This week Vulcan gets closer to becoming a real celestial body, Spider-man becomes science fact, telepathic rats, and bad news for poor sleepers and football players.Death-Star-like laser creates an artificial star in our sky Looking like something out of Star Wars, the Very Large Telescope's new laser (pictured above) blasts highly focused light into the sky to create an artificial star. The laser fires 90km up, exciting a 10km-thick layer of sodium atoms left around our home planet by meteorites. The sodium then produces a brilliant, bright point of light, which astronomers then use to calibrate Chile's Very Large Telescope, monitoring and adapting to atmospheric turbulence creating the sharpest image possible. That enables both the absolutely stunning shots of celestial bodies we admire, and the astronomers to work ever more accurately and efficiently. Wow. [New Scientist]Space is no longer just for the young Apparently humans are going to Mars in 2018, but it won't be a bunch of young, nubile astronauts making the gruelling 501-day trip through space. The Mars500 Project is looking for a middle-aged couple, who have likely already had children, to make the pioneering trip to Mars. That's because you'll have to be crammed into a tiny box for over a year and a half with one another, and you'll be bombarded with cosmic radiation while you're out there, which is highly likely to make you sterile, and possibly cause cancer. Still, it'll be the trip of a lifetime, so if you're
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