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One of the big problems with fusion being energy-positive in a practical reactor is so much of the output energy is emitted on really high frequencies and exotic energy forms (x-rays, alpha/beta radiation, etc) because of the energy levels involved. These are difficult to turn back into useful energy to do work and keep the reactor running.

Exotic? Beta radiation (particles) are also called electrons. You know, the stuff that makes your Linux boxen run. Actually there are atomic batteries that harness beta particles to provide electricity.

Cornell's atomic battery

And this one I find fascinating:
direct conversion of radioactive energy to electricity; Patent 4835433

Don't you need carbon nanotubes to be longer than 4 mm to get to space. I'm no expert, but if we could use 4 mm to get to space now, I'd be forever bumping my head on the moon.

Just a few examples of the stupid US patents on other countries' products:

Bio-Piracy Campaign Exposes Holes in U.S Patent Laws
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/tur-cn.htm
http://www.rediff.com/news/1996/3011am.htm
The US Patent System Legalizes Theft and Biopiracy
Absurd patent laws

This is really cool biology. I look forward to hearing more stem cell success stories. Using your own bodies natural healing capabilities in a more focused and concentrated process... one word, elegant.

Now if those guys in florida will finish their testing on oral bacteria replacement therapy I will look to old age with much less anxiety.

Yeah right, have a look at this this site

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are optoelectronic devices based on small molecules or polymers that emit light when an electrical current flows through them. They are being developed for applications in flat panel displays. A simple OLED consists of a fluorescent organic layer sandwiched between two metal electrodes. Under application of an electric field, electrons and holes are injected from the two electrodes into the organic layer, where they meet and recombine to produce light.

Or have a look here

Polymers by such tongue twisting names as polythiopene (red), polyfluorene (blue) and polyphenylenvinylen (green) consist of aromatic benzene rings which are pearl strung via carbon double bonds. As in conventional light-emitting diodes, the benzene electrons are excited by an exterior voltage of 3 to 5 Volt. In returning to their original state they emit light in a colour specific to their material which is exceptionally brilliant and soft.

The technology for this was originally developed by the Russian Mars program: "Inflatable Rentry and Descent Technology" is a nifty replacement for parachutes, IMHO.

The russians have done this before, though not from a submarine succesfully until now :)

This just looks like a miniturized optical mouse fit onto the head of a pin erm... pen.

Microsoft already has some experience with this kind of input method (sorry, link to original site is dead) when it got the researcher for BT (formerly British Telecom, as all the news articles say :) who developed the SmartQuill.

So, I don't see how this laser pen is going to be any more revolutionary than the smartquill- the smartquill argueably has better accuracy since the laser pen (if it is a glorified optical mouse) cannot tell where the pen has been moved if it's off the "writing" surface, the smartquill doesn't even need a writing surface, and the smartquill could also easily have a cool scrolling display depending on how you tilt the unit.

The smartquill has been in development for over four years and still nothing has become of it- though maybe MS is biding its time for the right platform and application to come along (ie: handwriting recognition on a smartphone- but why would MS want to go into that market? :)

Fiction:

Spiders, Part 1: A group of Afghan women have had it up to here with the Taliban...

Spiders, Part 2: US civilians take part in the hunt for OBL and document history by means of massively-distributed, networked, robots, called "spiders", which are airdropped en masse around the countryside.

(I'm still looking forward to Part 3...)

Non-fiction:

Omnicam - a 360-degree camera. One application of which is to mount in a system like...

LOTS: Lehigh Omnidirectional Tracking System, a system whereby autonomous cameras can be dropped around hell's half-acre and human operators alerted when something "interesting" happens.

Sounds a lot like "Spiders", come to think of it. I wonder if this is where the artist got the idea for the strip?