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Antarctic's Mountains Revealed By Sharpest Map Yet - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...unken-mountains-antarctica-ice scibyte97 scibyte98
shared by Mars Base on 08 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • the British Antarctic Survey, Bedmap2 drew upon millions of new measurements of the frozen continent's surface elevation, ice thickness, and bedrock topography from a wide variety of sources collected over several decades
  • the original Bedmap relied mostly on ground-based measurements, which limited the scientists in terms of how much land they could cover
  • a NASA program called Operation IceBridge sends out airplanes that fly over the entire continent. The airplanes are equipped with lasers that measure the surface mountains' heights and other features, as well as ice-penetrating radar that maps subglacial bedrock—"giving [scientists] a more 3-D picture of the ice sheet itself
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • the new data has revealed several smaller features—both on Antarctica's surface and buried under the ice—that were missed in the previous Bedmap effort
  • scientists want to know the shapes of mountains and rocks to model how fast ice will move across these features on its way to the ocean, where the ice can melt and contribute to sea level rise
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Mars Science Laboratory: NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Nears Turning Point - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm scibyte97 Curiosity
shared by Mars Base on 08 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Curiosity
  • will soon shift to a distance-driving mode headed for an area about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away, at the base of Mount Sharp
  • No additional rock drilling or soil scooping is planned in the "Glenelg" area
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • To reach Glenelg, the rover drove east about a third of a mile (500 meters) from the landing site
  • To reach the next destination, Mount Sharp, Curiosity will drive toward the southwest for many months.
  • just because our end goal is Mount Sharp doesn't mean
  • not going to investigate interesting features along the way
  • the mission has also already accomplished its main science objective. Analysis of rock powder from the first drilled rock target, "John Klein," provided evidence that an ancient environment in Gale Crater had favorable conditions for microbial life
  • The rover team chose a similar rock, "Cumberland," as the second drilling target to provide a check for the findings at John Klein
  • Scientists are analyzing laboratory-instrument results from portions of the Cumberland sample
  • One new capability being used is to drive away while still holding rock powder in Curiosity's sample-handling device to supply additional material to instruments later if desired by the science team
  • For the drill
  • at Cumberland, steps that each took a day or more at John Klein could be combined into a single day's sequence of commands
  • used the experience and lessons from our first drilling campaign, as well as new cached sample capabilities, to do the second drill
  • far more efficiently
  • In addition,
  • increased use of the rover's autonomous self-protection. This allowed more activities to be strung together before the ground team had to check in on the rover
  • The science team has chosen three targets for brief observations before Curiosity leaves the Glenelg area: the boundary between bedrock areas of mudstone and sandstone, a layered outcrop called "Shaler" and a pitted outcrop called "Point Lake."
  • Shaler might be a river deposit. Point Lake might be volcanic or sedimentary. A closer look at them could give us better understanding of how the rocks we sampled with the drill fit into the history of how the environment changed
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Nontoxic cancer therapy proves effective against metastatic cancer - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...rapy-effective-metastatic.html scibyte98 Cancer
shared by Mars Base on 11 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A combination of nontoxic dietary and hyperbaric oxygen therapies effectively increased survival time in a mouse model of aggressive metastatic cancer
  • a research team from the Hyperbaric Biomedical Research Laboratory at the University of South Florida has found.
  • the research shows the effects of combining two nontoxic adjuvant cancer therapies, the ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, in a mouse model of late-stage, metastatic cancer
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  • demonstrates the potential of these cost-effective, nontoxic therapies to contribute to current cancer treatment regimens
  • Metastasis, the spreading of cancer from the primary tumor to distant spots, is responsible for over 90 percent of cancer-related deaths in humans
  • In the study, mice with advanced metastatic cancer were fed either a standard high carbohydrate diet or carbohydrate-restricted ketogenic diet
  • Mice on both diets also received hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which uses a special chamber to increase the amount of oxygen in the tissues
  • The ketogenic diet forces a physiological shift in substrate utilization from glucose to fatty acids and ketone bodies for energy
  • Normal healthy cells readily adapt to using ketone bodies for fuel, but cancer cells lack this metabolic flexibility, and thus become selectively vulnerable to reduced glucose availability
  • Solid tumors also have areas of low oxygen, which promotes tumor growth and metastatic spread
  • Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing 100 percent oxygen at elevated barometric pressure, saturating the tumors with oxygen
  • When administered properly, both the ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen therapy are non-toxic and may even protect healthy tissues while simultaneously damaging cancer cells
  • both therapies slowed disease progression independently, animals receiving the combined ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen therapy lived 78 percent longer than mice fed a standard high-carbohydrate diet
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Asteroid Miners' Crowdfunded Space Telescope May Hunt Exoplanets | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/pace-telescope-exoplanets.html scibyte98 CrowdSourcing Arkyd
shared by Mars Base on 12 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • the company announced today (June 11) that it would upgrade the Arkyd to hunt for alien planets if the campaign nets $2 million by the deadline
  • Giving the Arkyd this ability would require improving its stability systems and devoting time to study candidate stars
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'Space Selfie' Telescope Could Hunt Alien Planets … If It Raises A Cool $2M - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...planets-if-it-raises-a-cool-2m scibyte98 CrowdSourcing Arkyd
shared by Mars Base on 12 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A crowdfunded telescope
  • is now considering a search for alien planets.
  • Planetary Resources Inc. (the proposed asteroid miners) announced a new “stretch goal” for its asteroid-hunting Arkyd-100 telescope.
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  • If the company can raise $2 million — double its original goal — it promises to equip the Arkyd telescope to look at star systems for exoplanets
  • partnering with exoplanet researchers at MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Arkyd would use two methods to hunt down planets
  • Transiting, or seeing the dip in a star’s brightness when a planet passes in front of it;
  • Gravitational microlensing, or finding planets by measuring how the gravity of the star (and its planets) distorts light from stars and galaxies behind
  • If it can raise $1.3 million, Planetary Resources proposes to build a ground station at an undisclosed “educational partner” that would double the download speed of data from the orbiting observatory
  • Two more stretch goals will be revealed if Arkyd receives 11,000 backers and 15,000 backers
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Distantly Orbiting Alien World May Challenge Planet-Formation Theories | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/tantly-orbiting-exoplanet.html scibyte98 exoplanet
shared by Mars Base on 14 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • red dwarf star TW Hydrae, which lies about 176 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra
  • if there is a planet and there is no dust larger than a grain of sand farther out, that would be a huge challenge to traditional planet formation models
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Should This Alien World Even Exist? This Young Disk Could Challenge Planet-Formation Th... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...enge-planet-formation-theories scibyte98 exoplanet
shared by Mars Base on 14 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • gap in the cloud? That could be a planet being born some 176 light-years away from Earth
  • small planet, only 6 to 28 times Earth’s mass.
  • This alien world, if we can confirm it, shouldn’t be there according to conventional planet-forming theory
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  • The gap in the image above — taken by the Hubble Space Telescope — probably arose when a planet under construction swept through the dust and debris in its orbit
  • That’s not much of a surprise (at first blush) given what we think we know about planet formation
  • You start with a cloud of debris and gas swirling around a star, then gradually the bits and pieces start colliding, sticking together and growing bigger into small rocks, bigger ones and eventually, planets or gas giant planet cores
  • this planet is a heck of a long way from its star, TW Hydrae, about twice Pluto’s distance from the sun
  • Given that alien systems’ age, that world shouldn’t have formed so quickly.
  • Astronomers believe that Jupiter took about 10 million years to form at its distance away from the sun
  • This planet near TW Hydrae should take 200 times longer to form because the alien world is moving slower, and has less debris to pick up
  • because TW Hydrae‘s system is believed to be only 8 million years old.
  • TW Hydrae is only 55 percent as massive as our sun
  • astronomers are seriously investigating other theories
  • One alternative brought up in the press release: perhaps part of the disc collapsed due to gravitational instability
  • If that is the case, a planet could come to be in only a few thousand years, instead of several million
  • add to planet formation theories as to how you can actually form a planet very far out
  • If we can actually confirm that there’s a planet there, we can connect its characteristics to measurements of the gap properties
  • direct collapse” theory, though: astronomers believe it takes a bunch of matter that is one to two times more massive than Jupiter before a collapse can occur to form a planet
  • this world is no more than 28 times the mass of Earth, as best as we can figure
  • Jupiter itself is 318 times more massive than Earth
  • There are also intriguing results about the gap
  • dust grains in this system, orbiting nearby the gap, are still smaller than the size of a grain of sand
  • Astronomers plan to use ALMA and the James Webb Space Telescope, which should launch in 2018, to get a better look
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Concentrator solar cell with world's highest conversion efficiency of 44.4% - 0 views

phys.org/...-world-highest-conversion.html scibyte98 scibyte99 SolarPower
shared by Mars Base on 16 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Sharp Corporation has achieved the world's highest solar cell conversion efficiency of 44.4%, using a concentrator triple-junction compound solar cell
  • Measurement of the value—which sets a record for the world's highest concentrating conversion efficiency—was confirmed
  • Compound solar cells typically offer high conversion efficiency while utilizing photo-absorption layers made from compounds of multiple elements, such as indium and gallium
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  • triple-junction compound solar cells use a proprietary technology that enables the efficient conversion of sunlight into electricity by means of a stack of three photo-absorption layers
  • o achieve a concentrating conversion efficiency of 44.4%, Sharp worked to widen the effective concentrator cell surface and ensure uniformity of width at the interface of the connecting concentrator cell and electrodes.
  • Because of their high conversion efficiency, compound solar cells have thus far been used primarily on space satellites
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NASA - 2013 Astronaut Class - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...2013astroclass.html scibyte98 astronaut
shared by Mars Base on 17 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • The 2013 astronaut candidate class comes from the second largest number of applications NASA ever has received -- more than 6,100
  • Josh A. Cassada, Ph. D
  • a former naval aviator
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  • is a physicist by training and currently is serving as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Quantum Opus
  • Victor J. Glover
  • is an F/A-18 pilot and graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School
  • currently is serving as a Navy Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Congress
  • Tyler N. Hague
  • currently is supporting the Department of Defense as Deputy Chief of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization
  • Christina M. Hammock
  • currently is serving as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Station Chief in American Samoa
  • Nicole Aunapu Mann
  • Lt. Colonel, U.S. Air Force
  • Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy
  • Major, U.S. Marine Corps
  • is an F/A 18 pilot, currently serving as an Integrated Product Team Lead at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Patuxent River
  • Anne C. McClain
  • Major, U.S. Army
  • is an OH-58 helicopter pilot, and a recent graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River
  • currently is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
  • Andrew R. Morgan, M.D
  • Jessica U. Meir, Ph.D.
  • Major, U.S. Army
  • has experience as an emergency physician and flight surgeon for the Army special operations community, and currently is completing a sports medicine fellowship
  • The new astronaut candidates will begin training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in August
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Results of the Fall 2012 LEGO® Review - The Official LEGO® CUUSOO Blog - 0 views

blog.lego.cuusoo.com/...results-fall-2012-lego-review scibyte98 lego Curiosity
shared by Mars Base on 18 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • The final product is still in development. Exact pricing and availability is still being determined
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LEGO to Roll Out Mars Rover Curiosity as Toy Model | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/over-curiosity-lego-model.html scibyte98 lego Curiosity
shared by Mars Base on 18 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • The Denmark-based LEGO Group chose a fan-built model of the car-size rover to be the next release in its CUUSOO line of building brick toys.
  • Pakbaz designed the model to feature many of the details of the real Mars rover, including its "rocker-bogie" wheel suspension that enables Curiosity to navigate the Martian surface
  • He separately built a model of the rover's "sky crane" descent stage, which lowered Curiosity down into the crater, although whether that component will make it into the final product is not yet known
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover will be the fifth model in the LEGO CUUSOO line and the second to feature a space theme
  • In March 2012, LEGO released a model of Japan's Hayabusa asteroid-sampling probe as designed and suggested by LEGO fan Daisuke Okubo
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New drug reverses loss of brain connections in Alzheimer's disease - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...rses-loss-brain-alzheimer.html scibyte99 Alzheimer
shared by Mars Base on 18 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • The first experimental drug to boost brain synapses lost in Alzheimer's disease
  • combines two FDA-approved medicines to stop the destructive cascade of changes in the brain that destroys the connections between neurons, leading to memory loss and cognitive decline.
  • The decade-long study
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • shows that NitroMemantine can restore synapses, representing the connections between nerve cells (neurons) that have been lost during the progression of Alzheimer's in the brain
  • These findings actually mean that you might be able to intercede not only early but also a bit later
  • Alzheimer's patient may be able to have synaptic connections restored even with plaques and tangles already in his or her brain.
  • study, conducted in animal models as well as brain cells derived from human stem cells,
  • team mapped the pathway that leads to synaptic damage in Alzheimer
  • found that amyloid beta peptides, which were once thought to injure synapses directly
  • actually induce the release of excessive amounts of the neurotransmitter glutamate from brain cells called astrocytes that are located adjacent to the nerve cells.
  • Normal levels of glutamate promote memory and learning, but excessive levels are harmful
  • Alzheimer's disease, excessive glutamate activates extrasynaptic receptors, designated eNMDA receptors
  • which get hyperactivated and in turn lead to synaptic loss
  • lab had previously discovered how a drug called memantine can be targeted to eNMDA receptors to slow the hyperactivity seen in Alzheimer's.
  • memantine's effectiveness has been limited.
  • memantine—a positively charged molecule—is repelled by a similar charge inside diseased neurons
  • memantine gets repelled from its intended eNMDA receptor target on the neuronal surface.
  • FDA approval of memantine in 2003
  • a fragment of the molecule nitroglycerin—a second FDA-approved drug commonly used to treat episodes of chest pain or angina in people with coronary heart disease—could bind to another site that the Lipton group discovered on NMDA receptors.
  • memantine rather selectively binds to eNMDA receptors, it also functions to target nitroglycerin to the receptor
  • by combining the two, Lipton's lab created a new, dual-function drug
  • researchers developed 37 derivatives of the combined drug before they found one that worked
  • By shutting down hyperactive eNMDA receptors on diseased neurons, NitroMemantine restores synapses between those neurons
  • NitroMemantine brings the number of synapses all the way back to normal within a few months of treatment in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. In fact, the new drug really starts to work within hours
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