Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking once remarked that humankind would need to colonise space within the next century if it was to survive as a species.

Bad news for all those who fancied the idea of having a baby in outer space. It almost certainly won't happen. According to three scientists who have looked into the business of human beings colonising other bits of the galaxy, a pregnant woman moving through space is likely to be so bombarded with cosmic radiation that the chances of her egg remaining fertile are remote.

The sharp-suited Hawaiian looks great, has an album at the top of the charts and a calculated charm that works. What a shame that his easy funk-pop has all the sentiment of a Hallmark card

More than 40 years after Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the surface of the moon, the multinational crew of Russia's Mars 500 experiment will finally leave their spaceship in the coming weeks, and venture out – into an adjacent sandpit.

Bruno Mars, until recently one of R&B's backroom boys, is currently the hottest thing in pop, with "Grenade" furnishing his second UK chart-topper.

Fifty years ago, Arthur, the oldest satellite at Cornwall's Goonhilly Down Satellite Station, received the world's first transatlantic television broadcast.

When Brown discovered a distant world called Eris, he didn't realise it would see Pluto kicked out of the Solar System – and his letterbox fill with hate mail. Nick Harding meets him

Man About Town

In the icy oceans of Enceladus, one of Saturn's tiny moons, scientists believe that there is proof that aliens exist. So why are there no plans to return to this mysterious miniature world?

Yield may triple and transform the lives of poor African farmers

Kazakhstan is launching itself as the new Singapore – a stopover destination for people heading further east. Adrian Mourby gets a sneak preview of Central Asia's curious transit delight

Races over seven or eight furlongs round here tend to hinge upon so many hazards that the search for a winner tends to become a rather neurotic, complex process. Over two miles, however, punters have no need to fret about the draw, or potential traffic problems round all those twists and turns. They can simply back the best horse in the race. And on that basis there is no need to wait for Jupiter to align with Mars, or the moon to be in the Seventh House, to find the winner of the Artemis Goodwood Cup.

So, National Service is back. Obviously not real National Service, where every chap in the nation is required by law to undergo 24 months of military training, square-bashing and army manoeuvres, under the baleful eye of a sergeant-major, as was the case from 1947 to 1960.