http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-919062.mp3
Albany, NY – JOBS BILL BAILS OUT TEACHERS: ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS IT WILL SAVE 160,000 JOBS IN TIME FOR THE OPENING OF SCHOOLS -
Surrounded by teachers in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama quickly signed into law a bill he hopes will save 160-thousand teachers' jobs in time for the start of the new school year.
The law approves 10-billion dollars in aid to states and school districts to avert educator layoffs, and to hire new staff members.
Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, told reporters he hopes to get the money out to districts and states "in a matter of weeks."
Glenn Busby reports. (3:21)
ASTROBIOLOGY RESEARCH AND EDUCATION SERIES
"LABORATORY SPECTROSCOPY OF INTERSTELLAR AND PLANETARY ICE ANALOGS" -
Turning to science education now. NASA recently chose nine experiments, designed by students, for astronauts to perform on the International Space Station. It's part of a pilot program geared to challenge students in grades 5 through 8.
Meanwhile, scientists are continually studying areas of outer space they can never travel to never touch never see with their own eyes. They are able to do this and learn more as technology improves. These studies are not only opening windows to outer space they are also opening windows into how our own solar system was formed, the birth of our Earth and Sun and someday, hopefully, the answer to the origins of life.
Our next guest is a Physics Professor from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Perry Gerakines specializes in the study of interstellar and planetary materials.
Glenn Busby reports. (12:35)
The preceding is made possible by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, through support of the New York Center for Astrobiology, located at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - in partnership with the University at Albany, the University of Arizona, and Syracuse University.
**(For additional information about this story, or any of the other more than 160 stories featured in this current exclusive Astrobiology series, and past Origins of Life radio series, or if you would like to hear them again via your computer, the website given at the conclusion of the above segment is: www.origins.rpi.edu )**
THE ACADEMIC MINUTE
"TELESCOPES" -
NASA's best recognized, longest-lived, and most prolific space observatory just celebrated its 20th birthday. The Hubble Space Telescope has looked at more than 30-thousand objects, and amassed over one-half million pictures. Hubble continues to bring its colorful discoveries into millions of homes and schools every day.
Our last story talked about the Spitzer Space Telescope. Well, the European Space Agency also now has the Herschel Space Observatory some 1-million miles from Earth providing remarkable images of distant galaxies.
And just last month, the National Research Council released its ten-year survey called, "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics." It says driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imaginations, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically. The report recommends beginning construction on new survey telescopes in space and on the ground which brings us to our Academic Minute.
This week's episode features Dr. John O'Meara, Assistant Professor of Physics at Saint Michael's College in Vermont.
The Academic Minute is hosted by Dr. Lynn Pasquerella, a celebrated philosopher and medical ethicist, and President of Mount Holyoke College. (2:30)