The everyday apps for carbon nanotubes are coming thick and fast. Pro bike manufacturers BMC have released a bike frame made from carbon nanofibre composite which weighs about the same as five mobile phones. Hardly a snip at £2100 ($3650), though.

Looks like someone’s working on one of Ray Kurzweil’s many futurist projects…Kwabena Boahen, an associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University, leads a research group that is trying to mimic the functions of the brain’s complex neural system using silicon chips.

In Nature magazine’s free on-and-offline edition about scientific computing, you can read an article by Vernor Vinge which examines the impact of MMORPGs and other ‘virtual worlds’ on the way we think, work and play. The material resonates nicely with his forthcoming novel, ‘Rainbows End’.

It’s amazing what people are doing with the Google Maps API. I’m really digging the Flood Maps, which show you where the water would be if the seas rise by anywhere from 0 to 14 meters. Looks like 8 meters is the sweet spot for me — so far as I can tell, that puts my condo right on the new beach. (Too bad the new beach will consist primarily of a submerged 101 freeway.) Before you have too much fun with the map, keep in mind that the default setting of 7 meters is how much the oceans will likely rise if Greenland’s ice pack melts completely. Greenland’s ice pack is already melting (albeit slowly).

Interesting article from professional contrarian Cringely, whose reading of the budgetary tea leaves leads him to the conclusion that the boom in Homeland Security funding went to personnel before the IT investment could be made. All those companies who were counting on Homeland Security dollars to kick start their technology projects may be left out in the cold.