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This morning the U.S. Navy launched the unmanned X-47B drone from the USS H. W. Bush nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The launch was a first of its kind, as is the X-47B, which is the first drone designed to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier. The X-47B is the size of a fighter jet, and can now be launched from almost anywhere in the world.

Some technology currently being used during battle in places like Afghanistan could soon find its way into the war on drugs. This weekend the U.S. Navy tested several items they hope could help them stop drug smugglers out on the open seas. The technology they're using isn't exactly new, but with sequester budget cuts in place, the Navy is getting creative.

Some science news stories involve NASA. Some involve volcanoes, noxious vapors, or even drones. What are the chances of all of the above rolled into one? Exceptional, because NASA in fact sent drones flying over an active volcano in Costa Rica. The only thing this story is missing are some dinosaur bones or a comet. For now.

Robot drones have a wide array of applications that range from spying on things to killing them. They're usually pretty unassuming to look at, but sometimes they're the stuff of nightmares, like the one pictured above. Proving that you can't judge a book by it's cover, this terrifying drone actually has one of the most mundane jobs we've seen. It isn't used for surveillance or killing, it's used for...

On hearing yesterday's news that Carnegie Mellon University had developed a robot that turns into a tank, one of my fellow Geekosystem editors pointed out that at some point, we're just asking for a violent robot uprising. He's not wrong. I can't imagine my co-worker is going to be exactly delighted, then, by the University of Pennsylvania's newest robotic offering, a quadcopter drone equipped with a mechanical talon that allows it to snatch prey from the sky like a robotic eagle. While clearly terrifying, it's also pretty awesome, and you can get a look at in action below.

A while back, we brought you the news that the Pentagon was considering awarding a new medal -- the Distinguished Warfare Medal -- to soldiers who may have never set foot on a battlefield. That idea didn't set well with some lawmakers and plenty of veterans, though. In the face of these protests, newly minted Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has ordered a halt to the production of the medals pending a review of the new award.

On Wednesday afternoon, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced a new medal would be added to the roster of decorations for American soldiers -- the Distinguished Warfare Medal. Like most other medals, this one will be awarded to soldiers whose actions had a heroic impact on the battlefield. Unlike other medals, though, it won't require that the soldier have actually been on the battlefield, as the Distinguished Warfare Medal is meant to honor cyberwarriors, drone pilots, and others who serve their country remotely, sometimes without ever being involved in traditional combat. Learn more and get a look at the new medal below.

Want some creepy, Big Brother flavored news? The British government is mulling a plan that would riddle its telecommunication infrastructure with "probes" that could surreptitiously read and glean information from citizens' emails and Facebook messages. Any other day, that would be the most offensive and invasive thing done by any major world power to their citizens. The United Kingdom got a stroke of luck, though, releasing the report in the wake of a leak from the U.S. Department of Justice that outlined the circumstances in which the United States government can use a robot to rain fire from the sky on a U.S. citizen without due process. Which is...probably worse? Yeah, probably worse. No one is having a great day here, though.

Something that's called The Black Hornet Nano Unmanned Air Vehicle sounds like it would be terrifying, but measuring in at about four inches long and weighing a scant 16 grams, it borders on being downright cute. The Black Hornet's diminutive scale doesn't stop it from aiding British troops in Afghanistan in seeking out enemy targets and checking if an area is safe before entering. This once again proves that it's not the size of your drone that matters -- it's how you use it.

Have you always wanted a tiny robot that hovers behind you, documenting your every move, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a lumbering UAV or a quadcopter so noisy it can't join you inside fancy restaurants? Of course you have, because it's pretty clearly the coolest part of living in a self-inflicted Orwellian police state. Well, your long wait is getting close to over with the announcement of MeCam, a tiny, digital camera-equipped quadcopter that will follow you around and upload pictures and videos of you to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and more in real time. Even better? The MeCam is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and should retail for just $50 when it comes to market early next year, meaning you'll never again have to worry about living an unexamined life.

If you're one of those folks who is always on the lookout for the latest and greatest new advance in home security technology, we've got you covered -- or at least, we know who does. Japanese security firm Secom is preparing to launch a new service that will let home and small business owners rent a quadcopter drone that the company claims will launch automatically in the event of a burglary, snapping pictures of the invaders and even capturing live video of them as the crime is in progress.

This is HyTAQ, the latest demonstration of quadcopter technology from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Unlike standard quadcopters we've shown you before, though, HyTAQ is a little more versatile. If weather conditions or other factors leave the copter unable to fly, it can keep chugging along courtesy of it's convenient cage, which acts as a sort of robotic hamster ball, allowing HyTAQ to move along the ground -- including rough terrain like sand dunes -- as easily as it glides through the air.  The bot has been in development for sometime, but footage of it in action dropped only recently, and you've got to see this thing in action for yourself.

Tired of walking your kid to the bus stop every morning? Inventive dad Paul Wallich was. That's why he outsourced the gig to a quadcopter keyed in to track a GPS beacon stashed in his son's backpack. The result is a pretty amazing piece of high-tech parenting -- a flying drone that can follow his child from a set distance and make sure the kid stays out of trouble.

The idea of using an app on the iPhone to aggregate the various unmanned drone strikes that the United States takes part in is kind of impressive. Using the iPhone's specific ability to push notifications to users when each drone strike happens? Brilliant. That's what Drones+ does -- which isn't all that dissimilar from traditional news offerings, as it's the same information presented in a different way. Not according to Apple, though, as they have rejected the app due to the objectionable content found within.

A new contract announced last Wednesday should give all Linux users a warm feeling, as the Navy has decided to make the open source OS the foundation for its drone fleet. All it will cost is about $34 million for the entire fleet of MQ-8B Firescouts. No word if they'll be getting Tux decals too.