Following on to Claudia’s piece about the importance of scientific R&D, this article, while admittedly monkey business, illustrates the point:

Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary

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The BBC has a cool article about the relative feasibility of using a low-orbit solar array as a source of renewable energy here. 

A recent study by the Pentagon concluded that a solar array in space was close to being technologically feasible, and robotics should soon make the building of large structures in space safer and quicker.

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Leopold Summerer of the European Space Agency believes the generation of solar power from space may be only 20 years away.

But he adds that the cost of the undertaking will mean it will have to be another international effort along the lines of the Space Station.

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CNN reports that Michael Griffin, NASA’s administrator, told an audience in Washington D.C. that:

“I personally believe that China will be back on the moon before we are.”

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“I think when that happens, Americans will not like it. But they will just have to not like it.”

No, I expect that we wouldn’t like it one bit. Perhaps that’s just what is needed to re-ignite America’s passion for space exploration. A stinging defeat - and that’s what the Chinese landing on the moon while we do nothing would be - can have that effect on a nation.  (more…)