Images Dated 30th July 2004

Illustration of Leonardo da Vincis parachute

First parachute design. Parachute designed and drawn by the Italian inventer Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Leonardo was the first person to suggest using a parachute to slow a person's rate of fall. At lower left is some of the mirror hand- writing that he used to keep his ideas secret. Leonardo devoted many years of research into studying flight and designing potential aircraft. Like many of his projects, the parachute design was never published and the parachute was never actually constructed. After Leonardo's death his notes lay unnoticed in a library until 1796, just a few years after parachutes had been re-invented by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard

© Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library

Lego robot spider climbing over a box

Robot spider. Lego robot spider climbing over a cardboard box. This autonomous toy spider can move freely over such obstacles unaided. It is controlled by a Mindstorm Lego brick (yellow, upper centre). This is a programmable Lego brick which can interact with its environment. The Mindstorm controls the movement of the spider by means of touch sensitive antennae (black rods protruding from the spider's ends), leg position sensors, light sensors, temperature sensors and four electric motors. The motors power the eight geared pneumatic legs (green). Software for the Mindstorm was written by the Lego corporation's research laboratory (LegoLab), Denmark

© VOLKER STEGER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Eurocup Formula Renault 2000: L-R: Scott Speed, Michael Ammermuller and Colin Fleming

L-R: Scott Speed (USA), Michael Ammermuller (GER) and Colin Fleming (USA).
Eurocup Formula Renault 2000, Rd7, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, 30 July 2004.
DIGITAL IMAGE

© Sutton Motorsport Images