NERD NEWS

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NERD NEWS

FAR SIDE OF THE MOON

In February, China shared vivid, high-definition, full-color photos of the moon from its 2013 Chang’e-3 mission, complete with Yutu rover. Why, you might ask? Because China’s sending another mission near the Pink Floyd side of Earth’s favorite satellite. Using these photos from 2013 as PR for what is, objectively, an awesome thing to do is a bit of overkill, but the photos are simply amazing. If China succeeds in its Chang’e-4 mission to soft-land on the far side of the moon, they will be the first nation to ever do so. China’s previous missions often were mirror images of Russian and American accomplishments in space, but this would be whole new territory for space travel in an area never before explored by humans. The Apollo 8 astronauts were the first to ever see the far side of the moon, where they captured the iconic Earthrise image. As for sightseeing, the images the rover China plans to send could show us a glimpse of the South Pole-Aitken Basin, a colossal crater 2,500 kilometers in diameter. - TYLER RONEY

BUILD YOUR OWN NOBEL

China has a, shall we say, complicated relationship with the Nobel committee. Well, now a couple of scientists and the CEOs of Baidu and Lenovo have set up their own version of the Nobel, called the Future Science Awards. The new project was announced at the Future Forum Annual Conference 2016, and comes complete with a one million USD prize. Yang Chenning, who received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, commented at the conference, “There is not yet a top science award set up by Chinese non-governmental organizations... This award will spark huge influence in China.” However, just because the project is not government run doesn’t mean it won’t be influenced; astute China watchers earlier this year may have noticed China’s version of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Confucius Peace Prize, went to Robert Mugabe. Literally. That’s not a joke. The move is being seen as a push from China to encourage innovation, as China now invests more money into research and development than any other country other than the United States. - T.R.

JD.COM GOES DRONE

What says “caring customer relations” like having your package delivered by a flying robot? In mid-February, the online retail giant JD.com became the first company to apply this odd, futuristic technology to its deliveries. Largely, this service will be for hard to reach rural areas that have ordered small packages, a constant source of annoyance for China’s big logistics delivery services. This is even more impressive when one considers that JD.com beat Amazon to the punch in its war for customers against the seemingly unstoppable Alibaba giant. China has 600 million rural residents, and the logistics genius that figures out how to reach these customers first will own the online retail market. Attempts are being made from every angle; last year, JD.com recruited nearly 150,000 people, which they called “village promoters”, to teach rural residents how to properly use their website. The drones themselves are fitted with JD’s patented logo and will surely be noticeable considering their bright red color. - T.R.

MAKE WAY FOR THE BIGGEST DISH EVER

About 9,000 residents living in a mountainous area of Guizhou Province are being given the boot because China is nearing completion of the world’s biggest satellite dish and it doesn’t want their pesky electromagnetic waves interfering with their alien hunt. Dubbed the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope) project, the telescope has been under construction in Pingtang County since 2011 but is due to finish in September. It’s way bigger than its nearest competitor, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which has a 300-meter diameter. The FAST project will also scan radio waves from the heavens in an attempt to search for signs of extraterrestrial activity far out in the cosmos. The project has a price tag of around 1.2 billion yuan. Xinhua reported that each of the 9,110 residents being relocated will be resettled and get around 12,000 yuan (1,838 USD) as a subsidy to help with the move, and ethnic minority households will get an extra 10,000 yuan. The FAST project is not the only exciting space monitoring project on the books—with the recent confirmation of Einstein’s prediction of gravitational waves in his theory of general relativity making different kinds of waves around the world, China has launched its own gravitational wave project, dubbed “Taiji”, the plans for which will be finalized this year. China will search for low and medium frequency waves rather than the high frequency ones that the US has confirmed exist. This will essentially widen the range of sources that scientists can use to find gravitational waves, and make analyzing space that much easier.

- DAVlD DAWSON