In February, researchers at UCLA announced a clash of the titans, biochemically speaking: They turned one of the great scourges of humankind—HIV—into a hunter of another: cancer. In tests on mice afflicted with metastatic melanoma, a modified strain of HIV invaded cancer cells without infecting the rodents with AIDS.

A house made of Styrofoam?
Sounds flimsy. But spray it with a new brick-like concoction called Grancrete, and it’s virtually indestructible. Invented by scientists at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago and builders at Casa Grande, a construction firm

To the dismay of the many scientists whose work and words are blatantly distorted within its pages, Michael Crichton´s new book, State of Fear, was still hanging around best-seller lists months after its debut. It even came up in debates on the Senate floor. Science has always taken center stage in Crichton´s thrillers—The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Prey—but recently he seems to be taking himself, and his ideas, a bit more seriously.

Dept.: Geek Guide
Tech: DIY Blogging
Cost: Free—$12/month
Time: Five minutes and up
Dabbler | | | | | Master

Those who believe that the 25-cent peep show is restricted solely to humans, guess again. A January study at Duke University Medical Center revealed that male rhesus macaque monkeys will “pay” to gaze at images of female monkey posteriors. The animals gave up quantities of fruit juice for prolonged views of either female hindquarters or the faces of high-ranking males in their society.

Outgoing Federal Communi-cations Commission chair Michael Powell once told an audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show that TiVo was “God's machine.” He's right. Once you've had one, you can never go back to dumb TV, where you're stuck watching whatever is actually on at that moment.

Today you can buy similar devices for radio—sometimes called RiVos—including Griffin's Radio Shark and Neuros's MP3 Computer, that connect to your computer and record programs to your hard drive.

Texas Star Party, May 1-8Those yearning for dark skies and the camaraderie of star enthusiasts might wish to make the trek to the 27th annual Texas Star Party. The event features a week of galaxy-gazing and plenary lectures. This year’s speakers include Robert T. Mitchell, the project manager of the Cassini mission, and Stephanie McLaughlin, a project coordinator for NASA’s Deep Impact mission. The Star Party has a strict “no lights” policy from sundown to sunup.

Dept.: Geek Guide
Tech: DIY Blogging
Cost: Free—$12/month
Time: Five minutes and up
Dabbler | | | | | Master

Dept.: Geek Guide
Tech: DIY Blogging
Cost: Free—$12/month
Time: Five minutes and up
Dabbler | | | | | Master

We know this much: Earthquakes strike along faults—fractures in the planet’s crust where plates of rock are thrust into a sort of geological gridlock. The difference between a tremor and an earth-shattering 8.0-plus-magnitude quake depends on whether the plates slip when the tension between them is still relatively low or if they snap after enduring millennia of mounting strain.

Calculating exactly when this might happen, however, is no easy feat.