Modern-Day Longitude Prize: And the Winners Are ...

More

We had a wonderful turnout for our first 1book140 contest, in which we asked readers to nominate, then vote, on what a 2012 equivalent to a "Longitude Prize" should be. We easily chose a shortlist of ten imaginative ideas. Interestingly, when it came to voting, the crowd spoke loud and clear, awarding over one-third of its votes to the search for Free, Sustainable Energy. The full list is below. Winners will receive special editions of Dava Sobel's Longitude (the 1book140 selection for this month) and her latest book, A More Perfect Heaven: How Coperniucs Revolutionized the Cosmos.1) Find a Source of Free, Sustainable Energy, submitted by Gill Corden.

2) Why do Honey Bee Colonies Collapse? submitted by Kyle Behymer.

3) Perfect Nuclear Fusion, submitted by Brad Chamberlin.

4) Secure Global Access to Clean Water, submitted by Jill Hubley

5) Create a System of Public Financing for Politicians, by, um, me.

For what it's worth, I'm disqualifying myself and sending my prize on to David Eccles, whose idea for Curing Malaria came in just behind mine in the voting.

Congratulations winners, and thanks everyone for donating their brain power and great ideas.


(Winners, email me here with your contact information so we can send you your prize.)  

Jump to comments
Presented by

Jeff Howe is a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston and a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard. More

Jeff Howe is a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He previously worked as a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, where he covered the media and entertainment industries. In June 2006 he published "The Rise of Crowdsourcing" in Wired. In September 2008 he published a book on the subject for Random House. The book has been translated into 11 languages. Before coming to Wired in 2001 he was a senior editor at Inside.com and a writer at the Village Voice. In his 20 years as a journalist he has traveled around the world working on stories ranging from the impending water crisis in Central Asia to the implications of gene patenting. He has written for Time, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, Mother Jones and numerous other publications. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.

Get Today's Top Stories in Your Inbox (preview)


Elsewhere on the web

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register. blog comments powered by Disqus

Video

Miami: The Next Big Start-Up City?

How the city became a center for innovation

Video

Video

A Brief History of Romantic Comedies

From The Atlantic's Chris Orr

Video

Video

Life in 'the New Arctic'

A moving portrait of a fading landscape

Video

Video

The Rise of New York City

A fascinating look at Manhattan in the 1940s

Video

'I Thought It Was Really Funny, but No One Else Did'

A day with New Yorker cartoonist Joe Dator

Video

New Yorkers: The Winemaker

Make your own wine ... in New York City

Video

What Is Methane Hydrate?

"Flaming ice" is a vast natural energy source

Video

NASA's Time-Lapse of the Sun

Now with epic dubstep music

Video

A Video Letter From the Editor

Highlights from the May 2013 issue

Video

Shaken Not Tuned: Cocktail Experiments

Can a tuning fork improve a cocktail?

Video

Video

The Rise of Environmentalism

Tracking 50 years, from the Love Canal disaster to Greenpeace

Video

Is He Cheating? A 1950s Guide

'That little blonde secretary from the office?’

Video

New Yorkers: Vintage Vacuum-Tube Amps

Risking electric shock to restore old amplifiers

Video

The DIY Piano-Bicycle

Everybody needs a hobby

Writers

Up
Down

More in Entertainment

In Focus

2013 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest

From This Author

Just In