This week sees the launch of a series artificial holts - the name given to an otter's nest - to hasten the mammals' return to their old haunts.

BBC: News | UK | Otters return to UK rivers

Wakefield is a great testament to the ambition of AIM - the Artificial, Indoor and Mountain Series - to bring skiers and riders from grassroots level through to international competition standard.

BBC: SPORT | Other Sport | Skiing | Wakefield wins half-pipe

Skynet, the evil artificial intelligence in the Terminator movies and television series, gained consciousness this week.

FORBES: Skynet Terminator Speaks Chinese

In "The Man Machine, " he gained access to robotics laboratories and staged a series candid portraits featuring the latest in artificial intelligence going about "their daily lives, " such as responding to e-mails or taking a trip to the water cooler.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In 2002 the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) installed a series of electric barriers 37 miles downriver in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, an artificial channel that links the lakes with the Mississippi and its tributaries.

ECONOMIST: The Great Lakes