The invisible infrastructure in the sky; TED2026

  Adam Bry, TED2026;The invisible infrastructure in the sky

"Drones aren't just weapons of war; they're becoming first responders, infrastructure inspectors and guardians of the grid. Adam Bry, who leads the top drone manufacturer in the US, shows how autonomous flying robots are transforming emergency response and public safety — from detecting faulty power lines and preventing wildfires to catching crime in real time. Watch as he demos the technology live from the TED stage, piloting a drone in Tokyo from his laptop in Vancouver. (Followed by a note from TED guest curator Bilawal Sidhu)"

Dogs and drones: how scientists are saving Washington’s endangered orcas; The Guardian, October 2, 2025

The Guardian; Dogs and drones: how scientists are saving Washington’s endangered orcas

"Dressed in a bright orange lifejacket – and sometimes goggles – Eba perches atop Giles’s research boat, scanning the wind. When she catches a whiff of orca faeces, she raises her nose, sometimes whimpering or wagging her tail to point Giles in the right direction. Orca-detecting dogs have become an unlikely ally in the fight to save the whales.

“We wanted to use Eba because it allows us to stay really far away from the whales and not stress them out,” says Giles, a member of the marine conservation organisation SeaDoc Society.

Through the study of whale faeces, researchers can uncover a wealth of biological insights from a single sample, including diet, hormone levels, exposure to toxins, pregnancy, gut microbiome composition and the amount of microplastics in their system, as well as the presence of parasites, bacteria and fungi...

Out on the boat with Giles are James Sheppard, a scientist at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and Charlie Welch, an SDZWA volunteer and head of Proper Voltage, a company focused on sustainable battery technology. Together, they have spent a decade developing conservation drones that can capture samples of the cloud-like plumes of breath from orcas’ blowholes with mounts holding petri dishes.

Sheppard says: “We need to get data that is robust and as close to real-time as possible, so that we can find out if there’s a real problem. Then the animal-care staff can go in and stage an intervention if it’s needed.”"

Putin’s Twisted Drone Scheme Now Has Kids Helping to Kill Kids; The Daily Beast, August 29, 2025

 Anna Nemtsova, The Daily Beast ; Putin’s Twisted Drone Scheme Now Has Kids Helping to Kill Kids

"Children as young as 7 are now being forced to join Vladimir Putin’s dystopian drone war, which rained down attacks on Kyiv on Thursday that left 23 people dead, including four kids.

The 7-year-olds are not directly involved in the war in Ukraine, but in a chilling escalation, they will be trained as future drone pilots as part of their education in school from next year. And then, starting in ninth grade, children are being actively recruited to work in a drone factory that is part of a college where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are sent to kill civilians in Ukraine are being manufactured.

Conditions are brutal in the drone factory at Alabuga college, 600 miles west of Moscow, with allegations of bullying and physical abuse. One of the young workers, who asked to be called Kate, told the Daily Beast that she was being reprogrammed into an “unbreakable” part of Putin’s war machine...

Putin said drone piloting had to become a part of the school program to teach children “to pilot, assemble and construct drones.”

“I am convinced that it will make the kids busy with something useful and interesting, distract them from things they should not be doing,” he explained."

WATCH: How Drones Are Saving Lives in Rural America; Government Technology, August 19, 2024

 Nikki Davidson , Government Technology; WATCH: How Drones Are Saving Lives in Rural America

"Until recently, deputies in rural Manitowoc County, Wis., faced a challenge: responding to calls with limited visibility and resources. Traditional policing methods often left them at a disadvantage in vast, wooded areas. 

In June 2022, the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office embarked on a mission to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into their law enforcement operations to give them an eye in the sky. Two lieutenants, Travis Aleff and Kyle Stotzheim, were tasked with spearheading the initiative, working “non-stop” for half a year to establish a fully operational drone team with 13 FAA-certified pilots.

Initially there were a lot of questions about the program’s cost-effectiveness and whether the investment in drones would yield tangible benefits...

To understand the real-world impact of drones in law enforcement, we requested examples from the sheriff’s office, complete with video footage. They provided three compelling cases, each demonstrating a different facet of how UAVs can revolutionize police work and enhance public safety.

DRONES AS A LIFELINE: ENHANCING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE

One example highlights the potential of drones to aid in mental health crisis response. The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office received a call concerning a suicidal, armed individual who intended to harm themselves in a densely wooded county park. Watch the video below to see how the UAV was used as a tool to defuse and safely resolve the situation."