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Image: NASA
While it’s astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins who are the celebrated heroes of the Apollo 11 moon landing, their mission may have not been possible without a brilliant NASA engineer named Judy Sullivan. As Good Morning American explained, after earning top grades as a biology major Sullivan became a biomedical engineer at NASA in 1969, and one of her most memorable experiences was working with Neil Armstrong in preparation for the historic Apollo 11 mission as lead engineer for the biomedical system. She studied the Apollo astronaut’s breathing rates and depths through sensors that were placed on their sides. When Armstrong was being taken away for his flight to the moon he thanked all the engineers but only Judy by name.
Now 76, Sullivan feels “blessed” to be part of history and is also passionate about encouraging young women today to pursue careers in the math and science industries. “Be adventurous, don’t let anyone convince you, you can’t make your goals,” she said. “Talk to your guidance counselors and get to know your science teachers because they’re gonna make you believe in yourself.“
Over the last century, humans have come to dominate the planet, causing rapid ecosystem change and massive loss of biodiversity across the planet.
Why This Matters: without a vibrant Earth our chances of adequately feeding and sustaining 9.8 billion people by 2050 become slim.
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Fox News’ Tucker Carlson in a news segment on Monday night created a firestorm over racist remarks in which he claimed that proposals to allow many more climate refugees to enter the U.S. would result in overcrowding and would “despoil” and “pollute” our country.
Why This Matters: Millions of people around the world — including Americans — are already suffering due to climate change and it has created a refugee crisis. According to the proposal’s proponents, since 2009, a climate-related disaster has displaced about one person every second due to severe weather events, famine, drought, and rising sea levels, and other climate impacts. The United Nations believes that 22.5 million people worldwide have been displaced due to climate change since 2009 and that number could rise to 200 million forcibly displaced people by 2050. We will be confronted with this problem regardless of whether Congress passes a law allowing the government to deal with it directly.
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Military dogs are often homeless once they are retired from service. And worse, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) won’t pay for veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) to adopt them or other dogs as service dogs. Congressman John Rutherford of Florida has introduced a bill — the Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers (PAWS) Act of 2019 to provide funding to veterans diagnosed with PTS who would like to obtain a service dog.
Why This Matters: It would be a real win-win to see some of these dogs– or other dogs in need of homes — go to veterans who are suffering from PTS as an alternative or supplement to other treatments.
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