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Mars Base

Mmmmm? Scientists Make Bread Last 60 Days | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...rves-sandwich-parts-two-months

scibyte73 FoodPreservation

shared by Mars Base on 04 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Using microwave technology, one company says it can make bread last for two months, thus cutting down on food waste
  • spinoff company claims it can preserve at least some of our food for longer, by zapping it with microwaves
  • Nuked bread can last up to 60 days, according to the company
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The equipment, which looks like a CT scanner for food, was originally developed to kill organisms like multi-resistant staph bacteria and salmonella
  • developers realized it also kills bread mold in about a 10-second zap. It works much like a home microwave, but the waves are produced in various frequencies, which allows for uniform heating
  • technology could also preserve fresh food like poultry, produce and more
Mars Base

No Huge Discovery by Mars Rover Curiosity Yet | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/uriosity-discovery-rumors.html

scibyte73 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Contrary to rampant speculation, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has not made an earth-shaking find
  • many people assumed that Curiosity had detected organic compounds in the Martian soil.
  • that's not the case, officials said.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • At this point in the mission, the instruments on the rover have not detected any definitive evidence of Martian organics
  • The news conference will be an update about first use of the rover's full array of analytical instruments to investigate a drift of sandy soil,
  • While no huge news is apparently in the offing on Monday, NASA has high hopes for Curiosity and its mission.
Mars Base

Water Ice Found at Mercury's North Pole | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/r-ice-messenger-discovery.html

scibyte73 mercury

shared by Mars Base on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Confirming decades of suspicion, a NASA spacecraft has spotted vast deposits of water ice on the planet closest to the sun
  • Temperatures on Mercury can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius
  • around the north pole, in areas permanently shielded from the sun's heat
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Messenger spacecraft found a mix of frozen water and possible organic materials
  • Evidence of big pockets of ice is visible from a latitude of 85 degrees north up to the pole
  • smaller deposits scattered as far away as 65 degrees north.
  • NASA will direct Messenger's observation toward that area in the coming months — when the angle of the sun allows — to get a better look
  • Researchers also believe the south pole has ice, but Messenger's orbit has not allowed them to obtain extensive measurements of that region yet
  • Messenger will spiral closer to the planet in 2014 and 2015 as it runs out of fuel
  • Speculation about water ice on Mercury dates back more than 20 years
  • In 1991, Earth-bound astronomers fired radar signals to Mercury and received results showing there could be ice at both poles
  • reinforced by 1999 measurements using the more powerful Arecibo Observatorymicrowave beam in Puerto Rico
  • Radar pictures beamed back to New Mexico's Very Large Array showed white areas that researchers suspected was water ice.
  • The laser is weak — about the strength of a flashlight — but just powerful enough to distinguish bright icy areas from the darker, surrounding Mercury regolith
  • Messenger's neutron spectrometer spotted hydrogen, which is a large component of water ice. But the temperature profile unexpectedly showed that dark, volatile materials – consistent with climes in which organics survive – are mixing in with the ice
  • Organic materials are life's ingredients, though they do not necessarily lead to life itself
  • the presence of organics is also suspected on airless, distant worlds such as Pluto
  • suspect Mercury's water ice is coated with a 4-inch (10 centimeters) blanket of "thermally insulating material
Mars Base

Auditory test predicts coma awakening | Body & Brain | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...y_test_predicts_coma_awakening

scibyte73 coma

shared by Mars Base on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • A coma patient’s chances of surviving and waking up could be predicted by changes in the brain’s ability to discriminate sounds, new research suggests
  • Recovery from coma has been linked to auditory function before, but it wasn’t clear whether function depended on the time of assessment
  • previous studies tested patients several days or weeks after comas set in
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  • new study looks at the critical phase during the first 48 hours
  • At early stages, comatose brains can still distinguish between different sound patterns
  • this ability progresses over time can predict whether a coma patient will survive and ultimately awaken
  • very promising tool for prognosis
  • am led by neuroscientist
  • of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland studied 30 coma patients who had experienced heart attacks that deprived their brains of oxygen
  • All the patients underwent therapeutic hypothermia, a standard treatment to minimize brain damage, in which their bodies were cooled to 33° Celsius for 24 hours
  • played sounds for the patients and recorded their brain activity using scalp electrodes
  • once in hypothermic conditions during the first 24 hours of coma
  • again a day later at normal body temperature
  • sounds were a series of pure tones interspersed with sounds of different pitch, duration or location
  • brain signals revealed how well patients could discriminate the sounds, compared with five healthy subjects
  • After three months, the coma patients had either died or awoken
  • . All the patients whose discrimination improved by the second day of testing survived and awoke from their comas
  • many of those whose sound discrimination deteriorated by the second day did not survive
  • all of the patients showed signs of auditory discrimination
  • suggests that residual auditory function itself does not predict recovery
  • rather, it’s the progression of function over time that is predictive.
  • The study couldn’t distinguish whether auditory function initially was preserved due to the hypothermia treatment or was related merely to the early stage of coma
  • scientists speculate that distracting neural jabber may have been reduced during the hypothermia, making it easier for the patients’ brains to separate sounds
  • now running a follow-up study with 120 coma patients
  • whether the results can be replicated in a bigger population
  • s test could give information about patients who will survive during the first two days of coma
Mars Base

Curiosity rover: No big surprise in first soil test - 0 views

phys.org/...-curiosity-rover-big-soil.html

scibyte73 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 04 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • identified the oxygen and chlorine compound perchlorate
  • chemical previously found in arctic Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix Lander
  • other chemicals heated in SAM formed chlorinated methane compounds
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  • one-carbon organics that were detected by the instrument
  • chlorine is of Martian origin, but it is possible the carbon may be of Earth origin
Mars Base

Voyager 1 encounters new region in deep space, NASA says - 0 views

phys.org/...ounters-region-deep-space.html

scibyte73 Voyager1

shared by Mars Base on 04 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region
  • that scientists feel is the final area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space
  • Scientists refer to this new region as a magnetic highway for charged particles because our sun's magnetic field lines are connected to interstellar magnetic field lines
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  • infers this region is still inside our solar bubble because the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed
  • data from two onboard instruments that measure charged particles showed the spacecraft first entered this magnetic highway region on July 28, 2012
  • We are in a magnetic region unlike any we've been in before—about 10 times more intense than before the termination shock—but the magnetic field data show no indication we're in interstellar space
  • The magnetic field data turned out to be the key to pinpointing when we crossed the termination shock. And we expect these data will tell us when we first reach interstellar space."
Mars Base

NASA - NASA Researchers Discover Ancient Microbes in Antarctic Lake - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...12-408_Lake_Vida_Microbes.html

scibyte73 AntarcticLake

shared by Mars Base on 01 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • In one of the most remote lakes of Antarctica, nearly 65 feet beneath the icy surface, scientists
  • , have uncovered a community of bacteria
  • one of Earth's darkest, saltiest and coldest habitats
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  • increase our limited knowledge of how life can sustain itself in these extreme environments on our own planet and beyond.
  • Lake Vida, the largest of several unique lakes found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, contains no oxygen, is mostly frozen and possesses the highest nitrous oxide levels of any natural water body on Earth
  • approximately six times saltier than seawater
  • average temperature is minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit
  • the brine harbors a surprisingly diverse and abundant variety of bacteria that survive without a current source of energy from the sun
  • Previous studies of Lake Vida dating back to 1996 indicate the brine and its inhabitants have been isolated from outside influences for more than 3,000 years.
  • the best analog we have for possible ecosystems in the subsurface waters of Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa
  • collaborators
  • developed stringent protocols and specialized equipment for their 2005 and 2010 field campaigns to sample from the lake brine while avoiding contaminating the pristine ecosystem
  • expands our knowledge of environmental limits for life and helps define new niches of habitability
  • To sample unique environments such as this, researchers must work under secure, sterile tents on the lake's surface
  • The tents kept the site and equipment clean as researchers drilled ice cores, collected samples of the salty brine residing in the lake ice and assessed the chemical qualities of the water and its potential for harboring and sustaining life
  • analyses suggest chemical reactions between the brine and the underlying iron-rich sediments generate nitrous oxide and molecular hydrogen
  • may provide the energy needed to support the brine's diverse microbial life.
  • Additional research is under way to analyze the abiotic, chemical interactions between the Lake Vida brine and its sediment
  • investigating the microbial community by using different genome sequencing approaches
Mars Base

NASA - Curiosity Roves Again - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...curiosity20121129.html

scibyte73 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 01 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • After several weeks of being stationary at the Rocknest site we began driving again on Sol 100
  • stone on the mission as we reached about a half a kilometer of total driving distance on the surface of Mars
  • going to be moving to the East to a place called Point Lake
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  • looking for a target to perform our first ever drill on Mars
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