space - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T11:07:17Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/spaceTots & Teens: The sky’s the limit for Boca student selected to space schoolhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/tots-teens-the-sky-s-the-limit-for-boca-student-selected-to-space2019-07-02T18:57:01.000Z2019-07-02T18:57:01.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960875899,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960875899,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960875899?profile=original" /></a><em>Connor Cane will spend two weeks planning a simulated mission to Mars. The plaque honors previous missions. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Janis Fontaine</strong></p>
<p>On the Cane family’s homepage under 15-year-old Connor Cane’s name is a quote by Albert Einstein: “Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” <br />The reason, says George Torok, who posts insights on creative thinking on <a href="http://www.creative-problem-solving.org">www.creative-problem-solving.org</a>, is that “curious people learn more, discover more and change things. If you want creative people — look for curious people. They ask the questions about things that others ignore.”<br />And Boca Raton’s Connor Cane is curious about a lot of topics: the space program and missions to Mars, epidemiology and the threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, underwater robotics that can explore unseen worlds, precision drone-flying, bike racing and scuba diving. He also enjoys chess. <br />From July 21 to Aug. 5, Connor’s curiosity will take him to United Space School in Houston to represent the United States in an advanced, international program that will challenge students aged 15-20 to plan a simulated mission to Mars — with the help of NASA engineers and scientists.<br />Connor is one of only 50 fertile minds from around the world to be hand-picked from thousands of applicants in an arduous process that included writing an essay and excelling at a Skype interview with seven NASA engineers. <br />During the program, Connor hopes to work on the team that will design ground operations. Other students will be charged with the flight, and Connor’s team will make the mission viable. “I want to work on the team designing the habitat once they get onto the planet,” Connor said. <br />It’s not Connor’s first connection to the space program. In 2012, he won an essay contest at the South Florida Science Center in West Palm Beach that earned him the opportunity to speak with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide on the International Space Station while it was passing overhead at more than 17,000 mph. <br />Connor is an alumnus of the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., where he simulated astronaut training. More important than the science, which for Connor is super-fun, he took away lessons in leadership and teamwork. These days, people skills are just as critical as a sharp mind. <br />Connor is currently sharpening his mind in an accelerated pre-collegiate program at FAU’s Dual Enrollment High School/University in Boca Raton. When he graduates, probably around 2022, he’ll have a high school diploma and a bachelor’s degree. He hasn’t chosen a major yet because his interests and skill set are so diverse, it’s like trying to pin down a hummingbird. Or, in the case of the space school, a flock of 50 hummingbirds.<br />In June, before heading to Houston, Connor went to Tanzania in Africa to work on a research project at Gombe National Park. He planned to join the technology team for a research project on a new species of monkeys. He hoped to capture enough images of individual animals to create a facial recognition algorithm for the head researcher. <br />It’s more proof that Connor is a deep thinker capable of so many things. “I like to work as part of a team to put together ideas, check each other’s work, avoid mistakes,” he says.<br />Because the stakes are high — life and death — in space. <br />But the stakes are high on earth, too. Connor’s other arena is solving the superbug threat and changing how we treat diseases. “I try to balance them both, but if I had to choose, I’d choose biomolecular engineering,” he says.<br />Specifically, Connor wants to find new ways to fight diseases, some of which have the potential of becoming the next Black Death. The bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis killed 60 percent of Europe’s population and 50 million people worldwide in the 14th century, before antibiotics.<br />Today’s medical treatments are working toward fighting bugs by using other bugs, tiny bacteriophages, viruses that kill the bacteria that cause the deadly infections.<br /> Phages work a little bit like our own immune systems, but “one key difference,” Connor says, “is that the immune system gets overwhelmed over time and phages get stronger.”<br /> It’s fascinating, cutting-edge stuff, but there’s a bigger purpose.<br />“Ultimately,” Connor says, “I want to save lives.” <br />Connor is the son of Dan and Deb Cane of Boca Raton. Dan Cane founded the data company Modernizing Medicine in 2010 with Palm Beach County dermatologist Dr. Michael Sherling.<br /> The company is usually described as an electronic medical records provider, but it’s really an iPad compatible system designed to lower health care costs and improve outcomes. Cane’s first successful venture was Blackboard, an e-learning tool used by universities, which he sold in 2011 for $1.6 billion.<br /> Dan and Deb Cane have two other children, Elizabeth and Anya, and are well known for their generous financial gifts to local nonprofits like the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, and the A.D. Henderson University School.</p></div>Tots & Teens: Boca boy has out-of-this-world interaction with astronauthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/tots-teens-boca-boy-has-out-of-this-world-interaction-with-astron2017-11-29T15:13:12.000Z2017-11-29T15:13:12.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960753678,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960753678,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960753678?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>St. Andrews School second-grader Christopher Andersson was invited to ask a question of Paolo Nespoli while Nespoli was aboard the International Space Station. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Janis Fontaine</strong><br /><br /> Christopher Andersson is one curious kid! And his parents couldn’t be prouder. <br /> In November, a dozen children from Palm Beach County were invited to talk to Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli aboard the International Space Station via ham radio at a live talkback at the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach. The special event coincided with the center’s 5,000-square-foot exhibition, Astronaut. <br /> One of the lucky ones was Christopher, 7, a second-grader at Saint Andrews School in Boca Raton, his hometown. The students were invited based on essays they wrote about what question they’d ask an astronaut, which were judged by teachers based on their writing, creativity and enthusiasm for the subject. <br /> Christopher’s question was: “What is the most unexpected discovery you have made when doing your science experiments on the International Space Station?” <br /> Christopher’s dad, Leif Andersson, says that the question was born out of a slime-making experiment. <br /> “I didn’t know what would happen,” Christopher said about the day he was “playing around” in his home chemistry lab. By mixing a few substances together, he discovered slime. It was a jumping off point for a discussion about how many important discoveries start with people saying, “I wonder what would happen …”<br /> Christopher’s question was intriguing, so judges put it at the top of the list. That meant the boy in the blue blazer was first at the mic, which would have intimidated a teenager, but he did great.<br /> When the astronaut finally answered — the ISS is an average of 240 miles above the Earth hurtling by at 17,600 miles per hour — the audio was difficult to hear, so Christopher’s dad explained the answer to him later. <br /> Nespoli told the students that he was surprised to find that fire didn’t behave exactly the way the astronauts expected. Scientists always believed that fire couldn’t be sustained in very cold temperatures: Heat is one of the three requirements for fire, along with fuel and oxygen. The astronauts found fire still burned at lower temperatures than they’d expected. <br /> The unexpected is what keeps scientists’ hearts beating, the same way the unknown keeps Christopher’s curiosity marching along. <br /> Christopher and the other students were also among the first to see the new exhibition, Astronaut, Your Journey Begins on Earth, which opened at the Science Center in October and runs through April 22. <br /> The exhibit is designed to show visitors what it would be like to live in space. How do astronauts eat? How do they sleep? How do they, ahem, use the bathroom in gravity-free space? (You know you’ve been wondering about that.) <br /> The exhibit features interactive games and displays that simulate a rocket launch and show how to plant and grow a space garden. You can even take a spin in the G-force simulator and see if you’ve got “the right stuff,” then find out what job you’d have on a space mission by taking a personality quiz. <br /> Christopher said his favorite part was playing with the vending machines that offered “space food” choices. <br /> After school, the soon-to-be 8-year-old stretches his creative muscles at Saint Andrews robotics club, a highlight of his week, and on the chess team. He pushes himself physically playing goalie on his ice hockey team and as a member of the swim team. Christopher says he doesn’t want to be an astronaut, but he would like to support astronauts in some capacity back here on terra firma. But for right now, Saint Andrews is just the spot for a curious kid with a passion for science. <br /><br /> <em> The South Florida Science Center and Aquarium is at 4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach. Admission is $16.95 for adults, $14.95 for seniors ages 60-plus, $12.95 for ages 3-12 and free for younger than 3 and for members. On the web at <a href="http://www.sfsciencecenter.org">www.sfsciencecenter.org</a>.</em><br /><br /></p></div>Delray Beach Resident's Career to the Moon and Backhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-resident-s-career-to-the-moon-and-back2015-07-16T15:15:25.000Z2015-07-16T15:15:25.000ZChelsea Marchhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChelseaMarch<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960584689,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" style="width:399px;height:470px;" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960584689,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960584689?profile=original" width="750" height="999" /></a>With NASA's New Horizons spacecraft taking the first detailed pictures of Pluto this year, a Delray Beach man reflects on his involvement with "firsts" in space.</p>
<p>Little did Sid Schildkraut know that tinkering with the inner workings of radios at the age of 13 would lead to the first lunar landing and his name in the Smithsonian Institution. The <a href="https://abbeydelray.com/community-life/" target="_blank">Abbey Delray</a> resident has had quite the distinguished and varied career path.</p>
<p>Sid worked 35 years for EDO Corporation, a company that designed and manufactured products for defense, intelligence and commercial markets. While there, he was part of the team that ran testing on sensors that were first used to touch the moon during the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969. The company was so proud of this accomplishment that it created banners for its building proclaiming "First on the Moon." In addition, he designed sonar receivers, transducers and other equipment for several foreign countries.</p>
<p>During the television boom of the 1950s, Sid was commissioned by the Electronic Industry Association to co-author a series of textbooks on how to service a television to help educate technicians. At the time, there wasn't much information available, so these books were one of the first to share that knowledge. All these books are now part of the Smithsonian Institution's collection.</p></div>