Painted battery. (Photo: Rice University)

Sometimes we get swept up in the breathless reports about RIM shares, Twitter ads, the relative sizes of Pinterest and Tumblr, and other such minor tech news items that some might call "incremental," and so we forget that insane shit is happening with science. We're not even talking about Google's sky divers. For example:

Texas: Some students invented a spray-on rechargeable battery.

Texas: Some other students hacked into a flying drone's GPS.

California: Google's take on the modern personal digital assistant a.k.a. Google Now can all but read your mind.

California: A new telescope will be able to predict asteroids 50 to 100 years in advance.

California: Enzymes from mutant sponges are evolving semiconductors.

Boston: Researchers have invented microparticles that, when injected into the bloodstream, replace the need to breathe.

Japan: The world's thinnest computer screen is an iridescent soap bubble.

Puerto Rico: Starting tomorrow, National Geographic will be collecting tweets to beam into space in the general direction of Sagittarius.

New Jersey: The Army has built a giant gun that shoots lightning.

Earth: On Saturday, atomic clocks will be adding a "leap second."