a miracle material -
as well as its potential for use in lightweight airplanes and foldable cellphones, graphene has even been used in the fashion world

Currently in orbit, we have 18 Galileo satellites, which are tasked with the creation of a global search and rescue GPS .
Each of the satellites has four clocks to help with balance and positioning.
It seems that four of the eighteen clocks have malfunctioned, and are currently being assessed / repaired...
There are estimated some 2271 satellites in orbit around the planet  (officially), which makes for a lot of space junk 
Fortunately the loss of four clocks is nothing more than an inconvenience , but it has been alleged that the biggest threat to our planets infrastructure comes not from asteroids, space debris , hackers or terrorists, but squirrels; they top a list which includes rats, raccoons and snakes.
In a previous post, I detailed the havoc caused at the LHC by a Marten (link here)
Speaking of archives, the legendary Brian Eno, he of the ambient and oblique strategies,  kindly posted an archive of the old Omni mag , and I include a link here for those who wish to explore and marvel at that cutting edge science trends mag...

images of venus with bow - shaped anomaly       JAXA  / Taguchi

Meanwhile, on the blistering hell that is Venus, an immense wave has been seen stretching North to South.
This atmospheric anomaly is 10,000 km long , and appears to be caused by the ferocious winds which have slammed into a tall mountain range.
Despite being buffeted by the 250mph winds, the mysterious wave remains almost motionless (as can be seen in the above gif)
Theories abound, but there is no guaranteed explanation for this anomaly.

Seeing Venus through the clouds of sulphuric acid is tricky, so radar has been used to help map the surface detail.

Finally, on Mars , Curiosity has found a new meteorite for examination , and further possible evidence of water on Mars.

Postscript - it has been pointed out to me that the current weirdness of the world is connected to the upgrade and switching on of the Large Hadron Collider - perhaps they did create an alternate dimension...hmmm

Until next time !