First the somewhat icky news – human beings are distant evolutionary descendents of sea squirts! Now the upside – sea squirts have the ability to regenerate genetic abnormalities over a series of generations, and it is hoped that the mechanisms discovered can be used to allow humans to regenerate parts of their own bodies that are flawed or wounded.

Here’s a reason to celebrate – today marks the 17th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope’s tenure in space. To mark the occasion, the European wing of the Hubble community have released a stunning image of the Carina Nebula. The Bad Astronomy blog can take you on a guided tour through the Carina image, as well – including a little philosophy with the cosmological sensawunda.

As if yesterday’s gamut of technopeasant outpourings wasn’t enough, there’s more quality free fiction available on the web today – in the form of the third (double-sized)issue of Rudy Rucker’s free webzine, Flurb. Contributors include Prof. Rucker himself, Paul Di Filippo, Eileen Gunn and Mac Tonnies, among others. That should keep you busy for an afternoon.

Via Ken MacLeod (whose new novel, The Execution Channel, is out now and well worth the asking price) comes news that the UK Ministry of Defence has been playing the futurist game by producing a [PDF] report on possible problems the world could face in the near future – most of which have been mentioned in science fiction stories at one time or another. It’s interesting to see an organisation like the MOD finally waking up to the realities of our time – even if they’re a little late to the party.

As computing becomes cheaper and more powerful, highly-realistic historical simulations will offer us a great tool for learning about ourselves as a society. But these things are never simple – and Melanie Swann takes a look at the potential ethical conundrums that such virtual realities will produce. For example, if you’ve created a world full of self-aware software agents with a degree of sentience, how can you ever switch it off without effectively becoming a mass murderer?