Editorial

Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on Robben Island for 18 of his 27 years in prison. During this time, he contracted tuberculosis and, as a black political prisoner, received the lowest level of treatment from prison workers. In 1990, Mandela was released and immediately urged foreign powers not to reduce pressure on the South African government for constitutional reform.

Here are some of Mandela's most poignant quotations.

Shimizu Corporation, a Japanese architecture and engineering firm, has a plan to effectively turn the moon into a giant solar power plant, reports Inhabitat.

It proposes building a massive collection of solar panels (a "Luna Ring") 6,800 miles long by 12 miles wide on the moon's surface. That's certainly a heavy-duty construction job for human beings, so Shimizu plans to get the work done with robots, only involving humans in supervisory roles.

This year, the Los Angeles Auto Show featured many cars which gave us a glimpse into the future of automobiles. Here are some of the most interesting concepts and special editions.

The 25th annual National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest is currently accepting submissions of photos, capturing travel portraits, outdoor scenes, spontaneous moments, and places.

DVD’s have become all too common in our lives. These discs are used to watch movies, install software and transfer data among other everyday tasks. The pictures below provide a glimpse into the process that creates these staples of our daily lives. The images are from a DVD manufacturing plant in Kazakhstan.

150 years ago, an Ottoman sultan proposed the idea of the Marmaray tunnel, which links the east and west sides of Istanbul.

Now the 90th anniversary of the Turkish Republic will be celebrated with the world’s deepest underwater railway tunnel. The 190-foot deep, 8.5 mile long tunnel is running under the Bosporus channel after eight years of construction.

The market for 3D printers and services was worth US$ 2.2 billion worldwide in 2012, up 29% from 2011. As producers become more familiar with the technology, they are moving from prototypes to finished products. Last year, Wohlers reckons more than 25% of the 3D-printing market involved making production-ready items.