Some very clever people with better things to do than fiddle about on a Nintendo DS have explained to the rest of us that brain training games are useless.
Jewel scarab beetles can see using circularly polarised light - the same as is used in 3D movies such as Avatar. And they don't even need special glasses.
Scientists have developed a brain implant that melts into place, fitting to the brain's surface like shrink-wrap.
Lunar explorers may have another hazard to contend with - new calculations by NASA's Lunar Science Institute team indicate that the moon's polar craters may be charged to hundreds of volts.
Half the heat believed to have built up on Earth in recent years can't be accounted for.
British scientists reckon they've identified the largest comet yet, using data from the ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft to measure the region of space disturbed by the its presence.
Einstein famously said that no amount of experimentation would prove him right. But two new studies have backed up his General Theory of Relativity, and one significantly undermines a rival theory.
NASA is preparing to launch the first human-like robot to space as part of the Discovery STS-133 mission planned for September.
Researchers from Imperial College London have for the first time created a structure that acts like a single pole of a magnet at room temperature.
Giant natural particle accelerators are forming 40 km above the surface of the Earth during thunderstorms, according to a lightning researcher at the University of Bath.
ESO astronomers have discovered nine new exoplanets - and found that several are going the wrong way.
MIT researchers have discovered that a wireless electricity delivery technique they invented three years ago works better when it's used to charge multiple devices at the same time.
A new radio astronomy facility has started mapping the universe at very low wavelengths and looking for messages from other civilisations.
Eco-friendly lighting might actually start being some use, with the launch of an LED lightbulb from GE that's claimed to produce nearly as much light as a 40-watt incandescent bulb, while lasting more than 25 times as long.
A British expedition has discovered the world's deepest undersea volcanic vents, erupting water hot enough to melt lead.
If there really is life on saturn's moon Titan, it's likely to be smelly and explosive, according to astrobiologist William Bains.
An MIT team has managed what amounts to artificial photosynthesis, using a modified virus and sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
An electronic license plate reader designed to automatically send fines to people who skip through toll roads without paying, apparently can't tell the difference between an 8 and a 0.
NASA has announced its plans for the next few years. With the Constellation program for a manned moon landing axed, the focus will instead be on missions to the International Space Station and flight beyond Earth's orbit.
NASA, the US Navy and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have successfully tested the first robotic underwater vehicle to be powered entirely by natural ocean thermal energy.