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It is smiles all round at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, nestled in the beige foothills of San Gabriel. Our writer passes the gate into the high-security campus where NASA pursues both research and government work.
Compiling this forward-looking edition carried us beyond seventy thousand kilometres, beginning in Pasadena with Dr Charles Elachi of NASA's JPL. He left us pondering the life-changing discoveries his Martian rover, Curiosity, might yet reveal.
To some, Beirut is rooftop bars and arak by the bucket; to others, a city rebuilding after decades of destruction. Now, thanks to Al-Hayat's chief diplomatic correspondent Raghida Dergham, it is about to assume a fresh role.
When Mahmoud Said's 1929 painting The Whirling Dervishes fetched a record 2.5 million dollars at Christie's Dubai, eight times its estimate, it signalled an extraordinary new era for collecting Middle Eastern art.
The past decade has seen a perfect storm of art collectors in the Middle East, says Antonia Carver, director of Art Dubai. As London's salesrooms break records, boundaries are being redrawn in galleries and studios too.
There is, the argument runs, only one Louvre, and with the greatest respect it is not in Abu Dhabi. A provocative take on a global hub's costly bid to borrow cultural prestige.
Libyan-born and Dubai-based, former Syrian banker Khaled Samawi shows what happens when graft, luck and a nose for opportunity meet a neglected nation's cultural assets. His operation now spans the Middle East, Europe and America.
Forever jetting between Hamburg and Dubai, Iranian-born collector Ramin Salsali ranks among the Middle Eastern art world's most influential figures. Dapper and exuberant, he mirrors Dubai's own drive, championing the region's most exciting artists for twenty-five years.
Artists should take risks, Shirin Neshat insists in her minimalist Soho studio. Restless and steely, the kohl-eyed artist leans forward with excitement to discuss her latest work, a feature-length film about the legendary Umm Kulthum.
One benefit of middle age, Michael Karam reflects, is finally knowing what we will not put up with, especially in the air. Gone are the days when the very cheapest, most circuitous flight always won.
At secondary school, art college was dismissed as a refuge for dropouts who wished only to drink cheap wine. One writer who took neither path reflects on creativity, his trade and whether journalism counts as art.
Syrian-Argentine impresario Alan Faena wears many hats across fashion, property and hospitality, though always a white one. Michael Tannenbaum meets the man behind the Faena Art District on the Buenos Aires waterfront.