1. Nanohazard warning symbol contest (via Boing Boing): While some look good, Anders Sandberg distinguishes between nanoparticle, nanodevice, and self-replicating device threats.

2. Creating synthetic life (via Boing Boing): Are patents on synthetic cells more justified than those on discovered genes?

3. Intelligent amoebas (via Unqualified Offerings): Intelligence might be a strong word, but there are signs of learned behavior.

4. Magnetic sense (Warning! Potentially disturbing images): Add a new sense through implanted magnets, which allows you to detect magnetic fields and electrical currents.

5. Smell, the suppressed sense: Americans try to suppress natural scents; could this trend turn around?

6. Morals and evolution: Modern society might require that we overcome aspects of a moral sense instilled by evolution.

7. Innovation and regulation: Businesses respond to regulation with innovation, but what innovation could have occurred if incentives weren’t redirected in this manner?

8. Revisiting the Turing test: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck (despite its positronic brain and servo motors).