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Obama touts clean energy in Science

Obama at solar farm
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on energy after a tour of a solar panel field at the Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility in Nevada in 2012. (White House Photo / Lawrence Jackson)

In the closing days of his White House term, President Barack Obama argues that the push toward renewable energy is unstoppable, and that it’s a valid strategy for economic growth.

The substance of Obama’s argument isn’t as surprising as where it was made: in a commentary for Science, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals.

“The mounting economic and scientific evidence leave me confident that trends toward a clean-energy economy that have emerged during my presidency will continue,” Obama writes, “and that the economic opportunity for our country to harness that trend will only grow.”

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Obama goes into full (and feisty) geek mode

Obama at Frontiers Conference
“Innovation is in our DNA,” President Barack Obama tells his audience at the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh. (Credit: White House)

President Barack Obama stated the obvious today during what almost sounded like a farewell address to the tech community he loves.

“I confess, I am a science geek,” he said at the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh. “I’m a nerd, and I don’t make any apologies for it. … It’s cool stuff.”

Obama geeked out big time during his visit to Carnegie Mellon University – checking in with a quadriplegic patient whose sense of finger touch was restored thanks to a brain implant, and steering a flight simulator for a Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule’sdocking with the International Space Station.

“Your ride is here, baby,” Obama said after mastering the simulated hookup.

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Obama talks up NASA’s vision for Mars

Mars orbital complex
An artist’s conception shows one configuration for an orbital habitat complex suitable for Mars. (Credit: Lockheed Martin)

President Barack Obama is throwing a spotlight on NASA’s plan for Mars exploration – and habitation – in advance of this week’s White House-backed conference on the frontiers of technology.

“We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America’s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time,” Obama said in an essay published today on CNN.com.

The president’s space vision statement comes in the wake of SpaceX billionaire founder Elon Musk’s unveiling of a plan that could theoretically start putting settlers on Mars before NASA astronauts get there.

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Space ventures get political shout-outs

Image: Astronaut on moon
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan salutes the U.S. flag during his 1972 mission to the moon. The photo was shown during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address. (Credit: NASA)

Even though they happened far from the Evergreen State, last year’s Pluto flyby and the rocket landings accomplished by Blue Origin and SpaceX were among the “big moments” mentioned today in Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s State of the State Address.

Hours later, President Barack Obama invoked America’s space effort as a model for innovation in his own State of the Union Address to Congress.

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