Planet Earth
February 22nd, 2012 Enlarge This is the cover of “Exploring the Solar System.” Credit: Wiley-Blackwell Throughout history our species has been fascinated with the stars, the planets and the vastness of outer space. The five short decades since the Space Age began has seen spacecraft travel to the furthest reaches of our solar system....
In 1957 the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into Earth’s orbit. The United Nations saw the need to provide a framework for the space activities that the USA and USSR were pursuing. The UN’s response was to set up a committee to manage a framework for space exploration activities. Initially created...
A team of scientists has looked to the heavens for a way to double the energy produced by microbial fuel cells (MFCs), using bacteria usually found 30km from the Earth’s surface. If sci-fi B-movies are anything to go by, then life-forms from outer space are not usually the benevolent type. However, researchers reckon that Bacillus...