The public's fascination with the intricate machinery in the video for "This Too Shall Pass" by OK Go may help promote the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. This is an annual competition for students to show off their creative engineering skills in designing a complex structure to perform some mundane task. The inspiration comes from Goldberg's cartoons, which depict impractical devices for comic effect. Fans of Wallace and Gromit will also appreciate both the absurdity and ingenuity.

The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Waisman Center will welcome His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to its public grand-opening celebration Saturday-Sunday, May 15-16.

Now, this may sound like a New Age centre for feel-good flaky philosophies, but it isn't: it's a neuroscience research laboratory. Run by Richard Davidson, who became famous for testing the brain waves of Tibetan monks, the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds uses some hard-nosed neuroscience to research how we can change our brains and thereby achieve a healthier perspective on life, the universe and everything.

This is an interview of Prof. Richard J. Davidson on Shrink Rap Radio, hosted by David Van Nuys, discussing his research on meditation and the brain. Davidson tells that his research shows that meditation has a beneficial effects on the mind and quantitative effects on brain functions. Even novice meditators show immediate changes, with experienced long term meditators showing more pronounced changes to their brainwave patterns. One thing he has noticed is that, given each individual starts with a slightly different brain structure, different meditation techniques have varying degrees of effects. One thing he would like to see in the future is a way to establish which technique is most suitable for each individual, without

Much has been written about how inspirational teachers can turn students on to a subject they perhaps would otherwise have let drift away. But what do you do if you're really into a subject but have a poor teacher who is doing their best to turn you off?

I think many scientists show signs of their curiosity at an early age. They may not know exactly where they will end up but they know that they need to know. Whether it's a fascination with why the Moon doesn't fall to Earth, with how your tropical fish procreate or what your cat's dreaming about, the first step towards knowing is to ask.

Nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize have closed and, amongst a record 237 nomination, it includes "The Internet". All of it, apparently! Every computer, every server, every router that is part of the global phenomenon that is the Internet. But can it win?