Flying robots can find uses from searching for victims following natural disasters to letting the military keep an eye on potential targets on the battle field. But flying can use a lot of energy and as drones get smaller, their ability to stay in the air for peroids of time that make them useful quickly diminish. But now scientists have come up with a solution - an aerial microbot nicknamed the RoboBee which can land on any surface to rest much like a real insect. Scientists have come up with an aerial microbot nicknamed the RoboBee (three attached to a leaf, pictured). By giving their tiny robot the ability to perching on a surface, researchers have dramatically reduced the amount of energy needed to power these mini flying robots.

Media organizations are explicitly exempted from these suggestions. That's because the government doesn't want to run the risk of appearing like it's treading on First Amendment principles.

A drone takes a practice flight in Virginia with medical supplies -- part of a project to evaluate the flying machines for use in humanitarian crises. A drone takes a practice flight in Virginia with medical supplies -- part of a project to evaluate the flying machines for use in humanitarian crises. She was a mother in rural Ghana. She only wanted four children. That's a story that Faustina Fynn-Nyame told at the Women Deliver conference this week in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Flapping two tiny wings, the small, thin robot wobbles its way towards the underside of a leaf, bumps into the surface and latches on, perching motionless above the ground. Moments later, its wings begin to flap once more and it jiggles off on its way. The little flying machine, dubbed a "RoboBee", has been designed to perch on a host of different surfaces, opening up new possibilities for the use of drones in providing a bird's-eye view of the world, scientists say. Know as micro aerial vehicles, such robots could be invaluable in reconnaissance of disaster zones or to form impromptu communication networks. But there is a hitch: flying takes energy, so the time these robots can spend in the air is limited by the size of the battery pack they can carry.

This little flying machine, dubbed a "RoboBee", has been designed to perch on a host of different surfaces, opening up new possibilities for the use of drones in providing a bird's-eye view of the world, scientists say.

Martine Rothblatt, futurist and founder of Sirius XM, says by the time her biotech company's genetically modified transplant organs are in use, drones will likely deliver them. Rothblatt gave her view of the future at The Washington Post's Transformers conference Wednesday. Her United Therapeutics company, which has offices is Silver Spring, Md. and Research Triangle Park, N.C., is raising pigs with genome modifications its researchers hope will improve the animals' organs for transplant recipients. Pigs organs, because of their size and function, make good transplant material, but often the patient is trading their current disease for "a chronic organ rejection kind-of-disease that ultimately takes the life of many, if not most, people who receive transplants," she said. The company hopes to begin trials on organ transplants from genetically-modified pigs by the end of the decade, with regulatory approval ten years from now, Rothblatt said.

Earlier this year, a small robotic helicopter flying through the Bavarian Alps made more than 100 deliveries between two villages that are within yodeling distance of each other but so far from anything else that they may as well be on Mars. The Paketkopter carried medicine and other small parcels through wind and snow without the slightest problem, even as Amazon and Google and UPS hone their autonomous tech and try not to hit anything. The little drone that could flew from one "Skyport" to another at 45 mph, turning into a half-hour slog by truck into an eight-minute hop. "We purposely chose the test area to pose a new and bigger challenge," says DHL spokesperson Dunja Kuhlmann. The German shipping company started experimenting with drones in 2013, sending small parcels across the Rhine on a quadcopter.

Beginning May 2nd, the FAA deployed five different rotor and fixed-wing unmanned aircraft systems in about 40 trials to evaluate the FBI's detection technology. Academics and staff came from a host of agencies, including the FBI, Department of Justice, the Queens District Attorney's office, and Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey. The drone-detecting tests expanded on research done earlier this year at Atlantic City International Airport. The FAA must continue these evaluations as part of the FY 2016 Appropriations law. The agency hasn't nailed down a strategy to detect civilian drones and their operators, but least we can rest easy knowing we can knock them out of the sky with a net bazooka or trained hawk when the time comes.

The United States military killed a senior Al Qaeda leader Tuesday in an airstrike in Afghanistan's southern Zabul Province, the local website Tolo News reported, citing a statement from Afghan special forces. The Al Qaeda commander killed in the airstrike was identified by Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense as Mullah Mohammad Ali. The U.S. military confirmed a strike took place in the same location yesterday, but would not say whether a senior Al Qaeda leader was killed. "We can confirm that U.S. Forces conducted a counter-terrorism strike in the Shah Joyi district, Zabul province, May 17. For operational security reasons, we do not discuss the details of counter-terrorism operations," said the statement from Operation Resolute Support, the name for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan.

In recent years, technology has become the primary focus of businesses around the world. Whether it's virtual reality for training your dog or laser hair removal for grooming your cat, the uses can seem a bit trivial at times. Thankfully, one company is making an effort to save lives when it comes to technology. And drones are at the head of the pack. EHang is the company behind dozens of drone breakthroughs.