The first nuclear power plant ever was built in Obninsk, Russia. It was the first electricity generating plant on a civilian grid. The plant operated until April 29th 2002.

The exact date of the plant’s “birth” varies, but as I understand it, it began operating on the 26th and went to large scale production on the 27th.

My old friend Mark Moffett is one of the pioneers of high canopy research, dragging his cameras into the upper reached of the rain forest to learn amazing new things and take some amazing photographs. He’s also spent considerable time on and beneath the forest floor studying ants. You know those research projects where they excavate an entire leaf cutter ant colony in order to understand how their underground labyrinths are laid out and function as a sort of earth-encrusted organism? That was Mark. Well, others have done it but he was a pioneer in that research.

I met Mark when he was in the next building over working with E.O. Wilson, and I’ve followed his activities and career as he’s published a number of interesting books and continued to bring attention to the scientific interest and environmental concerns of the world’s rain forests (from The High Frontier: Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy (See all Rain Forests Books) to Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions (See all Insect & Spider Books)). And ants.

Bug Girl just let me know that Mark is now up for a Labby award. You can go here and vote for him. He’s the weaver ant.