The 1960s were not only the era of Apollo and the race to the Moon, they were also a time for experimenting with technology that could get us to our closest planetary neighbours – Venus and Mars. The Soviets with the Luna program, and the United States with Ranger, Lunar Orbiter

Recently in a blog focused on the evolution of materials for automobiles I wrote about the future of  shape memory polymers, self-healing nanoparticle-based plastics that return to their original shape after being dented or dinged. Well it seems the future is getting closer to the pre

From the ashes of Germany’s Second World War V-rocket program, the United States and Soviet Union developed space programs of their own. They did this by bringing the German scientists from Peenemunde to their respective countries along with the factories and remaining rocket in

Does the recent warm spell over the eastern half of North America reflect climate change induced by increased greenhouse gases? When Europe experienced an extreme heat wave in 2003, two scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research began a study to see if that event

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Germany have created somatic stem cells from mouse skin cells.  Hans Schöler and his team of researchers have succeeded in inducing the skin cells into becoming neuronal somatic stem cells without passing through a

In a new study conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be published in the journal Computers & Geosciences, in May 2012, , researchers announced a new method for assessing global water stress. The tool they developed integrates climate, population and freshwater statisti

People who study Biomimetics look at biological processes and try to mimic them in technology. After all nature has tooled around with DNA-inspired creations from the dawn of life on this planet nearly 4 billion years ago. And humans have learned from nature. Some modern examples of b

How do you tackle the subject of space, a significant contributor to our technological progress in the 20th and 21st century? In my previous blogs on space I have described the development of rocketry, a technology that gave us the means to reach beyond the outer atmosphere and establ

Creating “living buildings” requires a new approach to design and construction that recognizes the need to reduce our energy footprint. With this in mind the designers of  the Bullitt Center, a 6-storey headquarters for the Bullitt Foundation, intend to create a sustainabl

After the American landing on the Moon, human space flight returned to low-Earth orbit. The cost to launch a kilogram of payload into near-Earth space under the Apollo Program was prohibitively expensive. Post-Apollo engineers focused on finding a cheaper solution. Both in the United