A new ability that is similar to a healing process found in nature could let aircrafts mend themselves during flight This self healing process could help in the construction of new airplanes in many ways. By making them lighter, help fuel savings, cut cost for airlines and passengers, and reducing carbon emissions.

Oscar Pistorius, the South African paralympic runner, has won a major victory with the Court of Arbitration for the Olympic Games. Pistorius' name may not be familiar to you, but his nicknames might be. Sometimes called the "Blade Runner" or "The Fastest Man on No Legs," Pistorius arrived on this planet with a birth defect that necessitated the amputation of his lower legs when he was still an infant.

Nat sez, "Rats laugh in the ultrasound when they're tickled. They also seek the hand that tickled them (not to bite). Listen to the Radio Lab segment on it, where the researcher who discovered the rodent guffaw talks about how he came to do so. I first found out about it in the excellent QI: The Book of Animal Ignorance, where you can learn that a kangaroo can shuffle foetuses between its two uteruses to wait for droughts to end before giving birth, monotremes are literally "one hole" (for pee, poo, and procreation), and the New Zealand kea are parrots strong enough to rip the kidney fat out of sheep. It's certainly changed my after-dinner conversation!" Link (Thanks, Nat!)...

Roland Piquepaille writes "According to a Michigan State University (MSU) news release, 'Made-to-order isotopes hold promise on science's frontier,' nuclear physicists can now start a new career as isotope designers. These scientists can build specific rare isotopes to solve scientific problems and open doors to new technologies. The lead researcher says this approach has already given us the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan technology. He's now going further, saying that he wants to build objects 100,000 times smaller than the atomic nucleus. He calls this 'femtotechnology.' Also available are additional details and pictures of the tools used for this kind of research, picked from a 415-page design paper." Update: 05/11 14:30 GMT by SS: Readers have noted that the summary inaccurately portrays the scale of the 'femtotechnology.' The MSU researcher refers to "the capacity to construct objects on an even more minute scale, that of the atomic nucleus 100,000 times smaller."