https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_wTLxSA3vI

Host: Fraser Cain ( @fcain )
Special Guest: Paul MacNeal, a mechanical systems engineer at JPL, created the Annual Invention Challenge twenty-one years ago after helping his son with an extra credit assignment. Since then, teams of high school students from around the world compete each year against JPL engineers to see who can design and build the smartest and most efficient machine. The objective of the 2018 Challenge, which took place on Friday, December 14th, was to "… get a 24-inch length of two-inch PVC pipe from a horizontal position to an upright position on a platform using whatever device they could come up with, instructions not included."

To view the 2018 results – as well as those from the prior 20 challenges – visit the Invention Challenge website at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/inven...

Regular Guests:

Dr. Pamela Gay ( https://cosmoquest.org/x/ / @starstryder )

Dr. Morgan Rehnberg ( http://cosmicchatter.org/ & @MorganRehnberg )

This week's stories:

- A planetary disc that rolled over!

- Earth's magnetic pole is wandering.

- There's life on the Moon!

- An update on AT2018cow or SN 2018cow...

- Titan in IR.

 

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