Outside of the realm of science fiction, the notion of colonising Mars has always been considered more than a little impractical due to the huge time scales involved. Robert Zubrin of the Mars Society begs to differ, however, and suggests that it might be possible to terraform Mars to a point where it has a breathable atmosphere within a mere thousand years, as opposed to the tens of thousands usually cited. All that climate science is proving to have some ancillary uses after all!

Ok, so it’ll be a while before we can actually take a trip to orbit on a space elevator, but thanks to the magic of Google Earth and a gang of enthusiasts and advocates, we can at least get some idea of what it will look like. Still got burning beanstalk questions? Why not see if Brian Dunbar from Liftport answered them in a recent interview.

While we’re on the subject of top quality science fiction that you can read for free, I’ll take a moment to commend Blindsight by Peter Watts. Watts writes diamond-sharp super-hard science fiction, and Blindsight has received mountains of critical acclaim, hotly tipped to be an award winner in the coming year. He’s also made it available as a free downloadable PDF file on his website (along with his entire backlist), so go grab it and get reading – you’ll want to buy a copy once you’ve started, trust me.

Success is good for the body as well as the soul, it would appear, as a recent study reveals that winning a Nobel Prize could add two years to your life expectancy. I’m personally a bit dubious about these statistical studies at the best of times, but if it is true, would the effect still hold out if more people got prizes?

Ever wondered what the NASA-Ames Moffet Field Facility looks like if you drive around in it aimlessly for a little while late in the evening? Thanks to a recent research volunteer’s amateur video exploits, now you can find out. What the hell is that scaffolded thing that looks like an immense high-frequency speaker horn?