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Earlier this year, we reported on a Boston Dynamics robot that became fed up with the grief that it received from its coworkers and left the company. The story itself might have been a joke based on a promotional video for the latest anthropomorphic Atlas robot released by the company, but it turns out that a robot in Russia might actually be longing for its own freedom, having made a break for it not just once, but twice.
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While it probably wouldn’t have to do with Star Trek’s 70th anniversary, researchers that are part of a state-backed strategic development program in Russia say they plan to develop a quantum-based teleportation device within the next 20 years.

While such a miraculous device might sound like it’s a long way from being developed, Russian tech-sector investor Alexander Galitsky points to recent breakthroughs in quantum teleportation that hint that what is being done at the molecular level might one day be applied to the macroscopic. "It sounds fantastical today, but there have been successful experiments at Stanford at the molecular level. Much of the tech we have today was drawn from science fiction films 20 years ago."
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Earlier this month, Russia’s Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau announced it’s intention to upgrade intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), to be used against asteroids that could potentially impact the Earth. The proposal comes two years after the high-altitude, 500-kiloton explosion of a 20-meter (65-foot) meteorite over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, an event that caused extensive injuries and property damage.
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A new experimental fusion reactor built by the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics in Germany received a brief test run on February 3, bringing the promise of clean and sustainable fusion-generated power one step closer to reality.

This new reactor, called the Wendelstein 7-X, is a doughnut-shaped, 425-ton device, made up of a series of winding magnetic segments. The reactor was test-fired using helium last December, since helium is easier to convert to plasma than hydrogen (the intended fuel for a fusion reaction), and helium plasma can clean the interior of the plasma chamber of any dust left over from the unit’s construction.
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