Neurology : Big MIT contingent at Society for Neuroscience meeting

MIT's excellence in brain research will be showcased next week in San Diego as Institute scientists give five of the 24 invited talks at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

"This is an extremely high representation from one institution," said Mriganka Sur, chair of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and one of the MIT speakers.

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists devoted to studying the brain. Some 30,000 people are expected to attend the group's annual -conference.

One of the five MIT researchers, H. Sebastian Seung, professor of computational neuroscience, will give the Presidential Special Lecture on "The Once and Future Science of Neural Networks." In his talk, Seung will describe a revolutionary new way to create a nanoscale-level map of the brain's axon and dendrite "wires" based on actual human brain tissue. This cutting-edge field, called computational neuroanatomy, is expected to confirm or deny long-held basic assumptions about how the brain works.

Seung's laboratory is one of a handful in the world working on a new initiative called "the connectome," which seeks to translate three-dimensional images of the brain at nanoscale resolution into a circuit diagram of all the brain's neurons and synaptic connections.

Current models of the human brain revolve around the belief that synapses' connections determine brain function and that synaptic plasticity underlies learning and memory. But now, "we have seen tantalizing hints that these basic ideas are at least partially true, as well as examples where they fall short," said Seung, who also is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator. "The advent of high-throughput methods for gathering neurophysiological and neuroanatomical data will transform our ability to test the foundations of neural network theory."

The other MIT speakers and their topics are:

Mark F. Bear, Picower Professor of Neuroscience, director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and HHMI investigator, will speak on "Modification of Cerebral Cortex by Experience." More than four decades of research on how synapses are formed, strengthened, weakened and lost under the influence of sensory experience have culminated in a deep understanding of the mechanisms for this synaptic plasticity. The knowledge ranges from novel insights into the pathophysiology of developmental disorders to new strategies to enhance perceptual learning and recovery from environmental deprivation, he said.

Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor of Neuroscience and HHMI investigator, will speak on "Mechanisms Underlying Prevention of Cognitive Decline and Restoration of Memory in Age-Dependent Neurodegenerative Disorders." The number of people with Alzheimer's disease is expected to triple from 5 to 15 million by the year 2050. Age-dependent neurodegeneration and dementia is currently incurable. Tsai's lecture will focus on recent research of cellular mechanisms, including synaptic plasticity, which have provided models for understanding neurodegeneration and memory loss. A particular emphasis will be placed on new strategies to prevent decline or restore memories.

Mriganka Sur, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience, will speak on "New Approaches for Revealing Cortical Function: Plasticity and Dynamics of Visual Cortex Networks." Sur will talk about how a range of novel tools, including in vivo high-resolution imaging of neurons, synapses and astrocytes, cell-specific markers and genetically engineered probes, along with new experimental paradigms, are transforming the analysis of cortical networks.

Susan L. Lindquist, professor of biology, member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and HHMI investigator, will give the Albert and Ellen Grass Lecture. Proteins begin as long strings that must fold precisely. The misfolding of certain amyloidogenic proteins associated with neuronal cells is responsible for certain neurodegenerative diseases. Surprisingly, she said, similar changes in the folding of other proteins may have beneficial effects in learning and memory. Lindquist's lecture will investigate therapeutic strategies to control the folding of amyloidogenic proteins.

Technorati : Cognitive Sciences, Neurology, Neuroscience, brain science

Technology : MIT develops 'tractor beam' for manipulation of cells on silicon

E. coli cells are manipulated on a silicon chip by MIT researchers using 'optical tweezers' to form the letters 'MIT.'

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Tool could manipulate tiny objects on a chip,

In a feat that seems like something out of a microscopic version of Star Trek, MIT researchers have found a way to use a "tractor beam" of light to pick up, hold and move around individual cells and other objects on the surface of a microchip.

The new technology could become an important tool for both biological research and materials research, say Matthew J. Lang and David C. Appleyard, whose work is being published in an upcoming issue of the journal Lab on a Chip. Lang is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Appleyard is a graduate student in Biological Engineering.

The idea of using light beams as tweezers to manipulate cells and tiny objects has been around for at least 30 years. But the MIT researchers have found a way to combine this powerful tool for moving, controlling and measuring objects with the highly versatile world of microchip design and manufacturing.

Optical tweezers, as the technology is known, represent "one of the world's smallest microtools," says Lang. "Now, we're applying it to building [things] on a chip."

Says Appleyard, "We've shown that you could merge everything people are doing with optical trapping with all the exciting things you can do on a silicon wafer … There could be lots of uses at the biology-and-electronics interface."

For example, he said, many people are studying how neurons communicate by depositing them on microchips where electrical circuits etched into the chips monitor their electrical behavior. "They randomly put cells down on a surface, and hope one lands on [or near] a [sensor] so its activity can be measured. With [our technology], you can put the cell right down next to the sensors." Not only can motions be precisely controlled with the device, but it can also provide very precise measurements of a cell's position.

Optical tweezers use the tiny force of a beam of light from a laser to push around and control tiny objects, from cells to plastic beads. They usually work on a glass surface mounted inside a microscope so that the effects can be observed.

But silicon chips are opaque to light, so applying this technique to them is not an obvious move, the researchers say, since the optical tweezers use light beams that have to travel through the material to reach the working surface. The key to making it work in a chip is that silicon is transparent to infrared wavelengths of light--which can be easily produced by lasers, and used instead of the visible light beams.

To develop the system, Lang and Appleyard weren't sure what thickness and surface texture of wafers, the thin silicon slices used to manufacture microchips, would work best, and the devices are expensive and usually available only in quantity. "Being at MIT, where there is such a strength in microfabrication, I was able to get wafers that had been thrown out," Appleyard says. "I posted signs saying, 'I'm looking for your broken wafers'."

After testing different samples to determine which worked best, they were able to order a set that was just right for the work. They then tested the system with a variety of cells and tiny beads, including some that were large by the standards of optical tweezer work. They were able to manipulate a square with a hollow center that was 20 micrometers, or millionths of a meter, across--allowing them to demonstrate that even larger objects could be moved and rotated. Other test objects had dimensions of only a few nanometers, or billionths of a meter. Virtually all living cells come in sizes that fall within that nanometer-to-micrometers range and are thus subject to being manipulated by the system.

As a demonstration of the system's versatility, Appleyard says, they set it up to collect and hold 16 tiny living E. coli cells at once on a microchip, forming them into the letters MIT.

The work was supported by the Biotechnology Training Program of the National Institutes of Health, the W.M. Keck Foundation and MIT's Lincoln Laboratory.

Technorati : Chips, MIT, MIT news, Star Trek, silicon

EARTH QUAkE : Living on a fault: Homeowners shake off quake risk

Earth quake :

While only a few people in the east foothills experienced the shaking so near the epicenter, the Sabins are hardly alone living close to danger. There are at least 369,000 more people living near three major faults - the San Andreas, the Hayward and the Calaveras - than during the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. That 6.9 temblor, centered in the Santa Cruz Mountains, killed 62 people and caused $6 billion in destruction.

The newer population .

estimate comes from a 24hoursNews review of U.S. Geological Survey fault maps and data collected in 1990 and 2007 by the U.S. Census Bureau and the California Department of Finance. It is almost certainly low.

It does not include the populations of unincorporated areas of Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties. And it does not include the growth of cities such as San Jose and Palo Alto, only parts of which are within five miles of one of the faults.

But for perspective, those 369,000 people represent more than 40 percent of the total population growth in those four counties since 1990.

The most growth - more than 200,000 people - has been along the Hayward Fault, particularly in Milpitas, Fremont and Hayward - an area seismologists say could be primed for another big shake.

A tour of fault country, days after the Bay Area's strongest quake since Loma Prieta, took a reporter from the redwood-clad billionaire estates of Woodside to the sunny suburban hillsides of Fremont to the rural hills above San Jose, where somebody like Kathy Sabin can still have enough land to keep 47 animals near the nation's 10th-most-populous city.

Homeowner after homeowner, when asked why they moved so close to a known fault, said accepting earthquake danger is part of the bargain you strike in exchange for the incredible views, weather, culture and outdoor life of the Bay Area. None of them intends to move. And there is also a subtle psychological adjustment: It's not so much a discounting of earthquake danger, but a sense that other natural disasters elsewhere are somehow worse.

As a California native, "I'm kind of used to earthquakes," said Kathy Sabin. "I would be more afraid of a tornado or a hurricane."

If the East Coast and the Gulf Coast have their hurricanes and blizzards, and the Midwest its tornadoes and floods, earthquakes are "our" natural disaster. Even as they threaten us, they also seem to define who we are.

San Andreas Fault

Loaded with plywood building materials, the truck wound its way through the rural groves of Woodside, past gated estates, past women on horseback, past an aptly named "Why Worry Lane."

The center of Woodside is less than a mile from the San Andreas Fault, but there's a lot of construction. Town records say the value of building permits for new construction, additions and alterations is up 35 percent in 2007 over the same period last year.

Real estate agents can recount multimillion-dollar sales falling through because of a mountain lion in the back yard, but hardly ever due to the nearby fault.

Though people are aware of the fault, it has not hurt real estate values, said Jayne Williams, an agent with Coldwell Banker. She was speaking with a friend - Pam McReynolds of La Honda - in the Woodside center, across the street from where Williams had been during the Loma Prieta quake.

"We've grown up with it," Williams, a Woodside native, said of the fault.

Of course, Williams' sister moved to Cape Cod to escape earthquakes. But Williams and McReynolds said they wouldn't trade natural disasters with her.

Farther south along the San Andreas - even on Loma Prieta Way in the mountains above Los Gatos, where a wag might say you're asking for trouble - new homes are being built.

But asked for the most earthquake-safe place to build a house in the Bay Area, USGS seismologist Tom Brocher only chuckles.

"As a rule of thumb, if you're within five miles, you are going to be strongly shaken," he said.

"If I told you to live in San Ramon, you're living on the Calaveras Fault, or close to it. In Pacifica, you're on the San Andreas Fault. Almost all of us live within five miles or so of one of the major faults."

Brocher said people should consider the earthquake hazard zone disclosures amid the stack of papers they sign when they buy a home.

"All you want to do is sign and take ownership of the house," he said. "We would like people to pay attention to that. They should definitely be aware of the risk."

And where in the Bay Area does a USGS seismologist live?

Brocher said he chose his home in Millbrae as much for its flat lot - safe from earthquake-triggered landslides - and its distance from soil liquefaction hazards around San Francisco Bay, as for its relative proximity to a fault line. He's just 1.5 miles from the San Andreas.

"I told my wife, 'Look you're not going to have any view of the bay,' " he said.

Hayward Fault

A good chunk of the Bay Area's population wasn't living here during the Loma Prieta quake. Many weren't even alive. About 29 percent of the population of Santa Clara County is under 21 - too young to remember Loma Prieta even if they had been born in 1989.

So for many, the Alum Rock quake was a first. But not for Sandy Movahed. The Fremont resident definitely remembers 1989: The Loma Prieta quake demolished her office in San Francisco. And yet she bought a home with her husband a few hundred yards from the Hayward Fault. A court reporter who transcribed lengthy state hearings on earthquakes, Movahed knows plenty about the phenomenon. She is confident the Bay Area's strict building codes will provide some protection.

"Bottom line," she says, "nobody knows when there's going to be an earthquake."

And one more thing: Her sunny neighborhood under the grassy hills, which overlooks the silver sweep of San Francisco Bay, has "probably the most perfect weather in the world."

Calaveras Fault

At the epicenter of Tuesday's quake, nobody seemed too concerned about future quakes.

Don and Joann Reed said the Loma Prieta quake caused a mini-tsunami that washed right out of their swimming pool. This quake did nothing like that.

"We're on fractured rock here, and I hear tell that fractured rock is better for you than solid rock," Joann Reed said.

Living on the Calaveras Fault for 32 years, the retired couple dismissed the thought of moving to escape a quake.

"Earthquakes don't happen as often as the hurricanes, and the tornadoes and the floods and those bad electrical storms and the awful heat with the humidity in the summertime and the just intolerable cold in the wintertime," Joann Reed said of the troubled life elsewhere. "Here it's an occasional earthquake and the rest of the time it's just like heaven."

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Technorati : Calaveras, Hayward, San Andreas, earth quake

Space Station's Damaged Panel Is Fixed

Astronauts patched a damaged solar panel on the international space station yesterday during a tricky and dangerous seven-hour spacewalk.

Perched on the tip of an extension of the station's long robotic arm, astronaut Scott E. Parazynski snipped off tangles of broken and frayed wires that had ripped open two spots on the huge solar array, and installed five jury-rigged straps to reinforce the damaged area, allowing the panel to finally unfurl fully.

In this image provided by NASA television astronaut Scott Parazynski, top, gets into the foot restraints with the assistance of astronaut Douglas Wheelock at the end of the 90-foot robotic arm and boom extension, center, which will carry Parazynski for a 45-minute ride to the damage site at the start of the space walk to repair the damaged solar array Saturday Nov. 3, 2007.

"Excellent work, guys, excellent," space station commander Peggy A. Whitson said after the tense, painstaking job was finally done.

The spacewalk was considered particularly risky, with Parazynski venturing farther from the safety of the station than ever before. The repairs were unusually complicated because the astronauts were unable to fully assess the damage before getting close to the array and had to hope that their quickly improvised repair plans would work. Normally, such a repair mission would take weeks or even months of preparation and rehearsal.

But without the repairs, the damaged solar wing could have become structurally unstable, posing a hazard to the outpost and requiring that it be jettisoned.

Without the panel, the station would not have enough power to continue expanding. That could have forced a postponement of the installation of the next component, a European laboratory, next month. NASA is under pressure to complete the construction of the station before it retires the aging space shuttle fleet in 2010.

So, wearing protective spacesuits, Parazynski and astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock ventured out of the station, orbiting about 213 miles above the East Coast, just past 6 a.m. to begin the unprecedented job.

"Go out there and fix that thing for us," Whitson radioed just before the pair left the safety of the station's airlock.

With Wheelock positioned at the base of the solar array, Parazynski anchored his feet to the end of a 50-foot boom from the space shuttle; the boom was grasped in the middle by the station's 58-foot robotic arm. The arm carried him on a slow-motion, 45-minute trip half a football field away to just barely reach the damaged panel.

Dramatic live-television images showed Parazynski atop the extended arm with the bright orange solar array behind him and the brilliant blue and white Earth below.

Once there, Parazynski, an emergency-room physician, assessed the full extent of the damage for the first time, describing a daunting "hairball" of tangled wires in the area that was mangled when the solar panel was deployed Tuesday. The panel suffered two tears; the largest was about 2 1/2 feet long.

All the tools and all the metal parts of Parazynski's spacesuit were wrapped with insulating tape to minimize the risk of the astronaut getting shocked by the electric array, which is generating 160 volts. His bulky gloves were also covered with extra mittens for added protection.

Using an L-shaped device, dubbed a "hockey stick," to periodically and gently nudge the array away, as well as needle-nose pliers, vice-grips and clippers to cut away and secure loose wires, Parazynski methodically completed the repair, radioing his colleagues each step of the way.

Parazynski, one of the most experienced spacewalkers, installed five "cuff links," which the astronauts had pieced together from spare parts aboard the station. The three- to five-foot long pieces are insulated cables with aluminum plates at each end that Parazynski slipped into holes in the array like cuff links into a shirt sleeve. They are designed to support the damaged area and prevent further tearing.

Once all five were installed, Parazynski and Wheelock watched closely as ground controllers slowly unfurled the solar panel to its full 110-foot length. Parazynski then rode the robotic arm back to safety, returning inside the station with Wheelock at 1:22 p.m.

"It certainly was a really good day overall," said Dina Contella, lead spacewalk officer, during a briefing afterward.

The torn array, however, is just one of the problems facing the station. Metal shavings were discovered earlier in a joint on the station, jamming control of the solar arrays on that side. Space station managers are trying to determine how to fix that malfunction.

Technorati : repair, space, station

WARNING : Feds List Chemicals That Can Be Misused

The average chicken farmer does not have enough chemicals to make his farm a terrorist target, but many fertilizer wholesalers and paper mills do - and they'll have to tell the government about it as part of new anti-terrorism measures.

On Friday, the Homeland Security Department plans to release a final list of chemicals that businesses must report to keep dangerous materials out of the hands of terrorists. It's part of new authority Congress gave the department to keep an eye on places where hazardous chemicals are kept.

An original list of 344 chemicals - some with specific weight thresholds - was proposed in April and caused an uproar among businesses that had assumed they would be exempt from such terror-related reporting laws. If a facility has a chemical on the department's list, it has to fill out an online form that the Homeland Security Department will use to decide whether the chemical poses enough of a terrorist risk that the facility's security measures should be regulated.

Many chicken farms, for example, keep more than 7,500 pounds of propane, the threshold on the original list. But a new reporting threshold of 60,000 pounds for propane exempts them.

Colleges and universities that keep chemicals in many of their laboratories were spun up over the proposed list as well. The final list will only affect universities that carry large amounts of a certain chemical and small amounts of chemicals that could be used as weapons.

However, just because a business is required to fill out the government's online questionnaire does not necessarily mean that they'll be regulated by the government, said a Homeland Security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, because the final list had not yet been published.

"Once we assess that they have large amounts of chemicals of consequence, then what we will do is work with them on a plan so that they can secure a facility," the official said.

The potential to use certain chemicals as weapons is one of the reasons the government came up with the list. For example:

_Hydrogen peroxide, commonly used to bleach paper, can also be used in liquid explosives - the weapon of choice in at least two foiled terror plots. Those plots led to prominent airport security measures, including restrictions on how much liquid passengers can carry on planes and the screening of shoes.

_Ammonium nitrate, used in most fertilizers, has been a main ingredient in bombs used in attacks across the world. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, involved 2 tons of ammonium nitrate.

_Chlorine, which is generally used as a disinfectant, has been a popular explosive ingredient in attacks in Iraq.

As a result, businesses with more than 500 pounds of chlorine that could potentially be stolen, and businesses with 2,500 pounds of chlorine that could be hazardous if released, will be subject to reporting requirements.

Most businesses with these amounts of chlorine are water treatment facilities or specialty chemical manufacturers, said Scott Jensen, spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, which represents about 90 percent of the nation's chemical makers.

Facilities with at least 2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate used in fertilizers that could be easily stolen and potentially used to make a bomb must also fill out the online forms. These include producers and wholesalers, according to the Fertilizer Institute, a Washington-based trade group.

And businesses that have hydrogen peroxide at a 35 percent concentration will also be subject to regulations. Many paper mills and water treatment facilities use this grade of hydrogen peroxide, Jensen said.

Dropped from the list entirely were acetone and urea. Acetone is commonly used in nail polish remover, and urea is used in fertilizer.

Technorati : Fertilizer, chemical

Public Health Risks from Climate Change are Key Concern Commentsby Professor Jonathan A. Patz

Message not to be Lost in Debate: Public Health Risks from Climate Change are Key Concern - Oct 26, 2007

Comment by Professor Jonathan A. Patz, University of Wisconsin, Madison

With all the attention over the Bush Administration's mishandling of senate testimony by CDC Director, Julie Gerberding, I fear that the central clear message is being overshadowed by the (albeit errant) procedural aspects of the situation. Serving as a Lead Author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports of 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2007 (and Health Co-Chair for the US National Assessment on Climate Change) I can reaffirm that the original CDC testimony was scientifically accurate and consistent with IPCC findings.

But more than enough press has focused on the handling of the testimony, and not enough on the important messages that Congress and the American public need to know about Global Warming. These are:

1) Our public's health is indeed at risk from the effects of climate change acting via numerous hazardous exposure pathways, including: more intense and frequent heat waves and storms; ozone smog pollution and increased pollen allergens; insect-borne and water-borne infectious diseases; and disease risks from outside the US - afterall, we live in a globalized world. Some benefits from reduced cold and some decline in certain diseases can be expected, however, the scientific assessments have consistently found that, on balance, the health risks outweigh the benefits.

2) The Department of Health and Human Services, that includes CDC and NIH, are responsible for protecting the health of the American public. To the extent that extremes of climate can have broad population-wide impacts, neither the CDC nor NIH have directed adequate resources to address climate change, and to date, funding has been minimal compared to the size of the health threat.

3) There are potentially large opportunities and co-benefits in addressing the health risks of global warming. Certainly, our public health infrastructure must be strengthened, e.g, fortify water supply systems, heat and storm early warning and response programs, and enhance disease modeling and surveillance. However, energy policy now becomes one and the same as public health policy. Reducing fossil fuel burning will: (a) further reduce air pollution, (b) improve our fitness (e.g., if urban transportation planning allows for more Americans to travel by foot or bike, than by car), and (c) lessen potential greenhouse warming.

In short, the challenges posed by climate change urgently demand improving public health infrastructure AND energy conservation / urban planning policies - as such, climate change can present both enormous health risks and opportunities. But without funding from Congress to address climate change, CDC has its hands tied.

Web Resources:
Global & Sustainable Environmental Health at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
http://www.sage.wisc.edu/pages/health.html

Website for Middle School teachers and students, and the general public
http://www.ecohealth101.org

Technorati : Climate Change, public health

Quantum Cascade Laser Nanoantenna Created :with a wide-range of potential applications

In a major feat of nanotechnology engineering researchers from Harvard University have demonstrated a laser with a wide-range of potential applications in chemistry, biology and medicine. Called a quantum cascade (QC) laser nanoantenna, the device is capable of resolving the chemical composition of samples, such as the interior of a cell, with unprecedented detail,

Spearheaded by graduate students Nanfang Yu, Ertugrul Cubukcu, and Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics, all of Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the findings will be published as a cover feature of the October 22 issue of Applied Physics Letters. The researchers have also filed for U.S. patents covering this new class of photonic devices.

The laser's design consists of two gold rods separated by a nanometer gap (a device known as an optical antenna) built on the facet of a quantum cascade laser, which emits invisible light in the region of the spectrum where most molecules have their tell tale absorption fingerprints. The nanoantenna creates a light spot of nanometric size about fifty to hundred times smaller than the laser wavelength; the spot can be scanned across a specimen to provide chemical images of the surface with superior spatial resolution.

The device consists of an optical antenna fabricated on the facet of a quantum cascade laser emitting infrared light with a wavelength of 7 microns. The Harvard team used nanofabrication techniques to form the optical antenna, which consists of two gold rectangles, each 1.2 microns long, separated by a narrow gap (100 nm). Light from the laser illuminates the antenna, resulting in an intense spot of light in the gap of size seventy times smaller than the wavelength. This is far smaller than what would be possible with the conventional approach of forming a spot of light by focusing with a lens. Due to the wave nature of light, such a spot would have a diameter of more than 7 microns. The figure is an electron microscope micrograph of the facet of the QC laser with the built-in nanoantenna. Shown are also an atomic force microscope topographic image of the antenna and an optical image obtained with a near field scanning optical microscope, showing the highly localized light spot in the antenna gap. (Credit: Nanfang Yu, Ertugrul Cubukcu, and Federico Capasso)

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"There's currently a major push to develop powerful tabletop microscopes with spatial resolution much smaller than the wavelength that can provide images of materials, and in particular biological specimens, with chemical information on a nanometric scale," says Federico Capasso.

While infrared microscopes, based on the detection of molecular absorption fingerprints, are commercially available and widely used to map the chemical composition of materials, their spatial resolution is limited by the range of available light sources and optics to well above the wavelength. Likewise the so-called near field infrared microscopes, which rely on an ultra sharp metallic tip scanned across the sample surface at nanometric distances, can provide ultrahigh spatial resolution but applications are so far strongly limited by the use of bulky lasers with very limited tunability and wavelength coverage.

"By combining Quantum Cascade Lasers with optical antenna nanotechnology we have created for the first time an extremely compact device that will enable the realization of new ultrahigh spatial resolution microscopes for chemical imaging on a nanometric scale of a wide range of materials and biological specimens," says Capasso.

Quantum cascade (QC) lasers were invented and first demonstrated by Capasso and his group at Bell Labs in 1994. These compact millimeter length semiconductor lasers, which are now commercially available, are made by stacking nanometer thick layers of semiconductor materials on top of each other. By varying the thickness of the layers one can select the wavelength of the QC laser across essentially the entire infrared spectrum where molecules absorb, thus custom designing it for a specific application.

In addition by suitable design the wavelength of a particular QCL can be made widely tunable. The range of applications of QC laser based chemical sensors is very broad, including pollution monitoring, chemical sensing, medical diagnostics such as breath analysis, and homeland security.

The teams co-authors are Kenneth Crozier, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, and research associates Mikhail Belkin and Laurent Diehl, all of Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; David Bour, Scott Corzine, and Gloria Höfler, all formerly with Agilent Technologies. The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation. The authors also acknowledge the support of two Harvard-based centers, the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center and the Center for Nanoscale Systems, a member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network.

Technorati : Nanotechnology, Quantum Cascade

Brain acts diffrent For Creative And Noncreative Thinkers

How brain acts for crealtivity ?

Why do some people solve problems more creatively than others? Are people who think creatively different from those who tend to think in a more methodical fashion?

These questions are part of a long-standing debate, with some researchers arguing that what we call "creative thought" and "noncreative thought" are not basically different. If this is the case, then people who are thought of as creative do not really think in a fundamentally different way from those who are thought of as noncreative. On the other side of this debate, some researchers have argued that creative thought is fundamentally different from other forms of thought. If this is true, then those who tend to think creatively really are somehow different.

A new study led by John Kounios, professor of Psychology at Drexel University and Mark Jung-Beeman of Northwestern University answers these questions by comparing the brain activity of creative and noncreative problem solvers. The study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, reveals a distinct pattern of brain activity, even at rest, in people who tend to solve problems with a sudden creative insight -- an "Aha! Moment" - compared to people who tend to solve problems more methodically.

At the beginning of the study, participants relaxed quietly for seven minutes while their electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded to show their brain activity. The participants were not given any task to perform and were told they could think about whatever they wanted to think about. Later, they were asked to solve a series of anagrams - scrambled letters that can be rearranged to form words [MPXAELE = EXAMPLE]. These can be solved by deliberately and methodically trying out different letter combinations, or they can be solved with a sudden insight or "Aha!" in which the solution pops into awareness. After each successful solution, participants indicated in which way the solution had come to them.

The participants were then divided into two groups - those who reported solving the problems mostly by sudden insight, and those who reported solving the problems more methodically - and resting-state brain activity for these groups was compared. As predicted, the two groups displayed strikingly different patterns of brain activity during the resting period at the beginning of the experiment - before they knew that they would have to solve problems or even knew what the study was about.

One difference was that the creative solvers exhibited greater activity in several regions of the right hemisphere. Previous research has suggested that the right hemisphere of the brain plays a special role in solving problems with creative insight, likely due to right-hemisphere involvement in the processing of loose or "remote" associations between the elements of a problem, which is understood to be an important component of creative thought. The current study shows that greater right-hemisphere activity occurs even during a "resting" state in those with a tendency to solve problems by creative insight. This finding suggests that even the spontaneous thought of creative individuals, such as in their daydreams, contains more remote associations.

Second, creative and methodical solvers exhibited different activity in areas of the brain that process visual information. The pattern of "alpha" and "beta" brainwaves in creative solvers was consistent with diffuse rather than focused visual attention. This may allow creative individuals to broadly sample the environment for experiences that can trigger remote associations to produce an Aha! Moment.

For example, a glimpse of an advertisement on a billboard or a word spoken in an overheard conversation could spark an association that leads to a solution. In contrast, the more focused attention of methodical solvers reduces their distractibility, allowing them to effectively solve problems for which the solution strategy is already known, as would be the case for balancing a checkbook or baking a cake using a known recipe.

Thus, the new study shows that basic differences in brain activity between creative and methodical problem solvers exist and are evident even when these individuals are not working on a problem. According to Kounios, "Problem solving, whether creative or methodical, doesn't begin from scratch when a person starts to work on a problem. His or her pre-existing brain-state biases a person to use a creative or a methodical strategy."

In addition to contributing to current knowledge about the neural basis of creativity, this study suggests the possible development of new brain imaging techniques for assessing potential for creative thought, and for assessing the effectiveness of methods for training individuals to think creatively.

Journal reference: Kounios, J., Fleck, J.I., Green, D.L., Payne, L., Stevenson, J.L., Bowden, E.M., & Jung-Beeman, M. The origins of insight in resting-state brain activity, Neuropsychologia (2007), doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.07.013

sourced Drexel University.

Technorati : Brain science, creative, thinker

Alternative fuel : If Corn Is Biofuels King !!!

Researcher is finding the source of energy - fuel of Alternative way .....

When University of Illinois crop scientist Fred Below began growing tropical maize, the form of corn grown in the tropics, he was looking for novel genes for the utilization of nitrogen fertilizer and was hoping to discover information that could be useful to American corn producers.

Now, however, it appears that maize itself may prove to be the ultimate U.S. biofuels crop.

Early research results show that tropical maize, when grown in the Midwest, requires few crop inputs such as nitrogen fertilizer, chiefly because it does not produce any ears. It also is easier for farmers to integrate into their current operations than some other dedicated energy crops because it can be easily rotated with corn or soybeans, and can be planted, cultivated and harvested with the same equipment U.S. farmers already have. Finally, tropical maize stalks are believed to require less processing than corn grain, corn stover, switchgrass, Miscanthus giganteus and the scores of other plants now being studied for biofuel production.

What it does produce, straight from the field with no processing, is 25 percent or more sugar -- mostly sucrose, fructose and glucose.

"Corn is a short-day plant, so when we grow tropical maize here in the Midwest the long summer days delay flowering, which causes the plant to grow very tall and produce few or no ears," says Below. Without ears, these plants concentrate sugars in their stalks, he adds. Those sugars could have a dramatic affect on Midwestern production of ethanol and other biofuels.

According to Below, "Midwestern-grown tropical maize easily grows 14 or 15 feet tall compared to the 7-1/2 feet height that is average for conventional hybrid corn. It is all in these tall stalks," Below explains. "In our early trials, we are finding that these plants build up to a level of 25 percent or higher of sugar in their stalks.

This differs from conventional corn and other crops being grown for biofuels in that the starch found in corn grain and the cellulose in switchgrass, corn stover and other biofuel crops must be treated with enzymes to convert them into sugars that can be then fermented into alcohols such as ethanol.

Storing simple sugars also is more cost-effective for the plant, because it takes a lot of energy to make the complex starches, proteins, and oils present in corn grain. This energy savings per plant could result in more total energy per acre with topical maize, since it produces no grain.

"In terms of biofuel production, tropical maize could be considered the 'Sugarcane of the Midwest',"Below said. "The tropical maize we're growing here at the University of Illinois is very lush, very tall, and very full of sugar."

He added that his early trials also show that tropical maize requires much less nitrogen fertilizer than conventional corn, and that the stalks actually accumulate more sugar when less nitrogen is available. Nitrogen fertilizer is one of major costs of growing corn.

He explained that sugarcane used in Brazil to make ethanol is desirable for the same reason: it produces lots of sugar without a high requirement for nitrogen fertilizer, and this sugar can be fermented to alcohol without the middle steps required by high-starch and cellulosic crops. But sugarcane canít be grown in the Midwest.

The tall stalks of tropical maize are so full of sugar that producers growing it for biofuel production will be able to supply a raw material at least one step closer to being turned into fuel than are ears of corn.

"And growing tropical maize doesn't break the farmers' rotation. You can grow tropical maize for one year and then go back to conventional corn or soybeans in subsequent years," Below said. "Miscanthus, on the other hand, is thought to need a three-year growth cycle between initial planting and harvest and then your land is in Miscanthus. To return to planting corn or soybean necessitates removing the Miscanthus rhizomes.

Below is studying topical maize along with doctoral candidate Mike Vincent and postdoctoral research associate Matias Ruffo, and in conjunction with U of I Associate Professor Stephen Moose. This latest discovery of high sugar yields from tropical maize became apparent through cooperative work between Below and Moose to characterize genetic variation in response to nitrogen fertilizers.

Currently supported by the National Science Foundation, these studies are a key element to developing maize hybrids with improved nitrogen use efficiency. Both Below and Moose are members of Illinois Maize Breeding and Genetics Laboratory, which has a long history of conducting research that identifies new uses for the maize crop.

Moose now directs one of the longest-running plant genetics experiments in the world, in which more than a century of selective breeding has been applied to alter carbon and nitrogen accumulation in the maize plant. Continued collaboration between Below and Moose will investigate whether materials from these long term selection experiments will further enhance sugar yields from tropical maize.

Technorati : Alternative fuel, biofuel, corn, research

Stephen Hawking Plans 2009 Space Trip

Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says he wants to undertake a zero-gravity flight aboard an airplane this year as a precursor to a journey into space,

"This year I'm planning a zero-gravity flight and to go into space in 2009," he was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Hawking, 65, has said he hopes to travel on British businessman Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic service, which is scheduled to launch in 2009. The service will charge space tourists about $200,000 for a two-hour suborbital trip some 87 miles above the Earth.

Branson was keen to help the scientist realize his dream of space flight, Virgin Galactic spokesman Stephen Attenborough said Monday.

"Richard is very determined that if we can possibly make this happen, then it should," Attenborough said.

He said the company had not discussed the issue of payment with Hawking.

One of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation, Hawking gained fame with the best-selling book "A Brief History of Time."

The scientist, who uses a wheelchair and communicates with the help of a computer because he suffers from a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe, proposing that space and time have no beginning and no end.

Hawking has warned that the survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth.

Technorati : 2009 Space Trip, Hawking, Plans, Stephen

Flas back ; Researcher Discovers Universe Building Block Evolution

The building blocks of planets and the life on them are formed inside of stars and returned to space in the form of stardust. In a new study, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher discovered the formation of this stardust does not happen as expected, resulting in implications for star and planet formation.
"Understanding the nature of the material returned to space by dying stars is essential for our understanding of galactic chemistry, planet and star formation and the cosmos as a whole," said Angela Speck, assistant professor of astrophysics. "We always knew this process took place; we are now taking a big step toward understanding how this works." click to enlarge

Stars, like the sun, eventually run out of hydrogen in their cores and become red giant stars and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. AGB stars are very bright, about 3,000 times brighter than the sun, but about half as hot as the sun. These stars are unstable and pulsate. The pulsations cause some of the atmospheric gas in these stars to be lost in surrounding space. As this hot gas drifts away from the star, it cools and forms dust grains. The material that sloughs off the star's outer shell and forms dust grains travels into interstellar space and is incorporated into large dust clouds that eventually will collapse to form new stars and planetary systems.

AGB stars in which the abundance of carbon atoms exceeds that of oxygen atoms have chemistries dominated by carbon and are known as carbon stars. One dust species known to form in the shells around carbon stars is silicon carbide (SiC). SiC has been found in meteorites; and many of these grains are believed to have formed around carbon stars. Results from the study of these presolar, meteoritic SiC grains suggest that the nature of the SiC forming in carbon star outflows changes as the star evolves. The star initially produces relatively large grains and the grains formed are progressively smaller as the star dies.

This finding is completely opposite of what was thought to be true," Speck said. "As the gas becomes denser the grains are getting smaller."

Speck presented observational evidence to confirm this suggestion at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The study's poster presentation - The Nature and Evolution of Silicon Carbide in the Outflows of Carbon Star - is authored by Speck and co-authored by Anne Hofmeister, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.; and Grant Thompson, Department of Physics and Astronomy student at MU.

Technorati : Universe Building Block Evolution

Space : Metal shavings found in space-station joint

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Spacewalking astronauts doing construction work outside the international space station Sunday made a disturbing discovery: what appear to be metal shavings inside a joint that is needed to turn a set of solar-power panels.

The rotary joint, 10 feet in diameter, has experienced intermittent vibrations and power spikes for nearly two months.

Space-station managers were hoping a thermal cover or bolt might be hanging up the mechanism, which would have been relatively easy to fix, and were disheartened when Daniel Tani radioed down that metal shavings were everywhere.

"It's quite clear that it's metal-to-metal grating or something, and it's widespread," Tani said.

The shavings resembled small flakes and were clinging to the joint as if to a magnet, Tani said.

The astronaut used tape to dab up some of the shavings. They will be returned to Earth aboard Discovery next week for analysis. NASA is uncertain whether the flecks are actually metallic or some other material.

This rotary joint, launched and installed just four months ago, controls the huge solar-panel wings on the right side of the space station, to make sure they're facing the sun. The joint for the left solar wings is working fine.

The right rotary joint will remain in a parked position as much as possible until the problem is solved, said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space-station program manager.

It's too soon to know whether the joint - if it continues to malfunction - will affect science operations aboard the European laboratory that is scheduled to fly to the space station in December, or the Japanese lab that will follow, Suffredini said.

"We have lots of time to work through this problem. It's not an immediate issue," Suffredini said at a news conference Sunday afternoon after the spacewalk.

The problem overshadowed the rest of Sunday's spacewalk, the second of five planned for Discovery's construction mission.

The spacewalkers' first job out the hatch was to disconnect bolts and cables holding a 35-foot-long, 35,000-pound girder to the orbiting complex, so astronauts working inside could pull it away with the robot arm. It was the first time the girder and its attached solar-power wings were moved since being installed seven years ago, and the job went well.

The girder will be reattached to another spot on the space station Tuesday, and its solar wings unfurled to their full 240 feet across. NASA considers this one of the most difficult construction jobs ever attempted in orbit.

During their 6 ½ hours outside, Tani and Scott Parazynski also added handrails and other equipment to the outside of Harmony, the school-bus-size compartment that was delivered by Discovery and attached to the space station last week. They did not have enough time to finish installing a grappling hook to Harmony, and they had to skip some other work, too.

Technorati : Space, space-station

2007 AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference novel techniques that will not only make air travel more efficient, but also safer.

Professor Natasha Neogi with some of the remote-controlled aircraft used to simulate air traffic.

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Recently, the Department of Transportation released findings that won't shock many frequent fliers: The airline industry is suffering from its worst on-time performance since comparable data was first collected in 1995.

And with air traffic expected to triple in the next 20 years, it's only going to get worse.

Several researchers in the University of Illinois' Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) are actively involved in the Center for Distributed Air Transportation Management, an ambitious new effort to tackle this growing problem.

Natasha Neogi, a resident assistant professor at CSL, recently unveiled at the 2007 AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference novel techniques that will not only make air travel more efficient, but also safer. The new system calls for changes in flight patterns, restructuring airport usage and designing new sensors for aircraft, among other endeavors.

"We're looking at the problem from end to end," says Neogi, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering. "It's a complete rethinking of the way we fly."

For example, some of the congestion arises from antiquated air traffic control equipment and procedures that are essentially the same as when they were developed in the 1960s. Planes still follow narrow, fixed routes between cities, filed in advance to make it easier for controllers to monitor aircraft from hundreds of miles away.

The next-generation air transportation system would give pilots more control over their airspace. So pilots can respond to current traffic conditions and take more direct routes to their destinations, reducing weather delays and increasing efficiency.

The new systems would allow the industry to increase traffic to meet demand without causing delays on the ground. But it also means that airplanes will need more sophisticated sensor systems that would allow pilots to detect and respond quickly to conditions in their airspace. The research team is testing new algorithms for such high-tech computing systems.

Neogi and her colleagues are also working to develop new airport usage models, which may include diverting flights to airports that aren't as busy.

The team is testing the new procedures on scaled-down, remote-controlled aircraft at an airfield near the University of Illinois. Researchers, who simulate other air traffic, run the planes through various flight patterns to determine how they respond when onboard systems fail. Once perfected, the systems will be tested on full-sized aircraft.

The University of Illinois is the lead institution for the center, which also includes researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge University. Other collaborators include the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA and industry partners such as Boeing and Lockheed-Martin.

Technorati : 2007 AIAA, Air Traffic

Men who smoke cigarettes run an increased risk of experiencing erectile dysfunction

A team of researchers led by Jiang He, Professor of Epidemiology at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, examined the association between cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction in a 2000-2001 study in China involving 7,684 men. The researchers used questionnaires to assess the status of cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction. Those surveyed were men between the ages of 35-74 who did not have vascular disease.

The team found that there was a significant statistical link between the number of cigarettes that men smoked and the likelihood they would experience erectile dysfunction. The association between smoking and erectile dysfunction was even stronger in participants with diabetes. An estimated 22.7 percent of erectile dysfunction cases among Chinese men might be attributable to cigarette smoking, says the study.

Although erectile dysfunction is not a life-threatening condition, it compromises well-being and quality of life. The Tulane study results suggest that smoking prevention should be an important approach for reducing the risk of erectile dysfunction

Technorati : erectile dysfunction, smoke cigarettes

Study :organic really is better for health

THE biggest study into organic food has found that it is more nutritious than ordinary produce and may help to lengthen people's lives.

The evidence from the £12m four-year project will end years of debate and is likely to overturn government advice that eating organic food is no more than a lifestyle choice.

The study found that organic fruit and vegetables contained as much as 40% more antioxidants, which scientists believe can cut the risk of cancer and heart disease, Britain's biggest killers. They also had higher levels of beneficial minerals such as iron and zinc.

Professor Carlo Leifert, the co-ordinator of the European Union-funded project, said the differences were so marked that organic produce would help to increase the nutrient intake of people not eating the recommended five portions a day of fruit and vegetables. "If you have just 20% more antioxidants and you can't get your kids to do five a day, then you might just be okay with four a day," he said.

This weekend the Food Standards Agency confirmed that it was reviewing the evidence before deciding whether to change its advice. Ministers and the agency have said there are no significant differences between organic and ordinary produce.

Researchers grew fruit and vegetables and reared cattle on adjacent organic and nonorganic sites on a 725-acre farm attached to Newcastle University, and at other sites in Europe. They found that levels of antioxidants in milk from organic herds were up to 90% higher than in milk from conventional herds.

As well as finding up to 40% more antioxidants in organic vegetables, they also found that organic tomatoes had significantly higher levels of antioxidants, including flavo-noids thought to reduce coronary heart disease.

Technorati : antioxidants, organic

Scientists Find New Causes For Neurodegeneration - By U-M Scientists

A small region of a mutant mouse brain magnified 1000X. In the normal tissue the cells are tightly packed with no gaps, but in the mutant there are large holes due to loss of neurons from absence of the molecule PI(3,5)P2 from suppression of the Vac14 gene. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Michigan)

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Diseases that cause neurons to break-down, such as Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Mad Cow Disease), continue to be elusive to scientists and resistant to treatments.

A new finding from University of Michigan researchers demonstrates an unpredicted link between a virtually unknown signaling molecule and neuron health.

In a study in PNAS, graduate student, Yanling Zhang, postdoctoral fellow Sergey Zolov and Life Sciences Institute professor Lois Weisman connect the loss of this molecule to massive neurodegeneration in the brain.

The molecule PI(3,5)P2 is a lipid found in all cells at very low levels. Lipids are a group of small organic compounds. While the best studied lipids are fats, waxes and oils, PI3,5P2 is a member of a unique class of lipids that signal the cell to perform special tasks.

Weisman said it was surprising to find that PI(3,5)P2 plays a key role in the survival of nervous system cells.

"In mice, lowered levels of PI(3,5)P2 leads to profound neurodegeneration," said Weisman. "It suggests that we have a good place to look to find treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's."

Weisman, who is also professor of Cell & Developmental Biology at the U-M Medical School and her colleagues, began from clues that were hidden in a conserved genetic pathway in yeast (a pathway that has remained the same in yeast, plants and humans over evolutionary time). Studies in yeast showed that the enzyme that manufactures the lipid is governed by the FIG4 and VAC14 genes, which exist in yeast, mice and humans.

Working with two independently derived mouse models, Weisman's team and collaborators including graduate student Clement Chow and Professor Miriam Meisler of the Department of Human Genetics at the U-M Medical School, reached the same conclusions in a pair of important papers for neuroscience research.

Building on research from Meisler, a mouse geneticist, and Weisman, a yeast geneticist, the collaborators published a paper in Nature, July 5, 2007, showing that in mice, the FIG4 gene is required to maintain normal levels of the signaling lipid and to maintain a normal nervous system. Importantly, they found that human patients with a very minor defect in their FIG4 genes had serious neurological problems.

The signaling lipid PI(3,5)P2 (short for phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate) is part of a communication cascade that senses changes outside the cell and promotes actions inside the cell to accommodate to the changes.

Weisman's team found that mice missing the VAC14 gene, which encodes a regulator of PI(3,5)P2 levels, suffer massive neurodegeneration that looks nearly identical to the neurodegeneration seen in the FIG4 mutant mice. In both cases the levels of PI(3,5)P2 are one half of the normal levels. The fact that both mice have half the normal levels of the lipid and also have the same neurodegenerative problems provides evidence that there is a direct link between the lipid and neuronal health.

The new findings indicate that when Vac14 is removed, the cell bodies of many of the neurons appear to be empty spaces and the brain takes on a spongiform appearance

Technorati : Neurodegeneration, U-M Scientists, brain scice

Space Station Has Power System Damage

This image provided by NASA television shows the hatch opened on the Quest airlock and astronaut Scott Parazynski waiting to exit on the second space walk of the mission early Sunday Oct. 28, 2007. (AP Photo/NASA

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Two spacewalking astronauts unhooked a 35,000-pound girder from the international space station Sunday, starting the delicate process of moving the giant solar power tower to another part of the orbiting outpost.

Spacewalkers Scott Parazynski and Daniel Tani started their 6 1/2-hour jaunt by disconnecting cables and unscrewing bolts that connected the girder to the space station's backbone.

Spacewalking astronauts found evidence of damage to a key part of the International Space Station's power system today.

It was the second of five scheduled spacewalks during the shuttle mission. More than six hours of outdoor activities were originally to be devoted to unbuckling an solar array atop the International Space Station so it could be moved to the side of the station, and also doing some work on the new "Harmony" module that astronauts had installed earlier in the week and first entered on Saturday.

Those tasks proceeded well, as has virtually everything else in this otherwise exceptionally smooth mission. But those successes could well be overshadowed by the discovery of iron shavings in one of the shuttle's enormous rotating joint assemblies.

The part, known as the Solar Array Rotating Joint, or SARJ, is 10 feet across and one sits toward each end of the station's long truss. The motorized joint allows solar panels to rotate and constantly face the sun during the sunny part of each orbit.

"It's quite clear," said Daniel Tani, one of the two spacewalkers, describing what he saw after removing a protective cover over a motor. "There's metal-to-metal scraping, or something, and it's widespread."

A sharp-eyed space station flight controller had recently noticed that the joint on the right side of the station was experiencing unusual vibrations as it rotated. Further examination revealed that the motor on that joint was using greater-than-expected amounts of current, which suggested that it was having to work harder than it should to turn the paddlewheel-like array. Mission managers added the inspection to the spacewalk schedule on Friday.

The shavings suggest that moving parts may be misaligned and grinding against each other, or perhaps that a piece of debris from the ground or from space may have gotten into the works. Mission managers had hoped the problem with the rotary joint would be easy to spot and easy to fix - something like a bolt out of place or an insulating blanket that was dragging and increasing friction, or even a leftover shop rag that was carried up to space and became lodged in the wrong place but could be removed. Before taking the cover off, Mr. Tani conducted a visual inspection of every bolt and blanket on the exterior of the device, which was made by Lockheed Martin at its Space Systems facility in Sunnyvale, and found no problems.

The problem could have ripple effects that go beyond this mission. If NASA wants a second look at the joint, a second spacewalk will have to be added to the schedule. With five spacewalks already on the shuttle mission's calendar, it would be difficult to squeeze in another. At the same time, the days between the end of this shuttle mission and the arrival of the next shuttle in December is packed with activities for the three-person space station crew, and so even a single additional spacewalk could mean delaying the December mission.

Kirk Shireman, the deputy space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, noted said in a media briefing on Friday that there are backup motors and controllers for each rotary joint, and so the system might still be able to work after a switchover.

During the same briefing, Derek Hassman, the lead space station flight director, said that the troubled joint could be "parked" in a position that allows it to pick up a fair amount of sunlight throughout the orbit while NASA continues to investigate the problem. "As long as we can get it into an attitude that's reasonably good for power generation, combined with what the other SARJ can produce, we wouldn't have any significant power impacts that we couldn't deal with," he said.

Technorati : Space Station, nasa, news

Lunar Challenge : Armadillo’s MOD shows their possible capability but not reach satisfactory level

Armadillo's MOD shows their possible capability but not reach satisfactory levelArmadillo's MOD Meets with Limited Success on Day 1 of Lunar Challenge.

The first day of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, a grant challenge event that NASA organizes saw Armadillo Aerospace, a space company, make its mark in its first attempt to fly a lunar spacecraft. The task in the challenge is to simulate a lunar flight.

The challenge, which is a two-day event and is the headline act of the 2007 X Prize Cup space and air show. The challenge is broken into two levels. The teams get two tries for each level and have to be successful at each attempt. The event is part of a NASA initiative to tap new technology for its space programs.

Armadillo Aerospace, which is owned by John Cormack, the creator of Doom, completed the first phase of the challenge by successfully launched and flew a privately built lunar probe, the MOD, for a duration of one and a half minutes. The probe was not successful in its second attempt at flight.

The MOD stands 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide and weighs 1,400 pounds at the time of take-off. However, the craft has a thrust of 1,800 pounds. It is a liquid oxygen rocket that has computer controls and a host of sensors, including a GPS. Armadillo said it was more a prototype of vehicles it planned to use for tourist trips into space in the future.

During the first attempt, the MOD completed all the required tasks of the first level challenge - launching vertically off the launch pad to a height of 50 meters, then straightening out and traveling horizontally for another 50 meters, and finally landing back on the flat launch pad. However, during the second attempt, it toppled over five seconds prior to landing on the pad.

The toppled landing meant there was no clear winner on the first day of the challenge, even though Armadillo was the only company participating in the Lunar Lander event. The company had two more attempts left tomorrow to win the challenge and take home the two paychecks for the winner, one for each successful level.

The total prize money for the event is a whopping $2 million. Completing the first level successfully, which requires the craft to fly 50 meters vertically, then another 50 meters horizontally, and then land safely on the flat launch pad, would fetch the winner $350,000 while the second place participant takes home $150,000 for this level.

The second level is much the same as the first, the major difference being the landing surface. While the first level required safe landing on a flat surface, the second level would require safe landing on a rocky surface similar to that of the moon. The winner of this more difficult round would take home $1 million, while the runner-up would get $500,000.

Doug Comstock, the director of the innovative space program at NASA, said Armadillo had two more tries to emerge the winner tomorrow. If Armadillo can iron out the kinks in its probe, it has an easy chance of emerging the winner, considering it is the only participant in the fray for the second year running.

Of the nine teams scheduled to compete this year, the remaining eight teams could not make it to the challenge. While most of these teams were not allowed to compete because of an inability to comply with the safety requirements laid down by the Federal Aviation Administration, one mystery team opted out before the challenge was scheduled to start.

Technorati : Armadillo’s MOD, lunar compitition

RFID -is Inescapable but Implantable

24hoursnews :RFID technology is used widely in the public and private sector to assist businesses with asset tracking and security. Hospitals use RFID equipped bracelets and patches to track newborn movements, prevent accidental switching of infants, reduce prescription medicine and surgical errors, and monitor the location of equipment. Public transportation systems worldwide use RFID equipped cards to track and bill use of the services, such as "EZ Pass" type equipment for toll roads or payment cards for mass transit systems. Corporations and schools use RFID chips in identification cards to control access to restricted areas. Many cars have RFID chips in their ignition keys, and keyless ignition works because of the technology as well.

In most of these situations the type of RFID product used is a chip in a bracelet or some kind of device that is portable and removable, but recently the subject of implantable RFID, radio-frequency identification, is receiving a lot of attention in the news. On September 9, 2007, an Associated Press article said that research in the 1990s showed that implanted RFID chips caused cancer in mice and rats and may cause cancer in cats, dogs, and humans. Verichip, the manufacturer specifically mentioned in the article, has responded to the accusation with assertions that research confirming the safety of their implantable chips was not included in the article, that mice and rats are far more likely to develop tumors at the site of any type of injection, and that the FDA has cleared the chip as a Class II Medical Device.

Although an RFID chip in particular may not cause cancer, the inflammation caused by surgical implantation of a foreign object can increase the instance of tumor development. According to the National Cancer Institute, "Inflammation is a response to acute tissue damage, whether resulting from physical injury, ischemic injury, infection, exposure to toxins, or other types of trauma. It can play a role in tumor suppression by stimulating an antitumor immune response, but more often it appears to stimulate tumor development," and "chronic inflammation is also clearly correlated with increased risk of developing cancer."

While millions of people experience acute tissue damage from surgery, injury or infection every year, the deliberate implanting of a foreign object that could produce chronic inflammation for the purposes of tracking has activists concerned, especially when combined with fears about privacy.

According to Verichip, a leading manufacturer of RFID products, all of its implantable RFID chips are "passive," which means that the chips themselves do not contain a power source such as a battery. The chips only transmit data when in range of a reader, and therefore are not continuously transmitting. In the case of current technology passive chips, the reader needs to be within about ten feet of the chip in order to extract data. These chips are therefore not equipped to handle any kind of long-range GPS capability - less than most cell phones.

As for the actual data on the chip, the only information available is a 16-digit identifier that must be matched up to a database. Simply knowing the number will not identify name, address, or any other personal information unless the person with the scanner also has access to the proper database.

Neither the limited transmission range nor the limited data capability found in current chips assuages the fear of privacy advocates who point out that criminally intent people or overzealous employers could still take advantage of the technology. An office building with readers built into doorways and halls could effectively track the movement of employees throughout the day, or a stalker could install readers in homes to track the movement and routines of victims. Databases can be hacked and open up the possibility of identity theft, or simple abuse by the keepers of the information.

One of the biggest concerns of activists is that eventually the government will push to require RFID chips either in identification cards or implantable chips, tied to a centralized database that would maintain a complete medical history and would also be able to track general movement every time an ID had to be presented. In an apparent first step in that direction, Verichip was in discussions in 2006 with the Pentagon to replace military dog tags with implantable chips tied back to identification and medical history databases, along with other discussions to implant immigrants and guest workers.

So far, three states (Wisconsin, North Dakota, and California) have banned the forced implantation of RFID chips by employers. Meanwhile, Verichip recently celebrated the launch of a partnership with Alzheimer's Community Care in Florida, where 90 Alzheimer's patients were implanted with RFID chips to assist in identification if they wander away from their caregivers.

Although consumers today are not in any way anonymous when we consider all of the information we provide to businesses in the course of our daily lives, the specter of the population as a whole being persuaded or coerced into accepting the idea of implantable RFID chips should raise serious health and privacy questions.

Technorati : RFID, security

SPARE COMPUTING POWER TO moved from its Geneva home to the GridPP project at Queen Mary, University of London.

24hoursnews :The UK's GridPP project is taking the lead in the LHC@home project, which uses spare computing power on people's PCs to analyse data about the Cern particle accelerator.
LHC@home, a project that lets the public donate spare computing power to Cern scientists, has moved from its Geneva home to the GridPP project at Queen Mary, University of London.

The distributed computing project uses volunteers' desktop machines to help run simulations of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to ensure that protons travelling the 27 kilometre circuit stay in their orbits. The LHC is set to start operations at Cern next year, and is being used to search for evidence of the Higgs particle, by recreating the conditions of the universe just after the Big Bang.

"Like its larger cousin, SETI@home, LHC@home uses the spare computing power on people's desks," said Dr Alex Owen, who runs the project in the UK. "But rather than searching for aliens, LHC@home models the progress of sub-atomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light around Europe's newest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)."

So far, over 40,000 people from 100 countries have run LHC@home, contributing what would equal 3,000 years computing on a single machine. The programme is baesd on the BOINC platform, which also runs the Search for Extraterristrial Intelligence (SETI) project, as well as distributed computing projects for modelling climate change and the spread of disesases.

"We started trial running LHC@home from a computer server in the UK in June, and have spent the last few months working with the physicists who use the data it produces. Now, with the official launch of the UK base for the project, we're ready to fully exploit this fantastic resource," said Neasan O'Neill of GridPP.

The programme will eventually be used for other particle physics research, such as modelling the operations of different parts of the particle detectors. The actual processing of the expected 15 million gigabytes of data that the LHC will produce annually will be handled by a grid computing network built by 17 universities and research centres across the UK.

Technorati : large hadron collider