Alien Technology Deserves an XPRIZE - Avi Loeb – Medium

6 min readOct 7, 2026--Press enter or click to view image in full size(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson is widely regarded as one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century, having transformed a small, Holocaust-depleted sect into a global powerhouse of Jewish outreach of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Throughout his leadership from Brooklyn, New York City, the Rebbe spoke intensely about the imminent arrival of the messianic era, urging his followers to prepare for it through acts of goodness and Jewish observance. During the latter decades of his life, a fervent belief arose among many of his followers that he was in fact the Jewish Messiah. Since the Messiah is believed to reconstruct the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and live in Israel, his followers built in 1986 a house for him in Kfar Chabad Israel which is an exact replica of his apartment at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The Israeli replica was constructed to precisely mirror the layout of the original, including a highly detailed reproduction of the Rebbe’s private office, complete with identical furniture, bookcases, and religious texts.

How can food improve human health? What stands in the way of recycling textile waste? And who are the key players across Canada’s innovation ecosystem? Those are some of the questions University of Calgary researchers explored through the inaugural XPRIZE Canada Hub Fellowship and Internship Program, which gives students and postdoctoral scholars hands-on experience within the global XPRIZE ecosystem. The XPRIZE Canada Hub at UCalgary, established in 2025, connects Canadian researchers and innovators with XPRIZE’s approach and global network to tackle large-scale challenges. Its Fellowship and Internship Program combines project-based work with access to practical experience, mentorship and perspectives beyond participants’ own disciplines. For the Hub’s first fellow Dr. Anirban Kundu, PhD — a postdoctoral research associate with Dr. Casey Hubert, BSc’98, PhD’04, a professor in the Faculty of Science — the fellowship means stepping beyond his research on subsurface hydrogen as a low-carbon geoenergy source to investigating challenges in food, health and textile waste.

Classic gems, tasteful customs, legendary supercars - for Silvian, they're all fair game. He's been in love with cars and motorcycles for as long as he can remember, so it made perfect sense to eventually turn that passion into a full-time writing career. Around six years and more than 3,000 articles later, he is still going strong and doesn't plan on hitting the brakes anytime soon. Argentina is a country known for its natural beauty, soccer legends, and chainsaw-wielding president, but it probably isn’t the first place you’d expect a rad V8 supercar to be developed. However, that assumption might change once you learn about a company called Valtor, the brainchild of engineer-turned-CEO Sergio Arias. He leads a small but ambitious team of designers and engineers like himself, who’d previously caught people’s attention with the Azor GT concept last year. Now they’re back at it once again with the Eaglon, an evolution of the Azor and something that could easily be mistaken for a Ferrari by those who don’t know their automotive lore.