A leading Russian space industrialist has been discussing his country’s plans for manned missions beyond the ISS. He reckons they can do a manned moon landing by 2015, helium-3 mining there by 2025, and a Mars mission sometime between 2020 and 2030. He acknowledges the lack of budget for the next ten years, and is looking to commercial interests providing the cash.

We’ve already heard about flash memory made from nanotubes. Now plastics are getting in on the action – Singaporean scientists, having already nailed flash and WORM memory, have created DRAM from plastic polymers. We’re going to have to quit our love affair with silicon eventually, and this sort of stuff will enable us to do so.

There have been plenty of revelations regarding the harmfulness of alcohol in the last month or so. What we could do with is a way to experience the pleasurable aspects of inebriation (sociability, relaxation) without the unpleasent side effects (violence, memory loss, hangovers) – David Nutt of Bristol Univerity in the UK believes we could make a cocktail of drugs to create exactly this scenario. The health benefits sound great, but I’m willing to bet they can’t make the stuff taste like a fresh cool bottle of imported Grolsch. More’s the pity.

IBM announces the development of a method to hardwire encryption into a microprocessor. The system encrypts data at all stages, including onboard RAM – the only place it would be un-encrypted would be at the user’s screen. So good news for people worried about sensitive data being lifted from stolen kit, but bad news for the anti-DRM lobby – this system would make copyright enforcement a lot easier.

Ooops, looks like this one managed to slip by under the radar. Still well worth a mention though; Iain Emsley (fellow reviewer for Interzone) interviews David Marusek, author of ‘Counting Heads’, the SF novel whose NYT review caused such a furore in the genre.