The X Prize Foundation is a non-profit organization that oversees public contests intended to create competition which furthers technological advancements.  There are several prizes the X Prize Foundation sponsors.  Tying in to yesterday’s fact about the ocean’s deepest point (Challenger Deep), the Ocean X Prize of $10 million will be awarded to the first person to make 2 manned descents in a privately-funded craft.  There have been several other contests, such as competitions to map 100 human genomes in 10 days, engineer a totally clean car, and put a robot on the moon.  The original was the Ansari X Prize, which was a competition to create a private spaceflight vehicle.  In 2004, astronaut Mike Melville won $10 million with a spacecraft funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.  More than $100 million bucks were spent pursuing this prize, so the $10 mill kind of looks like chump change.  I think I am going to stop this website and put more time into winning one of these prizes.  Or figuring out how to blackmail Paul Allen.