A Year in 12 Posts

A meteor hit Chelyabinsk in Russia in February.

Relatively small (20m), it came undetected. It travelled at 60.000 km/h and exploded when it entered the atmosphere, 23km above the ground. The generated air burst was 20 times more powerull than the bomb of Iroshima; it damaged buildings and injured people tens of miles away.

It tells a lot about kinetic energy, and why scientifics and movie makers are so interested in asteroids. Meteors are also a favorite end-of-world scenario for would be Nostradamuses. Speaking of which, I could not find his predictions for 2014 but an interesting curation by Business Insider.

The smallest exoplanet was also detected this month. With around 1000 alien worlds detected so far, the search for Earth-like, life-capable planets is hotter than ever! More good news from the stars.

After a  352 million miles, 253 day journey from Earth, Nasa's heavy-weigth (1 ton) rover Curiosity lands on the red planet! One of the mission is to collect data for a manned mission!

Paul Doherty has a great video explaining what (Carbon) - and how - the rover is searching. Must watch.

Things to know when planning your next trip to Mars.

And if you want more good news from the stars, discover Guillaume's topic. And keep traveling!

On the business front, it was decision time for the Apple v. Samsung patent trial. Apple won.

I love the design of Apple's products. And I believe that patent rights are a necessary protection of R&D investments. But things are getting absurd. E.g. a "rectangle with rounded corners"; or "a tap is a zero-length swipe". Come on Apple, please...