A team from the University of Western Australia have finished work on a new simulation software package that can accurately predict the sweep of bushfires, and where they're likely to head next.

This amazing/disturbing picture is of a giant weta, a species of cricket native to New Zealand. This particular specimen is the largest ever recorded, and weighs a whopping (for an insect) 71 grams in weight. The giant weta is was eradicated from mainland New Zealand after being predated on by rats and other small mammals introduced by Europeans.

The Japanese seem to have the most fun aboard the ISS. Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa has accomplished what so many only children on Earth have unsuccessfully attempted: successfully playing a team sport all by your lonesome. In this case, baseball. In this video, shot aboard the ISS during missions 28 and 29, the JAXA astronaut throws a few pitches, hits them with a tiny bat, and even manages to get himself out.

It might sound a bit brazen to play around with fire in an artificially oxygenated environment, but that hasn't stopped the crew of the ISS from studying the behaviour of flame aboard the orbiting science station. Fire behaves very strangely - relative to the way it behaves on Earth, at least - in microgravity, and the Flame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX) has conducted more than 200 tests over two years to try and understand why.

Japanese Spandex-maker Asahi Kasei Fibers has developed the world's first elastic electrical cable, a stretchy conductive connector that could go a long way toward reducing cord clutter. But it's not just a way to help you manage your multi-cord mess. Called Roboden, the stretchable cord could enable new generations of electronics-embedded textiles and robotic skins.

The Swiss have solved one of Europe's great problems: The Alps make shipping freight expensive. Remove that problem, and you create a much easier way to move trade throughout the eurozone.