Science fiction writer and foresight consultant Karl Schroeder reports that the price of breaking the barrier between the virtual and the real has fallen to well under $10,000. Says Mr. Schroeder: “The technology is evolving so rapidly, in fact, that we’re likely to see a kind of Moore’s Law liftoff in the next several years. Consider that Canon has just announced it will start selling a 3d printer this summer. Fab technology is rapidly tipping over into home hobbyist territory and, once that happens, expect things to accelerate.” This isn’t fiction any more, boys and girls.

All is not well with the computer hardware aboard the International Space Station. Apparently the installation of the new solar arrays has somehow caused a serious malfunction which is still in the process of being fixed. Should you want regular live updates on the situation, you should probably head for Palatine, Illinois, making sure you have plenty of batteries for your baby monitor. I haven’t yet spotted a Slashdot thread excoriating NASA for not insisting on open-source software, but it can’t be long before one appears.

Well, look at that – a new byline on the Futurismic pages! Everyone say a nice warm hello to Jeremiah Tolbert, newly recruited to the Futurismic team as a blogger. Jeremiah’s credentials are impeccable, especially in comparison to my own. He’s a published genre fiction author and former co-editor of an online genre fiction magazine (The Fortean Bureau), an experienced blogger in his own right, and he also designed (as well as contributing stories to) the daily flash fiction site The Daily Cabal. I’m sure he’s going to be posting some great material, and he’ll do an admirable job of standing in for yours truly while I’m off at a course next week. Welcome aboard, Jeremiah!

Researchers at Rice University in Houston, Texas are developing a system for transmitting data via the bones of the human body. Currently, they are focusing on medical applications, such as using bones to transmit orders to an implant inside the body to release drugs. Previously, efforts to develop a “Personal Area Network (PAN)” have focused on using the skin as a medium, and in fact, Microsoft has a patent on technology for transferring data and power using the human body.