Another project aimed at enabling the blind or sight-disabled to live a more independent life has been debuted – it is based on a GPS-enabled computer backpack that detects the wearer’s location and orientation, and plays auditory cues through headphones to indicate which direction the user should be moving to reach their destination. There are a fair few details to thrash out before it’s truly useful or practical – detailed GPS maps of cityscapes being one of them. Furthermore, it will only be of use to people who still have hearing, and it might be cheaper, more empowering and less tech-dependent to teach them to echolocate instead.

Genetic scientists have identified one of the most rapidly-evolving chunks of DNA in the human genome, and they believe that it may be the piece of code that influences our ability to perform complex thoughts. The gene expresses only in the cortical region of the brain, and does so during a critical period of embryonic development. Its exact function is as yet unknown, but when you’re trying to uncover a secret it always helps to know whereabouts you should be looking.

A new solar cycle, predicted to be a hectic and tempestuos one, may have begun at the end of last month. NASA solar physicists spotted a ‘backwards’ sunspot (one whose magnetic poles are opposite to the usual orientation) on July 31st, and have tentatively suggested it could be the herald of the next eleven year solar cycle. Of course its orientation, combined with its unusual latitude, could be a random fluke. But ‘cycle 24’ is on its way, sooner or later – it may be that it has just decided to cohabit with 23 for a few years.

The Googleplex has launched their free wifi service in their home town of Mountain View in California, jumping the gun due to the barrage of positive feedback and join-up requests they’ve had since they rolled out the beta. Of course, their plans for municipal networks elsewhere are more likely to be financially motivated, and this is doubtless a great bit of un-evil PR for them, but even so they surely deserve some credit for giving something back to the community where they are based.

Much as I hate to make sweeping statements about scientists, a few notable exceptions apart, they aren’t known for their garrulous media-whoredom. Grigory Perelman, a staggeringly intelligent Russian mathematician, is about to make the most retiring lab-lurker look like a reality TV reject. He’s recently solved one of the longest-standing mathematic mysteries, Poincare’s conjecture, but is still lurking well away from the limelight, and is expected to refuse to accept a major award next week. Little is known about him beyond his work, but to judge from the reactions of his fellow mathematicians, that work speaks volumes on his behalf.