Explosion

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced that the world's fastest hypersonic wind tunnel is up and running, a detonation-driven shock tunnel that'll allow aerodynamic testing for aircraft, spacecraft and missiles at air speeds up to Mach 30.

UCF researchers say they've trapped a sustained explosive detonation, fixed in place, for the first time, channeling its enormous power into thrust in a new detonation engine that could propel a hypersonic aircraft up to 17 times the speed of sound.

​Even if an armored military vehicle isn't destroyed when a land mine detonates underneath it, its occupants can still receive traumatic brain injuries. Scientists are trying to keep that from happening, with a new shock-absorbing system that could also have applications in civilian products.

Looking to tackle the early signs of traumatic brain injury, the US Navy is developing small sensors that, when paired with specialized scanner, can quickly convert blast pressure into a clear signal of whether of not that soldier should stand down.​​

SpaceX is hopeful it will resume launches of its Falcon 9 rocket by the end of the year as it narrows down the possible causes of the explosion​ on September 1 that destroyed the booster and its AMOS-6 satellite payload.

The best advice for surviving a nuclear bomb is to be somewhere else when it goes off. If that doesn't work out for you, though, a recent study carried out at the USDOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provides some simple guidance for maximizing your chances of survival.