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Mars Base

Doctors hope for cure in a second baby born with HIV (Update) - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...-03-doctors-baby-born-hiv.html

scibyte123 HIVTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 08 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • A second American baby born with the AIDS virus may have had her infection put into remission and possibly cured by very early treatment—in this instance, four hours after birth.
  • The girl was born
  • a month after researchers announced the first case from Mississippi
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • that led doctors worldwide to rethink how fast and hard to treat infants born with HIV
  • In another AIDS-related development, scientists have modified genes in the blood cells of a dozen adults to help them resist HIV.
  • The Mississippi baby is now 3 1/2 and seems HIV-free despite no treatment for about two years
  • baby is still getting AIDS medicines, so the status of her infection is not as clear.
  • A host of sophisticated tests at multiple times suggest the LA baby has completely cleared the virus
  • The baby's signs are different from what doctors see in patients whose infections are merely suppressed by successful treatment,
  • don't know if the baby is in remission ... but it looks like
  • Doctors are cautious about suggesting she has been cured
  • Most HIV-infected moms in the U.S. get AIDS medicines during pregnancy, which greatly cuts the chances they will pass the virus to their babies
  • The LA baby was born
  • mother
  • was not taking her HIV medicines
  • Four weeks later, half of the patients were temporarily taken off AIDS medicines to see the gene therapy's effect
  • started the baby on them a few hours after birth. Tests later confirmed she had been infected, but does not appear to be now, nearly a year later
  • study in adults was prompted by an AIDS patient who appears cured after getting a cell transplant seven years ago
  • from a donor with natural immunity to the virus
  • Only about 1 percent of people have two copies of the gene that gives this protection
  • HIV usually infects blood cells through a protein on their surface called CCR5. A California company, Sangamo BioSciences Inc., makes a treatment that can knock out a gene that makes CCR5.
  • tested it in 12 HIV patients who had their blood filtered to remove some of their cells. The treated cells were infused back into the patients
  • The mom was given AIDS drugs during labor to try to prevent transmission of the virus
  • The Mississippi girl was treated until she was 18 months old, when doctors lost contact with her
  • Ten months later when she returned, they could find no sign of infection even though the mom had stopped giving her AIDS medicines.
  • a federally funded study just getting underway to see if very early treatment can cure HIV infection
  • About 60 babies in the U.S. and other countries will get very aggressive treatment that will be discontinued if tests over a long time, possibly two years, suggest no active infection.
  • The virus returned in all but one of them; that patient turned out to have one copy of the protective gene
  • knew that the virus was going to come back in most of the patients
  • the hope is that the modified cells eventually will outnumber the rest and give the patient a way to control viral levels without medicines
Mars Base

AIDS vaccine candidate appears to completely clear virus from the body - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...cine-candidate-virus-body.html

scibyte102 AIDS

shared by Mars Base on 13 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • An HIV/AIDS vaccine candidate developed by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University appears to have the ability to completely clear an AIDS-causing virus from the body
  • The promising vaccine
  • It is being tested through the use of a non-human primate form of HIV
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, which causes AIDS in monkeys
  • it is hoped an HIV-form of the vaccine candidate can soon be tested in humans
  • approach involves the use of cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a common virus already carried by a large percentage of the population
  • the researchers discovered that pairing CMV with SIV had a unique effect
  • a modified version of CMV engineered to express SIV proteins generates and indefinitely maintains so-called "effector memory" T-cells that are capable of searching out and destroying SIV-infected cells
  • About 50 percent of monkeys given highly pathogenic SIV after being vaccinated with this vaccine became infected with SIV but over time eliminated all trace of SIV from the body
  • vaccine mobilized a T-cell response that was able to overtake the SIV invaders in 50 percent of the cases treated
  • testing suggests SIV was banished from the host
  • lab is now investigating the possible reasons why only a subset of the animals treated had a positive response in hopes that the effectiveness of the vaccine candidate can be further boosted
Mars Base

Regaining proper hearing at last - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2013-04-regaining-proper.html

scibyte89 Hearing

shared by Mars Base on 08 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • In the case of patients with severe hearing impairments, however, conventional behind-the-ear hearing aids reach the limits of their usefulness
  • These patients' hearing can only be helped by an implant, which amplifies sounds more effectively than conventional systems and boasts better sound quality
  • these middle ear implants require complex operations that last several hours. The high risk and expense of the surgery mean that it is rarely performed
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • The new solution is composed of three parts: a case with a microphone and battery; wireless, optical signal and energy transmission between the outer and middle ear; and an electro-acoustic transducer – the centerpiece and loudspeaker of the implant.
  • Researchers
  • are developing the electro-acoustic transducer, which will be round in shape and measure approximately 1.2 millimeters
  • To implant our system, all surgeons have to do is make a small incision at the side of the eardrum and then fold it forward. This can be done in outpatient surgery."
  • takes the form of a piezoelectric micro-actuator, is then placed directly at the connection between the middle and inner ear known as the "round window"
  • there it transmits acoustic signals to the inner ear in the form of amplified mechanical vibrations, thereby enhancing the hearing capacity of patients
  • it can output volumes of up to 120 decibels, which is roughly the noise a jackhammer makes.
  • This high performance is necessary for very good speech comprehension, particularly for high-pitched sounds, which people who are severely hard of hearing find especially difficult to pick up
  • currently testing a first working prototype in the laboratory. Results have been positive to date
  • The individual components of the hearing aid have all been developed. The next step is to optimize and assemble them
  • The implant must measure up to high requirements: the material must be encased so the body tolerates it and it has to remain stable over long periods
  • hearing aid implants should last at least ten years
  • optimized individual components should be ready by June of this year; testing of the overall system is planned for 2014
Mars Base

Numbers Games Devised to Aid People with "Dyscalculia": Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte78 Dyscalculia

shared by Mars Base on 19 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • By developing treatments for dyscalculia
  • to test competing theories about the cognitive basis of numeracy. If,
  • dyscalculia is at heart a deficiency of basic number sense and not of memory, attention or language, as others have proposed, then nurturing the roots of number sense should help dyscalculics
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • It may be the case that what these kids need is just much more practice than the rest of us
  • starts with a game involving a number line
  • “What is the number that is right in the middle between 200 and 800? Do you know it?
  • A classic sign of dyscalculia is difficulty in grasping the place-value system,
  • A soft computer voice tells Christopher to “find the number and click it
  • The game involves zooming in and zooming out to rescale the number line
  • talks through each move — a strategy that Babtie encourages
  • but it takes him more than a minute to locate 210. His classmates, meanwhile, are learning to multiply two-digit numbers.
  • Butterworth
  • made his name probing obscure speech and language disorders
  • tested 31 eight- and nine-year-old children who were near the bottom of their class in mathematics but did well enough in other subjects.
  • Compared with normal children and those with dyslexia, the dyscalculic children struggled on almost every numerical task, yet were average on tests of reading comprehension, memory and IQ.
Mars Base

Numbers Games Devised to Aid People with "Dyscalculia": Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte78 Dyscalculia

shared by Mars Base on 19 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • team now has tentative plans to evaluate its software with researchers at the Cuban Neurosciences Center and the University of Pedagogical Sciences in Havana next year
  • also placing the game in other countries, including China and Singapore.
  • Cubans, curiously, are putting money into this, even though they've got very little
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • hopes that Number Sense — if it can improve dyscalculia — will help him in the academic debate over the cognitive basis of numeracy.
  • the interest of the children was to have a fun game full of ideas and variety, and that was not very compatible with an analytic approach
Mars Base

Numbers Games Devised to Aid People with "Dyscalculia": Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte78 Dyscalculia

shared by Mars Base on 19 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Three months on, Christopher seems to be faring better at the number-line game, going so quickly that Babtie asks him to slow down and explain his reasoning for each move
  • dyscalculic children tend to learn much more quickly when they talk through what they do
  • also believes that Christopher's maths anxiety, a near-universal trait of child and adult dyscalculics, is fading
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • Tetris-like game called Numberbonds, in which bars of different lengths fall down the screen
  • select a block of the correct size to fill out a row
  • emphasizes spatial relationships, which some dyscalculics also struggle with.
  • The Number Sense games, including a snazzy-looking iPhone version of Numberbonds, are intended to nurture the abilities that
  • contends, are the root of numerical cognition and the core deficit of dyscalculia — manipulating precise quantities.
  • In a game called Dots to Track, for example, children must ascribe an Arabic numeral to a pattern of dots, similar to those on dice.
  • When they enter the wrong value — and they often do — the game asks the children to add or remove dots to achieve the correct answer.
  • Other students are improving more slowly, but it is not easy to say why
  • Dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder are common among dyscalculics, and it can be difficult to untangle these problems,
  • with the right practice and attention from teachers and parents, dyscalculic children can thrive,
  • computer games are a supplement, not a replacement, for one-on-one tutoring.
  • in 2009 that Number Race, a game his group developed, modestly improved the ability of 15 dyscalculic kindergarten children to discern the larger of two numbers, but that it had no effect on their arithmetic or counting
  • a Swiss team reported in 2011 that a game that involves placing a spaceship on a number line helped eight- to ten-year-old dyscalculics with arithmetic
  • studied the children in an fMRI scanner during a task that involved arranging numbers.
  • one month after training, the children showed increased activation in the intraparietal sulcus and reduced neural activation elsewhere in the parietal lobes — a hint that their improvements in arithmetic were related to changes involving brain areas that respond to number.
  • hopes to monitor the brains of students such as Christopher as they practice Number Sense, to see if their parietal lobes are indeed changing
  • turned down by every funding source he has applied to
  • dyscalculia, like other learning disabilities, takes a toll on productivity
  • it doesn't attract much attention or money
  • In the United States, for example, the National Institutes of Health spent $2 million studying dyscalculia between 2000 and 2011, compared with more than $107 million on dyslexia.
Mars Base

Numbers Games Devised to Aid People with "Dyscalculia": Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte78 Dyscalculia

shared by Mars Base on 19 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • The study confirmed for Butterworth that developmental forms of dyscalculia are the result of basic problems in comprehending numbers and not in other cognitive faculties
  • determining exactly what those problems are would prove challenging
  • approximate number sense, distinguishes larger quantities from smaller ones, be they dots flashing on a screen or fruits in a tree.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • A second ancient number system allows humans and many other animals to instantly and precisely recognize small quantities, up to four.
  • People who are poor at distinguishing approximate quantities do badly in maths, suggesting that the approximate-number system is crucial.
  • some work shows that dyscalculics are poor at recognizing small numbers, suggesting that this ability is also fundamental to numeracy
  • scans of people with dyscalculia suggest that their intraparietal sulci are less active when processing numbers and less connected with the rest of the brain compared with numerate children and adults.
  • views such results as consequences, not causes, of the poor numerical abilities that characterize dyscalculia.
  • argues that another cognitive capacity is even more fundamental to number sense
  • calls this 'numerosity coding': the understanding that things have a precise quantity associated with them, and that adding or taking things away alters that quantity.
  • Approximation and a sense of small numbers, while critical, are not enough for humans to precisely grasp large numbers,
  • Language, he argues, empowers humans to integrate the two number systems — giving them the ability to intuitively distinguish, say, 11,437 from 11,436.
  • young children who could not yet count past two nonetheless understood that adding pennies to a bowl containing six somehow altered its number, even if the children couldn't say exactly how.
  • If numerosity coding is fundamental, it predicts that dyscalculics
  • struggle to enumerate and manipulate all numbers, large and small.
  • hopes that, by honing this ability, the Number Sense games will help support his research ideas
Mars Base

Numbers Games Devised to Aid People with "Dyscalculia": Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte78 Dyscalculia

shared by Mars Base on 15 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • A cognitive scientist who studies numerical cognition and a learning disability likened to dyslexia for mathematics works on identifying its cause as well as ways to help those who suffer from it
  • After conducting some tests,
  • concluded that
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • “a disaster at arithmetic” and diagnosed him with dyscalculia, a little-known learning disability sometimes called number blindness and likened to dyslexia for maths
  • Researchers estimate that as much as 7% of the population has dyscalculia, which is marked by severe difficulties in dealing with numbers despite otherwise normal
  • well above normal) intelligence
  • he has crusaded to get dyscalculia recognized — by parents, teachers, politicians and anyone who will listen.
  • Number Sense, a suite of educational computer games
Mars Base

Potent antibodies neutralize HIV and could offer new therapy, study finds - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...es-neutralize-hiv-therapy.html

scibyte72 HIV

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Michel Nussenzweig's Laboratory of Molecular Immunology found that a combination of five different antibodies
  • effectively suppressed HIV-1 replication and kept the virus at bay for a 60 day period after termination of therapy
  • longer half-life
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • current antiretroviral drugs require daily intake.
  • These especially potent antibodies were only recently discovered
  • identified and cloned from HIV-infected patients whose immune systems showed an unusually high ability to neutralize HIV
  • Antibodies had been written off as a treatment for HIV/AIDS because previous studies showed only a limited effect on controlling the virus
  • before these more potent antibodies were discovered
  • HIV-1 is notorious for evading the immune system's attacks by constantly mutating
  • antibodies target HIV-1's surface protein gp160, a large molecule that forms a spike that seeks out host cells and attaches to them
  • One antibody alone wasn't enough to quell the virus; neither was a mix of three
  • five of them in unison proved too complicated for gp160 to mutate its way out of.
  • Although HIV-1 infection in humanized mice differs in many important aspects from infection in humans, the results are encouraging to investigate these antibodies in clinical trials
  • It also may be that a combination of antibodies and the already established antiretroviral therapy is more efficacious than either alone
  • could be used as a treatment one day, it is conceivable that patients would only need to take traditional drugs until the virus is controlled
  • then receive antibodies every two to three months to maintain that control
Mars Base

Nanoparticles loaded with bee venom kill HIV - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...noparticles-bee-venom-hiv.html

scibyte86 HIVTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed
  • The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS
  • hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Bee venom contains a potent toxin called melittin that can poke holes in the protective envelope that surrounds HIV, and other viruses
  • in addition to anti-viral therapy, the paper's senior author
  • has shown melittin-loaded nanoparticles to be effective in killing tumor cells.
  • The new study shows that melittin loaded onto these nanoparticles does not harm normal cells
  • because
  • added protective bumpers to the nanoparticle surface
  • When the nanoparticles come into contact with normal cells, which are much larger in size, the particles simply bounce off
  • HIV, on the other hand, is even smaller than the nanoparticle, so HIV fits between the bumpers and makes contact with the surface of the nanoparticle, where the bee toxin awaits
  • , an advantage of this approach is that the nanoparticle attacks an essential part of the virus' structure. In contrast, most anti-HIV drugs inhibit the virus's ability to replicate.
  • this anti-replication strategy does nothing to stop initial infection, and some strains of the virus have found ways around these drugs and reproduce anyway.
  • attacking an inherent physical property of HIV
  • Theoretically, there isn't any way for the virus to adapt to that
  • potential for using nanoparticles with melittin as therapy for existing HIV infections, especially those that are drug-resistant
  • Since melittin attacks double-layered membranes indiscriminately, this concept is not limited to HIV.
  • Many viruses, including hepatitis B and C, rely on the same kind of protective envelope and would be vulnerable to melittin-loaded nanoparticles
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Data From NASA Rover's Voyage To Mars Aids Planning - 0 views

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

scibyte96 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 03 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft
  • The findings,
  • indicate radiation exposure for human explorers could exceed NASA's career limit for astronauts if current propulsion systems are used.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Two forms of radiation pose potential health risks to astronauts in deep space. One is galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), particles caused by supernova explosions and other high-energy events outside the solar system. The other is solar energetic particles (SEPs) associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun
  • NASA has established a three percent increased risk of fatal cancer as an acceptable career limit for its astronauts currently operating in low-Earth orbit
  • The RAD data showed
  • Only about three percent of the radiation dose was associated with solar particles because of a relatively quiet solar cycle and the shielding provided by the spacecraft
  • In terms of accumulated dose, it's like getting a whole-body CT scan once every five or six days
  • Current spacecraft shield much more effectively against SEPs than GCRs. To protect against the comparatively low energy of typical SEPs, astronauts might need to move into havens with extra shielding on a spacecraft or on the Martian surface, or employ other countermeasures
  • GCRs tend to be highly energetic, highly penetrating particles that are not stopped by the modest shielding provided by a typical spacecraft.
  • RAD data collected during Curiosity's science mission will continue to inform plans to protect astronauts as NASA designs future missions to Mars in the coming decades.
Mars Base

NASA Mulling Missions for Donated Spy Telescopes | National Reconnaissance Office | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/llite-telescopes-missions.html

scibyte93

shared by Mars Base on 04 May 13 - No Cached
  • NASA is sorting through a variety of possible uses for a pair of powerful spy satellite telescopes
  • SA asked scientists to suggest missions for the telescopes, which were donated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and are comparable in size and appearance to the famous Hubble Space Telescope.
  • More than 60 serious proposals came
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • in, the most promising of which were presented in early February
  • The two scopes were originally built to carry out surveillance missions under a multibillion-dollar NRO program called Future Imagery Architecture
  • cost overruns and delays killed the program in 2005, and NASA announced in June 2012 that the NRO had bequeathed the instruments to the space agency
  • the telescopes' 8-foot-wide (2.4 meters) main mirrors are comparable to that of Hubble, the NRO instruments are designed to have a much wider field of view
  • Seven big ideas
  • Mars-orbiting space telescope
  • Exoplanet observatory
  • General-purpose faint object explorer
  • Advanced, Hubble-like visible light/ultraviolet telescope
  • Optical communications node in space (which would aid transmissions to and from deep-space assets)
  • Geospace dynamic observatory (which would study space weather and the sun-Earth system)
  • Research of Earth's upper atmosphere (from a spot aboard the International Space Station)
  • Whatever missions NASA ultimately assigns to the NRO scopes, the instruments are a long way from launch
  • they're far from being fully outfitted spacecraft.
  • no instruments on these two telescopes — just primary and secondary mirrors and the support structures
  • It's going to take a while to develop the instruments and integrate them into the structure
  • there's no guarantee that it will be
  • the funding to bring the scopes up to speed, launch them into space and maintain their operations has not been granted. And
Mars Base

Printable 'bionic' ear melds electronics and biology - 0 views

phys.org/...nic-ear-melds-electronics.html

scibyte92 scibyte93 BionicEar

shared by Mars Base on 02 May 13 - No Cached
  • Scientists at Princeton University used off-the-shelf printing tools to create a functional ear that can "hear" radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability
  • primary purpose was to explore an efficient and versatile means to merge electronics with tissue
  • used 3D printing of cells and nanoparticles followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating what they term a bionic ear.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Previously, researchers have suggested some strategies
  • That typically happens between a 2D sheet of electronics and a surface of the tissue
  • our work suggests a new approach—to build and grow the biology up with the electronics synergistically and in a 3D interwoven format
  • Last year, a research effort
  • resulted in the development of a "tattoo" made up of a biological sensor and antenna that can be affixed to the surface of a tooth
  • This project, however, is the team's first effort to create a fully functional organ: one that not only replicates a human ability, but extends it using embedded electronics
  • Creating organs using 3D printers is a recent advance; several groups have reported using the technology for this purpose in the past few months
  • this is the first time that researchers have demonstrated that 3D printing is a convenient strategy to interweave tissue with electronics
  • Ear reconstruction "remains one of the most difficult problems in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery
  • the team turned to a manufacturing approach called 3D printing
  • The finished ear consists of a coiled antenna inside a cartilage structure
  • Two wires lead from the base of the ear and wind around a helical "cochlea" – the part of the ear that senses sound – which can connect to electrodes
  • further work and extensive testing would need to be done before the technology could be used on a patient
  • the ear in principle could be used to restore or enhance human hearing.
  • electrical signals produced by the ear could be connected to a patient's nerve endings, similar to a hearing aid
  • The current system receives radio waves, but he said the research team plans to incorporate other materials, such as pressure-sensitive electronic sensors, to enable the ear to register acoustic sounds
  • researchers used an ordinary 3D printer to combine a matrix of hydrogel and calf cells with silver nanoparticles that form an antenna. The calf cells later develop into cartilage
Mars Base

Researchers find clues to how the brain decides when to rest - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2013-01-clues-brain-rest.html

scibyte80 Learning

shared by Mars Base on 22 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • A team of researchers
  • has found what they call a "signal" that tells a person when to rest while engaging in work, and then when to resume once rested
  • used fMRI scans on a group of volunteers to study a part of the brain normally associated with pain perception and found what amounts to a signal calling for the conscious mind to take a break
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Scientists studying how people make decisions regarding work have over time devised theories of cost versus benefit scenarios to describe what causes people to engage in work activities, or to not
  • Not so well studied is how people come to decide when it's time to take a break
  • researchers enlisted the aid of 39 participants who were asked to squeeze a spring-loaded handgrip over and over as they underwent fMRI scans
  • Each was promised a monetary reward for doing so based on a sliding scale. The longer they squeezed, the better the reward would be
  • In analyzing the fMRI images, the researchers discovered that activity in a part of the brain called the posterior insula (normally associated with pain perception), built over time as the volunteers continued squeezing – a signal of sorts
  • grew during effort, and then faded during rest times – peaking just before resting
  • researchers suggest that when a certain peak is reached, the rest of the brain is alerted to the need to take a break
  • The team also found that increasing the difficulty of the squeezing led to the signal increasing at a faster rate, but slowed when a bigger reward was offered despite the increased workload
  • They also found that bumping up the reward during a rest period caused the lowest signal point to come more quickly, indicating that rest time was up sooner than it would have been otherwise
  • suggest that their observations indicate that they brain is constantly engaged in a struggle to maximize reward, while simultaneously minimizing the amount of work needed to get that reward, and uses rests stops to help it get there in a manner best suited to the work at hand.
Mars Base

2012 Venus Transit - The Countdown Is On! - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...us-transit-the-countdown-is-on

scibyte45 venus transit scibyte49 scibyte48

shared by Mars Base on 04 May 12 - No Cached
  • On June 5 (June 6 in Australia and Asia), it will pass between the Earth and Sun… an event which only happens about twice and century and won’t happen again until the year 2117!
  • now is the time to begin your preparations to view the transit of Venus.
  • Because the transit of Venus is such a rare event, many retailers are carrying special eclipse/transit viewing glasses
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • appear much like the cardboard 3D glasses you get at the movie theatre, but instead of red and blue lenses, they will have either black mylar or Baader filter film.
  • inspect the edges carefully to make sure they are sealed and no sunlight can enter
  • do not use them in conjunction with binoculars or a telescope
  • meant strictly for use with your eyes
  • Concentrating sunlight with an optical aid and hoping the glasses will be enough to block the Sun’s harmful rays is taking a chance at blinding yourself
  • . If you plan on filming
  • now is the time to practice
  • Make sure well in advance of exactly what time the transit starts in your area
  • times are given on an astronomical standard – Universal Time. If you are unsure of how to convert, try the Time Zone Converter to assist you.
Mars Base

Exeter biologist rediscovers 'forgotten' 19th century illustrations - 0 views

phys.org/...ediscovers-forgotten-19th.html

scibyte45f CollectionDigitized

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 12 - No Cached
  • unique collection of nineteenth century visual teaching aids belonging to the University of Exeter has been rediscovered after more than six decades
  • created by local naturalist Charles Thomas Hudson FRS to illustrate his lectures
  • They are framed paintings of microscopic animals and plants, all masked with thick brown paper
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • When backlit in a darkened room the transparencies are transformed
  • illuminating the various organisms
  • have been kept in a dark room in the University’s Hatherly Laboratories since the 1960s.
  • storage conditions have proved ideal and the collection is still in excellent condition.
  • University of Exeter zoologist Dr. Robin Wootton, whose cataloguing project has brought the slides out of obscurity
  • painstakingly photographed each individual painting, using Photoshop Elements to optimise lighting and visibility.
  • the history of the transparencies
  • the University had acquired them from a Mrs F.R. Rowley on the death of her husband
  • in the late 1930s
  • it is possible that he may have known Hudson personally
Mars Base

Listen to solar storm activity in new sonification video - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-storm-sonification-video.html

scibyte38 solar flare

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • What does a solar storm sound like
  • Take a listen
  • sonification of the recent solar storm activity turns data from two spacecraft into sound
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • measurements from the NASA SOHO spacecraft and the University of Michigan's Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) on NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury
  • creator is Robert Alexander, a design science doctoral student at the University of Michigan and NASA fellow.
  • a composer with a NASA fellowship to study how representing information as sound could aid in data mining.
  • raw information to an audio waveform
  • To sonify the data
  • in its original sampling rate of 44,100 hertz, it played back in less than a quarter of a second
  • benefits of sonifying data. You can zip through days' worth of information in an instant
  • Sonification is the process of translating information into sound
  • used in Geiger counter radiation detectors, which emit clicks in the presence of high-energy particles
  • not typically used to pick out patterns in information, but scientists on the U-M Solar and Heliospheric Research Group are exploring its potential in that realm. They're looking to Alexander to make it possible.
  • used to looking at wiggly-line plots and graphs, but humans are very good at hearing things. We wonder if there's a way to find things in the data that are difficult to see."
  • his approach led to a new discovery
  • a particular ratio of carbon atoms that scientists had not previously keyed in to can reveal more about the source of the solar wind than the ratios of elements they currently rely on. The solar wind is a squall of hot plasma, or charged particles, continuously emanating from the sun.
  • hopes to build a bridge between science and art.
  • movies were silent and people just accepted that that's the way it
  • this high res footage of what's happening on the surface of the sun, and it's silent. I'm creating a soundtrack
Mars Base

Jupiter Moon's Buried Lakes Evoke Antarctica | Jupiter Moon Europa | Subsurface Lakes Potentially Habitable | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/arth-antarctica-analogues.html

scibyte22 Europa

shared by Mars Base on 17 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Patches of broken ice unique to the moon have puzzled scientists for over a decade
  • Some have argued they are signs of a subterranean ocean breaking through, while others believe that the crust is too thick for the water to pierce
  • studies of ice formations in Antarctica and Iceland have provided clues to the creation of these puzzling features
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  • irregular areas contain domes and iceberglike blocks that no theoretical models have been able to replicate
  • "It looks like crushed ice,
  • In Iceland, volcanoes lay beneath the ice. Their heat melts the base of glaciers and ice sheets, causing the surface to buckle in on itself and allowing stress fractures to form
  • there's no evidence for volcanoes on Europa, and the makeup of the ice is likely different from Earth'
  • , a combination of these elements could very well be at work on Jupiter's moon
  • "On Earth, it is the volcano [melting the ice]," Schmidt said. "On Europa, it is the warm ice plume coming up from below."
  • estimated that it contained as much water as all of the North America's Great Lakes combined, about 1.5 miles (3 kilometers) beneath the surface.
  • One such lake
  • several liquid lakes are likely to exist near the surface today
  • The material cycled into the ocean via these lakes may make Europa's ocean even more habitable than previously imagined
  • The lakes may even be habitats themselves
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