Designing a car that can break the world land speed record is a tricky balancing act. It has to be incredibly fast and lightweight, while also offering unparalleled protection on the track. Not only in case there’s a conventional crash, either; even a tiny pebble could have devastating consequences for a vehicle travelling at up to 1, 000mph . To protect the British Bloodhound supersonic car , which Andy Green will be piloting in a record-breaking attempt later this year, the team has developed special panels that are effectively bulletproof . They’re constructed from millions of woven glass fibres that intentionally fray and soak up energy when hit by a fast-moving projectile. In the video below, engineers test their durability by firing a small shard from a cannon. Thankfully they’re up to the task, giving Green one less worry when he tries to break the current record (763mph) in South Africa. [Image Credit: Bloodhound] Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Sky Source: Bloodhound

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The ‘1,000mph’ Bloodhound car is so fast it needs to be bulletproof

NVIDIA has officially launched the GTX 960M , and a number of manufacturers have revealed new, thin gaming laptops the video card was designed for at the same time. One of those laptops is the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) G501, which measures 0.81-inch in depth (0.30-inch thicker than the new Macbooks ) and weighs 4.54 pounds. The GTX 960M card inside it can deliver “sharp, vivid visuals, high-quality textures and smooth framerates in the most demanding games, ” at least according to Asus. In addition to the video card, you can find a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 4GB of GDDR5 and a 512GB SSD under the hood, encased in typical ROG brushed metal body with red accents. The device comes pre-installed with Windows 8.1 and has a 15.6-inch 4K/UHD display, three USB 3.0 ports and an Intel Thunderbolt connection. Plus, it uses the company’s dual-fan cooling system for super slim laptops called ASUS Hyper Cool Technology. It will set you back $1, 999 when it becomes available in April. If you want a gaming laptop right now , though, ASUS is also rereleasing a couple of older models equipped with NVIDIA’s new graphics cards today. First is the lower-end version of the G751 called the G751JL, which comes with the new GTX 965M graphics card instead of the GTX 980M/970M, like you can find inside the former. It costs $1, 399, or $100 cheaper than the previous model’s cheapest unit. Finally, the company is updating its GL551 laptops with the GTX 960M cards to release two versions that cost $1, 099 and $1, 299, depending on their SSDs. All these laptops are (or will be, in G501’s case) available in various retail outlets, but make sure to check out the ASUS G-Series website first for more info and a list of stores that where you can find them. Filed under: Laptops , ASUS Comments Source: ASUS

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ASUS’ G501 gaming laptop comes with NVIDIA’s new graphics card

It wasn’t just Apple that had a day to forget yesterday — Spanish antivirus outfit Panda Security managed to give its products the digital equivalent of lupus. An update to the company’s various tools caused the software to think that parts of its own technology was a nefarious attacker. According to users on Reddit , Panda also (incorrectly) put Office, Chrome, Firefox and even Windows Updates on the hit list, wreaking havoc with people’s computers. Last update about issue with the signature file in Panda Cloud Office Protection and Retail 2015 http://t.co/Le2urbNLCM – Panda Security (@Panda_Security) March 12, 2015 The company quickly moved to address the problem, and has already deployed a fix to prevent your computers waging war on themselves. For those who have been affected, Panda is advising users not to restart their machine and wait for things to settle down. If you’re still having trouble, however, then you can download a tool on the company’s website that’ll help you put your digital life back together. [Thanks, Alex] Filed under: Software Comments Source: Reddit , Panda Security , (2)

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Panda’s antivirus software accidentally tried to eat itself

Enceladus used to be just another icy moon until the Cassini spacecraft spotted geysers on its surface, spewing water 125 miles into the sky back in 2005. Now, after years of research, scientists have published two studies suggesting that these geysers are caused by hydrothermal vents or fissures that heat the water at the bottom of the 6-mile-deep ocean beneath the Saturn’s moon ice crust. Why is that important? Well, if the vents truly exist, the waters that surround them will contain chemicals and minerals necessary for life. Plus, the conditions around those vents will be similar to the environment surrounding Atlantic Ocean’s hydrothermal field — the place where life on Earth might have begun. The first study published in Nature explores the findings of the researchers who analyzed and studied samples from Saturn’s outermost ring within the past four years. They determined that the minuscule particles the spacecraft collected are grains of silica formed from water erupted by the geysers. Since these particles can only be formed by water with specific saline content, pH and temperatures around 200 degrees Fahrenheit, they strongly indicate the existence of hydrothermal activity beneath the moon’s oceans. The other study published in Geophysical Research Letters reinforces the belief that there are hydrothermal vents on the Saturn moon. It suggests that the methane content in gas and ice particles collected from southern geysers is a product of hydrothermal activities. Whether or not life actually exists on Enceladus, however, remains to be seen. Space agencies will probably need to send underwater robots similar to the ones they plan to send to Jupiter’s moon Europa to collect samples before they can confirm anything. If they do find signs of life, then Enceladus might be the key to helping us understand how life started on our planet. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech] Filed under: Science Comments Source: NASA , ESA , Nature , Geophysical Research Letters

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Saturn’s icy moon possibly has warm waters that could foster life

Lost in the news of Retina-equipped, 12-inch MacBook was the arrival of all-new MacBook Air models with the latest Intel HD6000 graphics and CPUs. Apple also boasted that the 13-inch version has disk speeds “up to two times faster” than the last generation, and thanks to iFixit , we now know why. The bigger model packs a brand new 128GB M.2 x 4 SSD from frenemy Samsung — which owns the PCIe SSD market at the moment — giving it a stellar max read speed of 1, 285MB/s. That’s twice as fast as the SanDisk-equipped 11-inch MacBook Air, which still cooks along at a mere 668MB/s. The good news is that the SSDs are one of the few replaceable parts, and you could actually swap in the faster part on the smaller Air. That’s assuming you’re feeling brave — the MacBook air only rates 4 out of 10 on iFixit’s repairability scale. [Image credit: iFixit] Filed under: Laptops , Apple Comments Source: iFixit

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MacBook Air’s super fast disk speeds come from Samsung SSDs