Radar

While today's cars are getting increasingly good at detecting other vehicles on the road ahead, they can still be surprised by traffic that shoots out from intersecting streets. A new radar system may help, by letting cars "see" around blind corners.

Five years ago Garmin first introduced its Varia Radar system, which warns cyclists of cars approaching from behind. The company has now announced an updated version, that offers a couple of key improvements over the original.

Scientists have mapped an entire buried ancient Roman city known as Falerii Novi using radar technology. The researchers unraveled the secrets of the city 30.5 hectare Italian city by riding over its remains in a quad bike towing a radar instrument.

Physicists have harnessed the weird world of quantum physics to develop a “quantum radar” prototype. The system uses the quantum entanglement phenomenon to detect objects, and it could eventually outperform conventional radar in some circumstances.

Ordinarily, self-driving cars use cameras and other sensors to "see" where they are on the road. However, what happens if the road markings are covered in snow? Well, MIT has developed a system that lets vehicles look beneath the asphalt instead.

While most people may swear that they'd never do it, drivers do sometimes forget that they've got an infant or pet in the car, leaving them in the parked vehicle. A newly-developed radar sensor, however, could keep that from happening.

After studying vintage film of Antarctic radar data, Thwaites Glacier was found to be melting even faster than we thought.

The smaller and lighter electronics get, the more ways they can be used. A team of researchers has come up with a compact radar system the size of a matchbox that could be deployed in drones and other gadgets where portability and low cost are important.

Last year a huge lake of liquid water was apparently found beneath the ice at the Martian south pole. A new study has now examined how it might have gotten there, and concluded that Mars must have had volcanic activity much more recently than is normally believed, and may even still be active today.

Scientists from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica's (INAF) Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali and the University of Perugia have developed a towable ground radar designed to look for water on the planet Mars that was tested by a team of analog astronauts.

​Could the stethoscope be on its way to becoming a quaint instrument from yesteryear? Well, maybe. German scientists are reporting success in using radar to monitor people's heartbeats – and the technology could allow for more accurate diagnoses of heart maladies.

Although finger-prick blood glucose tests are a daily necessity for millions of diabetics, a less-painful alternative may be on the horizon. Led by Prof. George Shaker, a team from Canada's University of Waterloo is looking at using radar and artificial intelligence (AI) to do the job.