American military forces will soon use a pair of blimps, tethered to the ground and outfitted with attack radar, to detect enemy targets and incoming fire. The blimp can them launch a Patriot missile at any incoming fire. If the system works fast enough the debris caused from the two missiles colliding will fall back on the enemy.

Ford and General Motors will soon add, as an option to the basic radio, a satellite receiver that will deliver up to 100 channels of music anywhere in the US. The companies plan to launch their satellites early next year. The service will cost about $10 per month and will be available in 2001.

If you would like to join the hunt for ET you can download a screen saver that will analyze data from the radio telescope in Arceibo, Puerto Rico. The software will download the information over the Internet. You can help out by going to http://www.planetary.org.

Researchers at Michigan State University are attempting to build a pen that works like an inkjet printer. The pen will contain a nanotubes that will hold atoms of ink that will be inscribed on the paper. A micro mechanism will link atoms together and deposit it on the writing surface at a rate of 64,000 per second.

Argon-filled frames will soon protect the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The documents are currently stored in helium-filled frames that have been in use since 1951 and were expected to last 100 years. The frames have appeared to have failed allowing atmospheric gases to enter the frames and cause the documents to begin to deteriorate. The new frames are going to be made of tempered glass and titanium. The reframed documents will be put on display in 2003 at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

NASA's Chandra X-Ray telescope, launched on the shuttle mission in July, is 100 times more sensitive and has 10 times greater resolution than any telescope ever built. To put this in perspective, you could use it to read your computer screen from half a mile away. The images that the telescope sends back will help astronomers answer questions about the formation of the universe.

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