By one estimate, about a tenth of this warming planet’s population lives near a coast at an elevation of less than 10 meters. That’s 600 million people who need someone to keep a sharp set of eyes trained on the earth’s poles, where ice melting into the oceans could put their homes at risk.

Tagged: climate change, conservation, satellite, Environment & Sustainability, International Issues, Engineering

The next major space observatory, GLAST, is about to begin gathering new information about subatomic particles, black holes, and the birth and evolution of the universe.

Tagged: satellite, SLAC, space, On Campus

The scientists have stopped holding their breath. Three weeks after the launch of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), researchers from Stanford University, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and elsewhere have shaken awake the scientific instruments aboard their $690 million satellite, 350 miles above Earth, for the first time.

And everything's working.

Tagged: satellite, telescope, On Campus, Humanities & Sciences