Einstein, Up & Away

                              Photo credit: ESA/Stephane Corvaja
EINSTEIN IN SPACE: I know what you're thinking. "She said they were done with that Einstein class." And we are. 

However, we're not done watching rocket launches and today's launch had an Einstein tie-in in a big way. The ship was named after him.

Today, an Ariane 5 launched from French Guiana, destination International Space Station. It was a European Space Agency (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (unmanned) christened Albert Einstein.

            Photo credit: ESA/Stephane Corvaja
The cargo craft was outfitted with food, microscopes, physics experiments, antennas, water pumps and toolboxes. It was a historic launch, as it was the heaviest spacecraft every launched by Europe, weighing in at around 44,610 pounds. At 32-feet long and 15-feet wide, Einstein is also the largest vehicle to visit the ISS since the U.S. space shuttles stopped visiting. 

It was a BEAUTIFUL launch. One of the prettiest I've watched (online). Do yourself a favor and check it out this ESA video here: 

                      

Albert Einstein will spend 10 days in orbit, performing checks and maneuvers, and is set to dock automatically with the ISS on June 15. 

All of ESA's ATV missions are named after great European scientists and visionaries.  Naming ATV-4 for Einstein was proposed by the Swiss delegation to the ESA. The ATV's structure was built by Swiss industry. Einstein lived and worked in Switzerland from 1901 to 1955. 

MORE FREE: Last night I continued my investigation of free online courses and delved into the edX world a bit further. On their Web site they claim to have "the best courses, from the best professors, and the best schools."  Some of the participating universities are Harvard, MIT, Berkley, Berlkee, Cornell, Kyoto, Peking and the University of Washington (go Huskies!), to name a few. Subjects ranges from science to technology to humanities. 

Here's a short video about edX. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PIh8huowqO8#!


There were so many interesting classes I wanted to sign MPA up for, but I limited us to one (OK, maybe two) for now. I simply couldn't pass up "Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science."  The Harvard course features top chefs and Harvard researchers exploring how everyday cooking and haute cuisine can illuminate basic principles in physics and engineering, and vice versa." 
Here's an intro video for the course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AUEJNW3PrHI

Doesn't that look like fun? (And yes, we'll probably learn something, too!)

And then this morning, a Facebook friend of mine posted a list of free online courses: http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses, so we'll be checking those out in the days to come.