Science Roundup – 9 March
Posted on March 9th, 2009 in General
Gizmodo reports that Koichi Wakata, a Japanese astronaut, will perform a number of requests when he is in space on board the International Space Station. Wakata has amassed 1,597 requests thus far including shooting liquid from a straw and even flying a magic carpet. The magic carpet ride is a must for us! It reminds me of a conversation I had with Joe Edwards Jr, the former NASA astronaut, when he was over for Science Week in 2007. Apparently astronauts sleep with their arms strapped down by their sides with velcro. Not understanding why, he explained that if you wake up in the middle of the night, you’ll see your fellow astronauts whose arms have become detached looking like Frankenstein!
The LIGHTING AFRICA event took place in Science Gallery as part of the LIGHTWAVE festival on 30.01.2009 with a panel including David Edwards, founder of of Le Laboratoire, Hugo van Vuuren and Aviva Presser of Harvard’s Idea Translation Lab and entrepreneur Richard Kirk CEO of PolyPhotonix. The podcast of the event is now available (mp3). David Edwards introduces the Idea Translation process that led to the Lebone project which involves a microbial fuel cell that can power lights from rotting fruit or soil.
