Running out of excuses for not hearing the request to take out the trash or do the dishes? Rejoice, you who avoid sharing common household chores - a new excuse has emerged.

Avoid drinking any liquid while reading this - I almost spit out my coffee, laughing.

For as long as she could remember a 60-year-old British woman, known only as KH, has been unable to recognize voices, not even the voice of her own daughter. Unless she sees the face of the person speaking, she often has no idea who is talking to her. If her daughter calls on the phone, or an unseen colleague from work says something to her, it’s as if she’s hearing the voice for the first time.

Except when Sean Connery speaks.

I envision a Walley World outpost on Venus, or perhaps the next passing comet...what, you have a better idea?

Then send it to NASA. The space agency announced an opportunity for PI-led space investigations for its New Frontier program. One of NASA's strategic goals is to "advance scientific knowledge of the origin and history of the solar system, the potential for life elsewhere, and the hazards and resources present as humans explore space." To that end, the NASA Science Mission Directorate is conducting a program of planetary science to answer the following questions:

This is why women should just stay in the kitchen and leave the real work to the men. (I'm still bitter about being told in 1997 by a construction foreman that I hammer like a girl.)

Move over, Malibu - ancient Mars may take the solar system's top beachfront destination prize. It possibly had not just one ocean, but two! An older, wiser ocean, surrounding a younger version that probably knew everything about marine life and just wanted to be left alone.

Ivan Oransky, managing editor of Scientific American online, was one of the judges for Nikon's Small World contest: "Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of serving as one of several judges for the Nikon Small World contest. Our task was to sit in a dimly lit room and try to rank the hundreds of entries—images taken by professional and amateur scientists around the world using visible-light microscopes."

Ah, the tanning booth - a cancer-causing security blanket for high schoolers headed to spring break in Mexico and prom. (Not that I have a bias.) Sunless tanning lotions and sprays exist, of course, but the resulting tell-tale orange streaks can deter hopeful sun goddesses from the UVA/B-free alternatives.

Enter the injectable fake-bake. Melanotan is an analogue of the naturally occurring alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone and induces melanogenesis (note: do not confused melanotan with melatonin, a hormone associated with circadian rhythms). For those willing to inject themselves with an experimental drug, melanotan seems to provide said risk-takers with a tan sans sun or tanning bed exposure.