New York, NY & London, England (August 29, 2012) – YouTube and Lenovo today announced the culmination of the YouTube Space Labcompetition in which astronauts will reveal the results of the two winning experiments live from the International Space Station (ISS) and share them with to the world on YouTube. The live stream will connect the ISS to YouTube’s London creator space on Thursday, September 13 beginning at1:30 PM GMT/8:30 AM EST and will be hosted by Bill Nye “The Science Guy” and include 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 will now see the winning experiments performed by astronaut Sunita Williams during a live stream on YouTube from 250 miles above Earth aboard the ISS. The forty-minute live program will begin with host Bill Nye interviewing the global winners and special guests via Google+ Hangout, and feature the story of Space Lab told through videos since its launch last year. Then, NASA’s Mission Control Center will connect the studio to the ISS for a conversation with U.S. astronaut, Sunita Williams, and the results of the winning experiments.
“Students from around the world came up with experiments that could only be performed where there is no gravity— the International Space Station,” said Bill Nye “The Science Guy” and host of the YouTube Space Lab live stream event. “You and I will meet the winning young scientists and talk with astronauts in orbit. So tune in to YouTube Space Lab and turn it up loud.”
Amr Mohamed (17-18 year old age group) and Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma (14-16 year old age group) were named the winners at a ceremony in Washington, DC, in March. The event was attended by Space Lab partners including NASA, ESA, and JAXA. Now these winners will discuss the results of their experiments with the astronauts performing them aboard the ISS.
Amr Mohamed, 18, came up with an experiment to explore the question: “Can you teach an old spider new tricks?” As part of his prize, he went to Russia for a one-of-a-kind astronaut training experience in Star City, Russia, the training center for Russian cosmonauts. He proposed investigating the effects of microgravity on how the zebra spider catches its prey, and whether it could adapt its behavior in space.
Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, both 16, created an experiment that asks: “Could alien superbugs cure disease on Earth?”. Their experiment investigates whether compounds and nutrients can block bacterial growth differently in microgravity, which ultimately could lead a path to fighting germs more effectively on Earth. As part of their prize, Dorothy and Sara toured JAXA facilities and watched the rocket with the winning experiments blast off from southern Japan.
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!”
“For nearly 20 years – aboard the ISS and numerous space shuttle missions — Lenovo ThinkPad laptops have played a critical role in space exploration and research,” said Tracey Trachta, vice president, Brand Experience, Global Marketing, Lenovo. “The YouTube Space Lab competition places technology and opportunity into the hands of tomorrow’s space explorers, and we’re thrilled to be a part of such an effort.”
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. For more information, please visit www.spaceadventures.com.
