Yesterday morning, the National Academy of Sciences had the honor of celebrating its 150th anniversary with a speech by President Barack Obama. The President reflected on Abraham Lincoln’s founding of the National Academy of Sciences 150 years ago and asserted the importance of setting priorities for research, continuing our nation’s scientific advance, and maintaining our […]
It has been a banner week for space enthusiasts! Kepler-22b is the first planet discovered beyond our system to possibly be in a habitable zone, capable of supporting life. Scientists also announced the discovery of the biggest black holes yet. New pictures of the asteroid Vesta were released, adding greatly to our knowledge of asteroids. […]
On Monday a team of NASA astronomers announced the discovery of the first rocky planet orbiting a star outside our solar system. The discovery of the planet, named Kepler-10b, was the result of data collected by the Kepler spacecraft, launched by NASA in March 2009. Remember when grade school astronomy consisted mainly of knowing the […]
As you may have heard, former NAS President Bruce Alberts, former NIH Director and IOM member Elias Zerhouni, and Nobel prize-winning chemist and NAS member Ahmed Zewail have been appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to serve as science envoys to Muslim majority countries. According to the State Department press release, the envoys […]