Scientists have a lot of questions about our planet's most important carbon sink--and a new project could help answer them. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 16: Eric Schmidt, former chairman and CEO at GOOGLE visits Fox Business Network Studios on April 16, 2019 in New York City. A foundation created by Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, will fund a project to send drone boats out into the rough ocean around Antarctica to collect data that could help solve a crucial climate puzzle. The project is part of a suite of funding announced today from Schmidt Sciences, which Schmidt and his wife Wendy created to focus on projects tackling research into the global carbon cycle. It will spend $45 million over the next five years to fund these projects, which includes the Antarctic research.

This story appears in the December 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. How do you dress for the Pentagon? Most people hoping to secure a contract to send satellites into space would put on a suit. But Ben Lamm is not a fan of the expected. So on a visit to Washington, D.C., the night before his big meeting with Air Force generals, he was at a restaurant deliberating two important style questions: Which jean jacket would he wear? His dinner date that night knew the Pentagon well. It was Susan Penfield, a longtime executive VP at consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, which does a lot of work with the federal government (as well as with Lamm). "I don't know if it will fly at the Pentagon," she told him -- but if he insisted on a scarf, she suggested one with all-American red, white, and blue colors. The next morning, Lamm thought, Maybe not and threw on his Alexander McQueen -- black with white skulls.

The sad truth is that it's happening in every city in America,

At most universities, meal plans allow college students to take advantage of on-campus cafeterias or chow down at local restaurants. Now, thousands of students at George Mason University will have another dining option at their disposal: on-demand food delivery via an autonomous robot on wheels. The school has received a fleet of 25 delivery robots that can haul up to 20 pounds each as they roll across campus at four miles per hour, according to Starship Technologies, the Estonia-based robotics company that created the delivery vehicles. The company -- which claims its robots can make deliveries in 15 minutes or less -- says the Fairfax, Va.-based school is the first campus in the country to incorporate robots into its student dining plan and has the largest fleet of delivery roots on any university campus. "Students and teachers have little free time as it is, so there is a convenience for them to have their food, groceries and packages delivered to them," said Ryan Tuohy, Starship Technology's senior vice president of business development.

Skoolbot has been chosen winner of the first-ever international botathon, organized by VentureBeat. The bot, which helps students using Google Classroom monitor grades, homework, and communication, was made by Liam McKinley of Great Falls, Virginia. McKinley was not physically onstage, but did join a crowd of more than 150 in San Francisco through a roving video robot. Other members of Team Skoolbot include family friend Miko Borys and father John. Hugh Cameron of Melbourne, creator of a bot that quickly responds to emails, won the popular vote.