Winners from U.S. and Egypt Watched the Live Stream at YouTube’s Creator Space in London Transmitted from the International Space Station to the World via YouTube
September 13 2012
YouTube and Lenovo today hosted the culmination of the YouTube Space Lab competition in which astronauts revealed the results of the two winning experiments live from the International Space Station (ISS) and shared them with the world on YouTube. The live stream connected the ISS to YouTube’s London creator space on Thursday and was hosted by Bill Nye “The Science Guy” and included the two global winners, Amr Mohamed from Alexandria, Egypt; and Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, from Troy, Michigan in the U.S.
YouTube Space Lab, which launched in October 2011 with partners including Space Adventures and in cooperation with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is a worldwide science competition that challenged 14-18 year-olds to design a science experiment that can be performed in space. The world saw the winning experiments performed by astronaut Sunita Williams during the live stream on YouTube from 250 miles above Earth aboard the ISS. The forty-minute live program began with host Bill Nye interviewing the global winners and special guests via Google+ Hangout, and featured the story of Space Lab told through videos since its launch last year. Then, NASA’s Mission Control Center connected the studio to the ISS for a conversation with U.S. astronaut, Sunita Williams, and the results of the winning experiments.
“YouTube Space Lab is a great way for people everywhere to participate in the adventure of space exploration,” said Bill Nye. “Dorothy, Sara, and Amr’s experiments are innovative and make excellent use of the equipment and environment on board the International Space Station. Who knows what discoveries they’ll make about cells and nervous systems– discoveries that may help us send humans to Mars one day. Their ideas are moving us just a bit closer to understanding our place in the cosmos, our place in space. How cool is that?”
Amr Mohamed, (winner of the 17-18 year old age group), came up with an experiment to explore the question: “Can you teach an old spider new tricks?” Amr was curious as to whether or not the jumping spider will learn to adapt in microgravity since once the spider jumps it will not “land” on its prey. His experiment was a success. The jumping spider landed and ate all of the fruit flies in the habitat. In fact, the jumping spider was such an effective feeder in space that the colony of fruit flies died out much more quickly than planned.
Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, (winners of the 14-16 year old age group), created an experiment that asks: “Could alien superbugs cure disease on Earth?” or, would compounds and nutrients block bacterial growth differently in microgravity, which could lead to fighting germs on Earth? To clarify the experiment, the astronauts added a pH indicator (color) to the bacteria. As the color changed from red to orange/yellow, it signified that the pH of the culture was decreasing which indicates bacteria growth. The experiment will be brought back to Earth on Space X1 for further ground based analysis to determine the exact results.
Space Lab founder, Google’s Zahaan Bharmal added, “Our hope is that this live stream from space will be the world’s largest, coolest scientific classroom. Today’s Space Lab winners – as well as the millions of other young minds watching the stream on YouTube – represent tomorrow’s space explorers. They may one day walk on Mars!”
“Lenovo congratulates the student finalists and all those who participated in the YouTube Space Lab program,” said Tracey Trachta, vice president, Brand Experience, Global Marketing, Lenovo. “As the students demonstrated throughout the Space Lab campaign, technology and opportunity are key ingredients to success and Lenovo is proud to help nurture both — in space and here on Earth.”
For more information, please visit: https://sites.google.com/site/ytspacelab/press.
About YouTube
YouTube is the world’s largest online video community, allowing millions of people to discover, watch, and share original videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original-content creators and advertisers large and small. YouTube, LLC, is based in San Bruno, California, and is a subsidiary of Google Inc.
About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a $US21 billion personal technology company serving customers in more than 160 countries, and the world’s second-largest PC vendor. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile Internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.
About Space Adventures
Space Adventures, the company that organized the flights for the world’s first private space explorers, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with an office in Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecraft. A wholly owned subsidiary, ZERO-G (www.gozerog.com) conducts weightless flights. The company’s orbital spaceflight clients include Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Greg Olsen, Anousheh Ansari, Charles Simonyi, Richard Garriott and Guy Laliberté. Cumulatively, Space Adventures’ clients have spent almost three months in space, traveling over 36 million miles.