New research indicates that some asteroids are 'rubble piles' of solid rocks glued together by debris. This finding casts doubt on our ability to use nuclear weapons to deflect a threatening asteroid.

Participants at the Humanoid 2000 conference rate the possibility of a 'robotic takeover' in the near term future as highly unlikely. They cite the inability of robots to reproduce and survive without human intervention as reasons not to worry.

Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History are building a 21st
century version of Noah\'s Ark. Except this time, instead of two by two, the
animals will go in little bits and pieces, deep frozen. The tissue specimens - from whole insects to leeches to small pieces of whales - will be a treasure trove for researchers using genetic techniques to study wildlife, and perhaps one day will become the source material for creating clones of endangered or extinct animals.

Rocks and soil brought back to Earth from Mars by a future space mission should be handled as if they were chock full of deadly microbes, even though they will almost certainly prove lifeless, according to a panel of experts from the National Research Council.

In the race to make computer chips that are ever faster and ever smaller, scientists at Harvard University have grown tiny crystal rods of silicon and other semiconductors, then sluiced them onto chips to form rudimentary circuits that perform basic logic operations.

Providing a biological twist to robotics, scientists have fitted live rats with remote controls to guide them through mazes, past obstacles and even up trees by typing commands on a laptop computer up to half a mile away.

Japanese researchers propose developing small airplanes that would be powered by a laser source from the ground.

An expert panel has recommended that the United States seek to rejoin the $5 billion international nuclear fusion project, ITER, it abandoned four years ago as overly ambitious and expensive.

Five years after pulling out of an international project to develop cheap, safe, renewable fusion energy, the US has announced plans to return.

With a blast of X-rays compressing a capsule of hydrogen to conditions approaching those at the center of the Sun, scientists from Sandia National Laboratories have announced that they have achieved thermonuclear fusion, in essence detonating a tiny hydrogen bomb. Such controlled explosions would not be large enough to be dangerous and might offer an alternative way of generating electricity by harnessing fusion, the process that powers the Sun. Fusion combines hydrogen atoms into helium, producing bountiful energy as a byproduct.