Publishers may not be so keen (even to the extent of making foolish gestures based on a misinterpretation of the situation), but twelve major United States universities can see the value in the Google Books project, and have agreed to having a significant part of their collections digitised. It’s won’t be an overnight process, thanks to the sheer man-hours involved, not to mention the price of the equipment – but the latter could fall in the wake of new technology like liquid camera lenses. At the other end of the scale, however, there are custom laser-wielding robots for creating 3D scans of millenia-old manuscripts.

A recent NASA report to Congress declares that the Agency is willing to share the International Space Station with other government agencies as well as commercial businesses. Of course, there’s a caveat – they want to wait until it’s finished, which is currently timetabled to occur in 2010. Which offers private space outfits like Bigelow a chance to not just undercut their prices but jump the gun as well …

There’s no shortage of people who’ll build you a jetpack, but they’re noisy, dangerous, and far from ecologically friendly. All that could be set to change, however, if the new design just patented for a remotely-powered ion-propelled jetpack makes it to the production line. Yeah, I’m a little skeptical, too … but apparently the patent has overwritten the ones NASA already had in the field, so there must be something to it. If PFS need beta-testers at any point, I hope they know who to email …

Science/tech story of the day has to be MIT’s wireless electricity system by a long margin. Looks like we’ve finally caught up with Tesla after Edison led us astray. Oh, and if you’re a Tesla fan, or a Mark Twain fan, or both – or if you simply appreciate quality graphic novels – you really should get hold of Fraction and Sanders’ Five Fists of Science.

Good news for aspiring transhumanists – the discovery of a protein that slows the onset of aging in fruit flies may lead to the equivalent treatment becoming available to humans. After some considerable development time, of course … by which point someone is sure to have patented it.