buzz aldrin

"The achievements of Apollo were so bold and our subsequent efforts so timid that the energy of those years seems like a youthful dream." -Buzz Aldrin 43 years ago today, humanity took our first steps on another world, venturing nearly 400,000 kilometers from home and walking on the surface of the Moon. Image credit: NASA, Apollo 11, photo by Neil Armstrong. Of course, what we found there was a world whose soil was very similar to our own, but devoid of any atmosphere, liquid, or signs of life, present or past. But out beyond the Moon, visible in the distance even when viewed from Earth,…
By Larry Bock Founder and organizer, USA Science & Engineering Festival A visit to Washington, DC in the spring is always exciting, but this season the 'wow" factor in the nation's capital goes up a notch with the 100th Celebration of the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade on Saturday, April 14. Always a must-see event with its spectacular array of lavish floats, marching bands, performers, giant helium balloons and other festivities heralding the arrival of spring, the Festival Parade this year will add another special highlight to its compendium of excitement: science and…
Attention Festival Fans! The Festival has been awarded spaces for 18 people to march in the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. We have decided to give our fans the opportunity to win these spaces to march alongside legendary NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the Festival's Mondo Spider and other personalities in the 100th Celebration of the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, Saturday April 14, 2012 in Washington, DC! To win a space in this unforgettable festive event, which this year features Buzz Aldrin as Parade Grand Marshall, Katie Couric as co-host and Alex Trebek as parade route…
Please accept my apologies in advance for taking another edition of The Friday Fermentable to bring you a sober (pun intended) story about alcoholic beverages. The heat, beginning training for a half-marathon, and other stuff have my personal alcohol consumption at nil so I don't have any recent wine or beer finds to share with you, Dear Reader. Moreover, there have been some prominent stories as of late relating to alcohol and substance abuse such as the pharmacology and toxicology of Michael Jackson's death (which we've discussed here, here, and here) and the prevalence of alcoholism in…
In this week's Science Saturday, blogger and astronomer Phil Plait chats with science journalist Carl Zimmer. They talk about the time Buzz Aldrin punched a moon-landing denialist in the face, how consumer-culture gadgetry can serve the cause of science, the death of newspapers in the Internet age, and the big questions in astronomy that Phil hopes we'll have answers for soon.