Here it is: the future of the world, in 23 pages – Climate Change, Environment – The Independent

http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3174386.ece

“It is about the size and weight of a theatre programme and when it was published in Valencia, Spain, at the weekend, the first eagerly grabbed copies were held together by a hastily punched staple. Yet these 23 pages are crucial for the future of the world.”

Download it from ar4_syr_spm.pdf

Headlines@Hopkins: Johns Hopkins University NewsReleases

http://www.jhu.edu/news/home07/nov07/vonderheydt.html

Lines in Escher’s drawings can seem to be part of either of two different shapes. How does our brain decide which of those shapes to “see?” In a situation where the visual information provided is ambiguous — whether we are looking at Escher’s art or looking at, say, a forest — how do our brains settle on just one interpretation?

In a study published this month in Nature Neuroscience, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University demonstrate that brains do so by way of a mechanism in a region of the visual cortex called V2.

That mechanism, the researchers say, identifies “figure” and “background” regions of an image, provides a structure for paying attention to only one of those two regions at a time and assigns shapes to the collections of foreground “figure” lines that we see.

Nano cancer-bombs and mini organs from MIT • The Register

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/19/nano_medicine/

From the page: “Scientists at MIT have developed remote-controlled nano particles that, with the push of a button, can deliver drugs directly to a tumour. The same research director has also found a way to build tiny human “livers” just 500 micrometres across. This work should lead to more reliable toxicity testing for new drugs.”