Supporting evidence for the theory that Earth’s oceans may have been brought here by cometary collisions has emerged. Astronomers from the University of Hawaii have located three icy asteroids that give off a ‘tail’ of volatile materials, which have flat, circular orbits in the ‘main belt’ between Mars and Jupiter. This will add fuel to the ongoing debate about how to distinguish between an asteroid and a comet, and indeed what those two words can be defined as meaning.

IBM is due to announce success at building a five-stage ring oscillator circuit onto a single carbon nanotube. The Big Blue boffins believe this gives them a base from which to test their hypothesis that CMOS silicon and nanotubes can be manufactured together.

ESA funded scientists have managed to measure the gravitational equivalent of a magnetic field under special laboratory conditions. A spinning superconductor appears to be producing an acceleration field by gravitomagnetic means, opening the door on new research aimed at uncovering the much-coveted quantum theory of gravity.

Bruce Schenier does his usual pragmatic evisceration of the conventional wisdom, this time on airport security. Screening bags is a job, he says, that humans do poorly and computers do well. But screening bags is security too late.

We all carry around a map of our personal geographies, places where memories were formed and personal histories recorded. Platial uses the Google Maps API to make the personal geographies incarnate, and public if you’re so inclined.