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Making cancer less cancerous: Blocking a single gene renders tumors less aggressive - 0 views

  • Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites
  • "This master regulator is normally turned off in adult cells, but it is very active during embryonic development and in all highly aggressive tumors studied to date," says Linda Resar, M.D.
  • affiliate in the Institute for Cell Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
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  • work shows for the first time that switching this gene off in aggressive cancer cells dramatically changes their appearance and behavior
  • In the new
  • study, the
  • team applied the same techniques to several strains of human breast cancer cells in the laboratory, including the so-called triple negative cells
  • Triple-negative breast cancer cells tend to behave aggressively and do not respond to many of our most effective breast cancer therapies
  • the cells with suppressed HMGA1 grow very slowly and fail to migrate or invade new territory
  • next implanted tumor cells into mice
  • The tumors with HMGA1 grew and spread to other areas, such as the lungs, while those with blocked HMGA1 did not grow well in the breast tissue or spread to distant sites.
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NASA Mulling Missions for Donated Spy Telescopes | National Reconnaissance Office | Spa... - 0 views

  • 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
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  • 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
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Twinkle, twinkle little star: New app measures sky brightness - 0 views

  • Researchers from the German "Loss of the Night" project have developed an app for Android smart phones, which counts the number of visible stars in the sky
  • The data from the app will be used by scientists to understand light pollution on a world wide scale.
  • The smartphone app will evaluate sky brightness, also known as skyglow, on a worldwide scale
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  • This data can be used to map the distribution and changes in sky brightness, and will eventually allow scientists to investigate correlations with health, biodiversity, energy waste and other factors
  • The app works by interactively asking users to say whether individual stars are visible. By determining what the faintest visible star is, the researchers learn how many stars are visible at that location, and by extension how bright the sky is
  • With this app, people from around the world can collect data on skyglow without needing expensive equipment
  • some of the testers found that without intending too they learned the names of several stars and constellations
  • is based on the widely used Google Sky Map application
  • development of the app was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education,
  • satellites that observe Earth at night measure the light that is radiating into the sky, not the brightness that is experienced by people and other organisms on the ground
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Scientists study rare dinosaur skin fossil to determine skin colour for first time - 0 views

  • this is only the third three-dimensional dinosaur skin specimen ever found worldwide
  • One of the only well preserved dinosaur skin samples ever found is being tested at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron to determine skin colour and to explain why the fossilized specimen remained intact after 70-million years.
  • the hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period (100-65 million years ago), was found close to a river bed near Grande Prairie, Alberta.
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  • One question is whether the hadrosaur skin was green or grey, like most dinosaurs are portrayed, or was it a completely different colour
  • the CLS to look at unique structures called melanosomes, cellular organelles the contain pigments that control the color of an animal's skin.
  • "If we are able to observe the melanosomes and their shape, it will be the first time pigments have been identified in the skin of a dinosaur
  • There has been research that proved the colour of some dinosaur feathers, but never skin
  • Using light at the CLS mid-infrared (Mid-IR) beamline, Barbi and CLS scientists are also looking for traces of organic and inorganic elements that could help determine the hadrosaur's diet and why the skin sample was preserved almost intact
  • the sample is placed in the path of the infrared beam and light reflects off of it.
  • , chemical bonds of certain compounds will create different vibrations
  • For example, proteins, sugars and fats still found in the skin will create unique vibrational frequencies that scientists can measure
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NASA - The Day NASA's Fermi Dodged a 1.5-ton Bullet - 0 views

  • the U.S. Space Surveillance Network continued keeping tabs on Cosmos 1805 and every other artificial object larger than 4 inches across in Earth orbit. Of the 17,000 objects currently tracked, only about 7 percent are active satellites.
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Mars Colony Project Gets 78,000 Applications in 2 Weeks | Mars One | Space.com - 0 views

  • About 78,000 people have applied to become Red Planet colonists with the nonprofit organization Mars One since its application process opened on April 22, officials announced today (May 7).
  • 78,000 applications in two weeks
  • goal of half a million applicant
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  • Mars One estimates that landing four settlers on Mars in 2023 will cost about $6 billion
  • plans to pay most of the bills by staging a global reality-TV event, with cameras documenting all phases of the mission from astronaut selection to the colonists' first years on the Red Planet.
  • The application process extends until Aug. 31. Anyone at least 18 years of age can apply, by submitting to the Mars One website a 1-minute video explaining his or her motivation to become a Red Planet settler. (
  • application fee, which ranges from $5 to $75 depending on the wealth of the applicant's home country. United States citizens pay $38
  • reviewers will pick 50 to 100 candidates from each of the 300 regions around the world that Mars One has identified
  • By 2015, this pool will be whittled down to a total of 28 to 40 candidates, officials said.
  • core group will be split into groups of four, which will train for their one-way Mars mission for about seven years
  • . Finally, an audience vote will pick one of these groups to be humanity's first visitors to the Red Planet.
  • more than 120 countries
  • United States
  • 17,324
  • China (10,241) and the United Kingdom (3,581). Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and India round out the top 10.
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Gray hair and vitiligo reversed at the root - 0 views

  • In a new research report
  • people who are going gray develop massive oxidative stress via accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes our hair to bleach itself from the inside out
  • the report shows that this massive accumulation of hydrogen peroxide can be remedied with a proprietary treatment
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  • described as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified pseudocatalase).
  • the study also shows that the same treatment works for the skin condition, vitiligo
  • To achieve this breakthrough, Schallreuter and colleagues analyzed an international group of 2,411 patients with
  • vitiligo
  • They found that for the first time, patients who have
  • a certain nerval distribution involving skin and eyelashes show the same oxidative stress as observed in the much more frequent general
  • associated with decreased antioxidant capacities including catalase, thioredoxin reductase, and the repair mechanisms methionine sulfoxide reductases
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This Sound Camera Could Help You Fix Your Car | Popular Science - 0 views

  • Developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the camera creates a heatmap-like view of machinery (or anything else
  • 30 digital microphones and a high-res camera pick up on what's making noise, and an image shows the different levels of noise, organized by a color gradient
  • Blue means a little noise, while red is the most extreme level.
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  • not the first sound camera, but at about 4 pounds, it's one of the most portable
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Mars Science Laboratory: NASA Curiosity Rover Team Selects Second Drilling Target On Mars - 0 views

  • The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling. The rover will set course to the drilling location in coming days.
  • "Cumberland," lies about nine feet (2.75 meters) west of the rock where Curiosity's drill first touched Martian stone in February
  • Both rocks are flat, with pale veins and a bumpy surface. They are embedded in a layer of rock on the floor of a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay.
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  • This second drilling is intended to confirm results from the first drilling, which indicated the chemistry of the first powdered sample from John Klein was much less oxidizing than that of a soil sample the rover scooped up before it began drilling.
  • Cumberland and John Klein are very similar, Cumberland appears to have more of the erosion-resistant granules that cause the surface bumps
  • concretions, or clumps of minerals, which formed when water soaked the rock long ago
  • Mission engineers
  • recently finished upgrading Curiosity's operating software following a four-week break
  • rover continued monitoring the Martian atmosphere during the break, but the team did not send any new commands
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