NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover, Spirit, on Monday as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap. Spirit has been lodged at a site scientists call “Troy” since April 23. Researchers expect the extraction process to be long and the outcome uncertain based [...]
America Also Strong on Personal Freedom and Community Life, Finds Legatum Prosperity Index Finland is the Most Prosperous Nation Overall, While the United States, Ranked 9th, is the Top-Performing Large Nation. Poor Performance on Health Drags the U.S. Down The third edition of the Legatum Prosperity Index ranks 104 countries (covering 90% of the world’s [...]
Two grand prize winners have innovations related to cell engineering and tools for quadriplegics A faster tool for cell programming and a new way of allowing quadriplegics to perform simple tasks have won grand prizes of the 2009 Collegiate Inventors Competition, a program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame sponsored by the Abbott Fund, [...]
U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman announced the winners of the 2009 Department of Energy Solar Competition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Team Germany, the student team from Darmstadt, Germany won top honors by designing, building, and operating the most attractive and efficient solar-powered home. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [...]
Phoning while driving and texting behind the wheel are in the news. This is the highway safety issue of the moment, the subject of cartoons and, on a more serious side, the focus of legislation. A key question is whether such laws succeed in changing patterns of driver cellphone use. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety [...]
The first astronaut to tweet from space has passed another social media milestone. NASA’s Mike Massimino, known as @Astro_Mike on Twitter, now shares his daily experiences with more than a million followers on the micro-blogging service. Massimino flew in May aboard the final space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. He began a [...]
Nissan North America Targets 20,000 Reservations by Launch Near End of 2010; Will Expand Production to U.S. in 2012 In response to strong initial demand for the Nissan LEAF zero-emission electric car, Nissan North America, Inc. announced it will begin taking reservations for LEAF in spring 2010. Nearly 22,000 people in North America have contacted [...]
A new report by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) shows strong growth in new geothermal power projects continuing through 2009. U.S. Geothermal Power Production and Development Update, September 2009 identifies 144 new geothermal projects under development in fourteen states that could represent as much as 7,100 MW of new baseload power capacity. When added to [...]
A national survey released today showed 86 percent of licensed U.S. drivers described handheld texting while driving as “very dangerous,” with 93 percent supporting a nationwide ban on texting – Despite strong support for a nationwide handheld texting ban, only 42 percent of respondents believe drivers would stop texting if banned. More than 75 percent [...]
Office Live Workspace answers Department of Education’s call to help teachers and students stay connected virtually anytime, anywhere. It’s the start of the school year, and there are already empty seats in classrooms and lecture halls because of unfortunate outbreaks of the H1N1 flu virus. Today, Microsoft Corp. is furthering its commitment to the U.S. [...]