Animal rescuer and cinematographer Douglas Thron’s passion for animals began when he was a little kid and he started rescuing orphaned baby animals. When he grew up, he worked as a cinematographer for shows like Discovery Channel’s “Shark Wee”. But Thron said a fire in California “pushed” him to rescue animals, using his cinematography skills well.

At the time, Thron was working as a cinematographer filming a man who was rescuing cats after the fire using an infrared (使用红外线的) handheld camera. The camera uses heat to detect the animals at night. Thron and the man talked about how incredible it would be to put one on a drone (无人机) to detect animals easily. “The animals’ body temperature will flash on the screen and you can pick them out among the rubble (瓦砾),” explains Thron.

The first animal Thron ever rescued was a dog in the Bahamas after a category 5 hurricane hit there. Thron tested out putting an infrared scope on a drone and found the dog exactly in the middle of the huge rubble pile where hundreds of houses had been destroyed. “I flew the drone over and I found him. I was able to rescue him,” he says.

“My dream is to one day have a large animal rescue farm where I can train others on flying drones and make infrared drones as popular for rescuing animals as helicopters are for rescuing people after a disaster,” he says.

You wait 50 years for a flying car,and then three come along at once.First up is Vahana:an airbus project to develop batterypowered,single- seater aircraft,designed to follow predetermined routes,only changing directions to avoid accidents.Propellers(螺旋桨)on the wings will let it take off and land without a runway.

Second,Dubai recently announced plans to use self-controlled air taxis as a way to beat the terrible traffic jams.The Volocopter is an electric multi-copter with 18 propellers and a fully self-controlled system.It’s essentially a self-controlled aircraft with two seats and up to 30 minutes of flying time.

But,if you want something more like the flying cars of 1950s science fiction,try Urban Aeronautics’ Fancraft.The Israel-based company wants to realize the dream of”an aircraft that looks like the classic vision of a flying car:doesn’t have a wing,doesn’t have a propeller that can be seen,and can fly exactly from point to point,”says Janina Frankel-Yoeli,Urban Aeronautics’ vice president of marketing.Earlier flying cars needed runways to take off and land which was,as Frankel-Yoeli says,”not much better than owning a car and an aircraft.”To go from point to point requires vertical take-off and landing,but for many years that could only be done by helicopters or larger aircraft.Urban Aeronautics’ solution is to use light but powerful engines,lightweight materials,and a self-controlled system.Their fan design-propellers housed in some special tubes-is powerful but unstable,so the Fancraft would be challenging for a human to fly without any help.Instead,computer-aided control technology takes over the tiny,quick changes required to keep the car stable at speeds of 160km/h or more.

But don’t be glad too early yet.The main problem to a sky full of flying cars is rules.Not only will every aircraft need to pass strict safety tests,but a new system of air traffic control will be needed to deal with 3-D traffic jams above people who are not aware of what is happening in the sky.NASA is already working on that.Tests have shown that multiple unmanned(无人的) flying cars can communicate with each other to avoid accidents.In the meantime,flying cars will mainly be reserved for emergency services and a few VIPs.

Humpback whales (座头鲸)are among the world’s most endangered whales. The main threats humpback whales face are strikes from ships and getting caught in fishing and waste equipment. Recently, scientists have developed a technology-powered mapping tool to prevent ships from hitting whales in areas off America’s west coast. The system is called Whale Safe. It uses equipment placed in the ocean to identify the presence of whales in the surrounding area.

Whale Safe was recently launched to the north in San Francisco Bay. There is a problem in the bay with ships hitting whales. Wildlife officials reported that a humpback whale washed ashore in the San Francisco Bay with injuries suggesting the animal was killed in a ship strike. It was the fifth whale to be killed by a ship strike in the area in 2022. However, the actual number of whales killed by ships is likely much higher because the bodies of the dead animals are rarely discovered.

The system uses three methods to identify and protect several different whale species. First, it uses flotation devices — known as buoys (浮标) — to record sounds the whales make. Second, it uses computer model s to process current and historical ocean data to pre dict where the whales are most likely to be. Third, it permits trained observers and citizens to report whale sightings through a mobile app. The tool also records shipping activity and ship speeds. The collected data isthen sent by satellite to scientists who examine it and seek to provide guidance to ship operators.

The Whale Safe project is supported by the Marine Mammal Center and the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory. Officials from the Marine Mammal Center say they have plans to expand the system to other areas where whales face a high risk of being hit by ships. “The system combines the latest technology with thoughtful conservation efforts to create a solution to reduce risk to whales. This is where technology meets Mother Nature for the benefit of marine life,” said Jeff Boehm, a leader of the Marine Mammal Center.