R&D Magazine’s Annual Scientist of the
Year/Innovator of the Year Awards
This year, R&D Magazine is taking an innovative approach to its top individual R&D awards. We are depending upon you, our readers, to find the year’s best Scientist and the year’s best Innovator. For the next month, we’ll be collecting nominations from you, gathering the top finishers into the finalist group. Then, you can vote to discover the top finishers.
What we’re looking for
The Scientist of the Year and the Innovator of the Year is someone who exemplifies the ideals of R&D in academia, industry, and nationally-sponsored research. Someone has made a difference, either in a product that has reached and affected millions of people or in the way science is done.
Nominate!
All nominations are due by Aug. 29. The editors of R&D Magazine will evaluate nominees and introduce the finalists on Sept. 5, 2008. Voting will then begin to find the people most deserving of recognition.
Find out who wins at the 46th Annual R&D 100 Awards, on Oct. 16 at the Navy Pier in Chicago. To find out more about this event, visit http://www.rdmag.com/awards.aspx.
Editor's Take
Recycling on the ISS
November 17, 2008
As the astronauts offload the cargo from the Shuttle Endeavour to the ISS today to facilitate growing the crew from three to six astronauts, one item in particular is getting a lot of press: the new toilet. This is not just any toilet: this is a $250 million loo that will recycle the astronauts’ urine, sweat, and other wastewater back into drinkable water. This is a great application of technology and could cut the annual delivery water costs for the station by about 743 gallons, according to NASA officials. Besides which, this filtering process is just an accelerated version of what happens here on Earth to produce our drinking water. In fact, the water from this system is up to some of the highest standards of water in the U.S.
With all of that said, I’m not sure I’d be able to stomach the recycled water, especially after reading Endeavour’s mission specialist Don Pettit’s description of the system as a high-tech coffee maker: "It turns yesterday's coffee into today's coffee and, in turn, it makes today's coffee into tomorrow's coffee. It's one of these great, circle of life things." Maybe for the astronauts, but not for me. I’ll take my morning coffee without thinking about what it was yesterday, thank you.
