The gadgets and technology that fill our world assail our senses constantly. Well, all but one of them – touch is largely ignored in favour of the visual and audio channels. That is all set to change in the next few years, as manufacturers seek to use technologies that engage the tactile senses to broaden our experiences. Such ‘haptic’ devices will appear first in the gaming business (where they have already established a foothold), but as the technology improves, every device we have will be trying to reach out and touch us in some way.

If there’s one major priority in space, it’s making sure you’ve got enough oxygen available. A close second is recycling – not just packaging and so forth, but ‘human by-products’ as well. The crew of the ISS are about to start killing two birds with one stone as they install a device prosaically named the Oxygen Generation System, which is designed to make breathable air from purified urine. Brings a whole new meaning to ‘atmosphere leak’.

Plenty of research is dedicated to finding ways to improve the human condition, especially for those less fortunate than most. Cybernetic implants to help the blind to see are one such popular field, and a team at the University of Glasgow are hoping to use the same technology employed in digital cameras to create a retinal prosthesis that will pipe visual data directly to the brain via the optic nerve. The current versions are still quite basic, but they envisage smart-chip developments in the future enabling added features such as slow-motion replay – which will doubtless be fitted as standard to all football referees.

Happy birthday, artificial intelligence! The controversial branch of computer science is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the luminaries of the field are holding a conference at Dartmouth College to thrash out the latest findings. Technology Review takes the opportunity to perform an interview with Marvin Minsky, a leading thinker in AI and proponent of the ‘society of mind’ theory of consciousness.

Curious about CERN’s Large Hadron Collider project, currently being built underground in Europe? Interested in seeing how it all fits together, what the facilities look like and (probably most importantly) what the hell it’s actually good for? Then you’re in luck – web on over to Seed Magazine, who have a little documentary movie (Quicktime) all about it. Big physics on the small screen.