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Mars Base

Could People Hibernate? Lemurs Give Clues - News Watch - 0 views

newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/...le-hibernate-lemurs-give-clues

scibyte101 hibernate

shared by Mars Base on 05 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Fat-tailed dwarf lemurs are the only primates that can hibernate
  • lemurs are unique in that they can go the entire hibernation period—up to eight months—without fully sleeping
  • hibernation doesn’t necessarily mean sleep
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • hibernation simply refers to the seasonal bodily changes that occur in some animals—slower heart rates, decreased oxygen intake, and a reduced ability to regulate body temperature
  • during hibernation, a lemur’s breathing can slow to one inhalation every 20 minutes, and its heart rate drops from a normal 200 beats per minute to just 4 beats per minute
  • lemurs can hibernate, surviving three-quarters of a year without deep sleep,
  • The longest a human has ever been recorded going without sleep is allegedly 18 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes
  • severely sleep-deprived humans have a tendency to fall asleep for seconds at a time, it’s hard to prove such claims without brain monitoring
  • rapid eye movement (REM) sleep—which is when we dream
  • non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep is vital. When you fall into bed after pulling an all-nighter
  • deep, non-REM sleep that you want
  • when lemurs hibernate, scientists speculate that they experience only REM sleep. Though no one can prove whether lemurs actually dream
  • primates exhibit all the telltale signs of a full night’s REM sleep such as increased brain activity, rapid eye movements, and muscle paralysis
  • A 1989 study by sleep scientist
  • demonstrated the lethal consequences of sleep deprivation
  • When the researcher kept ten rats awake, depriving them of non-REM sleep, they developed skin lesions, lost weight, and experienced an erosion of their gastrointestinal tracts.
  • After 32 days, all of the rats were dead
  • If you completely deprive animals of [non-REM] sleep, then they die
  • yet the lemurs that hibernate appear to be able to go for months without sleep…and they’re not dying
  • Lemurs in captivity often don’t hibernate
  • Some of [the lemurs hibernated] 40 feet off the ground in the middle of the forest in coastal Madagascar
  • team visited the primates in their natural habitat—Madagascar
  • By placing the lemurs in special nesting boxes and attaching EEGs to their tiny foreheads while they hibernated, Krystal was able to record their vital signs
  • found that when it was warm outside, close to 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius), the primates would only hibernate in REM sleep.
Mars Base

New device can reduce sleep apnea episodes by 70 percent, study shows - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...ce-apnea-episodes-percent.html

scibyte115 SleepDisorder

shared by Mars Base on 09 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • After one year, patients using the device had an approximately 70 percent reduction in sleep apnea severity, as well as significant reductions in daytime sleepiness
  • Implantation of a sleep apnea device called Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation (UAS) therapy can lead to significant improvements for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA),
  • the first to evaluate the use of upper airway stimulation for sleep apnea
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • Stimulation Therapy for Apnea Reduction (STAR) trial
  • conducted at 22 medical centers in the United States and Europe
  • OSA, which affects more than 8 million men and 4 million women in the U.S. and is twice as common in men
  • is characterized by repeated episodes of upper airway collapse during sleep, due to narrowing or blockage
  • Patients with OSA stop breathing, known as apnea, frequently during sleep, often for a minute or longer
  • Repeated episodes of apnea can lead to daytime fatigue, and increase a person's risk for heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and even death.
  • Treatments for OSA include weight loss, upper airway surgeries, oral appliances, and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which is considered the primary treatment for OSA
  • CPAP is a successful treatment when used on a regular basis, as many as half of the patients who have been prescribed CPAP are unable to use it regularly
  • largely due to discomfort with the mask and/or the lack of desire to be tethered to a machine
  • Inspire UAS therapy
  • differs from other traditional sleep apnea devices and surgical procedures
  • targets the muscle tone of the throat rather than just the anatomy
  • Two thirds of patients using the Inspire UAS therapy device had successful control of their OSA
  • even more reported improvement in snoring, daytime sleepiness and quality of life measures
  • Eighty-six percent of patients were still using the device every night at the one year mark, which compares very favorably to CPAP
  • From 724 candidates initially screened, the STAR trial implanted and prospectively evaluated 126 moderate-to-severe OSA patients who had difficulty using or adhering to CPAP therapy:
  • 83 percent of the participants were men, the mean age was 54.5 years, and the mean body-mass index was 28.4.
  • All patients underwent surgery to implant the device.
  • The device stimulates the nerve of the tongue during sleep, thereby enlarging and stabilizing the airway and improving control of breathing.
  • Surgical implantation of the upper-airway stimulation system was performed by otolaryngologists at 22 academic and private centers
  • The device was implanted in three areas
  • stimulation electrode was placed on the hypoglossal nerve, which provides innervation to the muscles of the tongue
  • a sensing lead was placed between rib muscles to detect breathing effort
  • a neurostimulator was implanted in the upper right chest, just below the clavicle bone
  • Patients used a "controller" to turn on the device at night, so it is only used when the patient sleeps
  • device is designed to sense breathing patterns and deliver mild stimulation to a patient's airway muscles to keep the airway open during sleep.
  • various sleep-disorder measuring systems, patients were found to experience 68 to 70 percent fewer sleep-apnea episodes per hou
Mars Base

Study identifies how muscles are paralyzed during sleep - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2012-07-muscles-paralyzed.html

SleepDisorder GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Two powerful brain chemical systems work together to paralyze skeletal muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
  • During REM sleep — the deep sleep where most recalled dreams occur — your eyes continue to move but the rest of the body's muscles are stopped
  • In a series of experiments
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • neuroscientists
  • found that the neurotransmitters gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine caused REM sleep paralysis in rats by "switching off" the specialized cells in the brain that allow muscles to be active
  • reversed earlier beliefs that glycine was a lone inhibitor of these motor neurons.
  • By identifying the neurotransmitters and receptors involved in sleep-related paralysis, this study points us to possible molecular targets for developing treatments for sleep-related motor disorders
  • Previous research suggested neurotransmitter receptors called ionotropic GABAA/glycine receptors in the motor neurons caused REM sleep paralysis
  • when the researchers blocked these receptors, REM sleep paralysis still occurred.
  • to prevent REM sleep paralysis, they had to block both the ionotropic receptors and metabotropic GABAB receptors, a different receptor system
  • when the motor cells were cut off from all sources of GABA and glycine, the paralysis did not occur
  • suggest the two neurotransmitters must both be present together to maintain motor control during sleep
  • finding could be especially helpful for those with REM sleep disorder, a disease that causes people to act out their dreams
Mars Base

First evidence that fear memories can be reduced during sleep - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2013-09-evidence-memories.html

scibyte104 brain

shared by Mars Base on 23 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • A fear memory was reduced in people by exposing them to the memory over and over again while they slept
  • It's the first time that emotional memory has been manipulated in humans during sleep
  • potentially offers a new way to enhance the typical daytime treatment of phobias through exposure therapy by adding a nighttime component
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • showed a small but significant decrease in fear
  • If it can be extended to pre-existing fear, the bigger picture is that, perhaps, the treatment of phobias can be enhanced during sleep."
  • Previous projects have shown that spatial learning and motor sequence learning can be enhanced during sleep
  • wasn't previously known that emotions could be manipulated during sleep
  • 15 healthy human subjects received mild electric shocks while seeing two different faces
  • also smelled a specific odorant while viewing each face and being shocked
  • the face and the odorant both were associated with fear
  • Subjects received different odorants to smell with each face such as woody, clove, new sneaker, lemon or mint
  • when a subject was asleep, one of the two odorants was re-presented, but in the absence of the associated faces and shocks.
  • occurred during slow wave sleep when memory consolidation is thought to occur
  • Sleep is very important for strengthening new memories
  • particular odorant was being presented during sleep, it was reactivating the memory of that face over and over again
  • similar to the process of fear extinction during exposure therapy
  • When the subjects woke up, they were exposed to both faces
  • When they saw the face linked to the smell they had been exposed to during sleep, their fear reactions were lower than their fear reactions to the other face
  • Fear was measured in two ways
  • through small amounts of sweat in the skin, similar to a lie detector test
  • through neuroimaging with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging).
  • fMRI results showed changes in regions associated with memory
  • and changes in patterns of brain activity in regions associated with emotion
  • These brain changes reflected a decrease in reactivity that was specific to the targeted face image associated with the odorant presented during sleep
Mars Base

Could scientists peek into your dreams? (w/ video) - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2013-04-scientists-peek.html

scibyte89 Dreams

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • small new study suggests
  • Visual experiences you have when dreaming are detectable by the same type of brain activity that occurs when looking at actual images when you're awake
  • The scientists created decoding computer programs based on brain activity measured while wide-awake study participants looked at certain images
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • right after being awakened from the early stages of sleep, the researchers asked the subjects to describe the dream they were having
  • used functional MRI to monitor brain activity of the participants and polysomnography to record the physical changes that occur during sleep
  • compared evidence of brain activity when participants were awake and looking at real images to the brain activity they saw when participants were dreaming
  • the study shows it may be possible to use brain activity patterns to understand something about what a person is dreaming about
  • current approach requires the data of image viewing and sleep within the same [person
  • methods being developed for aligning brain patterns across people
  • there are practical applications to the research
  • evidence suggesting that the pattern of spontaneous brain activity is relevant to health issues
  • researchers chose to awaken the subjects in light sleep rather than in deeper "rapid eye movement" (REM) sleep solely to make the research easier to do
  • it takes at least an hour to reach first REM stage, it would be difficult to get sleep and dream data from multiple participants
  • why it is so hard to remember a dream minutes after waking up
  • thinks it is because particular neurotransmitters or brain regions involved in memory are not active during sleep
  • During sleep and dreaming, part of the brain—the higher visual cortex—is working as if seeing images
  • one expert said the results are intriguing, he was cautious
  • previous disappointments relating brain activity to complex visual experience
  • like to see this replicated
Mars Base

Nighttime smartphone use zaps workers' energy - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...140122170624.htm

scibyte117

shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • In a pair of studies surveying a broad spectrum of U.S. workers
  • found that people who monitored their smart phones for business purposes after 9 p.m. were more tired and were less engaged the following day on the job.
  • More than half of U.S. adults own a smartphone
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Many consider the devices to be among the most important tools ever invented when it comes to increasing productivity of knowledge-based work
  • the National Sleep Foundation says only 40 percent of Americans get enough sleep on most nights
  • a commonly cited reason is smartphone usage for work.
  • the first study, the researchers had 82 upper-level managers complete multiple surveys every day for two weeks.
  • The second study surveyed 161 employees daily in a variety of occupations -- from nursing to manufacturing and from accounting to dentistry
  • both studies
  • showed that nighttime smartphone usage for business purposes cut into sleep and sapped workers' energy the next day in the office
  • The second study also compared smartphone usage to other electronic devices and found that smartphones had a larger negative effect than watching television and using laptop and tablet computers
  • In addition to keeping people mentally engaged at night, smartphones emit "blue light"
  • the most disruptive of all colors of light. Blue light is known to hinder melatonin, a chemical in the body that promotes sleep
  • nighttime use of smartphones appears to have both psychological and physiological effects on people's ability to sleep and on sleep's essential recovery functions
  • "There may be times in which putting off work until the next day would have disastrous consequences and using your smartphone is well worth the negative effects on less important tasks the next day,"
  • "But on many other nights, more sleep may be your best bet."
  • Johnson, MSU assistant professor of management
Mars Base

Researchers identify brain cells responsible for keeping us awake - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...1-brain-cells-responsible.html

scibyte20 brain sleep light

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Bright light makes it easier to stay awake
  • Very bright light not only arouses us but is known to have antidepressant effects.
  • Bright light makes it easier to stay awake.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • dark rooms can make us sleepy.
  • researchers at UCLA have identified the group of neurons that mediates whether light arouses us — or not
  • the cells necessary for a light-induced arousal response are located in the hypothalamus
  • an area at the base of the brain responsible for, among other things, control of the autonomic nervous system, body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue — and sleep.
  • the activity of hypocretin neurons in their WT littermates was maximized when working for positive rewards during the light phase, but the cells were not activated when performing the same tasks in the dark phase.
  • This same UCLA research group earlier determined that the loss of hypocretin was responsible for narcolepsy and the sleepiness associated with Parkinson's disease
  • This current finding explains prior work in humans that found that narcoleptics lack the arousing response to light, unlike other equally sleepy individuals
  • researchers examined the behavioral capabilities of mice that had their hypocretin genetically "knocked-out" (KO mice) and compared them with the activities of normal, wild-type mice (WT) that still had their hypocretin neurons
  • they found that the KO mice were only deficient at working for positive rewards during the light phase
  • During the dark phase, however, these mice learned at the same rate as their WT littermates and were completely unimpaired in working for the same rewards
  • These cells release a neurotransmitter called hypocretin
  • findings suggest that administering hypocretin and boosting the function of hypocretin cells will increase the light-induced arousal response
  • Conversely, blocking their function by administering hypocretin receptor blockers will reduce this response and thereby induce sleep
  • implications for treating sleep disorders as well as depression
Mars Base

Dream contents deciphered by computer | Body & Brain | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...ontents_deciphered_by_computer

scibyte89 Dreams

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Experiments with mice have revealed aspects of sleep and dreaming, such as how the experiences contribute to forming memories
  • researchers recorded brain activity in three adult male volunteers during the early stages of sleep
  • After the subjects had dozed off, they were repeatedly awakened and asked for detailed reports on what they had seen while sleeping
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • After gathering at least 200 such reports from the three men, the researchers used a lexical database to group the dreamed objects in coarse categories, such as street, furniture and girl
  • On average, the computer could pick which of two objects had appeared in a dream 70 percent of the time
  • Computer algorithms sorted through
  • patterns of brain activity, linking particular patterns with objects
  • The study bolsters the notion that the vivid imagery of dreams, no matter how fantastic, is as real as waking life,
  • from the brain’s perspective
Mars Base

2013 in science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...2013_in_science

scibyte114 2013YearInReview

shared by Mars Base on 23 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Morocco in 2011, and report that it is a new type of Mars rock with an unusually high water content.[8][9][10] American researchers state that a gene associated with active personality traits is also linked to
  • Astronomers affiliated with the Kepler space observatory announce the discovery of KOI-172.02, an Earth-like exoplanet candidate which orbits a star similar to the Sun in the habitable zone
  • 13 January – Massachusetts doctors invent a pill-sized medical scanner that can be safely swallowed by patients, allowing the esophagus to be more easily scanned for disease
  • ...101 more annotations...
  • 17 January – NASA announces that the Kepler space observatory has developed a reaction wheel issue
  • 2 January A study by Caltech astronomers reports that the Milky Way Galaxy contains at least one planet per sta
  • 3 January
  • 8 January
  • 20 January – Scientists prove that quadruple-helix DNA is present in human cells
  • 25 January
  • An international team of scientists develops a functional light-based "tractor beam", which allows individual cells to be selected and moved at will. The invention could have broad applications in medicine and microbiology
  • 30 January – South Korea conducts its first successful orbital launch
  • 6 February
  • Astronomers report that 6% of all dwarf stars – the most common stars in the known universe – may host Earthlike planets
  • Scientists discover live bacteria in the subglacial Antarctic Lake Whillans
  • American scientists finish drilling down to the subglacial Lake Whillans, which is buried around 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) under the Antarctic ice
  • 10 February NASA's Curiosity Mars rover uses its onboard drill to obtain the first deep rock sample ever retrieved from the surface of another plane
  • 15 February A 10-ton meteoroid impacts in Chelyabinsk, Russia, producing a powerful shockwave and injuring over 1,000 people
  • 28 February
  • Astronomers make the first direct observation of a protoplanet forming in a disk of gas and dust around a distant sta
  • A third radiation belt is discovered around the Eart
  • 1 March – Boston Dynamics demonstrates an updated version of its BigDog military robot
  • 3 March – American scientists report that they have cured HIV in an infant by giving the child a course of antiretroviral drugs very early in its life. The previously HIV-positive child has reportedly exhibited no HIV symptoms since its treatment, despite having no further medication for a year
  • researchers replace 75 percent of an injured patient's skull with a precision 3D-printed polymer replacement implant. In future, damaged bones may routinely be replaced with custom-manufactured implants
  • 7 March
  • A study concludes that heart disease was common among ancient mummies
  • 11 March
  • 12 March NASA's Curiosity rover finds evidence that conditions on Mars were once suitable for microbial life after analyzing the first drilled sample of Martian rock, "John Klein" rock at Yellowknife Bay in Gale Crater. The rover detected water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, chloromethane and dichloromethane. Related tests found results consistent with the presence of smectite clay minerals
  • 14 March CERN scientists confirm, with a very high degree of certainty, that a new particle identified by the Large Hadron Collider in July 2012 is the long-sought Higgs boson
  • 18 March
  • NASA reports evidence from the Curiosity rover on Mars of mineral hydration, likely hydrated calcium sulfate, in several rock samples, including the broken fragments of "Tintina" rock and "Sutton Inlier" rock as well as in the veins and nodules in other rocks like "Knorr" rock and "Wernicke" rock.[177] Analysis using the rover's DAN instrument provided evidence of subsurface water, amounting to as much as 4% water content, down to a depth of 60 cm
  • 27 March – A potential new weight loss method is discovered, after a 20% weight reduction was achieved in mice simply by having their gut microbes altered.
  • NASA scientists report that hints of dark matter may have been detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station
  • 3 April
  • 15 April A functional lab-grown kidney is successfully transplanted into a live rat in Massachusetts General Hospital
  • 18 April – NASA announces the discovery of three new Earthlike exoplanets – Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f, and Kepler-69c – in the habitable zones of their respective host stars, Kepler-62 and Kepler-69. The new exoplanets, which are considered prime candidates for possessing liquid water and thus potentially life, were identified using the Kepler spacecraft
  • 21 April The Antares rocket, a commercial launch vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, successfully conducts its maiden flight
  • After years of unpowered glide tests, Scaled Composites' SpaceShipTwo hybrid spaceplane successfully conducts its first rocket-powered fligh
  • 29 April
  • 1 May IBM scientists release A Boy and His Atom, the smallest stop-motion animation ever created, made by manipulating individual carbon monoxide molecules with a scanning tunnelling microscope
  • A new study finds that children whose parents suck on their pacifiers have fewer allergies later in life
  • NASA reports that a reaction wheel on the Kepler space observatory may be malfunctioning and may result in the premature termination of the observatory's search for Earth-like
  • 15 May
  • 16 May Water dating back 2.6 billion years, by far the oldest ever found, is discovered in a Canadian mine
  • 27 May Four-hundred-year-old bryophyte specimens left behind by retreating glaciers in Canada are brought back to life in the laboratory
  • 29 May
  • Russian scientists announce the discovery of mammoth blood and well-preserved muscle tissue from an adult female specimen in Siberia
  • A new treatment to "reset" the immune system of multiple sclerosis patients is reported to reduce their reactivity to myelin by 50 to 75 percent
  • 4 June
  • During the Shenzhou 10 mission, Chinese astronauts deliver the country's first public video broadcast from the orbiting Tiangong-1 space laboratory
  • 20 June
  • China's Shenzhou 10 manned spacecraft returns safely to Earth, having conducted China's longest manned space mission to date
  • 26 June
  • 20 June
  • 20 June
  • 6 July
  • Scientists report that a wide variety of microbial life exists in the subglacial Antarctic Lake Vostok, which has been buried in ice for around 15 million years. Samples of the lake's water obtained by drilling were found to contain traces of DNA from over 3,000 tiny organisms
  • 15 July
  • ASA engineers successfully test a rocket engine with a fully 3D-printed injector
  • 19 July
  • NASA scientists publish the results of a new analysis of the atmosphere of Mars, reporting a lack of methane around the landing site of the Curiosity rover
  • Earth is photographed from the outer solar system. NASA's Cassini spacecraft releases images of the Earth and Moon taken from the orbit of Saturn
  • 29 July – Astronomers discover the first exoplanet orbiting a brown dwarf, 6,000 light years from Earth
  • exoplanet
  • 7 January
  • Astronomers
  • report that "at least 17 billion" Earth-sized exoplanets are estimated to reside in the Milky Way Galaxy
  • 20 February
  • NASA reports the discovery of Kepler-37b, the smallest exoplanet yet known, around the size of Earth's Moon
  • 10 June
  • Scientists report that the earlier claims of an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, a star close to our Solar System, may not be supported by astronomical evidence
  • 25 June – In an unprecedented discovery, astronomers detect three potentially Earthlike exoplanets orbiting a single star in the Gliese 667
  • 11 July For the first time, astronomers determine the true colour of a distant exoplanet. HD 189733 b, a searing-hot gas giant, is said to be a vivid blue colour, most likely due to clouds of silica in its atmosphere
  • NASA announces that the failing Kepler space observatory may never fully recover. New missions are being considered
  • 15 August
  • Phase I clinical trials of SAV001 – the first and only preventative HIV vaccine – have been successfully completed with no adverse effects in all patients. Antibody production was greatly boosted after vaccination
  • 3 September
  • 12 September NASA announces that Voyager I has officially left the Solar System, having travelled since 1977
  • NASA scientists report the Mars Curiosity rover detected "abundant, easily accessible" water (1.5 to 3 weight percent) in soil samples
  • 26 September
  • In addition, the rover found two principal soil types: a fine-grained mafic type and a locally derived, coarse-grained felsic type
  • mafic
  • as associated with hydration of the amorphous phases of the soi
  • perchlorates, the presence of which may make detection of life-related organic molecules difficult, were found at the Curiosity rover landing site
  • earlier at the more polar site of the Phoenix lander) suggesting a "global distribution of these salts
  • Astronomers have created the first cloud map of an exoplanet, Kepler-7b
  • 30 September
  • 8 October The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider"
  • 16 October Russian authorities raise a large fragment, 654 kg (1,440 lb) total weight, of the Chelyabinsk meteor, a Near-Earth asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere over Russia on 15 February 2013, from the bottom of Chebarkul lake.
  • Researchers have shown that a fundamental reason for sleep is to clean the brain of toxins. This is achieved by brain cells shrinking to create gaps between neurons, allowing fluid to wash through
  • 17 October
  • 22 October – Astronomers have discovered the 1,000th known exoplanet
  • 4 November - Astronomers report, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy
  • 11 billion of these estimated planets may be orbiting sun-like stars
  • 5 November – India launches its first Mars probe, Mangalyaan
  • The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has made the first discovery of very high energy neutrinos on Earth which had originated from beyond our Solar System
  • 21 November
  • 1 December – China launches the Chang'e 3 lunar rover mission, with a planned landing on December 16
  • 3 December – The Hubble Space Telescope has found evidence of water in the atmospheres of five distant exoplanets: HD 209458b, XO-1b, WASP-12b, WASP-17b and WASP-19b
  • 9 December NASA scientists report that the planet Mars had a large freshwater lake (which could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life) based on evidence from the Curiosity rover studying Aeolis Palus near Mount Sharp in Gale Crater
  • 12 December NASA announces, based on studies with the Hubble Space Telescope, that water vapor plumes were detected on Europa, moon of Jupiter
  • 14 December – The unmanned Chinese lunar rover Chang'e 3 lands on the Moon, making China the third country to achieve a soft landing there
  • 18 December
  • nomers have spotted what appears to be the first known "exomoon", located 1,800 light years away
  • 20 December – NASA reports that the Curiosity rover has successfully upgraded, for the third time since landing, its software programs and is now operating with version 11. The new software is expected to provide the rover with better robotic arm and autonomous driving abilities. Due to wheel wear, a need to drive more carefully, over the rough terrain the rover is currently traveling on its way to Mount Sharp, was also reported
Mars Base

Do Dolphins Speak Whale in Their Sleep? - ScienceNOW - 2 views

news.sciencemag.org/...hins-speak-whale-in-their.html

scibyte30 dolphins sleep

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers discovered the dolphins' midnight melodies by accident
  • Every day, as music and sounds of the sea play in the background, they show off their swimming, jumping, and ball-catching skills for an adoring audience and squawk and whistle just like dolphins should
  • But at night, they make strange noises that researchers believe are imitations of humpback whale songs included in the performance soundtrack
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • Ethologist
  • and her colleagues had hung underwater microphones in the tank because little is known about what dolphins sound like at night
  • One night, they suddenly heard 25 new sounds (see below) that the dolphins had never made before
  • dolphins are known for mimicry
  • researchers examined their complex daytime environment to determine
  • zeroed in on the new soundtrack that Planète Sauvage was playing during performances
  • included music, sea gulls' calls, the dolphins' own whistles, and humpback whale calls
  • researchers used a computer program to compare auditory recordings of the whale
  • showed that the two sounds were very similar
  • the dolphins had been captive their entire lives, they couldn't have picked them up from real whales
  • the team asked 20 human volunteers to listen to humpback whale sounds and wild dolphin sounds
  • researchers played the nighttime vocalizations and asked the volunteers whether the sounds came from a whale or a dolphin
  • About 76% of the time, the volunteers classified the imitations as sounds from real whales
  • Because the dolphins didn't make these noises during the show, the finding suggests that they waited to practice the sounds hours later.
  • the shows prime the animals to learn and remember information
  • find out whether the dolphins are asleep and dreaming when they mimic
  • dreams help dolphins etch new information into their memories, just like in humans
  • capture electroencephalogram recordings of the dolphins' brains at night
  • a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom who studies animal vocalization, says that the idea that dolphins might delay their rehearsals for hours is intriguin
  • isn't convinced from the small number of recordings that the researchers obtained that the dolphins were imitating whales
  • dolphins make so many different sounds that it's difficult to pin down one as an imitation of a particular source
  • songbirds rehearse their imitations of other noises at night, so he thinks it's not unlikely that dolphins might do the same.
Mars Base

NASA - Astronaut's Home Away from Home - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...crew_quarters.html

scibyte35 FebMedia

shared by Mars Base on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • take care of the astronauts 24/7 in the Astronaut Crew Quarters during preflight training and leading up to all shuttle launches
  • they work in shifts, with additional staff called in as needed to help cook and clean.
  • The crew is extremely busy when they come in," Hooper said. "We could not function without all of the group's efforts to take care of the astronauts."
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Those who work in the crew quarters include cooks, attendants, flight data file personnel, flight nurses and other astronauts supporting the crew.
  • Inside an area that dates back to the Apollo Program are facilities that have been upgraded throughout the years, including a kitchen, staff conference room, crew conference room, workout room, lounge, laundry room, computer room, suit-up room, dining room, medical facility, staff office and prime crew sleeping quarters.
  • access to crew quarters is limited to the staff and astronaut support personnel leading up to each launch
  • certified food handlers
  • team's typical day begins at 6 a.m. They get the kitchen going for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Laundry and inventory are completed. Maintenance trouble calls are tended to, and sleeping quarters and the beach house are cleaned
  • The staff operates under NASA Johnson Space Center's Health Stabilization Program. Twice yearly, the staff undergoes a physical exam and trains regularly on health issues and crew quarters procedures
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Computer Swap on Curiosity Rover - 0 views

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

scibyte84 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • 02.28.2013
  • The ground team for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer in response to a memory issue on the computer that had been active
  • intentional swap at about 2:30 a.m. PST today (Thursday, Feb. 28) put the rover
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • "safe mode."
  • , into
  • safe mode to operational status over the next few days and is troubleshooting the condition that affected operations
  • The condition is related to a glitch in flash memory linked to the other, now-inactive, computer.
  • switched computers to get to a standard state from which to begin restoring routine operations
  • Like many spacecraft
  • Curiosity carries a pair of redundant main computers in order to have a backup available if one fails
  • Each of the computers, A-side and B-side, also has other redundant subsystems linked to just that computer
  • Curiosity is now operating on its B-side, as it did during part of the flight from Earth to Mars. It operated on its A-side from before the August 2012 landing through Wednesday.
  • While
  • resuming operations on the B-side, we are also working to determine the best way to restore the A-side as a viable backup
  • The spacecraft remained in communications at all scheduled communication windows on Wednesday, but it did not send recorded data, only current status information.
  • status information revealed that the computer had not switched to the usual daily "sleep" mode when planned
  • Diagnostic work in a testing simulation at JPL indicates the situation involved corrupted memory at an A-side memory location used for addressing memory files
  • Scientific investigations by the rover were suspended Wednesday
  • Resumption of science investigations is anticipated within several days
Mars Base

Curiosity sleeps as solar blast races toward Mars - 0 views

phys.org/...uriosity-solar-blast-mars.html

scibyte85 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 07 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Scientists say a solar eruption was detected on March 5, 2013
  • headed toward Mars
  • Curiosity rover will postpone some activities but other Mars missions will operate normally
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • While the
  • rover was designed to withstand punishing space weather, its
  • decided to power it down as a precaution since it suffered a recent computer problem
  • Opportunity rover and two NASA spacecraft circling overhead carried on with normal activities
  • The eruption did not appear severe or extreme, but "middle of the road
  • was not expected to have an impact on Earth
  • Since Mars lacks a planet-wide magnetic field, it does not experience geomagnetic storms
  • the planet sees a spike in radiation
  • Powerful solar blasts can cause trouble to Mars spacecraft. In 2003, an intense solar flare knocked out the radiation detector on the Odyssey orbiter
  • In the worst-case scenario, one or more of the working Mars spacecraft may enter "safe mode" in which science activities are halted but they remain in contact with Earth.
  • The delay means it'll take longer for Curiosity to return to analyzing the pinch of rock powder it collected from a recent drilling
  • Engineers were in the middle of troubleshooting when they decided to wait for the weather to pass
Mars Base

'Walking robot' allows paralyzed man to move again | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...ws-paralyzed-man-to-move-again

scibyte77

shared by Mars Base on 28 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Developed by the military to allow soldiers to carry heavy weights long distances, then adapted to use with paralyzed patients, this real life "Iron Man" uses two lithium batteries, motors, computer chips and a hand-operated console.
  • available at 30 hospitals around the country so far
  • Researchers at Vanderbilt University have developed the lightest model, under 30 pounds, and expect the uses and benefits of the exoskeleton to extend to patients with stroke and many other neurological conditions.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • I began to sleep better at night
  • spasms are decreased
  • better bladder control
  • the exoskeleton is good for the skin, muscles, bones, circulation, and it decreases the risk of blood clots and wounds
  • In the absence of a cure
  • using technological devices to help them to gain mobility and to be able to better care for themselves
  • this electrically powered robot where they actually can go distances without exhausting themselves
  • one downside, and that's the cost, which is up to $140,000 for a single unit
  • as more and more patients use it and the technology is simplified, the cost is expected to come down.
Mars Base

Pioneering Moon, Mars Scientist David McKay Dies at 76 | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/-mckay-obituary-moon-mars.html

scibyte83

shared by Mars Base on 26 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • McKay, who served as chief scientist for astrobiology at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston,died peacefully in his sleep on Feb. 20
  • As a graduate student, McKay was in the audience
  • when President John F. Kennedy gave his legendary "We choose to go to the moon" speech
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • McKay joined NASA in June of 1965
  • participating extensively in astronaut training leading up to 1969's historic Apollo 11 mission
  • McKay was lead author of a 1996 paper in the journal Science that suggested ALH84001 may contain evidence of past life on Mars.
  • The claim still spurs controversy, but it also sparked a shift in perspectives that is alive and well within NASA today
  • McKay developed innovative new technology for both life detection and the use of lunar regolith as feedstock, radiation protection, fuel, nutrient source for microbial bioreactors and long-term lunar habitation.
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