We have a lot of love for microdrones here at PopSci--everything from bird-like flapping wing drones to cyborg insects controlled by microcomputers--so we're thrilled to see an air force is showing them some love as well. The US Air Force Research Lab has build a "Micro-Aviary" at Wright Patterson AFB in the state of Ohio where tiny flying robots will be the central focus. And aside from being drone-centric, it is one sweet sensor-filled laboratory.

It's a recipe for disaster. Create a slightly flimsy looking multi-rotor flying apparatus, equipped with what appears to be an exercise ball as the central landing gear, and then place a person with a remote control pad on it. Ordinarily, you'd expect this to be the cue for screaming and yelling and maybe a missing limb or two. Thankfully, the German pilot emerged unscathed, with nought but a sense of satisfaction and a pretty cool looking show real.

After delays (so many delays), the Boeing 787 Dreamliner finally made its first commercial flight, jetting from Tokyo to Hong Kong. According to the AP, the plane was mostly full of reporters and enthusiasts, some of whom paid thousands of dollars to be included on the maiden flight. 

We got our first look at Japan's Defense Ministry's spherical flying machine earlier this year, but at a recent technology expo in Tokyo the hovering ball got the full coming-out treatment, complete with public demos eliciting "ooohs" and "aaaahs." The video below shows the drone doing everything it was designed to do: zipping around omnidirectionally, rolling across the floor, and staying aloft even when it strikes--or is struck by--an obstacle.

Massage chairs, personal attendants and lie-flat beds - features now regarded as the norm in international first-class travel. Sure, it makes a long-haul flight a little - or, a lot - more bearable, but how much is too much?

As the world goes increasingly wireless, we've learned to tolerate a certain degree of failure in our wireless systems--like when your computer just won't sync up with the wireless internet at the cafe, or when our phones drop a call. But what about situations when wireless systems simply cannot fail? A failure rate of zero is tough to achieve in any system, but computer scientists at Saarland University in Germany have demonstrated a wireless bicycle brake that works 99.999999999997 percent of the time.