Today NASA’s Curiosity rover successfully blasted off to Mars on an Atlas 5 rocket.

Artist concept of the rover by NASA.

Amazing video – more details at the Quantum levitation site and on Physics Stack Exchange.

However, it falls well short of what could have been achieved, with no legal enforcement, and is frighteningly vague on important issues.

One important technology designed to address climate change, fusion power, needs to have a serious injection of funding.

Work has just started on building the world’s biggest fusion reactor in France

However the pace of work needs to accelerate on this racing certainty so that commercial fusion generation can go online as soon as possible.

Action urgently needs to be taken given the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is man made and will have catastrophic consequences if not addressed.

Whilst understanding the reasons for the arguments between rich and poor nations at the conference, everyone needs to work together on this critical issue to avoid devastating environmental changes that may be irreversible.

• NASA Mars Lander sees falling snow, soil data suggest liquid past [NASA] Snow detected and evidence of past interaction between minerals and water on Mars.
• Four years [43 Folders] Merlin Mann’s site “about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work” is four years old.
• The 25 most influential people on the web [BusinessWeek] The 2008 list compiled by BusinessWeek readers and staff.
• Time Out at 40 – Covers archive [Time Out] A selection from the distinctive covers of London’s listing magazine.

• New Number10 site goes live [Puffbox] Powered by WordPress!
• Time Out at 40 [Observer] London’s ground-breaking listings magazine is forty, its covers have always distinctive; some background from ex-Editor Dominic Wells.
• Phoenix discovery may be bad for Mars life [New Scientist Space Blog] Has perchlorate, a highly oxidising substance, been found, or is it connected with rocket fuel?
• Obituary: Sir Bill Cotton [Guardian]

• Lost tapes of the Dr Who composer [BBC News]
• Announcing the Open Web Foundation [Open Web Foundation]
• Twitter searches for the next step [Technology Guardian]
• Wider, bigger, better [BBC Radio Labs]
• If you want to repeat Apollo, do it right [New Scientist Space Blog]

• New findings show diverse, wet environments on ancient Mars [SpaceRef]
• 30+ must-have updated Firefox 3 extensions [Mashable]
• 30 year railway strategy lasts just one year [Christian Wolmar]
• Full steam again [Guardian]
• Our electric future [The American]
• Nick Cave: part of me is screaming to get out [Telegraph.co.uk]

• Step by step, the BBC is moving towards a post-licence fee world [Guardian]
• Media big-wigs decamp to Sun Valley [Guardian PDA]
• The Yahoo circus pulls into Sun Valley next week [All Things Digital]
• STS-125: The final visit [NASA]
• Franz Ferdinand – The Adelphi, Hull [NME]

This was much more than a straight exhibition – researchers involved in the scientific fields represented were present, accompanied by an array of interactive equipment.

I was there for about two and half hours and didn’t make much progress getting to see all of the exhibition.

Taking part in the interactive exhibits, along with absorbing discussions with researchers, slowed down my progress somewhat!

From what I did get to see, the following stood out for me:

• Wonder in carbon land: how do you hold a molecule? – Buckyballs, nanotubes, fullerenes and quantum computers.
• From hard-disk to healthcare: what can spintronics do for you? – A new field of research based on a property of electrons known as their spin or magnetic moment.
• Exploring the Solar System: mankind or machine? – How should the UK explore space?
• Back to the Big Bang? At the Large Hadron Collider – After a 25-year wait scientists will turn on the Large Hadron Collider.
• Spot the penguin? – Automatic biometric fingerprinting of animals in natural habitats.

All in all a fascinating exhibition – I just wish I could have seen more of it!