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Albany, NY – STEM CHEERLEADER-IN-CHIEF
SCIENCE FAIR AT THE WHITE HOUSE -
Middle school and high school students from across the country descended on the state dining room at the White House a short time ago. They brought with them their award-winning science fair projects. They ranged from a robot that plays soccer, to a smart toilet that conserves water, to an innovative approach for treating cancer.
The White House Science Fair is part of President Obama's Educate to Innovate program, which he hopes will move American students from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade.
Glenn Busby reports. (7:36)
JUST HOW EARTH-LIKE IS THE ENVIRONMENT ON SATURN'S MOON TITAN?
ASTROBIOLOGY RESEARCH AND EDUCATION SERIES
"TITAN AS A PREBIOTIC LABORATORY: DEVELOPMENT OF COMPLEX ORGANICS IN AN ABIOTIC ENVIRONMENT"
Part One: How Like Earth is Titan? -
Many listeners may have been as excited as we were to see the detailed pictures of the comet Harley 2 taken by NASA's EPOXI mission during its close encounter with the comet last month.
Jets of melting ice streamed from both ends of the comet as the Deep Impact probe gave humans only our fifth close look at a comet.
Comets are essentially frozen leftovers from the dawn of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. Many scientists believe they could have delivered water and life's early ingredients, organic chemicals, to Earth's oceans during frequent impacts.
While that mission took five years to reach its point of intersection with the comet another mission, Cassini, has been underway for 13-years and has "parked" itself near Saturn investigating its largest moon, Titan.
Titan has a diameter roughly 50% larger than Earth's moon, and is 80% more massive. It's the second-largest moon in the solar system, and is larger by volume than the planet Mercury.
Findings from the Cassini spacecraft indicate that Titan has an environment that resembles Earth's at the time that life first got a foothold.
Our guest scientist is Dr. Mark Smith, a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Dr. Smith tells TBOOK that some of his work to learn more about Titan is collaborative with the Cassini mission.
Glenn Busby reports. (9:05)
The preceding was 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 180 stories featured in this current exclusive Astrobiology series and our 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
"LIFE ON EARTH'S MOON?" -
This week's episode features Dr. M. Darby Dyar, Associate Professor of Astronomy, Mount Holyoke College.
The Academic Minute is hosted by Dr. Lynn Pasquerella, a celebrated philosopher and medical ethicist, and President of Mount Holyoke College. (2:30)