We're starting today's 3D Printing News Briefs with a new system announcement, as Farsoon just introduced its FS200M 2 platform to the AMEA and North America AM market. Moving on, Senvol and Northrop Grumman presented together at RAPID about using machine learning to improve process parameter optimization. Finally, United Performance Metals announced a new Additive Manufacturing Solutions Center, and a new Innovation Centre for advanced materials & digitalization was established by TWI and Manchester Metropolitan University. Farsoon Technologies has introduced the latest addition to its medium-size metal LPBF line--the FS200M 2 platform, with a powerful dual 500-watt laser configuration and 425 x 230 x 300 mm build volume. The company says the versatile, compact printer offers maximized productivity and turn-over rates, and is well-suited for medium to high volume metal series production and prototyping.

Delivering presents to every child around the world in a single evening is an exhausting task, with only one man fit for the job - Father Christmas. But his outdated techniques seem more antiquated now than ever before. MailOnline spoke to a forward-thinking industry expert who offered Father Christmas some helpful advice to make his arduous task more efficient. Dr Carl Diver, academic lead at Manchester Metropolitan University in industry 4.0, said a hydrogen-powered sleigh, AI algorithms and elf-assisting robots could help. As well as streamlining production and making the manufacturing and delivery process more efficient, Dr Diver thinks the old methods would benefit from a sprucing up to make things easier, more cost-effective and better for the environment.

Accounts of mysterious flashing lights in the sky, spacecrafts and encounters with'real' aliens reflect high levels of public interest in UFOs and the belief that there is'something out there'. However, many psychologists are less convinced, and think they can provide more down-to-earth, scientific explanations. Belief in aliens has increased steadily since the birth of modern alien research in the 1940s and 1950s, following the news surrounding a classified US military project at Roswell Air Force Base, New Mexico. The theory that alien abductions are hoaxes may be true in a few cases, but there is no reason to assume that the majority of'experiencers' are frauds Surveys in Western cultures estimated belief in aliens to be as high as 50% in 2015. And despite the fact that it is considered rare, a significant number of people also believe they have experienced alien abduction.

There is a new technology being tested for use on UK civilians en masse on our streets, millimetre microwave scanners. These electromagnetic radiation scanners, which use Ultra Wide Band (UWB) at 75-110 GHz, are able to be beamed at crowds to detect potential concealed weapons being carried by individuals. Using the same technology as the American airport TSA scanners, over which there has been much controversy in the level of detail these scanners reveal about an individual, MiRTLE, provided by Radio Physics Solutions (RPS) purports to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify weapon shaped objects without the system revealing the human body image. Practically this would make sense, as a human operator seeing a crowd of people imaged by millimetre microwaves would not be able to effectively scan the crowd for weapon shaped objects or suicide vests. This technology is funded by us, to be used on us.

There is a new technology being tested for use on UK civilians en masse on our streets, millimetre microwave scanners. These electromagnetic radiation scanners, which use Ultra Wide Band (UWB) at 75-110 GHz, are able to be beamed at crowds to detect potential concealed weapons being carried by individuals. Using the same technology as the American airport TSA scanners, over which there has been much controversy in the level of detail these scanners reveal about an individual, MiRTLE, provided by Radio Physics Solutions (RPS) purports to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify weapon shaped objects without the system revealing the human body image. Practically this would make sense, as a human operator seeing a crowd of people imaged by'millimetre' microwaves would not be able to effectively scan the crowd for weapon shaped objects or suicide vests. Note that security workers, particularly those working at airports, have been drilled in various PR talking points in order to assuage public concerns on this experimental technology, including the popular corporate line that, "It's perfectly safe – it's on only millimeter microwaves."