It's not what you give, it's what your gift says about you that counts
From Times Online:
Health workers culling poultry at Shoilpur village near the Indian city of Kolkata. The H5N1 bird flu pandemic spread across the world in 2003 causing widespread panic and has so far killed 260 people. Reuters
A Nasa image of depressions interpreted as ancient lake basins. Photograph: NASA/PA
Calling the future: How Google's new Nexus One phone will look, according to an internet preview
From Market Watch:
New research shows how it is possible to directly analyze DNA from a member of our own species who lived around 30,000 years ago. (Credit: iStockphoto/Andrey Prokhorov)
Researchers at Oregon State University are using studies of guinea hens and other animals such as cockroaches to learn more about the mechanics of their running ability, with the goal of developing robots that can run easily over rough terrain. Credit: Oregon State University
Corbis
GM crops have been cleared for commercial cultivation (Image: Jeff Hutchens/Getty) 
Behold the Laser Avenger, a cannon that could be used to take down incoming aircraft. Boeing was able to shoot a drone out of the sky with the hummer-mounted laser, even though it’s not particularly high-powered. It cooked the remote-controlled aircraft using a somewhat feeble 1-kilowatt beam. More recently, the company shot down another UAV using a low-power laser paired with its Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments, or Matrix, system during a test in White Sands, New Mexico.
Photo: Talking to me?: This robot, called Robovie, uses gaze cues to manage a conversation. Credit: Bilge Mutlu 
The discovery has been hailed as possible method of helping addicts get off Cocaine and could prevent deaths from overdose. Photo: PA 
Suzaku detected X-rays from fully ionized silicon and sulfur - which
This is the Herschel Space Observatory. (Credit: European Space Agency)
From Live Science:
Acacia trees line an African landscape in an undated picture. Picture by Tim Laman, NGS 
Paramilitary policemen stand guard in front of the late
These images were recorded with millimeter wave technology.
Credit: iStockphoto
Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10
From The BBC:
In a letter dated 1246 from Grand Khan Guyuk, pictured, to Pope Innocent IV, Genghis Khan's grandson demands that the Pontiff travel to central Asia in person
From Times Online:
After 10 years of study, the Census for Marine Life will finally publish its report into ocean life. Photograph: Mark Conlin/Alamy
Could our three dimensions be the ultimate cosmic illusion? A German detector is picking up a hint that we are all mere projections (Image: Wolfgang Filser/Max Planck Society)The most popular space stories of the year include an exploration of the havoc a solar storm could wreak on Earth and a visualisation of what it would look like to fall into a black hole. Click here to see our readers' favourite space stories of 2009.
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Photo: Tiger Woods may have uncanny concentration when he's on the green, but that same focus doesn't appear to apply off the golf course. Credit: AP Photo
Champagne toast. (Credit: iStockphoto/Carolyn De Anda)
Science shed light on mysteries of evolution, dark matter and the deep ocean.
From USA Today:
A neodymium magnet, commonly used in motors, loudspeakers and other appliances. Neodymium is a rare earth element. ALAMY
From New Scientist:
Stuck in the Sand, But Enjoying the View -- On the other side of Mars, Opportunity's twin rover Spirit is stuck in a sand trap within Gusev Crater. Before getting stuck, Spirit had lost the use of one of its wheels and it was suffering bouts of memory loss. But it's not all bad news. While stuck, Spirit has been carrying out limited science activities, uncovering evidence for ancient water under its wheels. Image: Sunrise on Mars as witnessed by Mars Rover Spirit (NASA/JPL)
Argonne researcher Lynn Trahey loads a coin-sized cell on a testing unit used to evaluate electrochemical cycling performance in batteries. (Credit: Photo by Wes Agresta / Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)
Parts of Scotland have had snowcover for nearly three weeks
Kai-fu Lee (Credit: Google)Sure, every blogger worth his salt has weighed in on the long-rumored Apple tablet that may or may not be--its possible size, shape, specs, debut date, and on and on. Now offering up a perspective on the matter is a high-profile tech industry executive, Kai-fu Lee, who until recently was the head of Google's China operations.
It seems that Lee, who's now working to foster entrepreneurship in China, wrote on his Chinese language blog earlier this week that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be releasing a tablet PC in January, and expects to produce a voluminous 10 million in the first year, according to the IDG News Service and other media outlets.
Photo: Willo O'Brien, a designer and illustrator, demonstrates Square on her iPhone in San Francisco, Dec. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)
From The BBC: