NASA Astronaut Beams First Instagram Photo from Space

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An astronaut on the International Space Station recently made a giant leap into the social media world with the first Instagram photo beamed down from space.

NASA astronaut Steve Swanson posted a selfie taken in the station's cupola a large, multi-sided window that faces Earth as the first Instagram photo sent from space. The photo posted to the station's Instagram account (ISS) on April 7, and since then, it has garnered nearly 4,000 "likes."

"Back on the ISS, life is good," Swanson wrote in an image caption. The veteran astronaut flew to space before during two previous space shuttle missions.

In the photo, Swanson is wearing a shirt featuring a spaceship from one of his favorite TV shows, "Firefly" a short-lived show about a crew of space cowboys that traverse the universe looking for smuggling work where they can get it. Swanson brought a box set of "Firefly" DVDs up to the station during one of his previous space shuttle missions.

Since Monday, Swanson has beamed back two more photos from the station. One image shows the northern lights glowing green above Europe and the other, posted Wednesday (April 9), is a photo of Swanson going through some medical testing aboard the orbiting outpost.

Astronauts have a history of social media use while in space. NASA's Mike Massimino became the first person to use Twitter in space when he posted: "Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!" from his account @Astro_Mike in 2009.

Since then, other astronauts have followed suit. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield sent informational videos and tweets down from the station during his time onboard. He even made a music video using David Bowie's "Space Oddity" that gained popularity after it was posted right before he flew back to Earth.

NASA recently launched its own Instagram account that features new science discoveries, launch information and space history photos.

"We're constantly looking to expand our social media portfolio to include tools that will best tell NASA's story of exploration and discovery," said NASA spokesperson Lauren Worley said in a statement in September 2013. "Instagram has a passionate following of users who are hungry for new and exciting photos."

Check out Swanson's Instagram account here: http://instagram.com/iss

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NASA Astronaut Beams First Instagram Photo from Space

What Happens to Bacteria in Space?

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In the otherwise barren space 220 miles above Earth's surface, a capsule of life-sustaining oxygen and water orbits at 17,000 miles per hour. You might know this capsule as the International Space Station (ISS), currently home to six humansand untold billions of bacteria. Microbes have always followed us to the frontiers, but it's only now that scientists at NASA and elsewhere are seriously investigating what happens when we bring Earth's microbes into space.

Most space microbes get there by hitching a ride onor inthe bodies of astronauts. But the next unmanned ISS resupply mission, due to blast off on Monday, will carry a special microbial payload on behalf of Project MERCCURI. The payload includes 48 different microbescollected from stadiums, toilets, and even pre-launch spacecraftwhose growth in space will be compared to a parallel set of microbes on Earth. A second phase of the project will sequence swabs from the ISS to determine the microbiome of the space station.

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Plates of bacteria being prepared for launch. Project MERCCURI

Project MERCCURI is a crowdsourced project, aimed at science outreach as much as research itself. But NASA, too, is intensely interested in studying its "microbial observatory"as Mark Ott, a senior microbiologist at the Johnson Space Center, called the ISS in a recent talk. The ISS is a unique lab space. "We have a shortage of microgravity on Earth," sums up David Coil, a microbiology on the Project MERCCURI team,

In the interest of astronaut health, NASA has sent disease-causing bacteria up into space before. (In carefully packaged plates, of course.) The stress of space-living weakens immune systems, making the possibility of disease all the worse.

So how have disease-causing microbes fared in space so far? Unfortunately for us, they've fared very well.

An attention-grabbing study from 2007 found that Salmonella, which you probably associate with food poisoning, becomes more virulent when grown on the ISS. The space-bred microbes were injected into mice back on Earth, and the mice promptly became sicker and succumbed more quickly.

Last year, researchers found that Pseudomonas aeruginosa (below), a common bacteria that can cause infections grew faster and formed thicker aggregates of cells called biofilms. These biofilms also formed a bizarre "column-and-canopy" structure that it doesn't form on Earth. Other bacteria like E. coli and staph also grow better in space.

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What Happens to Bacteria in Space?

Heart Of The James Webb Space Telescope Complete

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Image Caption: In this photo, engineers install NIRSpec in the heart of Webb. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

[ Watch The Video: NIRSpec Instrument Gets Integrated Into Webbs ISIM ]

Laura Betz, NASA

The last piece of the James Webb Space Telescopes heart was installed inside the worlds largest clean room at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

What looked like a massive black frame covered with wires and aluminum foil, the heart or Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) now contains all four of Webbs science instruments. Together, these instruments will help unlock the history of our universe, from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of stellar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own solar system.

Teams of engineers recently navigated very cramped spaces with delicate materials and finished surgically implanting the last of the four instruments that will fly on the Webb telescope the Near-Infrared Spectrograph, or NIRSpec.

Weighing about as much as an upright piano (about 430 pounds, or 196 kilograms), the NIRSpec was suspended from a moveable counterweight called the Horizontal Integration Tool, or HIT. From below, the engineering team was tasked with painstakingly moving this vital instrument to its final position inside the large black composite frame, officially called the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM).

As the team maneuvered this crucial instrument through very tight, hard to reach spaces inside the Webb telescopes heart, they ensured there was no unintentional contact with the frame because the instruments materials are very stiff but brittle. Disturbing any of those materials could have caused major setbacks that could damage NIRSpec.

Part of the challenge is that this instrument cannot be installed in a straight linear move. In order to avoid interference with already installed systems, the instrument will have to follow a special pattern kind of like a dance, said Maurice te Plate, the European Space Agencys (ESA) Webb system integration and test manager at Goddard. During the crucial phases of the installation, the room is kept very silent because whenever there is a potential issue one of the engineers must hold the process until everything is checked out so they can proceed.

Engineers needed NIRSpecs six individual feet or legs to align with six designated saddle points on the ISIM within the width of a little more than that of a human hair. To hit their marks, these engineers had rehearsed these complicated movements, performing simulations and precise calculations on both sides of the ocean.

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Heart Of The James Webb Space Telescope Complete

UN Outer Space Office celebrates International Day of Human Space Flight

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VIENNA, 10 April (UN Information Service) To mark the anniversary of the historic first human space flight the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is organizing a variety of events this year as well. The exploration of outer space is a truly global undertaking and I hope that the International Day of Human Space Flight will inspire young people, in particular, to strive towards new frontiers of knowledge and understanding, says the new Director of UNOOSA, Simonetta Di Pippo, in hervideo message for the International Day of Human Space Flightcelebrated on 12 April.

On 11 April, UNOOSA will launch the third edition in the series Messages from Space Explorers to future generations. This collection of messages from men and women who have travelled into space serves as a tribute to their achievements and is an inspiration for future generations. The present edition contains 57 messages from 20 countries, including from the first woman in space, the pilot of the Apollo 16 Lunar Module, the current Administrator of NASA and from the first Chinese woman in space, and will be available on the UNOOSA website athttp://www.unoosa.org/oosa/mse/index.html

A unique exhibition showcasing examples of handwritten messages UNOOSA has received from the many men and women who have travelled into space after Gagarins historic flight can be viewed in the Vienna International Centre from 7 to 18 April. The exhibition can be visited as part of the regular guided tours organized by theUNIS Vienna Visitors Serviceduring these two weeks.

The Office will also be conducting a live Twitter Chat with astronaut and UN Expert on Space Applications, Takao Doi, on 11 April starting at 15:00 CEST. Mr. Doi, who was an astronaut prior to joining the United Nations, will concentrate on the Offices Human Space Technology Initiative and the importance of human space flight. Participants can send questions to @UNOOSA using #OOSAChat from today.

On the International Day of Human Space Flight

Fifty years after 12 April 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space, the United Nations General Assembly declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight in celebration of this new era of human endeavour.

UNOOSA implements the decisions of the General Assembly and of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its two Subcommittees, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee. The Office is responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, and assisting developing countries in using space science and technology. UNOOSA deals with a wide range of scientific, technical, legal and policy aspects of space activities and works closely with countries and their space agencies, as well as other international organizations. Located in Vienna, Austria, UNOOSA maintains a website atwww.unoosa.org

For further information, please contact:

SineadHarvey United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Telephone: (+43-1) 26060-8718 Email: sinead.harvey[at]unoosa.org

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Space History Photo: M2-F1 in Tow Flight

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In this historic photo from the U.S. space agency, the M2-F1 lifting body is seen under tow at the Flight Research Center (later redesignated the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California. The wingless, lifting body aircraft design was initially conceived as a means of landing an aircraft horizontally after atmospheric reentry. The absence of wings would make the extreme heat of re-entry less damaging to the vehicle.

In 1962, Dryden management approved a program to build a lightweight, unpowered lifting body as a prototype to flight test the wingless concept. It would look like a "flying bathtub," and was designated the M2-F1, the "M" referring to "manned" and "F" referring to "flight" version. It featured a plywood shell placed over a tubular steel frame crafted at Dryden. Construction was completed in 1963. The first flight tests of the M2-F1 were over Rogers Dry Lake at the end of a tow rope attached to a hopped-up Pontiac convertible driven at speeds up to about 120 mph. These initial tests produced enough flight data about the M2-F1 to proceed with flights behind a NASA C-47 tow plane at greater altitudes. The C-47 took the craft to an altitude of 12,000 feet where free flights back to Rogers Dry Lake began.

Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).

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Near-Infrared Camera Integrated into James Webb Space Telescope

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Lockheed Martin and the University of Arizona have delivered the primary imaging instrument of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. The new Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, has been successfully integrated within the heart of the telescope, known as the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM). The integration completes the suite of four instruments that together will explore the mysteries of the deep universe upon launch in 2018.NIRCam will function as the central imaging component of JWST. Designated one of the NASAs three highest mission priorities, the Webb telescope is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.NIRCam was designed, built, and tested by a University of Arizona / Lockheed Martin team at the companys Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif., under the leadership of Principal Investigator Marcia Rieke, a Regents Professor at the Arizona Department of Astronomy/Steward Observatory. Lockheed Martin is responsible for the optical, mechanical, structural, thermal and electronic precision mechanisms and the control software of NIRCam, while its advanced infrared detector arrays come from Teledyne Imaging Systems.Integration of NIRCam into ISIM is a major step forward in the progress of the Webb telescope, said Jeff Vanden Beukel, Lockheed Martin NIRCam program director. Now, NIRCam and the other instruments will be tested to prove their ability to function as a unit.As the space telescopes prime camera, NIRCam will make JWST the most powerful space telescope ever built, enabling it to peer deeper into space and further back in time than any other instrument before. With its 6.5-meter (21-foot) mirror, JWST will allow observation of the most distant objects in the universe.The instrument operates out to wavelengths about ten times that of visible light, letting it search for the first galaxies. It is the cosmic redshift that has moved the outputs of these first light sources into the infrared where NIRCam operates. We will survey selected regions on the sky to find candidates; the other instruments on JWST can then probe these objects in detail to test if they really are that young, Rieke explained. NIRCam can also peer through the clouds of gas and dust that hide the first stages when stars and planets are born and will provide insights into how planetary systems form and evolve around distant stars.NIRCam is comprised of many cutting-edge technologies, such as the infrared detector arrays themselves, a complex optical system based on lenses rather than the mirrors used in most infrared instruments, and devices to measure the optical performance of the JWST telescope and allow adjustments to keep it operating correctly.Upon launch, JWST will be operated as an observatory open by competitive proposal to astronomers worldwide. The astronomy community is eagerly anticipating data from the mission, which is not only much larger than Hubble but covers the longer-wavelength infrared spectral range with unprecedented capabilities.Contact:Buddy Nelson+1 (510) 797-0349buddy.nelson@lmco.comHeadquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 115,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporations net sales for 2013 were $45.4 billion.

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Near-Infrared Camera Integrated into James Webb Space Telescope

Purdue Astronauts to Discuss Past, Future Space Flight

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West Lafayette, IN (PRWEB) April 09, 2014

Eight Purdue University NASA astronaut alumni will discuss their experiences in space and their thoughts on what's ahead for human space flight at a public forum Saturday (April 12).

Purdue President Mitch Daniels will moderate the forum, "A Conversation with Our Astronauts," which begins at 7 p.m. in Elliott Hall of Music. Daniels is co-chair of a National Research Council committee that is reviewing and making recommendations on the future of the U.S. human spaceflight program.

Purdue has had 23 graduates become astronauts, including the late Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, and Eugene Cernan, the most recent person to walk on the moon. Purdue graduates flew on Gemini and Apollo flights, 47 space shuttle missions and on the International Space Station.

The astronauts who are expected to be at the forum are:

On Thursday and Friday (April 10 and 11), the astronauts will be on campus and in the community, meeting with students and faculty.

Also expected for those days are:

For highlights of Purdue's space-related research and historic NASA milestones, go to http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2014/Q2/purdue-has-legacy-of-space-research,-nasa-milestones.html.

More information about the astronauts and Purdue in space is available at http://www.purdue.edu/space/.

Writer: Judith Barra Austin, 765-494-2432, jbaustin(at)purdue(dot)edu

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Local Red Cross volunteer heads to Wash. to help with mudslide relief

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -

A Red Cross volunteer from Middle Tennessee is headed to Washington to help out in the aftermath of a major mudslide.

The devastating mudslide hit near Seattle in Oso, Washington last month killing more than two dozen people.

Bert Copeland is a retired registered nurse and has been a volunteer with the Nashville American Red Cross for the past three years.

"My heart is telling me I got to go," he told News 2.

Copeland said his role will be to help hundreds of American Red Cross volunteers who are assisting with relief efforts.

"My job is staff wellness being [both physical and emotional support]," explained Copeland, adding, "For the workers who go on something like this, it is very hard. I mean they are away from their normal meals, their normal housing, their normal everything and sometimes they just got to talk to somebody and I got kind of big shoulders so it works out good."

Copeland said he has helped out during other natural disasters, including volunteering for five weeks in New York and New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

For more information on how you can volunteer with the American Red Cross, click here.

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Local Red Cross volunteer heads to Wash. to help with mudslide relief

NASA Signs Agreement with German, Canadian Partners to Test Alternative Fuels

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NASA has signed separate agreements with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to conduct a series of joint flight tests to study the atmospheric effects of emissions from jet engines burning alternative fuels.

The Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions (ACCESS II) flights are set to begin May 7 and will be flown from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.

"Partnering with our German and Canadian colleagues allows us to combine our expertise and resources as we work together to solve the challenges common to the global aviation community such as understanding emission characteristics from the use of alternative fuels which presents a great potential for significant reductions in harmful emissions," said Jaiwon Shin, NASA's associate administrator for aeronautics research.

NASA's DC-8 and HU-25C Guardian, DLR's Falcon 20-E5, and NRC's CT-133 research aircraft will conduct flight tests in which the DC-8's engines will burn a mix of different fuel blends, while the Falcon and CT-133 measure emissions and observe contrail formation.

Cooperation between DLR and NASA is based on a strong mutual appreciation of our research work, said Rolf Henke, the DLR Executive Board member responsible for aeronautics research. We are very pleased to be performing joint test flights for the first time, and thus set an example by addressing pressing research questions in global aviation together.

ACCESS II is the latest in a series of ground and flight tests begun in 2009 to study emissions and contrail formation from new blends of aviation fuels that include biofuel from renewable sources. ACCESS-I testing, conducted in 2013, indicated the biofuel blends tested may substantially reduce emissions of black carbon, sulfates, and organics. ACCESS II will gather additional data, with an emphasis on studying contrail formation.

Understanding the impacts of alternative fuel use in aviation could enable widespread use of one or more substitutes to fossil fuels as these new fuels become more readily available and cost competitive with conventional jet fuels.

Within NASA, ACCESS II is a multi-center project involving researchers at Armstrong, NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and the agency's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. This research supports the strategic vision of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, part of which is to enable the transition of the aviation industry to alternative fuels and low-carbon propulsion systems.

As part of an international team involved in this research, NASA will share its findings with the 24 member nations that make up the International Forum for Aviation Research (IFAR). DLR and NRC are participating members of IFAR and NASA is the current Chair.

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NASA-mars-reuters-100414.JPG

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April 10, 2014

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped this portrait of Mars within minutes of the planet's closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years in this picture taken by NASA on August 27, 2003. Reuters pic, April 10, 2014.A NASA robot has snapped pictures showing glints of light on the Martian horizon, which some UFO enthusiasts have seized on as a sign of alien life on the Red Planet.

Not so, said the US space agency.

More likely, the images of bright spots taken on April 2 and April 3 are a product of the sun's glare or cosmic rays, NASA said in a statement.

In fact, similar glints of light are seen all the time in images taken by the Curiosity rover, a multibillion dollar unmanned vehicle equipped with cameras and drilling instruments that is exploring Mars.

"In the thousands of images we've received from Curiosity, we see ones with bright spots nearly every week," said Justin Maki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"These can be caused by cosmic-ray hits or sunlight glinting from rock surfaces, as the most likely explanations."

Furthermore, the "bright spots appear in images from the right-eye camera of the stereo Navcam, but not in images taken within one second of those by the left-eye camera," the space agency said in a statement.

NASA's explanation may not dampen enthusiasm among believers in alien life on Mars, such as the website operated by UFO Sightings Daily which said the lights could offer proof of extraterrestrial beings.

"This could indicate there there is intelligent life below the ground and uses light as we do," the site proclaimed.

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NASA Looks to Go Beyond Batteries for Space Exploration

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NASA is seeking proposals for the development of new, more capable, energy storage technologies to replace the battery technology that has long powered America's space program

The core technologies solicited in the Wednesday call for proposals will advance energy storage solutions for the space program and other government agencies, such as the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) through ongoing collaboration with NASA and industry.

"NASA is focusing on creating new advanced technologies that could lead to entirely new approaches for the energy needs of the agency's future Earth and space missions," said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for space technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Over the next 18 months, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate will make significant new investments that address several high priority challenges for achieving safe and affordable deep-space exploration. One of these challenges, advanced energy storage, offers new technology solutions that will address exploration and science needs while adding in an important and substantive way to America's innovation economy."

NASA's solicitation has two category areas: "High Specific Energy System Level Concepts," which will focus on cell chemistry and system level battery technologies, such as packaging and cell integration; and, "Very High Specific Energy Devices," which will focus on energy storage technologies that can go beyond the current theoretical limits of Lithium batteries while maintaining the cycle life and safety characteristics demanded of energy storage systems used in space applications.

Proposals will be accepted from NASA centers and other government agencies, federally funded research and development centers, educational institutions, industry and nonprofit organizations. NASA expects to make approximately four awards for Phase I of the solicitation, ranging in value up to $250,000 each.

Through solicitations and grants, NASA's investments in space technology provide the transformative capabilities to enable new missions, stimulate the economy, contribute to the nation's global competitiveness, and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and explorers.

The Advanced Energy Storage Systems Appendix is managed by the Game Changing Development Program within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), and is part of STMD's NASA Research Announcement "Space Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Infusion 2014" (SpaceTech-REDDI-2014) for research in high priority technology areas of interest to NASA.

The SpaceTech-REDDI-2014-14GCDC1 Advanced Energy Storage Systems Appendix is available through the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System at:

http://go.nasa.gov/ru9LgH

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NASA Looks to Go Beyond Batteries for Space Exploration

Science at Play: NSF Funds ASU Research on Nanotechnology Ethics, Education

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Newswise Students at Arizona State University are learning how to play.

ASU undergraduates have the opportunity to enroll in a challenging course this fall, designed to re-introduce the act of play as a problem-solving technique. The course is offered as part of the larger project, Cross-disciplinary Education in Social and Ethical Aspects of Nanotechnology, which received nearly $200,000 from the National Science Foundations Nano Undergraduate Education program.

The project is the brainchild of Camilla Nrgaard Jensen, a doctoral scholar in the ASU Herberger Institutes design, environment and the arts doctoral program. Participants will use an approach called LEGO Serious Play to solve what Jensen calls nano-conundrums ethical dilemmas arising in the field of nanotechnology.

LEGO Serious Play is an engaging vehicle that helps to create a level playing field, fostering shared conversation and exchange of multiple perspectives, said Jensen, a trained LEGO Serious Play facilitator. This creates an environment for reflection and critical deliberation of complex decisions and their future impacts.

LEGO Serious Play methods are often used by businesses to strategize and encourage creative thinking. In ASUs project, students will use LEGO bricks to build metaphorical models, share and discuss their creations, and then adapt and respond to feedback received by other students. The expectation is that this activity will help students learn to think and communicate outside the box literally and figuratively about their work and its long-term societal effects.

Jensen works with a team of faculty members, including Thomas Seager, an associate professor and Lincoln Fellow of Ethics and Sustainability in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, one of ASUs Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering; Cynthia Selin, an assistant professor in the School of Sustainability and the Center for Nanotechnology in Society, housed at the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at ASU; and Mark Hannah, an assistant professor in the rhetoric and composition program in the ASU Department of English, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Fifteen engineering students enrolled in the Grand Challenge Scholar Program participated in a Feb. 24 pilot workshop to test project strategies. Comments from students included, "I experienced my ideas coming to life as I built the model, and "I gained a perspective as to how ideas cannot take place entirely in the head. These anecdotal outcomes confirmed the teams assumptions that play and physical activity can enhance the formation and communication of ideas.

Technology is a creative and collaborative process, said Seager, who is principal investigator for the grant. I want a classroom that will unlock technology creativity, in which students from every discipline can be creative. For me, overcoming obstacles to communication is just the first step.

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Science at Play: NSF Funds ASU Research on Nanotechnology Ethics, Education