Offworld Report: December '03: Weird Science
01/12/2003 . Source: Stephen Hunt 

Scientists engineer the first artificial virus, the Pentagon begins production of battlefield laser cannons, 200,000 years old carvings of faces cause a stir, hydrogen cars revisited, and sales of robot domestics shoot up.

December '03's news and content roundup of all that is worthy and good in the weird science, found living offworld the 'Nest.

Where's ET?
There must be an alien civilization around somewhere, right?

Europa Seas 
SETI's Kevin Hand on the search for life forms that can survive in the extreme. 

Making the Fans Pay 
More on the proposed US tax on science fiction to help pay for NASA. Only in America …

Keeping it Real
Look at the tome 'Backroom Boys', Francis Spufford's tribute to the British space programme and science in general.

Martian Sands
Why soil in our oldest desert matches the soil of the red planet. 

Olympian Face 
Fascinating footage of Jupiter from the Cassini mission. 

No New Planets Today, Please
Europe's search for Earth-like planets axed in budget cuts.

Dry, Dry Moon 
Earth's moon show no signs of water at its poles – there goes plans for the moon base.

Atlantis Really
Nutty questions are posed and answered; such as will we ever find Atlantis?

Those Wacky Robo-Racers
Looks at the Pentagon's challenge to build a robot capable of racing from LA to Vegas.

Nanotech Breakthrough
How to fit one hundred million nano-motors on the top of a pin.

My Eros, Hands Off
Why there's a sudden bout of legal fisticuffs over the ownership of the asteroid Eros.

Scary Life 
New chemical synthesis technology used by scientists to produce the first fully functional 100% artificial virus (in just two weeks too). Oh dear, goodbye God, hello mankind. 

Flare Up
Biggest ever solar-flare strikes the Earth's magnetic field.

The Art of Space
Are these utterly fantastic new photographs taken by space probes art?

Pumping Hydrogen
More breakthroughs in hydrogen-powered automobiles.

My Robot Slave
Sales of robot domestics go through the roof. 

Russian Space Taxi
A new crew boards the International Space Station, ferried up by Soyuz.

Ancient Heads
200,000-year old carvings found made by an extinct branch of the human species.

Hello Mega-City One
Mega cities used to be found in the Judge Dredd comic books, but now they're becoming real in Asia.

Laser This
The Pentagon is close to realizing their scheme for battlefield laser weapons.

Energy Virus
Virus constructed from DNA fragments to service mankind's future energy requirements.

Water Power
Scientists find a technique to extract electricity from water and use it to power computer CPUs.