Following the recent splashdown of the Mir space station in the south Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Chile want international codes of practice drawn up to govern dumping of such space junk in the future. The three countries are at risk because they inhabit the edges of a vast oceanic area informally known as the \"graveyard.\" The area between New Zealand and Chile has been used for years to drop space junk.

Looking somewhat like a huge, upturned golf tee, it would be the highest man-made structure on earth. It would also provide electricity to as many as 200,000 homes. If built, a proposed 200-megawatt "solar chimney" for rural Australia would become the most daring application yet of a quirky form of generating alternative, renewable electricity.

A hybrid turbine that generates electricity from coal mine waste could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, perhaps one day making coal nearly as clean a fossil fuel as natural gas, according to Australian scientists.