New technologies abound these days, but they can take some time to build by conventional assembly methods. California-based EoPlex Technologies reckon we ahould ‘think ink’. They are using cutting edge 3D printing technologies to build devices like fuel cells in much less than the two weeks it takes usually – they predict a three minute assembly time once they get a full scale production line running, but at the moment they can prototype in a day.

Tony Blair, repeating whatever Bush says in time-honoured fashion, is pushing for a ‘nuclear renaissance’ in the UK to solve our coming energy crisis. Thing is, it may not be all plain sailing for our Tony, as the nuclear industry has a desperate shortage of incoming workers at all levels, largely due to a lack of interest in training for the roles. Even the £10,000 sign-up bonuses aren’t helping.

Solar power is a great idea; it uses a resource that we won’t ever run out of (for a few million years at least). But current manifestations are very inefficient. Brian Wang rounds up some news about the potential of quantum dots to revolutionise solar cells, giving them an efficiency of 65%. Maybe he should contact that Australian grad student.

The curse of technology – you just have to keep upgrading for better performance. And this applies not only to your fruit-branded laptop (eh, Jeremy?) – the Mars rover robots need upgrades and software updates too.

The Moon has no magnetic field like Earth’s, which means that anyone spending a long time there is going to be bombarded with a whole lot of radiation from the Sun. And as we all know, radiation exposure isn’t good for you, to say the least. The NASA thinkers need ways to protect the next generation of Moon explorers from the cosmic rays, and the simplest solution would appear to be to just bury the habitats under the Lunar soil.