To address the overfishing problem and growing worldwide demand for protein, researchers have developed an unmanned underwater vehicle that will fish in the deep ocean rather then in the overfished coastal region. The plan is to use predictable ocean currents (aka 'gyres' ;)) to create enormous, underwater, automated fish farms.

Bruce Sterling reports from a conference of "robo-ethicists" who are tackling the tough ethical questions of autonomous weapons and brain-machine interfaces.

Jordan Pollack argues that the ethical questions surrounding robotics -- should robots carry weapons, how closely should humans and robots be integrated, etc. -- should receive much more attention now before the robot revolution hits.

NASA's planned moon base announced last week could pave the way for deeper space exploration to Mars, but one of the biggest beneficiaries may be the terrestrial energy industry.

Nestled among the agency's 200-point mission goals is a proposal to mine the moon for fuel, helium-3, used in fusion reactors -- futuristic power plants that have been demonstrated in proof-of-concept but are likely decades away from commercial deployment.