On October 31, 2009, an elderly man, nearly a century old, passed away in Beijing. His name was Qian Xuesen, and in China, he is considered a national hero for being the father of the country’s astronautics program, to the point that China’s first manned space mission, successfully carried out in 2003, was based on […]
Scientists
Posted inScience
Edward Emerson Barnard, the greatest observational astronomer in history
The 85th episode of The Sopranos, from its sixth season, is titled “Blue Comet” because one of its protagonists, a mobster fond of toy trains, is about to purchase one with that name when he gets murdered. The Blue Comet was a passenger railroad – painted blue, obviously – that linked New Jersey with Atlantic […]
Posted inSecond World War
Operation Osoaviakhim, the Forced Relocation of Thousands of German Scientists and Technicians to the USSR in 1946
Certainly, World War II history enthusiasts may know that the transfer to the United States of German scientists specialized in cutting-edge weapons at the end of the conflict was called Operation Paperclip. What is not as well-known is that the Soviets carried out a similar action, adding more than two and a half thousand specialists […]
