Perhaps one of the most prestigious prizes awarded on a global context, the Nobel Peace Prize has been an enigma since its ambiguous inception. While Alfred Nobel left behind a long legacy and a way for the world to annually commemorate the greatest minds each generation comes to find, there has been a large breadth of past winners, leaving the annual guessing game of who’s on the short list and who’s going to win a toss-up in most peoples’ eyes. But to make an accurate guess you have to know the facts.
It’s no surprise, since NASA has had a long history with engaging the public’s interest in space, but this time they’re offering an extraordinary opportunity: the chance to be amongst the first names placed on Mars. Like the beginning to a Martian history, wherein all of the pilgrims’ names are archived on the Orion spacecraft, NASA is extending the opportunity for you to SIGN UP and have your name engraved onto a thumbnail-sized microchip documenting the first mission. And it’s as easy as 1-2-3.
As fears over a global pandemic of Ebola reach frightening levels, not only in Africa but in Europe and the Americas as well, news this morning of the first infection transmitted in Europe caused a massive effort by Spanish health officials as they try to isolate those possibly infected.
It’s been a buzz-worthy topic since it was unveiled in this week’s issue of the journal Science, but the discoverers of the newly mapped bottom of the sea are not your typical explorers.
The selection process for Nobel laureates is perhaps the most rigorous decision made on a global level. Not only does it require knowledge of a world’s worth of science and cultural advancements, but it also requires a sensitivity towards where humanity is moving as a collective people. And while energy technology companies are looking towards the philosophical “smart cities” that lie ahead, this year’s Nobel Prize awarded in Physics is reflecting the way lighting has revolutionized the world.
This summer has been one of many great successes for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft. Finally arriving to its intended destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and entering its orbit successfully, Rosetta has begun its year-long work of observing and analyzing the comet with quite a splash. And now, only weeks into observation, at only a distance of 16 miles away from the comet, the spacecraft’s camera has captured a glimpse of jetting vapors released from the icy surface.
Plans for putting the first man on Mars are already well-underway by most of the world’s top astronomical agencies. And that’s only the beginning. Not only are there plans for exploring the red planet using manned expeditions, but there are also private sector ventures looking to colonize the planet Mars. And it’s not getting there that’s the problem.
With this summer bringing record-breaking heat waves throughout the northern hemisphere, the people of Hawaii have found that the lack of trade winds have made for a particularly warm and humid summer. And they’re not the only ones suffering.
