President Barack Obama has a confession: He's a science geek, a nerd, and he's not apologizing to anyone.
President Barack Obama has a confession: He's a science geek, a nerd, and he's not apologizing to anyone.
President Barack Obama has a confession: He's a science geek, a nerd, and he's not apologizing to anyone.
The geek-in-chief was in his element Thursday as he toured cutting-edge projects during a White House Frontiers Conference. Obama beamed as he took the chair of a Boeing Starliner Flight Simulator, with its panoply of buttons and monitors and futuristic gizmos. -"Right, left, left,-" his trainer said, urging minute course corrections.
-"Your ride is here, baby,-" Obama said after docking the simulator on the International Space Station. -"This is like the Uber shuttle. In case anybody calls, we'll be there in five minutes.-"
Minutes later, the president gawked at a self-directed quadcopter, or mini-drone, used to inspect infrastructure like bridges. As a computer screen showed the drone's preset path, the drone moved up and down, left and right, emitting neon green light and whizzing loudly.
He offered a presidential fist-bump to Nathan Copeland, a paralyzed man who is the first person who can feel sensation through his mind-controlled robotic arm. -"What a story,-" Obama said incredulously.
The Harvard-trained lawyer has never been shy about his fascination with all things scientific and high-tech. Over the years he's fired off a high-speed marshmallow air cannon at a White House science fair and rubbernecked at robots built by teenagers.
He used his appearance Thursday to scoff at those who -"willfully ignore facts or stick their hands in the sand,-" such as those who question global warming.
-"Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us to space, we didn't deny that Sputnik was up there. That wouldn't have worked,-" Obama said. -"No, we acknowledged the facts and then built a space program almost overnight, and then beat them to the moon.-"
Urging a new aspiration for the nation, Obama has set a goal to send humans to Mars by the 2030s, and in Pittsburgh he got a look at the SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft, part of ongoing research to develop vehicles that could transport astronauts to the red planet.
Obama remarked at the white capsule's petite size.
-"It's like putting up with Sasha and Malia in the back of the car,-" he said. -"It's a long car ride.-"
