The astronomy world is in a state of great excitement, thanks to new observations of the disk of matter surrounding the star Beta Pictoris. It appears that it has twice the expected amount of carbon in it. As usual, no-one is sure what this actually means in practice – it may be that this happens all the time (it’s just a phase that this and all other star systems go through), or it may be a rare anomoly that could produce spectacular and esoteric results when planets are formed. Diamond mountain ranges, anyone?

Killing tumours is a risky business; current methods like chemotherapy are very hard to target, leaving the patient exposed to risky and unpleasant side-effects. What is needed is a good accurate delivery system that gets the medicine to the relevent position effectively. Fortunately, University at Buffalo researchers have demonstrated a way of using magnetic fields to guide drug-loaded ‘nanocarriers’ to a tumour site before they unleash their payload. This could mean a lot less suffering for cancer patients in the future.

Satellite imagery has just gained a whole new dimension, literally. NASA’s new CloudSat is sending back its first images, which aren’t just normal pictures but three dimensional profiles of cloud formations. These radar images should supply us with new data that will increase our understanding of weather, and consequently the environment in general – which, at the moment, can only be a good thing.

After years of research and experimentation, scientists can finally grow diamonds that are the same (or better) quality as the ones that come from mines. Bad news for De Beers perhaps, but not for the electronics world – diamonds grown like this could be used as a semiconductor alternative to silicon. The repercussions on the next few decades of Moore’s Law are potentially huge, as Brian Wang points out.

New portable-media-phone-computer-GPS too big to fit in those tight tight jeans? Wouldn’t it be great if you could, well, fold up those inconvenient devices? Sony certainly think so, and have just patented a technique that would allow gadgets to be made rigid or flexible as the situation dictates, with minimal power drain.