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large metal rings (likely made of lithium

Last month

presented their mission analysis for a trip to Mars, along with detailed computer modeling and initial experimental results

one of a handful of projects awarded a second round of funding last fall after already receiving phase-one money in a field of 15 projects chosen from more than 700 proposals

NASA estimates a round-trip human expedition to Mars would take more than four years using current technology

team have published papers calculating the potential for 30- and 90-day expeditions to Mars using a rocket powered by fusion, which would make the trip more practical and less costly

They have demonstrated successful lab tests of all portions of the process

Now, the key will be combining each isolated test into a final experiment that produces fusion using this technology

The research team has developed a type of plasma that is encased in its own magnetic field

Nuclear fusion occurs when this plasma is compressed to high pressure with a magnetic field.

The team has successfully tested this technique in the lab.

a small grain of sand of this material has the same energy content as 1 gallon of rocket fuel.

power a rocket, the team has devised a system in which a powerful magnetic field causes large metal rings to implode around this plasma, compressing it to a fusion state

The converging rings merge to form a shell that ignites the fusion, but only for a few microseconds

enough energy is released from the fusion reactions to quickly heat and ionize the shell

This super-heated, ionized metal is ejected out of the rocket nozzle at a high velocity. This process is repeated every minute or so, propelling the spacecraft

successfully demonstrated the metal-crushing process

The team had a sample of the collapsed, fist-sized aluminum ring resulting from one of those tests on hand for people to see and touch at the recent NASA symposium

Now, the team is working to bring it all together by using the technology to compress the plasma and create nuclear fusion

With the flip of a switch, the capacitors are simultaneously triggered to deliver 1 million amps of electricity for a fraction of a second to the magnet, which quickly compresses the metal ring.

The mechanical process and equipment used are reasonably straightforward

In actual space travel, scientists would use lithium metal as the crushing rings to power the rocket. Lithium is very reactive, and for lab-testing purposes, aluminum works just as well

Nuclear fusion may draw concern because of its application in nuclear bombs, but its use in this scenario is very different

The fusion energy for powering a rocket would be reduced by a factor of 1 billion from a hydrogen bomb, too little to create a significant explosion

Also,

concept uses a strong magnetic field to contain the fusion fuel and guide it safely away from the spacecraft and any passengers within

Around the same time, separate research groups found clues that AMPK might also have a role in Alzheimer's disease

One group reported that AMPK can be activated in neurons by amyloid beta, which in turn can cause a modification of the protein tau in a process known as phosphorylation

a postdoctoral research associate

began by confirming that amyloid beta, in the small-aggregate ("oligomer") form that is toxic to synapses, does indeed strongly activate AMPK

amyloid beta oligomers stimulate certain neuronal receptors, which in turn causes an influx of calcium ions into the neurons

that this calcium influx triggers the activation of an enzyme called CAMKK2, which appears to be the main activator of AMPK in neurons

AMPK overactivation in neurons is the essential reason for amyloid beta's synapse-harming effect

neurons' dendritic spines—the rootlike, synapse-bearing input stalks that receive signals from other neurons

scientists showed that amyloid beta oligomers can't cause this dendritic spine loss unless AMPK overactivation occurs—and indeed AMPK overactivation on its own can cause the spine loss

the team used J20 mice, which are genetically engineered to overproduce mutant amyloid beta

when we blocked the activity of CAMKK2 or AMPK in these neurons, we completely prevented the spine loss

Recent studies have shown that amyloid beta's toxicity to dendritic spines depends largely on the presence of tau, but just how the two Alzheimer's proteins interact has been unclear

their colleagues are now following up with further experiments to determine what other toxic processes, such as excessive autophagy, are promoted by AMPK overactivation and might also contribute to the long-term aspects of Alzheimer's disease progression

also interested in the long-term effects of blocking AMPK overactivation in the J20 mouse model as well as in other mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, which normally develop cognitive deficits at later stages

the pharmaceuticals industry who are potentially interested in targeting either CAMKK2 or AMPK

show that brain damage in Alzheimer's disease is linked to the overactivation of an enzyme called AMPK

Researchers have known for years that people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease begin to lose synapses in certain memory-related brain areas

findings, reported in the April

Small aggregates of the protein amyloid beta can cause this

but how they do so has been a mystery

Tangles of tau with multiple phosphorylations ("hyperphosphorylated" tau) are known to accumulate in neurons in affected brain areas in Alzheimer

investigate further, to determine whether the reported interactions of AMPK with amyloid beta and tau can in fact cause the damage seen in the brains of Alzheimer's patients

In addition

findings suggest the need for further safety studies on an existing drug, metformin.

, a popular treatment for Type 2 Diabetes, causes AMPK activation.

the first spacecraft to survive a Mars landing long enough to transmit anything

Further analysis of the data and future images to better understand the three-dimensional shapes may help to confirm this interpretation

Once safely on the surface, the Mars 3 lander opened its four petal-shaped covers to release the 4.5-kg PROP-M rover contained inside… and after 20 seconds of transmission, fell silent

Due to unknown causes, the Mars 3 lander was never heard from or seen again

The set of images

shows what might be hardware from the 1971 Soviet Mars 3 lander, seen in a pair of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Russian citizen enthusiasts found four features in a five-year-old image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that resemble four pieces of hardware from the Mars 3 mission: the parachute, heat shield, terminal retrorocket and lander. A follow-up image by the orbiter from last month shows the same features

the largest Russian Internet community about Curiosity.

subscribers did the preliminary search for Mars 3 via crowdsourcing

modeled what Mars 3 hardware pieces should look like in a HiRISE image, and the group carefully searched the many small features in this large image, finding what appear to be viable candidates

Each candidate has a size and shape consistent with the expected hardware, and they are arranged on the surface as expected from the entry, descent and landing sequence

The predicted Mars 3 landing site was at latitude 45 degrees south, longitude 202 degrees east, in Ptolemaeus Crater

HiRISE acquired a large image at this location in November 2007, and promising candidates for the hardware from Mars 3 were found on Dec. 31, 2012

The candidate parachute is the most distinctive feature

an especially bright spot for this region, about 8.2 yards (7.5 meters) in diameter

The parachute would have a diameter of 12 yards (11 meters) if fully spread out over the surface

this set of features and their layout on the ground provide a remarkable match to what is expected from the Mars 3 landing, but alternative explanations for the features cannot be ruled out

The comet was discovered in the beginning of 2013 by comet-hunter Robert McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia

future observations of the comet are expected to refine the orbit further

The latest estimated time for close approach to Mars is about 11:51 a.m. PDT (18:51 UTC) on Oct. 19, 2014

When the discovery was initially made, astronomers

looked back over their observations to find “prerecovery” images of the comet dating back to Dec. 8, 2012.

These observations placed the orbital trajectory of comet C/2013 A1 right through Mars orbit on Oct. 19, 2014

Eyetalk

is designed to be portable, affordable, and operate without requiring an Internet connection

Future versions of Eyetalk will target a global market and enable users to hear information aloud in one of many languages.

early prototype, known as the FreedomLens, was one of 16 semi-finalists chosen from 29 nations to present at the 2013 Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC), February 25-30 at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business in Seattle

The project began with a challenge issued by

faculty member Seema Pissaris, a successful entrepreneur who founded Games Trader

Last fall, Pissaris urged students in several of her classes to think about developing a social entrepreneurship project

The experiment that made the newly reported detections is designed to pick up the signal of a WIMP as Earth passes through the galaxy

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search consists of a network of silicon and germanium crystals cooled to near absolute zero

in the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Minnesota, a former iron mine more than 700 meters beneath the surface

If WIMPs exist, one should very occasionally slam into the nucleus of a silicon or germanium atom, causing a release of energy and a detectable vibration in the crystal

The hundreds of meters of earth above the experiment prevent other particles, such as protons and neutrons, from reaching the crystals and triggering a false positive

between July 2007 and September 2008, two of the experiment’s 11 silicon crystal detectors picked up three signals consistent with those expected from WIMP interactions

If the signals were caused by WIMPs

estimates the dark matter particle would weigh in at about 10 times the mass of the proton, well below many theoretical estimates

While the crystals’ underground setup provides plenty of shielding, some non-WIMP particles, such as electrons on the crystals’ surface, can cloud the results

it’s extremely unlikely that three events would show up from non-WIMP sources.

the energy released by the potential WIMPs is at the very lower limit of the detectors’ sensitivity

making erroneous WIMP detections more likely

concerns that the two crystals that picked up the signal could be more susceptible to false positives than the rest

In 2009, CDMS published a paper reporting that its germanium detectors had snagged two potential WIMPs, but further analysis revealed them to be surface electrons

more convinced if the detectors had picked up 10 or 12 signs of WIMPs, rather than just three

definitive detection would require multiple experiments worldwide to converge on the same characteristics for a dark matter particl

One in Italy called DAMA, short for Dark Matter, has made bold claims of dark matter detection that have drawn skepticism from many scientists

Other experiments have claimed to find signals at masses similar to this latest CDMS calculation but have not definitively said they have observed WIMPs

each experiment uses a different detection technique and has its own protocol for distinguishing WIMPs from background noise, making it hard to compare results

As for CDMS, the silicon detectors that found these signals are no longer collecting data

Researchers recently upgraded the Soudan facility with supersensitive germanium detectors

Over the next few years, the germanium detectors will move to a new, deeper underground home in Sudbury, Ontario, about 2 kilometers below the surface

But the fluctuations detected by the experiment are in a similar energy range, which is less likely to be a random accident

the signal is 99.81 percent more likely to be WIMP than simply background fluctuations, Cabrera said.

mass is consistent with earlier CDMS results as well as another dark-matter-hunting experiment called CoGeNT at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

contradicts preliminary results seen at the international XENON Dark Matter Project, a major experiment located in Italy