The ISS and the Spacetalk

The plasma trail of a Russian-built Soyuz TMA-05M space capsule (inset) while re-entering the earth’s atmosphere on Nov’19, 2012. The space capsule landed safely in Arkalyk, a remote town of Kazakhstan bringing back to earth the three astronauts; Commander Sunita Williams, and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide from the International Space Station, ISS. (Right) Astronauts busy constructing the Space Station over New Zealand. Image courtesy: NASA.

November has been the month of space exploration and it was on November 20, 1998 that a first module 'Zarya' was launched into the space and the works began on the assembly of International Space Station (ISS) at an orbital altitude of 350 km; the final assembly of which was only completed last year. The Space Station now enters the fifteenth year of its existence and therefore, it is only appropriate to mark the occasion and comment on what is one of the largest and most complex international projects in the history of mankind. As an outsider looking into the Space and while sifting through the volumes of available information, I was profoundly struck by the enormous progress that has been made in space exploration by the human being and all credit goes to NASA and the Project Team of ISS, which comprises of 16 nations including USA, Russia, Japan, 11 European nations, Canada, and Brazil. Surely, many more surprises are in store as NASA nurtures its ambitious plans to move away from the lower Earth orbit (LEO, an orbit below an altitude of 2000 kms or 1200 miles from Earth) to deep space exploration: Moon,  Mars, and beyond!

Space Station orbits the Earth 16 times a day or once  every 
90 minutes with a speed of  nearly 28,000 km/h. Credit: NASA..

Of late, the project has been mired in a controversy and attracted much criticism from both scientific and political circles alike on the grounds of delays in completion, budgetary overruns, access to the space station and optimal laboratory facilities. This may be untrue because much of the initial phase of ISS has been relegated to the assembly and the research on biomedical, materials science, and the development of space technology for obvious reasons as maintaining the safety, health, and optimum performance of the astronauts and or the space station is of paramount importance and that the human presence in space is vital to any mission success. The achievements cannot be understated as more than 200 research publications have resulted from the direct offshoot of the experiments conducted under microgravity conditions aboard ISS.

Earthrise: Planet Earth rising over the Moon's horizon
captured by the crew of Appollo 8. Image courtesy:NASA

Isn't it high time that the Nobel Committee take a serious look at the unprecedented cooperation between the nations cross continents and the tremendous progress achieved by the multinational Team ISS and award its coveted Peace Prize to the mission. I am sure such a move would send positive signals across the international community and open up new avenues for the exchange of cooperation on a similar scale  between the nations not only in the softer areas of science and technology but also harder aspects of missile defense and guided technologies and in reducing the arsenals of mass destruction thus directly furthering the cause of global peace.

Big Bang Revisited!

This computer animation, created using new software called Arepo, simulates nine billion years of cosmic history. Created by a team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics (CfA) in collaboration with researchers at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Arepo can accurately follow the birth and evolution of thousands of galaxies over billions of years. Credit: CfA/UCSD/HITS/

Open Access Explained!

Here's an interesting video on open access journals. It is hilarious and raises some interesting questions on this practice of journals drawing rather expensive research material at no cost from the authors while charging exorbitant subscription fees. The original video is from http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php? comicid=153.  Have a look and draw your own conclusions.

Barack Obama Re-elected As The President Of The United States

Game over! Here's the latest on the US elections. Several leading news channels around the world including "The Big Picture" project Barack Obama's re-election as the  President of the United States. Contrary to predictions, all the talk of a tie, and prolonged election night; even before midnight, it's game over for Mitt Romney.

On Writing Styles

I find this interesting vimeo of an interview with Steven Pinker on writing, wherein he talks about where to begin, style, and the importance of knowing your audience; very informative, analytical, and helpful for all those upcoming writers out there. Steven is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and this vimeo is from:  http://www.cambridgenights.com. Here's another Link to his hour-long lecture given at MIT on "Communicating Science and Technology in the 21st Century". Take a look!