Marc Abraham's Ignobel Prizes is the latest book in a series that seeks to highlight some of the strangest scientific research papers to be published. From the founder of the esteemed Annals of Improbable Research (www.improbable.com), the Ignobel Prizes award scientists for some truly bizarre work, including the research into dunking biscuits (see How to Dunk a Donut).

The booming interest in genealogy created by the Internet has provided a lucrative market for programs that help the home user research and create their family tree...

Encarta Premium Suite claims a base of 130,000+ articles, along with 25,300+ photos and illustrations and 1.8 million map locations. That's more than a bit of bedtime reading, although of course there are really only two reasons why people buy digital encyclopedias these days -- either they've got kids to educate, or they're after some verifiable and quotable facts for a research project. For almost anyone else, of course, there's Google.

Gone are the innovations introduced in the first game – allowing the player to upgrade specific unit traits via the unit itself; the exciting feel of progressing from one epoch to another and general playability.

Sci-fi strategy with a killer twist. Imagine any creature, make it, and send it into battle.

Pyro Studios, the development team behind the Commandos series, has turned its hand to the hybrid RTS/ table-top strategy genre – a genre which consists primarily of Creative Assembly’s brilliant Total War games.

National Geographic is a magazine that garners respect whenever, and wherever it is read. Covering a gamut of topics, the magazine typically runs nature conservational pieces, sociological profiles of countries, histories of ancient civilizations, pieces on scientific discoveries and natural occurrences such as earthquakes and weather phenomena.

It has been over two years since we previewed Office XP, but Microsoft has finally given us a glimpse of Office 2003. The finished version should be on the shelves by the end of July, but will it be worth the upgrade? The answer could be an emphatic 'yes' if you're a Tablet PC user, as Microsoft has just launched OneNote (see page 59), making full use of electronic ink. The company is also introducing InfoPath (see page 59) for designing electronic forms, with the flexibility of XML. The classic apps have also had their seen refurbishment, with Outlook (page 56) getting the most attention, and FrontPage and Publisher (page 58) a bit of a revamp.

RIM has finally fired its long awaited new weapon, in the most powerful Blackberry device to date that not only handles essential business communications but packs in enhanced entertainment features.

A reworking of an old card from Palit, but it’s not quite enough to beat the 9600 GT

Simple classic fun with a healthy dose of nostalgia for good measure.

Almost a complementary tome to The Ignoble Prizes, How to dunk a donut is written by Len Fisher, a scientist who has often been approached by corporations to perform some truly bizarre studies.

Epson has two current specialist photo printers and the model which takes care of the lower end is the $399 Stylus Photo 810.

It feels like I say this every time I write a TFT review, but by gum theyve come ahead in leaps and bounds in recent years, in terms of technology, price and sales.

A creepy, original and innovative horror adventure. Also, Frictional Games has fixed the weird control system.

A set of small, spherical surround speakers that sound as good as they look.

The revamped interface and unbeatable performance make this the best option on the market.

RTS gaming for grown-ups.

RTS is getting tired and repetitive, and Star Wars games have been famous for almost always being bad.

For a company whose only other major release was the original Half Life, Valve has pushed the boundaries with fresh, bold gameplay that stays true to the legendary legacy.