From a nano-sized Barack Obama, to calls for a ‘Gaian dictator’ to save the world, the blogs have been buzzing this year – here we round up a few of our favourites

Biology and environment

Should we clone a Neanderchimp?

Do we need a ‘Gaian dictator’ to save the world?

Nine bizarre behaviours from the animal world


How the Virgin Mary eased the pain

Physics and space

Physicist Max Tegmark and ‘Anakin Skywalker’ discuss teleportation

Calm down everyone – the LHC doesn’t mean the end of the world

Are we living in a giant cosmic void?

Images from the Phoenix Mars lander contained a few surprises

What happens if you throw a boomerang in space?

Technology

Pentagon requests robots that can hunt down humans in packs

Meet soon-to-be president Obama – at a scale never before seen

Ever wondered what happens to deleted Wikipedia articles? Click here to find out

Nokia researchers look ahead to the $5 cellphone