Can your ability to pay attention be trained and improved? That is the question being investigated by scientists using real-time Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to observe the human brain in action. It’s already been shown that patients can learn to alleviate chronic pain by watching the images and using them as a feedback loop to tame thgeir minds – but can it be used to help people with attention deficit disorders to improve their concentration?

Among the many hazards facing human astronauts making long interplanetary journeys, radiation damage is one of the trickiest to combat. Sure, you could shield their capsule with lead, but then your logistics would take on epic proportions due to the massive weight of the vehicle and the subsequent need for more fuel.So you’d need to use something light – how about a few grams of hydrogen gas?

The gadgets and technology that fill our world assail our senses constantly. Well, all but one of them – touch is largely ignored in favour of the visual and audio channels. That is all set to change in the next few years, as manufacturers seek to use technologies that engage the tactile senses to broaden our experiences. Such ‘haptic’ devices will appear first in the gaming business (where they have already established a foothold), but as the technology improves, every device we have will be trying to reach out and touch us in some way.

If there’s one major priority in space, it’s making sure you’ve got enough oxygen available. A close second is recycling – not just packaging and so forth, but ‘human by-products’ as well. The crew of the ISS are about to start killing two birds with one stone as they install a device prosaically named the Oxygen Generation System, which is designed to make breathable air from purified urine. Brings a whole new meaning to ‘atmosphere leak’.

Plenty of research is dedicated to finding ways to improve the human condition, especially for those less fortunate than most. Cybernetic implants to help the blind to see are one such popular field, and a team at the University of Glasgow are hoping to use the same technology employed in digital cameras to create a retinal prosthesis that will pipe visual data directly to the brain via the optic nerve. The current versions are still quite basic, but they envisage smart-chip developments in the future enabling added features such as slow-motion replay – which will doubtless be fitted as standard to all football referees.