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Mars Base

New drug reverses loss of brain connections in Alzheimer's disease - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...rses-loss-brain-alzheimer.html

scibyte99 Alzheimer

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • The first experimental drug to boost brain synapses lost in Alzheimer's disease
  • combines two FDA-approved medicines to stop the destructive cascade of changes in the brain that destroys the connections between neurons, leading to memory loss and cognitive decline.
  • The decade-long study
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • shows that NitroMemantine can restore synapses, representing the connections between nerve cells (neurons) that have been lost during the progression of Alzheimer's in the brain
  • These findings actually mean that you might be able to intercede not only early but also a bit later
  • Alzheimer's patient may be able to have synaptic connections restored even with plaques and tangles already in his or her brain.
  • study, conducted in animal models as well as brain cells derived from human stem cells,
  • team mapped the pathway that leads to synaptic damage in Alzheimer
  • found that amyloid beta peptides, which were once thought to injure synapses directly
  • actually induce the release of excessive amounts of the neurotransmitter glutamate from brain cells called astrocytes that are located adjacent to the nerve cells.
  • Normal levels of glutamate promote memory and learning, but excessive levels are harmful
  • Alzheimer's disease, excessive glutamate activates extrasynaptic receptors, designated eNMDA receptors
  • which get hyperactivated and in turn lead to synaptic loss
  • lab had previously discovered how a drug called memantine can be targeted to eNMDA receptors to slow the hyperactivity seen in Alzheimer's.
  • memantine's effectiveness has been limited.
  • memantine—a positively charged molecule—is repelled by a similar charge inside diseased neurons
  • memantine gets repelled from its intended eNMDA receptor target on the neuronal surface.
  • FDA approval of memantine in 2003
  • a fragment of the molecule nitroglycerin—a second FDA-approved drug commonly used to treat episodes of chest pain or angina in people with coronary heart disease—could bind to another site that the Lipton group discovered on NMDA receptors.
  • memantine rather selectively binds to eNMDA receptors, it also functions to target nitroglycerin to the receptor
  • by combining the two, Lipton's lab created a new, dual-function drug
  • researchers developed 37 derivatives of the combined drug before they found one that worked
  • By shutting down hyperactive eNMDA receptors on diseased neurons, NitroMemantine restores synapses between those neurons
  • NitroMemantine brings the number of synapses all the way back to normal within a few months of treatment in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. In fact, the new drug really starts to work within hours
Mars Base

Researchers debunk the IQ myth - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2012-12-debunk-iq-myth.html

scibyte76 IQ

shared by Mars Base on 23 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • After conducting the largest online intelligence study on record
  • research team has concluded that the notion of measuring one's intelligence quotient or IQ by a singular, standardized test is highly misleading
  • study, which included more than 100,000 participants
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Utilizing an online study open to anyone, anywhere in the world, the researchers asked respondents to complete 12 cognitive tests tapping memory, reasoning, attention and planning abilities, as well as a survey about their background and lifestyle habits.
  • expected a few hundred responses, but thousands and thousands of people took part, including people of all ages, cultures and creeds from every corner of the world
  • The results showed that when a wide range of cognitive abilities are explored, the observed variations in performance can only be explained with at least three distinct components: short-term memory, reasoning and a verbal component
  • No one component, or IQ, explained everything
  • scientists used a brain scanning technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to show that these differences in cognitive ability map onto distinct circuits in the brain.
  • Intriguingly, people who regularly played computer games did perform significantly better in terms of both reasoning and short-term memory
  • smokers performed poorly on the short-term memory and the verbal factors
  • people who frequently suffer from anxiety performed badly on the short-term memory factor in particular
Mars Base

Moon Probes' Crash Site Named After Sally Ride | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ail-moon-crash-sally-ride.html

scibyte75 Grail

shared by Mars Base on 18 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • The spot on the lunar surface where NASA intentionally crashed its twin gravity-mapping moon probes
  • Dec. 17) has been named after the late Sally Ride, America's first woman in space
  • Ebb and Flow, slammed into a crater rim near the moon's north pole at 5:28 p.m. EST (2228 GMT)
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • f Sally Ride, who played a key role in Grail's education and outreach efforts
  • Ride had led Grail's MoonKAM project, which allowed schoolkids around the world to select lunar sites for Ebb and Flow to photograph
Mars Base

News in Brief: Comet's water still hanging around on Jupiter | Atom & Cosmos | Science ... - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...till_hanging_around_on_Jupiter

scibyte92 comet

shared by Mars Base on 26 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • In July 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 plowed into Jupiter
  • The comet also left behind
  • millions of gallons of water. Water from the impact still makes up at least 95 percent of the water in the planet’s upper atmosphere
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Telescopes had previously spotted water in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, some 100 kilometers above the planet’s ammonia cloud tops, but those surveys could not determine where the water came from
  • create a high-resolution map of water vapor distribution throughout Jupiter’s atmosphere
  • used the E
  • astronomers
  • researchers
  • found that the concentration of water peaked in the planet’s southern hemisphere, right in the region where the comet struck
  • More water also appeared at higher altitudes around the planet, which
  • supports the comet as its origin.
  • Water from other sources such as Jupiter’s icy moons would likely spread out more evenly around the planet and would gradually filter down to lower altitudes
Mars Base

Radiolab Wants Your Help To Track The Once-Every-17-Year Cicada "Swarmageddon" | Popula... - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...ry-17-year-cicada-swarmageddon

scibyte88 Cicada

shared by Mars Base on 02 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Magicicada is a genus of cicada with either a 13- or a 17-year lifespan, depending on species
  • t the Magicicada larvae live underground for nearly their entire lives, feeding on fluids from tree roots in the northeast United States, emerging with only a few weeks life in their lives
  • to molt into adults, mate, lay eggs, and die.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • we're not really sure why they use this life cycle strategy, but one guess is that such a long period between broods could fool predators, who likely won't have been alive (or won't remember) the previous emergence.
  • Brood II, also known as the "East Coast Brood," is a 17-year cicada due for emergence this summer
  • It ranges from the Virginia/North Carolina border up through the northern end of the New York City suburbs
  • Radiolab
  • radio shows/podcasts
  • has come up with a cicada tracker to pinpoint exactly when Brood II will begin "swarmageddon."
  • Radiolab will
  • monitor the soil temperature. When the soil eight inches below the surface reaches a steady temperature of 64 degrees F, the cicadas will begin their transformation
  • You can then report your findings to Radiolab, starting at the latest in mid-April
  • Radiolab's interactive map just when they'll emerge
Mars Base

Nevermind the Apocalypse: Earliest Mayan Calendar Found : Discovery News - 0 views

news.discovery.com/...discovery-doomsday-120511.html

scibyte46 MayanCalender

shared by Mars Base on 11 May 12 - No Cached
  • This monumental finding supports the fact that the Maya used cyclical calendars.
  • But it wasn't these mathematical notations that first caught the archeologists' eye
  • an archaeologist from Boston University, was mapping the ancient Maya city of Xultun in northeast Guatemala in 2010 when one of his undergraduate students peered into an old trench dug by looters and reported seeing traces of ancient paint.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • Paint doesn't preserve well in the rain forest climate of Guatemala, and Saturno figured that the faint red and black lines his student had found weren't going to yield much information
  • The discovery was "certainly nothing to write home about
  • felt he had a responsibility to excavate the room the looters had tried to reach, if only to be able to report the size of the structure along with the paint finding.
  • shocked to run into a brilliantly painted portrait: a Mayan king, sitting on his throne, wearing a red crown with blue feathers flowing out behind him.
  • Another figure peeks out from behind him
  • On an adjoining wall, three loincloth-clad figures sit, wearing feathered headdresses
  • ext to the king, a man painted in brilliant orange wearing jade bracelets reaches out with a stylus, likely identifying him as a scribe. He is labeled as "Younger Brother Obsidian," or perhaps "Junior Obsidian
  • small, 6-foot-by-6-foot room
  • calendar seemed to have been added after the murals were completed
  • almost as if an ancient scribe got sick of flipping through a document to find his timekeeping chart and decided to put it on the wall for at-a-glance reference
  • captioned "Older Brother Obsidian," or "Senior Obsidian,"
  • calendar also appears to note the cycles of Mars and Venus,
  • Most likely
  • the wall calendar and the Dresden Codex both arose from earlier books that long ago rotted away
  • The murals only survived, because, instead of collapsing the room, Mayan engineers filled it with rubble and then built on top of it.
  • This is clearly a space where someone important was living, this important household of the noble class, and here you also have a mathematician working in that space," Stuart said. "It's a great illustration of how closely those roles were connected in Mayan society
  • Unfortunately, the name of the king pictured in the mural room has been lost.
  • Xultun was first discovered in 1915, less than 0.1 percent has been explored
  • Looters damaged much of the ancient city in the 1970s
  • much of historical significance has been lost. But archaeologists still don't even know how far the boundaries of the town extend.
Mars Base

Radio Glitch Delays 5-Rocket Launch to Edge of Space | Skywatching Tips | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/rocket-launch-atrex-delay.html

scibyte38 launch

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • A radio system glitch on one of five small rockets aimed at the edge of space has forced NASA to cancel a barrage of overnight launches tonight that promised to dazzle East Coast skywatchers with glowing midnight clouds
  • e late-night launch rocket launches, which were scheduled to blast off within about five minutes of one anothe
  • scrubbed for tonight and our next attempt will be no earlier than Friday night, March 16
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • internal radio frequency interference problem with one of the payloads on the rockets caused the launch delay
  • five rockets form the core of NASA's Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX
  • program to study the high-altitude jet stream of wind that blows at speeds of 300 mph (483 kph) at heights of between  60 and 65 miles (97 to 105 kilometers) above Earth.
  • Theories have suggested that these high-altitude winds should only reach speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kph). The edge of space is commonly set at 62 miles (100 km) above Earth.
  • study the jet stream mystery, NASA scientists have loaded each ATREX rocket with a chemical tracer known as trimethyl aluminum. The experiment is designed to spray the material into the jet stream so observers on Earth can map the winds
  • chemical tracer is expected to be seen as glowing, milky white clouds visible to skywatchers along major stretches of the U.S. East Coast, running from southern Vermont and New Hampshire to the border of North and South Carolina.
  • next window to launch the ATREX rockets stretches from March 16 to April 3.
Mars Base

Mercury Surprises: Tiny Planet Has Odd Interior, Active Past | Messenger Spacecraft | S... - 0 views

www.space.com/ries-messenger-spacecraft.html

scibyte39 MarMedia mercury messenger

shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • interior unlike that of any other rocky planet in our solar system and a surprisingly dynamic history,
  • remained geologically active for a surprisingly large chunk of its evolutionary history, researchers said
  • planet's huge iron core is even larger than they had thought
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • likely overlain with a solid shell of iron and sulfur
  • layered structure not known to exist on Earth, Venus or Mars
  • Messenger has taken nearly 100,000 images and made more than 4 million measurements of the planet's surface
  • probe is mapping Mercury's surface and gathering data on the planet's composition, magnetic environment and tenuous atmosphere, among other features
  • s original science campaign was designed to last one Earth year
  • NASA announced in November that it had granted the spacecraft a one-year mission extension
  • officially began its extended mission earlier this week.
  • In one study
  • They found that the range of elevations was smaller than that found on either Mars or the moon.
  • also observed that the floors of many Mercury craters have been tilted substantially
  • suggest that internal forces pushed the craters up after the impacts created them
  • not out of the question that Mercury is still active today
  • not very likely
  • have not observed an active eruption or extrusion
  • determined that Mercury has "mascons," large positive gravity anomalies associated with big impact basins
  • first discovered on the moon in 1968 and caused great problems in the Apollo program because they tugged low-orbiting spacecraft around and made navigation difficult
  • Subsequently mascons were discovered on Mars
  • find out that Mercury has
  • appear to be a common feature of terrestrial planetary bodies
  • gravity calculations also suggest that Mercury has an iron core that comprises roughly 85 percent of the planet's radius
  • Earth's iron core covers about half of its radius
  • new findings should help shed light on Mercury's past
  • formation and evolution of rocky planets in general
  • looks like a layer of solid iron sulfide overlies Mercury's core — a feature not known to exist on any other terrestrial planet
Mars Base

Psychedelics in the Sky: NASA Launches 5 Rockets in 5 Minutes - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...aunches-5-rockets-in-5-minutes

nasa rockets ATREX AprMedia

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • After several days of delays due to weather and technical issues, NASA has now successfully launched five suborbital sounding rockets in five minutes from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as part of a study of the upper level jet stream.
  • first rocket was launched at 4:58 a.m. EDT and each subsequent rocket was launched 80 seconds apart.
  • rockets released a chemical tracer that created psychedelic-looking clouds at the edge of space, which were reported to be seen from as far south as Wilmington, N.C.; west to Charlestown, W. Va.; and north to Buffalo, N.Y.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) is a Heliophysics sounding rocket mission that gathered information to better understand the process responsible for the high-altitude jet stream located 95-105 km (60 to 65 miles) above the surface of the Earth.
  • map of the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. shows the projected area where the rockets may be visible while the motors are burning through flight
  • high-altitude jet stream is higher than the one commonly reported in weather forecasts
  • winds found in this upper jet stream typically have speeds of 320 to well over 480 km/hr (200 to over 300 mph)
  • two of the rockets had instrumented payloads to measure the pressure and temperature in the atmosphere at the height of the high-speed winds
  • NASA will release more information on the outcome of the experiment after scientists have had time to review the data
  • This jet stream is located in the same region where strong electrical currents occur in the ionosphere.
  • a region with a lot of electrical turbulence, of the type that can adversely affect satellite and radio communications.
  • Not only did the rockets release the chemical tracers to allow scientists and the public to “see” the winds in space
Mars Base

Black Hole 'Bonanza': Millions Found by NASA Space Telescope | WISE | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ound-nasa-space-telescope.html

scibyte61

shared by Mars Base on 30 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • A jackpot of previously unknown black holes across the universe has been discovered by the infrared eyes of a prolific NASA sky-mapping telescope
  • astronomers are still poring through this celestrial trove for discoveries.
  • These black holes aren't the average tiny, dense objects created by the collapse of dead stars, but rather humongous "supermassive" black holes that have been caught feasting on matter falling into them
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • We expected that there should be this large population of hidden quasars in the universe, but WISE can now identify them across the sky
Mars Base

New Horizons Web Site - 0 views

pluto.jhuapl.edu/...piPerspective.php

scibyte30 newhorizons

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • January 19, 2012
  • launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on January 19, 2006
  • sixth anniversary
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • nine-year flight from launch to the beginning of Pluto encounter in January 2015 is two-thirds over
  • summer’s wakeup will be a “24 hour” near-encounter rehearsal
  • execute a (nearly) daylong segment of our Pluto encounter sequence on the spacecraft
  • New Horizons will make every maneuver, every scan and every observation that it actually will do around closest approach in 2015
  • ’ll check out every system (and its backup) on New Horizons
  • check out each of the seven scientific instruments
  • collect more science data than we have in any previous wakeup
  • update the software for our primary spacecraft command and control computer
  • removing a bug that occasionally causes it to reset
  • uplink almost two-dozen improvements to our onboard autonomous fault detection and automatic response software
  • Horizons team will use a wide variety of telescopes to intensively probe the space between Pluto and Charon for possible satellites, rings and other kinds of debris structures
  • begin to work through some 260-plus malfunction and contingency scenarios that we’ve identified as possible “gotchas” at Pluto
  • data New Horizons sends back — maps, spectra, plasma data, radio science and more — will provide a detailed view of Pluto and its system of moons
  • knowledge of Pluto will literally expand from a single fact sheet’s worth of information, to textbook-length tomes.
Mars Base

Summer Olympics: 2020 | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...look-summer-olympics-2020

scibyte58 Olympics

shared by Mars Base on 05 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • HOLOGRAPHIC OBSTACLES
  • 100 riders are injured in eventing falls every year, and when a multimillion-dollar horse goes down, even a minor injury like a twisted ankle can end its career
  • Line-of-sight infrared beams could monitor the edges of the obstacles; if the horse breaks the beam, the system would instantly alert the judges—and the crowd—to the fault
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • SMART LANDING PADS
  • Scoring the exact length of a long or triple jump can be imprecise and time-consuming
  • land in a sand pit
  • Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a 2,016-pressure-sensor array to map where an athlete hits the ground
  • underneath the sand in the landing pit, a dozen or so of the mats could record the exact point of touchdown
  • computer could automatically calculate the length of the jump
  • HEAD-UP GOGGLES
  • Swimmers
  • with an integrated head-up display could broadcast a live view of the competition and help racers to better pace themselves
  • AUTOMATIC GOAL KEEPER
  • German research
  • has developed an automated goal-tracking system
  • Actuators around the net generate a magnetic field across the face of the goal. When the ball passes through that field, a chip embedded in the ball sends a signal to the ref’s watch within one tenth of a second.
  • RETRACTABLE DIVING BOARD
  • On a good day, a diver’s head misses the board by a couple of inches
  • famously, Greg Louganis in the 1988 Olympics.
  • In the one second a typical diver is airborne above the plane of the board, it could retract as much as three feet
Mars Base

10 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do | NASA, Mars Science Laboratory & Curio... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-rover-curiosity-science.html

scibyte22 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 20 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Mast Camera (MastCam)
  • capture high-resolution color pictures and video of the Martian landscape, which scientists will study and laypeople will gawk at
  • Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
  • ...43 more annotations...
  • will function much like a high-powered magnifying glass
  • instrument will take color pictures of features as tiny as 12.5 microns — smaller than the width of a human hair
  • MAHLI sits on the end of Curiosity's five-jointed, 7-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm
  • Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
  • small camera located on Curiosity's main body, will record video of the rover's descent to the Martian surface
  • will click on a mile or two above the ground, as soon as Curiosity jettisons its heat shield. The instrument will then take video at five frames per second until the rover touches down. The footage will help the MSL team plan Curiosity's Red Planet rovings, and it should also provide information about the geological context of the landing site, the 100-mile-wide
  • Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)
  • makes up about half of the rover's science payload.
  • a suite of three separate instruments — a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer
  • will search for carbon-containing compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it
  • look for other elements associated with life on Earth, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen
  • The rover's robotic arm will drop samples into SAM via an inlet on the rover's exterior
  • Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)
  • CheMin will identify different types of minerals on Mars and quantify their abundance
  • will help scientists better understand past environmental conditions on the Red Planet
  • CheMin has an inlet on Curiosity's exterior to accept samples delivered by the rover's robotic arm
  • will shine a fine X-ray beam through the sample, identifying minerals' crystalline structures based on how the X-rays diffract
  • Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)
  • This instrument will fire a laser at Martian rocks from up to 30 feet (9 meters) away and analyze the composition of the vaporized bits
  • help the mission team determine from afar whether or not they want to send the rover over to investigate a particular landform
  • The laser sits on Curiosity's mast, along with a camera and a small telescope
  • Three spectrographs sit in the rover's body, connected to the mast components by fiber optics
  • spectrographs will analyze the light emitted by excited electrons in the vaporized rock samples
  • Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
  • sits at the end of Curiosity's arm, will measure the abundances of various chemical elements in Martian rocks and dirt
  • APXS will shoot out X-rays and helium nuclei. This barrage will knock electrons in the sample out of their orbits, causing a release of X-rays. Scientists will be able to identify elements based on the characteristic energies of these emitted X-rays
  • Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)
  • located near the back of Curiosity's main body, will help the rover search for ice and water-logged minerals beneath the Martian surface
  • The instrument will fire beams of neutrons at the ground, then note the speed at which these particles travel when they bounce back. Hydrogen atoms tend to slow neutrons down, so an abundance of sluggish neutrons would signal underground water or ice
  • should be able to map out water concentrations as low as 0.1 percent at depths up to 6 feet (2 m).
  • Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)
  • instrument will measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays
  • designed specifically to help prepare for future human exploration of Mars
  • will allow scientists to determine just how much radiation an astronaut would be exposed to on Mars
  • Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)
  • partway up Curiosity's mast, is a Martian weather station
  • measure atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation.
  • integrated into daily and seasonal reports
  • MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)
  • MEDLI isn't one of Curiosity's 10 instruments
  • will measure the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the Martian sky
  • will tell engineers how well the heat shield, and their models of the spacecraft's trajectory, performed
  • data to improve designs for future Mars-bound spacecraft
Mars Base

16th-century Korean mummy provides clue to hepatitis B virus genetic code - 0 views

phys.org/...rean-mummy-clue-hepatitis.html

scibyte49 health

shared by Mars Base on 30 May 12 - No Cached
  • discovery of a mummified Korean child with relatively preserved organs enabled an Israeli-South Korean scientific team to conduct a genetic analysis on a liver biopsy which revealed a unique hepatitis B virus
  • may be used as a model to study the evolution of chronic hepatitis B and help understand the spread of the virus,
  • may shed further light on the migratory pathway of hepatitis B in the Far East from China and Japan to Korea as well as to other regions in Asia and Australia where it is a major cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Carbon 14 tests of the clothing of the mummy suggests that the boy lived around the 16th century during the Korean Joseon Dynasty
  • viral DNA sequences recovered from the liver biopsy enabled the scientists to map the entire ancient hepatitis B viral genome.
  • researchers compared the ancient DNA sequences with contemporary viral genomes disclosing distinct differences
  • changes in the genetic code are believed to result from spontaneous mutations and possibly environmental pressures during the virus evolutionary process
  • analysis suggests that the reconstructed mummy's hepatitis B virus DNA had its origin between 3,000 to 100,000 years ago.
  • In recent years, universal immunization of newborns against hepatitis B in Israel and in South Korea has lead to a massive decline in the incidence of infection.
Mars Base

Driverless Taxis in European Cities from 2014 - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...-european-cities-from-2014.htm

scibyte117

shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Driverless taxis will be carrying passengers during demonstration projects in five European cities as of February 2014.
  • cybercars, by the EU-funded CityMobil2 project, is one of a number of research initiatives that are testing out specially designed self-driving road vehicles as the technology required to navigate them becomes cheaper and more reliable.
  • Cybercars have traditionally sensed the world through expensive gyroscopes, microwaves and laser beams
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • cheap cameras and fast image-recognition algorithms has led to a new technique known as visual odometry
  • a computer analyses images to determine the position and orientation of the vehicle.
  • researchers have better access to the technology required for automated vehicles
  • e V-Charge project, a consortium of companies and universities which is working on fully automated low-speed driving in cities using only cameras and other low-cost sensors mounted on standard cars
  • . The consortium is working to produce detailed maps and a perception system that allows a vehicle to recognize its location and identify nearby pedestrians and vehicles, all using only stereoscopic or fisheye cameras.
  • team has taken this a step further, pioneering a guidance system that works economically by using a single camera.
  • car manufacturers are already making automated piloting features of their own – radar-based cruise control, anti-braking systems (ABS) and lane-control assistance
  • cables and hydraulic pressure valves which previously linked the controls of the vehicle to its working parts are gradually being replaced with electronic circuits
  • While companies such as Google see autonomous cars in a couple of decades
  • CityMobil2 project
  • thinks that they could be hitting the road sooner than that
  • The challenge lies in their environment
  • believes that, in addition to teaching cars to respond autonomously to traffic conditions, traffic should be adapted to automated cars
  • In their current state of development, cybercars could already drive safely in pedestrian areas and designated lanes
  • , investors are at present deterred by their high initial investment and perceived risks.
  • why they are being implemented in small stages
  • The first CityMobil project shuttled passengers across the car park of London Heathrow airport in a fleet of driverless pods
  • CityMobil2, now brings specially designed automated vehicles to designated roads inside the city centre
  • The project plans to procure two sets of automated vehicles which will tour five cities in a series of demonstration projects each lasting six to eight months
  • CityMobil2 is bringing together experts from ministries in each member state to agree on technical requirements by the time the project concludes in 2016 that could feed into a future European directive on the issue
Mars Base

Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres - 0 views

phys.org/...spies-plumes-dwarf-planet.html

scibyte117 Asteroid Ceres

shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Scientists
  • have made the first definitive detection of water vapor on the largest and roundest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres.
  • Plumes of water vapor are thought to shoot up periodically from Ceres when portions of its icy surface warm slightly
  • ...26 more annotations...
  • Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, a solar system body bigger than an asteroid and smaller than a planet.
  • "This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,"
  • Michael Küppers of ESA in Spain
  • NASA's Dawn mission, which is on its way to Ceres now after spending more than a year orbiting the large asteroid Vesta
  • Dawn is scheduled to arrive at Ceres in the spring of 2015, where it will take the closest look ever at its surface.
  • will map the geology and chemistry of the surface in high resolution
  • International Astronomical Union, the governing organization responsible for naming planetary objects
  • Ceres was known as the largest asteroid in our solar system
  • reclassified Ceres as a dwarf planet because of its large size. It is roughly 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter
  • When it first was spotted in 1801, astronomers thought it was a planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter
  • Scientists believe Ceres contains rock in its interior with a thick mantle of ice that, if melted, would amount to more fresh water than is present on all of Earth
  • The materials making up Ceres likely date from the first few million years of our solar system's existence and accumulated before the planets formed.
  • Until now, ice had been theorized to exist on Ceres but had not been detected conclusively
  • far-infrared vision to see, finally, a clear spectral signature of the water vapor. But
  • did not see water vapor every time it looked
  • spied water vapor four different times, on one occasion there was no signature.
  • what scientists think is happening
  • when Ceres swings through the part of its orbit that is closer to the sun, a portion of its icy surface becomes warm enough to cause water vapor to escape in plumes
  • a rate of about 6 kilograms (13 pounds) per second
  • When Ceres is in the colder part of its orbit, no water escapes
  • The strength of the signal also varied over hours, weeks and months
  • water vapor plumes rotating in and out of Herschel's views as the object spun on its axis
  • This enabled the scientists to localize the source of water to two darker spots on the surface of Ceres
  • previously seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. The dark spots might be more likely to outgas because dark material warms faster than light material.
  • "The lines are becoming more and more blurred between comets and asteroids," said Seungwon Lee of JPL
  • Paul von Allmen, also of JPL. "We knew before about main belt asteroids that show comet-like activity, but this is the first detection of water vapor in an asteroid-like object."
Mars Base

Doctor uses printed 3D heart to assist in infant heart surgery - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...r-3d-heart-infant-surgery.html

scibyte122 MedicalTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 27 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • 14 month old infant
  • had been born with four congenital heart defects—doctors had known since before he was born that his heart had problems
  • Fixing them all would prove to be a challenge. When it came time to plan the surgery
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • surgeons and found each of them had different ideas on the best way to fix the hear
  • The ideal approach would involve the least amount of cutting and suturing—but that can be hard to plan using only conventional scanning techniques
  • Researchers
  • worked with radiologists
  • to create a means for converting data from a CT scan of
  • s heart to data that could be used with a 3D printer.
  • The two seemed a perfect match as CT scanning uses the same basic idea as 3D printing
  • it takes pictures of slices and puts them together on a computer screen to form a whole, and 3D printing is achieved by laying down one layer or "slice" of material at a time.
  • The 3D printing
  • to print the heart (in three pieces) at twice its normal size
  • also used a flexible type of plastic known as "Ninja Flex" instead of AB
  • allowed the surgeon to bend the finished heart in ways that resembled a real human heart.
  • Printing the heart took approximately 20 hours at a cost of roughly $600
  • it allowed for a single surgery
  • and greatly reduced cutting and suturing, which ultimately led to a much quicker recovery
  • heart surgery on such a young patient is not unheard of, of course, what's new is that Austin was able to map out his surgical approach using a nearly exact model of the patients heart—it had been printed on a 3D printer.
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