Queen Elizabeth II of England, in flowered hat, and her husband Prince Philip visit to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration headquarters in Boulder, Colo., and marvel at Science On a Sphere (SOS), an unusual teaching device. SOS cleverly repurposes existing technologies -- PCs running Red Hat Linux and video projectors -- to create the illusion of a floating globe. SOS displays preset, animated environmental and atmospheric data. In addition to its educational value, SOS was designed to study environmental data, such as global warming trends and hurricanes.
Chad Vander Veen is a former contributing editor for Emergency Management magazine, and previously served as the editor of FutureStructure, and the associate editor of Government Technology and Public CIO magazines.
