This August, NASA scientists put the concept of a space elevator on paper for the first time in a report designed to assess if building an elevator to space is possible and what technologies would be needed to make it possible. The verdict? In a little over 50 years, with a little bit of luck and a lot of research, people could be paying the future equivalent of $5 a pound to take the longest, most exciting elevator ride of their lives.

The battles between disease-causing pathogens and the body's defenses have evolved into a complex arms race of sorts. To better understand those battles and find new ways of blocking infection, researchers have turned to genomics — the analysis of an organism's thousands of genes and the roles they play.

Law Enforcement authorities are exploring the use of satellite imagery to support forensic cases.

In this month's issue of The Industrial Physicist, Criswell lays out his plan to build solar panels and micro transmitters from lunar materials and begin beaming solar energy to Earth.

As astronauts continue construction on the world's largest outpost in space, some hope to begin building a research base at the other end of our world ? deep under the ocean. The proposed Ocean Atmosphere Seafloor Integration Study, or OASIS, would offer aquanauts (the underwater version of astronauts) a permanent perch on the continental shelf about 600 feet below the ocean surface.

From tinkering with the brain to analyzing dolphins, the military is conducting radical research in an effort to find ways to skip sleep.