China’s successful launch of the Shenzhou VII and subsequent spacewalk further reflect how the nation’s space program has risen on the bootstraps of Russian technology. Although the Chinese press has touted the supposedly home-grown Feitian space suit, the mission still relies on Russian advisors, who in addition to technical support provided Russian Orlan space suits. The Long March 2F rocket was also optimized with Russian assistance.

During a June 2008 workshop on the future of science in Hungary, we conducted a session on the strengths and weaknesses in Hungarian science. This signal discusses some of the results.

A venture fund known as S.E.VEN (Social Equity Venture Fund) recently announced a novel competition for ideas to address an important issue in emerging economies: namely how to rate possible investment opportunities in potentially higher risk emerging economies. Their idea is to create an index to rate possible investments with the aim of increasing the flow of investment in these regions. While the aim of the competition is noble itself, what's most unique is HOW they will run the competition.

Russia will increase funding for space projects by 13% and start the construction of a new space center this year, a first deputy prime minister said on Monday.