We’ve already heard about flash memory made from nanotubes. Now plastics are getting in on the action – Singaporean scientists, having already nailed flash and WORM memory, have created DRAM from plastic polymers. We’re going to have to quit our love affair with silicon eventually, and this sort of stuff will enable us to do so.

There have been plenty of revelations regarding the harmfulness of alcohol in the last month or so. What we could do with is a way to experience the pleasurable aspects of inebriation (sociability, relaxation) without the unpleasent side effects (violence, memory loss, hangovers) – David Nutt of Bristol Univerity in the UK believes we could make a cocktail of drugs to create exactly this scenario. The health benefits sound great, but I’m willing to bet they can’t make the stuff taste like a fresh cool bottle of imported Grolsch. More’s the pity.

Simson Garfinkel wants you to leave paper behind and embrace open standard digital file formats. Yeah, I know, the paperless office is so 1990s, but Garfinkel makes a reasoned argument that formats like JPEG and PDF will be readable for a long time.

Two supermassive black holes are on a collision course in the cluster of galaxies called Abell 40. That would beat Nascar crashes any day.

Considering that a single cross-country flight puts an amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere roughly equal to the annual output of all of its passengers cars combined, it’s surprising that the environmental impact of plane travel is often overlooked. For that reason, I’m happy to report that there are people out there working on the problem: Robert D. Hunt in this case, with his gravity-powered plane that ostensibly can fly without the use of fuel. Further, the design of the plane grants it some of the benefits, such as VTOL and hovering capability, previously available only to zeppelins (no, the Osprey and Harrier don’t count).