Gareth L. Powell, an up-and-coming British science fiction writer, is offering you the chance to win a signed copy of the manuscript for an as-yet-unwritten story. All you need to do is suggest the name and nationality of the story’s female lead character.

Renowned science fiction author Gregory Benford has recently returned from a four week sojourn that took in Sri Lanka (hob-nobbing with Arthur C. Clarke, no less) India and Singapore. I’m insanely jealous, but at least we all get to read Benford’s account of his travels at Centauri Dreams, in which he speculates on the socioeconomic future of these developing nations.

Computer chips have been evolving since they were first created – but only at the hands of their creators, each generation designed from the hard-learned lessons of the last. That may become a thing of the past, as we hear that a team of Norwegian techsperts have built the first computer hardware that ‘evolves’ of its own accord while it’s still running. If this takes off, there’s a whole new route to artificial intelligence about to open up.

Second Life isn’t cruising the headlines quite the way it was a few months back, but that doesn’t mean that everything has gone quiet there. It’s obviously still seen as a viable platform for business – of one type or another – if the sale of the notorious red-light Amsterdam sim for a cool $50,000 is anything to go by.

Nuclear fission is increasingly being viewed as a viable solution to not just the climate crisis but also the dwindling world supplies of fossil fuels. Even leaving safety debates aside, this could be a blind alley for US energy plans, as MIT reports that there may not be enough uranium available to expand the number of reactors significantly. Which, given the increase in demand for reactor build permits, could cause some serious problems in the mid- to long term.