As computing hardware becomes increasingly small and ubiquitous, one thing is for certain – technology will be watching us more than ever in years to come. Which isn’t a pretty picture for privacy – we may have to simply accept that our digital footprints will be registered whenever we are out in public. But perhaps in certain situations we will be able to fight fire with fire, and use ‘virtual walls’ to protect our secrets and confidences in a world where the real walls are what’s doing the watching.

Greenpeace have been sounding the alarm about climate change for as long as I can remember, and they show no signs of slacking off. Their latest publicity stunt, however, has a rather weird tinge to it – they’re building a replica of Noah’s Ark atop Mount Ararat in Turkey. Perhaps this is some attempt to appeal to creationist types (who seem statistically more likely to disbelieve climate science), but I can’t help feeling that the appropriation of this particular symbol may have the opposite effect to the one intended.

Self-replicating machines are an idea that will be familiar to a great number of science fiction readers – but did you know that they were first posited as genuine scientific theory by John von Neumann in 1966? And that now, in the era of nanotechnology, there are only a tiny handful of researchers enthisiastic enough about the concept to continue struggling against the lack of financial support for their work? Michael Anissimov has a potted history of self-replicating kinematic machines which will bring you up to date.

Scientific American has an interesting article [gruesome surgery image warning!] on anatomical hemispherectomies – a surgical procedure that essentially removes half of a patient’s brain for the purpose of curing severe seizures. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, many of the patients function perfectly well after the procedure, which highlights the adaptability of the brain as a system. If you’ve read Blindsight by Peter Watts, you’ll find this fascinating; if you haven’t read this Hugo-nominated masterpiece of hard science fiction, I guess you should set about downloading the free version to find out what you’re missing out on.

As if yesterday’s selection wasn’t enough, here’s even more space-related stuff to read – maybe the 30th anniversary of Star Wars has put everyone in the mood …

UK astrophysicists have discovered that the Sun broadcasts information about its chaotic weather cycles as fractal patterns imprinted in the solar wind.

The HiRISE orbiter has observed what appear to be immensely deep holes in the crust of Mars, which offer the best odds for harbouring life anywhere on the planet by staying at a relatively stable temperature and shielding occupants from radiation.

And, for the existentialists among you, George Dvorsky has a round-up of past and current theories on how our universe could die. Don’t worry too much, though – it’ll be trillions of years before it happens.