NASA is considering re-purposing its successful Cassini-Huygens probe to do something that it wasn't designed for, but is nonetheless amazing: searching for signs of life on Saturns frozen moon Enceladus. Back in July 2005 Cassini observed a huge plume of ice particles and water vapor shooting from the tiny moon, suggesting the possibility that there's a liquid ocean hiding beneath its surface.

Now scientists are calling for the probe to be sent sailing through the plume and over the moon in detail to look for complex carbon molecules that may indicate the presence of life in the ocean using its Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer. The argument runs that abundant life living in the ocean should produce molecules like methane which could then be detected: scientists have already built a test chamber at NASA's Ames Research Center to try to simulate the conditions on Enceladus and calculate what kinds of gasses may be expected.

It's a long shot, but it may provide useful data before NASA sends more probes to the gas giants in the next decade. And you never know, we may find out we're not alone. [New Scientist]

Scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing have just perfected a process by which nanotubes can be coaxed to emit sound, allowing for the construction of ultra-thin, transparent, flexible 'speakers', demonstrated above affixed to a waving flag. Unlike normal speakers, which produce sound with direct vibration, these sheets produce sound with wildly fluctuating temperatures that create pressure oscillations in the surrounding air. In other words, these nanotube speakers — in contrast to other forays into flat sound production — don't vibrate at all.

In a second demonstration video, the speaker film is shown being stretched, while the emitted sound remains unperturbed. This could have tremendous ramifications for mobile music devices and phones, but the researchers didn't drop any clues as to when, or even if, this tech could make it to market. [New Scientist via Physorg]

This may not be as small as yesterday's picoprojector, but Toshiba's TLP-X200U projector is still portable, and touted as being the world's first with talking guidance. Apparently it's designed to make the thing easier to use, and it also talks you through maintenance procedures, with the aim of making it all work better for you, and thus saving you money in the long run. Elsewise it's got 3LCD tech, 1024 x 768-pixels resolution, 3000 ANSI lumen brightness and a 600:1 contrast ratio, and it's wired and wireless LAN capable. It may indeed be "slim, light and compact" and have that voice function, but for an MSRP of $1,740 I'd expect it to have an LCARS touchpanel and Majel Barrett's dulcet digital tones. [I4U]

For a cheap-at-half-the-price sum of just $30million you could be the owner of the Basra Breeze—a 270-foot superyacht that Bond himself, or perhaps, more fittingly, a Bond-style supervillain would be proud of. Why? Because as well as your standard superyacht golden faucets, the Breeze has a helicopter landing deck, and a bullet-proof atrium.

Better yet there's even an escape pod accessed by a ship-wide secret passageway, and a place to install your collection of surface-air missiles. I'm certain I've seen both of those in Bond movies.

Plus you'd have the pleasure of owning a ship with the dubious cachet of once belonging to Middle-Eastern dictator, Saddam Hussein himself. The Iraqi government's the vendor, but if you're in the market for it, you'd better have no sense of style: apparently the interior decor is as crazy as the moustachioed-one himself was. [Photo: Luxist. DangerRoom]

BoingBoing Gadgets took a field trip to tour some of Consumer Reports' electronics testing facilities, where they found a perfect physical manifestation of everything that the magazine feels like: middle-aged men giving droll, monotone speeches about methodology in a series of depressing rooms, each containing a minimalist, utilitarian testing apparatus. And mannequins. While it's interesting to see what bizarre contraptions they've contrived to test gadgets, it's hard not to notice how dated and bloated the whole system feels. Check out the full video tour at [BBG]

Environmentalists who say we shouldn't cut down the rainforest as it harbors potentially useful lifeforms are finally right: there's an amazing fungus that can produce biodiesel better than any current methods. Gliocladium roseum was found in the Patagonian rainforest, as a by-product of antibiotics experiments. The scientists were amazed that the fungus was putting out a mist of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. "This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," according to one professor, who added that G.roseum can even make fuels from cellulose. With a little genetic tweaking, the team think it's possible the fungus could become an important green fuel source. [Physorg]

Researchers at Kyoto University recently displayed an eco-friendly electric car made almost entirely out of bamboo, one of the fastest growing materials available. The single-seat “BamGoo” weighs about 130 pounds, can only run about 30 miles on a charge, and probably won't pass any safety tests, but it sure is cute! Let's just hope that there aren't any wandering pandas about. [Daylife]

This pocket-sized mobile charger from Brando not only juices the most common mobile devices on the market—including all iPhone and iPods, any cellphone by a major company, and handheld gaming consoles—it also acts as an emergency torch if you suddenly find yourself in the dark. The light will last about 5 hours and is charged via USB. If you think you're headed toward a blackout of some sort in the future, pick one up from Brando's store for $32 (with free shipping this holiday season). [Brando]

Chinese internet users have become the top target for malware, according to a new security report by Microsoft. The company said that about 47 percent of software “exploits” it found, including ones that can record keystrokes and steal passwords, in the first half of 2008 were in Chinese, while only 23 percent were in English.

Considering China surpassed the U.S. in overall internet users this June, it's probably not that surprising that the country would be targeted. Couple that with the influx of inexperienced users with freshly middle-class banking accounts, and you've got a major security problem. Microsoft recommended constantly updating to lower vulnerabilities, which probably won't happen since the newest Windows updates contain that anti-piracy black screen security measure. [Yahoo News] (Flickr credit - Kai Hendry)

Toyo Kitchen's Isola S, from its Nobody line, is my answer to remaining fashionable in the oncoming economic apocalypse. Sure, I can no longer afford a McMansion in an affluent suburb, but I can get a storage unit somewhere and host fancy, LED-lit cocktail parties with this adjustable kitchen contraption. Isola S fits three electric cooking rings, a sink and corrugated-bottom drawers into a configurable yin yang shape. Add this to other tiny living space solutions from Japan and you'll wonder why you ever thought you needed anything bigger to begin with. Price not yet available. [Dvice]