A fleet of spacecraft flying in formation could form a powerful telescope, but keeping them synchronised using thrusters fritters away precious fuel. Superconducting magnets mounted on the spacecraft could do the trick instead, says Shin-ichiro Sakai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Adjusting the orientation of the magnetic poles would draw the spacecraft together or push them apart.
A virtual-reality system has been designed to study how flies use visual stimuli to help them navigate. A team at the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Zurich, Switzerland, built a wind tunnel with changing scenes projected onto its walls. A camera tracks the fly, while the projected images respond to its movement. The system could also help engineers develop moving wings for small aircraft.