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Mars Base

Frenchman, American win Nobel for quantum physics (Update 6) - 0 views

phys.org/...eland-nobel-physics-prize.html

scibyte67 Nobel

shared by Mars Base on 13 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • American physicist David Wineland
  • and French physicist Serge Haroche speaks to the media in Paris after they were named winners of the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics.
  • in a quantum computer, an individual particle can essentially represent a zero and a one at the same time
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • A Frenchman and an American shared the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for inventing methods to peer into the bizarre quantum world of ultra-tiny particles, work that could help in creating a new generation of super-fast computers
  • quantum computers could radically change people's lives in the way that classical computers did last century, but a full-scale quantum computer is still decades away
  • for experiments on quantum particles that have already resulted in ultra-precise clocks and may one day help lead to computers many times faster than those in use today.
  • If scientists can make such particles work together, certain kinds of calculations could be done with blazing speed.
  • The prizes are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.
  • 2012: Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the U.S. for "for ground-breaking experimental methods" that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems
  • 2011: American physicist Saul Perlmutter, U.S.-Australian researcher Brian Schmidt and American professor Adam Riess "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae."
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Mars Rock Touched By NASA Curiosity Has Surprises - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte67 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 15 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • The first Martian rock NASA's Curiosity rover has reached out to touch presents a more varied composition than expected from previous missions
  • On Earth, rocks with composition like the Jake rock typically come from processes in the planet's mantle beneath the crust, from crystallization of relatively water-rich magma at elevated pressure.
  • elements
Mars Base

Prospective Alzheimer's drug builds new brain cell connections - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...alzheimer-drug-brain-cell.html

scibyte67 Alzheimer

shared by Mars Base on 11 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • researchers have developed a new drug candidate that dramatically improves the cognitive function of rats with Alzheimer's-like mental impairment
  • intended to repair brain damage that has already occurred
  • This is about recovering function
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • t makes these things totally unique. They're not designed necessarily to stop anything. They're designed to fix what's broken. As far as we can see, they work
  • current Alzheimer's treatments, which either slow the process of cell death or inhibit cholinesterase, an enzyme believed to break down a key neurotransmitter involved in learning and memory development
  • Last month, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, reported that only three of 104 possible treatments have been approved in the past 13 years
  • Development of the WSU drug is only starting
  • Safety testing alone could cost more than $1 million
  • been working on their compound since 1992
  • practical utility of these early drug candidates, however, was severely limited
  • they were very quickly broken down by the body and couldn't get across the blood-brain barrier,
  • cellular barrier that prevents drugs and other molecules from entering the brain
  • 'That's useless. I mean, who wants to drill holes in people's heads?
  • designed a smaller version of the molecule
  • Not only is it stable but it can cross the blood-brain barrier
  • added bonus is it can move from the gut into the blood, so it can be taken in pill form
  • reported similar but less dramatic results in a smaller group of old rats. In this study the old rats
  • tested the drug on several dozen rats treated with scopolamine, a chemical that interferes with a neurotransmitter critical to learning and memory.
  • a rat treated with scopolamine will never learn the location of a submerged platform in a water tank, orienting with cues outside the tank
  • After receiving the WSU drug, however, all of the rats did, whether they received the drug directly in the brain, orally, or through an injection.
  • statistically valid, additional studies with larger test groups will be necessary to fully confirm the finding.
  • bench assays using living nerve cells to monitor new neuronal connections
  • Dihexa to be seven orders of magnitude more powerful than BDNF, which has yet to be effectively developed for therapeutic use
Mars Base

Voyager 1 may have left the solar system - 0 views

phys.org/...012-10-voyager-left-solar.html

scibyte67 Voyager1

shared by Mars Base on 11 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • there's no official word from NASA
  • the buzz
  • is that Voyager 1 has left the Solar System
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • evidence comes from this graph, above, which shows the number of particles, mainly protons, from the Sun hitting Voyager 1 across time
  • uge drop at the end of August hints that Voyager 1 may now be in interstellar space
  • on July 28, the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside our Solar System dropped by half. However, in three days, the levels had recovered to near their previous levels. But then the bottom dropped out at the end of August.
  • Voyager team has said they have been seeing two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space
  • drop in particles from the Sun
  • jump in the level of high-energy cosmic rays originating from outside our Solar System.
  • third key sign would be the direction of the magnetic field
  • No word on that yet, but scientists are eagerly analyzing the data to see whether that has, indeed, changed direction
  • Scientists expect that all three of these signs will have changed when Voyager 1 has crossed into interstellar space.
  • Voyager project scientist for the entire mission, who was quoted in early August. "We are certainly in a new region at the edge of the solar system where things are changing rapidly. But we are not yet able to say that Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space."
  • the data are changing in ways that the team didn't expect, "but Voyager has always surprised us with new discoveries."
  • Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977, is approximately 18 billion kilometers (11 billion miles) from the Sun
  • Voyager 2, which launched on Aug. 20, 1977, is close behind, at 15 billion km (9.3 billion miles) from the Sun.
Mars Base

Dental surgeon adds music to drill to appease patients - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...rgeon-music-drill-appease.html

scibyte67 dentist

shared by Mars Base on 11 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • a dental surgeon in the Indonesian city of Purworejo has
  • connected an MP3 player to a dental drill that plays music loud enough to drown out the distinctive whine of the instrument
  • he discovered that many patients, especially children were not afraid of the dentist; instead, they were afraid of the drill
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • connecting the drill with the music player
  • , patients are able to control its volume by opening and closing their mouths
  • e wider they open, the louder the music grows which means the dentist doesn't have to continually urge patients to open wider for better access to back teeth
  • he invested 6 million rupiah (approximately $595)
  • mainly for the benefit of frightened children
  • using it in his practice since 2006 and has noted that many adults also prefer the musical drill to the standard model.
  • Patients can make requests he says, though he does try to limit the choices to songs that calm the nerves
  • t it took a year of research and effort to configure the drill
  • Doctor Gustiana presented his modified drill to attendees at the International Dental Congress held in Greece earlier this year.
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