With all the recent media interest in Second Life, it’s probably no great shakes to hear that there will be a virtual version of NBC’s New York Christmas lights switch-on ceremony. What may make the experience a little more interesting for the horde of n00bs expected to attend is that many of the hastily arranged sites of the virtual ceremony are located right next to areas of SL devoted to festivities of an entirely different nature. Watch for a leap in the Amazon rankings for old Gor titles over the next month or so …

Levitating inert matter using acoustic wave fields is a decades-old science, but a group of Chinese researchers have become the first to acoustically levitate small animals for sustained periods of time. Although confused and alarmed by the experience, most of the insects were unharmed by half an hour floating immobile in mid-air. The fish didn’t fare quite so well, as it was hard to keep them immersed in water …

Chalk one up for British engineering. Qinetiq have just demonstrated the results of an MOD-funded research project, the flight test of a system that can control and autonomously organise multiple unmanned aircraft at the command of a single remote operator. It won’t be long before there’s no need for human beings in the front line of warfare at all – but will that make war more or less appealing an option?

Jeff Bezos’ private space program, Blue Origins, had a test flight earlier this month. Now it looks like a second test flight will happen sometime this week.

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).