A group of researchers think that SARS came from the stars, invading Earth as part of a daily shower of bacterial debris falling to Earth. Their fellows are highly skeptical. Read the full story.

It's funny how aspects of your past can come streaking through your present, unannounced and unbidden, but appreciated all the same.

I subscribe to a newsletter called WebWord, which deals with Web site usability issues. The most recent edition included a link to a copy of Infocom's classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text-based RPG, which the good folks at DouglasAdams.com have posted on their Web site. It's almost identical to the game I used to play on my old Commodore 64, with the sole exception being that you can?t save your progress.