Fabulous infographic by Supernova Condensate.

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

Artist concept of the rover by NASA.

• Interesting Semantic Web links [Tom Scott] Tom asked on Twitter: “What are your top 5 URLs to explain to a Senior Exec type what the Semantic Web is and why it’s important?”
• Ten years [A List Apart] A celebration of the first decade of A List Apart – the site “for people who make websites”.
• Information architecture for audio: doing it right [Boxes and Arrows] “When using audio today [on the web], we face challenges similar to those of written text about a decade ago.”
• New NASA law allows for possible shuttle extension [New Scientist] The problem: “how to get crews to and from the space station between 2010-2011 (when the shuttle stops flying and NASA’s current contract to use Russian Soyuz spaceships runs out) and 2015 (when the agency’s Ares/Orion programme starts flying, maybe)”.

• 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]

• 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!

• Under the iPlayer hood for radio [BBC Radio Labs]
• On a different wavelength [Guardian]
• How much can a website cost? [Puffbox]
• In praise of the hyperlink [Jeremy Keith]
• Condé Nast to launch Wired in the UK [Guardian]
• Fire in the sky: Tunguska at 100 [BBC]

Phoenix Lander scientists believe Martian soil appears to contain sufficient nutrients to support life.

Preliminary analysis on the planet’s soil have found it to be much more alkaline than expected.

In another development Phoenix has scraped to icy soil confirming that surface, subsurface and icy soil can be sampled at a single trench.

The mission appears to be making excellent progress, with the possibility of discovering evidence of Martian life either now, or in the past, seemingly increasing on a daily basis.