Chalk one up for British engineering. Qinetiq have just demonstrated the results of an MOD-funded research project, the flight test of a system that can control and autonomously organise multiple unmanned aircraft at the command of a single remote operator. It won’t be long before there’s no need for human beings in the front line of warfare at all – but will that make war more or less appealing an option?

Jeff Bezos’ private space program, Blue Origins, had a test flight earlier this month. Now it looks like a second test flight will happen sometime this week.

World Health Organisation scientists have published a set of predictions for the main causes of death and disease in the year 2030. While some of the results are pretty depressing (deaths from AIDS to almost double the current rate), there is some good news too (people will be far less likely to die before the age of five, due to developing nations being able to afford better hygiene measures).

The Japanese have always been rather more obsessed with robots than any other culture, and they are way out in front as far as putting them to work among humans is concerned – last week we met the robot receptionist; now say hello to Reborg-Q, the robotic shopping mall security guy. In addition to answering basic questions from the public and spouting promotional slogans from time to time, he’s packing four video cameras which automatically connect to some lazy meatpuppet in the security den when he spies mischief. Plus, he’s got one up on the daleks – he can control elevators to his advantage. You can run, but you can’t hide!

‘Swarm’ seems to be the big buzzword in robotics research at the moment. The latest iteration of this paradigm is the swarmanoid, a distributed entity consisting of three discreet types of miniature robot – feet, hands and eyes – that can act collaboratively to move heavy objects and navigate complex terrain. This may produce artificial beings better suited to acting in human environments than the results of the ‘classic’ anthropomorphic designs, able to assist with real-world tasks like tidying bedrooms or rescuing earthquake victims.