Plus: Exploring the history of silent retreats
| | | | Top headlines Lead story One hundred years ago today, physicist Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket from a snow-covered field in Auburn, Massachusetts. The 10-foot-tall rocket flew for only 42 seconds, but it proved a valuable test for a technology that would kick off the space age and, decades later, send humans to the Moon. While the space race of the 1950s and '60s brought rapid innovation in spaceflight, the history of rockets traces back much longer, and, as historian Michael Carrafiello described, took off during World War II. Carrafiello maps out the century between Goddard's first flight and today. Rockets have gotten larger and more reliable in that time, and much of their development has shifted from government agencies to the private sector. Next month, NASA plans to launch a crew of four on a flyby around the Moon using its Space Launch System, a heavy-lift rocket that can carry tens of thousands of pounds. As Carrafiello writes, "Goddard's rocket was the beginning of a century of innovation." [ Understand what's going on in Washington and around the world. Get our Politics Weekly newsletter. ] |  | Mary Magnuson Associate Science Editor | |  Robert Goddard, considered the father of modern rocketry, standing with a rocket in 1935. Esther Goddard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Michael Carrafiello, Miami University From World War II to the Apollo era, the space shuttle program and today's privately developed commercial rockets, the landscape of spaceflight has changed dramatically. | Education | -
Kristi Girdharry, Babson College How do instructors get students to trust their own thinking and be better than robots? -
Boaz Dvir, Penn State A Penn State training program helps K-12 teachers learn how to give students the confidence to ask questions and understand various perspectives about complex topics. | | Ethics + Religion | -
Daniel M. Stuart, University of South Carolina The Burmese meditation master Sayagyi U Ba Khin played a key role in shaping the meditation retreats that are popular today. | | Science + Technology | -
Erin Potter, Binghamton University, State University of New York Plants changed the atmosphere, built soil and created ecosystems that allowed animals like us to thrive. But first they had to make their way from the water to the land. -
Paul C. Sereno, University of Chicago The hunt for a mythicized fossil hot spot took a team of researchers on a journey through the Sahara Desert. | | Economy + Business | -
Benjamin F. Henwood, University of Southern California A pilot program in Los Angeles reduced the rate of homelessness among homeless people with pets. -
Jonathan Deutsch, Drexel University Product reformulations are common in the food industry, and they can be done well, or poorly. Who remembers Doritos with olestra? | | Health + Medicine | -
Deldhy Nicolás Moya Sánchez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) For many adults, anxiety may be the only visible symptom. When it fades, underlying ADHD, which may have been masked for years, finally becomes clear. | | Arts + Culture | -
Jennifer Pollitt, Temple University Relationships with real people can involve rejection, awkwardness, time and emotional labor. But in the 'goonverse,' desire is predictable, endlessly available and never says no. -
Eilidh Noyes, University of Leeds; Walter Scheirer, University of Notre Dame It is not feasible, nor indeed ethical, to run a facial recognition system against all images on the internet. | | | | Today's graphic 📈 |
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