Tag Archives: Nasa

For one night only, discover the Natural History Museum’s hidden wonders

Posted on by

Science Uncovered, the annual free after-hours extravaganza, returns on Friday 27 September 2013 with more on offer than ever before.

The Natural History Museum is throwing open its doors and giving you exclusive access to its world-class scientists and rarely seen parts of its collections. Science Uncovered is your chance to discover more about the Museum, hear about the latest research and enjoy a drink in the grand setting of the Museum’s Central Hall.

science-uncovered-jellyfish-490_122370_2For many, meeting Museum scientists is one of the most surprising highlights of the evening. Normally behind the scenes, our scientists tackle issues of global importance – from malaria to species loss. Science Uncovered involves 375 researchers from the across the Museum and from other leading organisations, such as the Metropolitan Police Service and the British Antarctic Survey.

Discover what goes on beyond the galleries at this world-renowned centre of research, learn more about the life of a scientist and find out something  unexpected about the natural world. You can get involved in more than 200 different activities on the night, from the Science Bar and Nature Live talks, to visiting the Science Stations and taking part in exclusive behind-the-scenes tours. The evening is also a chance to see some of the extraordinary specimens from the Museum’s collections not normally on display.

New this year:

  • Live link with NASA – the Museum’s resident meteorite expert, Dr Sara Russell, hosts a link-up with the Mars Curiosity Rover team at NASA. Hear what has been discovered one year into the mission and have the chance to ask your burning questions.
  • Get sporty – join the world-leading sport science team from Loughborough University to find out more about the advances in sport, health and their work with the British Olympics team.
  • Predicting weather – meet meteorologists from the Met Office and quiz them about how forecasting is done and what is happening to our weather.
  • Science Fess Up – don’t know what DNA is? Never heard of Alfred Russel Wallace? Sceptical about climate change? Confess your deepest, darkest science secrets and discuss them with our scientist in a private booth.
  • Science Stations – get up close and personal with groundbreaking science at the Science Stations. Check out live animals, including the hedgehog-like Madagascan tenrec, inspect a new 3D map of an ancient human burial site with our world-leading human origins researchers and race maggots with our forensic entomologists.
  • Stamped on Science – collect all six stamps from around the Museum on the night to be in with a chance of joining a field trip to the New Forest. You will get to take part in an important study of British wildlife with Museum scientists and enjoy the great outdoors with a pasty or two.

Science Uncovered is part of EU Researchers’ Night, when institutions in more than 360 cities across Europe reveal the exciting scientific research taking place and celebrate the people who make it possible.

There will be activities suitable for everyone but from 18.00 the event is most suitable for adults. Space is limited for some activities and free tickets for certain events will be available on the night on a first come first served basis.

Date and times: 27 September 2013, 16.00 – midnight
Visitor enquiries: 020 7942 5000
Admission: Free
Nearest tube: South Kensington
Website: www.nhm.ac.uk/scienceuncovered

Toulouse City Guide | Travel

Posted on by

Sometimes it is hard being a writer and editor, especially one with their own magazine. Going to the South of France to review Toulouse was not one of those times. In fact, it is now one of my favourite places in the entire world and I will definitely be returning. The Pink City of Haut-Garonne is called the pink city because of the brickwork of the buildings. It is the 4th largest city in France with 437,000 inhabitants and it is beautiful, dynamic and friendly.

toulouse

We flew with BMI Regional via Birmingham. We also had a great time in the No.1 Traveller lounge at Birmingham Airport before flying to Toulouse Business Class. The flight was incredibly enjoyable and included free food and drink. The service on-board was also great. Our air steward, Michael Love, seemed to know what we wanted before we did and kept us happy with Gin & Tonics and brilliant, yes it is possible, plane food.

BMI Regional plane

Toulouse is the birthplace of Concorde, the Ariane Rocket and the home of Airbus.Toulouse has also had a 100-year love affair with rugby. Stade Toulousain are one of the Northern Hemispheres best teams. 7 million passengers are transported via Toulouse Blagnac Airport every year.

Toulouse has more than 2000 hours of sun a year and more than 1000 restaurants. Sold yet? Whether the answer is yes or no, read on….

We arrived in Toulouse via Toulouse Blagnac Airport, a beautiful and stylish airport and made our way to our hotel, the Citiz Hotel, a modern four star hotel in the heart of Toulouse. It opened in 2010. The hotel has air-conditioning, free wifi and a car park near the hotel entrance. The hotel faces Wilson square and is only a 15 minute drive from Blagnac airport. My hotel room was incredibly stylish, the bed was large and comfy, the bathroom was elegant and the shower powerful. There was a minibar, safe and a flatscreen TV. I also had a balcony and a wardrobe. The hotel also does a great breakfast spread and the staff are very helpful.

Rio Loco, the world music festival that happens every year on the 21st of June to get all of France partying, happened while we were there. We had lots of fun listening to all of the different music and went to bed in the early hours.It was like one huge street party. Definitely recommended.

National Music Day in Toulouse

We went on a walking tour offered by the Toulouse Tourist Board.This was informative and very enjoyable, a great way to see the city. Great things to see include The Capitole (the City Hall), Saint-Sernin Basilica, The Jacobins Convent, The Hotel d’Assezat (built by Nicholas Bachelier for Pierre d’Assezat who made his fortune from Woad, a plant used in dyeing. More of which later), the river Garonne and The Augustins Museum, an amazing fine arts museum with beautiful pieces. It has a lot of 19th century sculptures.

J'GO Toulouse

J’Go, 16 Place Victor Hugo, 31000 Toulouse. Tel: 05 61 23 02 03. They accommodate people regardless of importance and budget and have authentic cuisine from the love of Gascon culture. The fruit and vegetables are grown by farmers in the South West and is in season. They also buy the whole carcass of animals from farmers in their region. The food we had was amazing and a brass band started playing outside while we were eating. The waiter also really knew his stuff.  Check the pictures out here.

996729_10151426576517093_1492873527_n

Cite de L’Espace. Avenue Jean Gonord – BP 25855 – 31506 Toulouse cedex 5. This wonderful space adventure theme park is dedicated to space. We went to Mars (Almost), walked on the moon thanks to the Moonrunner (I was six times less than my usual weight, which was great!), and saw a documentary on the Hubble Telescope in their glorious IMAX Big Screen 3D cinema. The theme park covers 5 hectares and receives 270,000 visitor a year, but it should be more, Globally, 50 million Euro has been invested into the Cite de L’Espace and it shows in the quality. They do tours in English in the summer and have had over 4 million visitors.

There is also a 53 meter high Ariane rocket, I am now one of the privileged few to go into Soyuz Vessel, the indestructible Russian spacecraft. There was authentic Moon Rock on loan from NASA which was brought back by astronauts during the Apollo 15 landing, rock from Mars, great photos which show how the earth looks from up close, to outer space, there is also exhibitions, a children’s area, a planetarium, restaurant and lots of experiments to test yourself on. Do not go to Toulouse and not go to the Cite de L’Espace. It is a must visit.

Cite de L’Espace is accessible to disabled people.

db5cd816e17211e2a86422000a1f9839_7

Le Chai Saint-Sauveur, 30 rue Bernard-Mule- 31400 Toulouse. Tel: 05 61 54 27 20

This was a brilliant restaurant with a rustic, country feel. The food was amazing and so were the staff. Highly recommended. See the food here.

Terre de pastel

Terre de Pastel is a museum, boutique, spa and restaurant opened in June 2013 in Toulouse-Labege. The spa is amazing, with lots of different treatments, an idyllic swimming pool, sauna, Turkish bath, jacuzzi, herbal tea shop and a gym. The museum is informative, telling the story of the woad plant which is responsible for the pastel, the wonderful blue colour. You will learn about the history of blue, the symbol of blue, traditional applications and all about the woad plant, which grows in a field and looks like a rapeseed field; pretty and yellow. Sandrine Banessy, the owner and also author of books on woad, showed us how the woad dyes fabric. It was incredibly interesting and the woad will continue to dye the fabric blue until the fabric is dry.

The shop at Terre de Pastel made me want to spend all of my euros and go over my luggage allowance. There is a great selection of homeware, cosmetics, food, haberdashery and books. It is almost all blue. There is also a restaurant with great food and wine.

1045189_10151432604362093_1649701278_n

Le Py-R. 19 descente de la Halle aux Poissons – 31000 Toulouse. Tel: 05 61 25 51 52. Chef Pierre Lambinon has won many awards and it was easy to see why, the food in his small gastronomic restaurant was amazing and unique. Pictures here.

victor hugo marketplace

The Victor Hugo Marketplace. This is the most prestigious marketplace in all of France. It has 5 small restaurants on its upper floor. I bought some great cheese here.

All of the above places are where you should go if you visit Toulouse. It is a wonderful city and everyone I know loves it. Frost loves….

For more pictures check out Toulouse in Instagram Pictures Part 1, 2 and 3.

Get the Toulouse en Liberte City Card at the Tourism Office to get more than 250 discounts on hotels, restaurants, museums, shops and tours.You can also explore by boat.

www.toulouse-tourisme.com

www.toulouse-visit.com

www.tourisme-midi-pyrenees.com

www.uk.toulouse-tourisme.com

Have you ever been to Toulouse? Make recommendations below.

About No.1 Traveller – fast facts

· No.1 Traveller specialises in premium hospitality and provides a complete ‘driveway to runway’ service – smart Chauffeur-driven airport transfers, express train tickets, airport parking, airport meet-and-greet and airport lounges (No.1 Traveller’s own collection, plus associate lounges abroad)

· It works with airlines, businesses and individuals to offer a convenient and comfortable service to take the stress out of going to and through airports – the smart traveller’s choice

· No.1 Traveller can be booked by anyone at www.No1Traveller.com or passengers can make their way to the reception of the airport lounge on the day

Airport lounge: Birmingham

· Opened October 2012; the first of No.1 Traveller’s lounges outside London

· Accessible to all passengers travelling through the airport

· Open daily from 0430hrs – 2030hrs; facilities include a range of seating areas across two levels, fully-tended bar, bistro area serving complimentary hot and cold dishes, complimentary newspapers, magazines and internet access

· Entry £27.50 per adult at reception, for up to three hours access (children £17.50 each), £22.50 if booked in advance (children £15)

BMI regional operates over 450 flights a week throughout the UK and Europe with one way prices starting from £59. bmi regional flies from Aberdeen, Antwerp, Bristol, Bremen, Billund, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Copenhagen, Glasgow, Gothenburg, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Esbjerg, Frankfurt, Hannover, Hamburg, Lyon, Milan, Munich, Norwich, Manchester, Toulouse and Zurich. All flights include complimentary food & drink on-board, free 20kg hold baggage allowance and 30 minute check-in. bmi regional is the world’s most punctual airline having recently been crowned the title for the 8th consecutive year.  For more information, visit www.bmiregional.com.

Toulouse In Instagram Pictures Part 2 | Travel.

Posted on by

Following on from Part 1, here is Part 2 of Toulouse in Instagram pictures. Part 3 is here with lots of pictures of food. Here is our in-depth Toulouse Travel Guide. Hope you enjoy.

Moon Rock at the Cite de L’Espace. Rented from NASA. 

IMG_4397

Moon rock NASA

Breakfast at the Citiz Hotel, a great four star hotel in a convenient, central area. I love hotel dressing gowns.

480894_10151428838192093_2075127493_n1013055_10151419632577093_1085748552_n

We had an amazing Lunch at La Chai Saint-Sauveur. Their veal was superb, followed by strawberry pie. pictures will be in the food special.

toulouse

Next we went to the Terre de Pastel Museum & Spa. This is newly opened in Labege.

Sandrine Banessy, the owner of Terre Pastel shows us how the woad plant dyes things blue.

Sandrine Banassy

Terre de pastel

I then walked around the city with Esme.

toulousetoulouse

Dinner at Le Py-R. With fellow travel writers. The food was superb. 

1009738_10151428855102093_1283784573_n

1045246_10151428716852093_1990990809_n

Victor Hugo Marketplace.

victor hugo marketplace

More Marketplaces. There was a great variety of stuff.

marketplace in toulouse

 

BMI regional operates over 450 flights a week throughout the UK and Europe with one way prices starting from £59. bmi regional flies from Aberdeen, Antwerp, Bristol, Bremen, Billund, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Copenhagen, Glasgow, Gothenburg, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Esbjerg, Frankfurt, Hannover, Hamburg, Lyon, Milan, Munich, Norwich, Manchester, Toulouse and Zurich. All flights include complimentary food & drink on-board, free 20kg hold baggage allowance and 30 minute check-in. bmi regional is the world’s most punctual airline having recently been crowned the title for the 8th consecutive year.  For more information, visit www.bmiregional.com.

Have you ever been to Toulouse? Do you think you will visit?

First Man On The Moon Neil Armstrong Dies.

Posted on by

Neil Armstrong, who was the first man on the Moon, has died aged 82.

The US astronaut set foot on the moon on 20th July 1969 and uttered the famous words, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

His family released a statement saying he died from complications from heart surgery.

US President Barack Obama said Amstrong was “among the greatest of American heroes – not just of his time, but of all time”.

Armstrong received the Congressional Gold Medal in November last year, the highest US civilian award.

Armstrong spent three hours walking on the moon with fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Buzz Aldrin said: “It’s very sad indeed that we’re not able to be together as a crew on the 50th anniversary of the mission… [I will remember him] as a very capable commander.”

In 1971, he left NASA to teach aerospace engineering.

Armstrong was born in 1930 and was raised in Ohio, he caught the flying bug at six and flew Navy jets in the Korean War, he joined NASA in 1962.

His family called him a “reluctant American hero” who had “served his nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut”.

Neil Armstrong famously said:

“I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.”

“I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.”

The Best Viral Video EVER

Posted on by

We’re NASA and we know it’ parody combines NASA and LMFAO for the best viral video ever. Check it out.

NASA's iPad App Beams Science Straight to Users

Posted on by

Software and media specialists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., today released a new iPad app — the NASA Visualization Explorer — that allows users to easily interact with extraordinary images, video, and information about NASA’s latest Earth science research.

Cutting-edge visualization has long been a staple of NASA Earth science and in particular the Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) at Goddard Space Flight Center. The iPad presented NASA a new and easily accessible way to put stunning and beautiful Earth science visualizations directly in people’s hands.

The app’s science features will include high-resolution movies and stills and short written stories to put all the pieces in context. Most of the movies are simply real satellite data, visualized. Other features will include interviews with scientists or imagery from supercomputer modeling efforts. The app includes social networking interfaces, including links to Facebook and Twitter, for easy sharing of stories.

The application is free to the public and available from the App Store via iTunes.

The app editorial team plans to develop two new science features per week. After publishing an initial batch of six features with the launch, new features will publish to the app on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In the future the app could include occasional stories about the Sun, the other planets in our Solar System, and exotic objects far out in the cosmos.

The Goddard team designed the application essentially as a mobile multimedia magazine. “Its one-of-a-kind content is geared to the general public, students, educators — “anyone interested in the natural world,” said Michael Starobin, a senior producer at Goddard Space Flight Center who spearheaded the app’s editorial direction. “The app will explore stories of climate change, Earth’s dynamic systems, plant life on land and in the oceans — all of the small and large stories captured in data by NASA satellites and then visualized.”

“Science should be accessible to everyone, and visualization reveals the meaning and value of the often intangible, but essential, data delivered by NASA’s research efforts,” Starobin said. “Data visualization makes information immediately visual and understandable when it otherwise might go unnoticed, and the app makes it easy to explore in an engaging, easy-to-consume, thoroughly modern style.”

“The NASA visualization app is the latest step in a rich tradition of content production and application development,” added Project Manager Helen-Nicole Kostis. “With its release, I’m inviting everyone on a journey of scientific knowledge and visual wonder.”

Work began on the NASA Visualization Explorer shortly after Apple released its electronic tablet in April 2010. “We just knew immediately that the iPad provided the perfect platform to showcase NASA science,” said Christopher Smith, the principal designer of the application’s user interface.

Administrators of Goddard’s Inclusive Innovation Program agreed. The pilot program, which Goddard management rolled out last year to support ideas that would advance non-science and non-engineering functions and services, awarded seed funding to the team to develop the concept. “Our evaluation process was rigorous,” said Goddard Chief Technologist Peter Hughes, who administered the program for the center. “This proposal stood out for its immediate utility and potential impact.”

With the one-year funding in hand, the three principal creators assembled a multidisciplinary team of experts from the center’s SVS, one of the nation’s premiere data visualization labs, and the center’s Television and Multimedia Department, which has earned a reputation as one of the federal government’s best media-production departments. “Through our team’s unique talents, I believe we’ve created an application that is worthy of the NASA badge,” Starobin said.

“The heart of NASA data visualization beats at SVS,” Kostis added. “This is where science, data, and storytelling come together.”

To download the app, go to:

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasaviz/index.html

NASA and Partners Fund New Climate Impact Studies on Species and Ecosystems

Posted on by

NASA is partnering with other federal agencies to fund new research and applications efforts that will bring the global view of climate from space down to Earth to benefit wildlife and key ecosystems.

NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Smithsonian Institution will provide $18 million for 15 new research projects during the next four years. Organizations across the United States in academia, government and the private sector will study the response of different species and ecosystems to climate changes and develop tools to better manage wildlife and natural resources. The projects were selected from 151 proposals.

NASA’s Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate has funded several ecosystem and biodiversity research projects during recent years. This is the first time the agency has targeted research investigating the intersection of climate and biological studies.

The wildlife species that will be studied include polar bears in Greenland, bowhead whales in the Arctic Ocean, and migratory birds and waterfowl in the United States. Other studies will focus on species of commercial interest such as clams, oysters and other bivalves in U.S. coastal waters, and Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico.

To learn more about climatic effects on plants, researchers will focus on the loss of cordgrass marshes in coastal wetlands of the southeastern states. They also will examine the stresses to native tree species, many of commercial value, across the western states and Canada.

“We know very little about how the majority of species and ecosystems will respond to environmental changes related to changing climates,” said Woody Turner, manager of NASA’s Ecological Forecasting program in Washington. “These projects bring together NASA’s global satellite data of the physical environment with ground-based data on specific species and ecosystems and computer modeling to detect and understand biological responses to climate. As a result, we will improve our management and mitigation of the impact of changing climate.”

The studies will use long-term observations of Earth from space, including data on sea surface temperature, vegetation cover, rainfall, snow cover, sea ice and the variability in the microscopic marine green plants that form the base of ocean food chains.

One study seeks to determine how waterfowl and forest bird populations respond to extreme events such as long-term droughts, heat waves and cold snaps. Wildlife biologists like Patricia Heglund of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in La Crosse, Wis., the leader of the study, have several hypotheses, including lower reproduction rates and adult mortality. Satellite data will be used to map the habitats and identify extreme events in the continental United States.

Another study will seek to explain why the distribution of native tree species across the western states and Canada is changing and why some species are dying as the climate becomes progressively warmer and drier. Scientists have used computer models to explain how environmental stresses have affected tree species in the Pacific Northwest. The new study, led by Richard Waring of Oregon State University in Corvallis, will extend that research to the entire Rocky Mountain west and 25 native tree species, including aspen and lodgepole pine.

A project led by Mitchell Roffer of Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service in West Melbourne, Fla., aims to improve existing models to predict spawning habitat of Atlantic bluefin and other migratory tunas in the Gulf of Mexico. The model will assess possible effects of future climate change scenarios on fish populations.

According to Turner, the most ambitious project in terms of scale will use a global inventory of data from about 1,000 species, merged with satellite and ground-based observations of the environment and climate. These data will be used to assess climate’s impact on biodiversity during the past 40 years in two 20-year increments. The study, led by Walter Jetz of Yale University, will focus on land-based mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

For a complete list of the new projects, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate_partners.html

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov

SOURCE NASA

16 YEAR-OLD ONE YOUNG WORLD EXPLORER SKIS TO NORTH POLE IN JUST 4 DAYS

Posted on by

PARKER LIAUTAUD – TEENAGE ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNER AND ONE YOUNG WORLD’S FIRST EXPLORER RECORDS ONE OF THE FASTEST EVER TIMES

April 13, 2011 – LONDON – Sixteen-year old arctic explorer, Parker Liautaud has succeeded in his mission to ski to the North Pole in just four days, as one of the youngest people to ever complete the mission.

Today, Parker and his teammate Doug Stoup completed the journey one week ahead of schedule and were the first team to return triumphantly from the North Pole – despite being delayed by three days due to adverse weather conditions.

This is his latest expedition as an ambassador for One Young World, the premier global forum for young people of leadership calibre.

Anticipated to last up to two weeks, Parker Liautaud completed the 112km expedition in 4 days, 2 hours and 47 minutes which puts his mission as one of the fastest Last Degree expeditions to the North Pole in history.

Parker completed his mission as the first One Young World Explorer, a role which supports the One Young World resolution on the environment that calls for international legislative action to ensure carbon emissions reduction targets are both agreed and met by 2020.

Throughout his journey, Parker undertook scientific research for the European Space Agency and the University of Alberta. He made 200 snow thickness measurements every day in accordance with the Pole Track 2005 updated protocol which will now be used in long and short term climate change research.

In 2010, Parker set his goal to become the youngest person to ski to the North Pole when he launched his organisation, The Last Degree, dedicated to inspiring, informing and engaging young people in a dialogue on environmental issues facing the polar regions.

Parker became close to his goal to be the youngest explorer in history to reach the North Pole and made it closer than any other team on the ice at the time. Unfortunately, due to atrocious weather conditions including zero visibility, heavy drifts and strong winds – described by NASA as ‘the worst since records began’- Parker had to be evacuated only 15 miles from the pole.

The extraordinarily high temperatures and open water that prevented Parker completing his first mission highlight the damaging effects of climate change and this remains the focus of his second attempt in 2011.

Throughout his new mission, Parker has been keen to communicate his message about climate change and sent regular updates of his journey from the arctic via Facebook > , Twitter > and YouTube > in addition to the expedition’s website http://oywnorthpole.parkerliautaud.com .

David Jones, co-founder of One Young World and global CEO of Havas, said: ““Parker is a fantastic example of the commitment, drive and leadership of the One Young World ambassadors. His is an inspirational mission to help communicate the environmental challenges facing the polar-regions and build international support for action against climate change. We are really proud to have Parker as the first One Young World Explorer and congratulate his success at reaching the North Pole.”

Parker Liautaud became a One Young World ambassador after attending the inaugural summit in London in February 2010, where 1,000 of the world’s young leaders gathered in London alongside global leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bob Geldof and Kofi Annan to impact global decision making.

Kate Robertson, co-founder of One Young World and UK Group Chairman of Euro RSCG said: “We are proud that Parker has achieved his mission to be one of the youngest people to ever reach the North Pole and has done so in astonishing time. His story is one that will inspire the next-generation of One Young World ambassadors.”

Parker said: “One Young World provides a unique opportunity for young leaders to share their visions, ideas and to have their voice heard on global issues that matter. I am thrilled to be the first One Young World Explorer and will draw attention to the need for government action to address climate change.”

Commenting on Parker’s expedition, Bear Grylls, adventurer and the UK’s Chief Scout, said: “A huge challenge and a huge ambition but such endeavours bring out the best in us. I so admire Parker’s dedication and drive and I know what can be achieved when a project has one’s whole heart and soul in it. I fully support Parker’s determination to bring this important message of climate change to world leaders.”