World Health Organisation scientists have published a set of predictions for the main causes of death and disease in the year 2030. While some of the results are pretty depressing (deaths from AIDS to almost double the current rate), there is some good news too (people will be far less likely to die before the age of five, due to developing nations being able to afford better hygiene measures).

The Japanese have always been rather more obsessed with robots than any other culture, and they are way out in front as far as putting them to work among humans is concerned – last week we met the robot receptionist; now say hello to Reborg-Q, the robotic shopping mall security guy. In addition to answering basic questions from the public and spouting promotional slogans from time to time, he’s packing four video cameras which automatically connect to some lazy meatpuppet in the security den when he spies mischief. Plus, he’s got one up on the daleks – he can control elevators to his advantage. You can run, but you can’t hide!

‘Swarm’ seems to be the big buzzword in robotics research at the moment. The latest iteration of this paradigm is the swarmanoid, a distributed entity consisting of three discreet types of miniature robot – feet, hands and eyes – that can act collaboratively to move heavy objects and navigate complex terrain. This may produce artificial beings better suited to acting in human environments than the results of the ‘classic’ anthropomorphic designs, able to assist with real-world tasks like tidying bedrooms or rescuing earthquake victims.

What the heck is happening at SpaceDev? First founder Jim Benson left, now head of the Starsys division Robert Vacek is taking off. Is there something we should know about from this plucky underdog space company?

Some of us rise slowly to greatness (I’m on a logarithmic curve, I reckon), but some people can be seen to be destined for success from an early age. Like Arfa Karim Randhawa, for example, who at eleven years old is the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional. What’re the odds she rebels and embraces open source once she hits her teens?