[Guardian Unlimited]
The numbers of sufferers of brain diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease, have soared across the West in less than 20 years. The alarming rise, which includes figures showing rates of dementia have trebled in men, has been linked to rises in levels of pesticides, industrial effluents, domestic waste, car exhausts and other pollutants

[BBC News]
Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health near Washington DC, led by Dr. Barry Richmond, have developed a genetic treatment which turns lazy monkeys into workaholics using gene therapy. One can see the dystopic applications just around the corner...

[Nature.com]
Japanese beat U.S./Russian team effort to launch first solar sail (blogged below).

[MSNBC]
Non-technical overview of dreaming and what recent technology is beginning to reveal about its biological and psychological interactions.

[Innovations Report]
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder where you are...? Even taking into account the distance a star will have moved while its light travels to Earth, we still may not be able to accurately locate the star.

[qsleeper.com]
Scared of terrorists and other threats to personal safety? Get a Quantum Sleeper security bed!

[The Planetary Society]
First solar sail spacecraft, Cosmos 1, to be launched from Russian nuclear sub.

[Wired]
Interesting piece on J. Craig Venter, the maverick biologist who a few years ago raced the US government to sequence the human genetic code, and his current effort to sequence the genome of the entire planet.