MoonKAM – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com Open Source Entertainment, on Demand. Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:20:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-favicon-32x32.png MoonKAM – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com 32 32 Breath Analysis & Large Structures | SciByte 77 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/30191/breath-analysis-large-structures-scibyte-77/ Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:10:25 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=30191 We take a look at analysing your breath, large structures on a universal scale, inflatable space station modules, and more!

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We take a look at analyzing your breath, large structures on a universal scale, inflatable space station modules, spacecraft update, Curiosity news and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Big on a Universal Scale

  • Image Credit: R. G. Clowes / UCLan
  • The low down
  • Quasars are the nuclei of galaxies from the early days of the universe that undergo periods of extremely high brightness that make them visible across huge distances that last 10–100 million years, which is brief on the astronomical time scale
  • Since 1982 it has been known that quasars tend to group together in clumps or ‘structures’ of surprisingly large sizes, forming large quasar groups or LQGs.
  • Significance
  • Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, an international team of researchers has discovered a record-breaking cluster of quasars-young active galaxies at a mind blowing 4 billion years across
  • The Milky Way is a hundred thousand light-years across and is separated from its nearest neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy, by 2.5 million light-years [~0.75 Megaparsecs (Mpc)]
  • The local supercluster of galaxies in which it’s located, the Virgo Cluster, is only a hundred million light-years wide
  • LQGs can be 650 million light-years [200 Mpc] or more across while Whole clusters of galaxies can be a mere 6.5 million light-years [2–3 Mpc]
  • While this elongated LQC has a typical dimension of 1.6 billion light-years [500 Mpc] with its longest dimension at 4 billion light years [1200 Mpc]
  • This would make it some 1600 times larger than the distance from the Milky Way to Andromeda
  • The LQG is so significant in size it also challenges the Cosmological Principle: the assumption that the universe, when viewed at a sufficiently large scale, looks the same no matter where you are observing it from.
  • Of Note
  • The modern theory of cosmology is based on the work of Albert Einstein, and depends on the assumption of the Cosmological Principle
  • The Principle is assumed but has never been demonstrated observationally ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
  • Based on the Cosmological Principle and the modern theory of cosmology, calculations suggest that astrophysicists should not be able to find a structure larger than 1.2 million light-years [370 Mpc].
  • Recall that this elongated LQC has a typical dimension of 1.6 billion light-years [500 Mpc] with its longest dimension at 4 billion light years [1200 Mpc]
  • This discovery could mean that current mathematical descriptions of the universe has been oversimplified
  • It represents a serious difficulty and a serious increase in complexity
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Biggest Thing in Universe Found—Defies Scientific Theory | news.NationalGeographic.com
  • Astronomers discover the largest structure in the universe | Phys.org

— NEWS BYTE —

Inflatable Space Station Modules

  • On Jan 11 NASA announced they have awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow to provide a new inflatable module for the ISS, making it the first privately built module to be added to the space station
  • The low down
  • According to the website Bigelow Aerospace’s Genesis I inflatable test module was inserted into orbit and is still functioning and “continuing to produce invaluable images, videos and data
  • A second Genesis module was launched in 2007 and it, too, is still functioning in orbit.
  • Previous information given out said the inflatable module for the space station would be used for adding additional storage and workspace, and certified to remain on-orbit for two years
  • Significance
  • The outer shell of their module is soft, as opposed to the rigid outer shell of current modules at the ISS, Bigelow’s inflatable modules are more resistant to micrometeoroid or orbital debris strikes it uses multiple layers of Vectran, a material which is twice as strong as Kevlar
  • NASA officials have said that BEAM could be on orbit about two years after getting an official go-ahead
  • The module will likely be launched by one of the agency’s commercial cargo suppliers, California-based SpaceX or Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp
  • Of Note
  • The company wants to launch and link up several of its larger expandable modules to create private space stations, which could be used by a variety of clients.
  • They are looking at a possible outpost on the moon that would use several modules, propulsion tanks, and power units that would be joined together in space and then flown down to the lunar surface.
  • Lunar dirt would be piled over the modules to protect against radiation, thermal extremes and micrometeorite strikes.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Bigelow Inflatable Module Will be Added to Space Station | UniverseToday.com
  • NASA Buys Private Inflatable Room for Space Station | Space.com

What Else is on Your Breath

  • Last time on SciByte
  • SciByte 46 | Mayan Calendar & Cancer Research | A breathalyzer that does more than find out how much you’ve had to drink [May 15, 2012]
  • The low down
  • Researchers have developed a test that can detect the presence of common infectious bacteria based just on the breath
  • The test measures the VOC, volatile organic compound, particles emitted in gasses, profiles that the bacteria create that are distinct those that the body, or other bacteria, give off
  • Significance
  • They conducted studies in lab mice that were infected with different types of common bacteria
  • Researchers used two different strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause pneumonia, and one strain of Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause respiratory infections
  • The researchers tested the animals’ breath the next day by ionizing breath samples then then shooting them through a mass spectrometer to analyze concentrations of various VOCs in a process called secondary electrospray ionization mass spectrometry
  • The test identified the different bacterial infections as well as differentiated between healthy and infected
  • The team also located the difference between the two strains of P. aeruginosa
  • The speedy results of the test is appealing. And it could at least make it a good first step in detecting bacterial infections, with a follow-up culture coming later if deemed necessary-to detect drug-resistant TB, for example
  • This technique will have to be tested in large human trials before it can be used on a large scale in offices
  • Of Note
  • Similar breath tests have also been studied for detecting other ailments, such as diabetes and cancer
  • In addition it is thought that we will also be able to distinguish between bacterial, viral and fungal infections of the lung
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Breath Test Could Sniff Out Infections in Minutes | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network | blogs.scientificamerican.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

One Way Trip to Mars

  • Last time on SciByte
  • SciByte 61 | ‘Tatooine’ Exoplanets & Eye’s | Martian Reality TV [September 4, 2012]
  • The low down
  • The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which hopes to put the first boots on the Red Planet in 2023, released its basic astronaut requirements on Jan 8
  • A televised global selection process will begin later this year.
  • Significance
  • Anyone who is at least 18 years old can apply to become a Mars colony pioneer
  • Important criteria, officials say, are intelligence, good mental and physical health and dedication to the project, as astronauts will undergo eight years of training before launch.
  • Even Well before the official Astronaut Selection Program, the project has already received more than 1,000 emails from individuals who desire to go to Mars
  • Of Note
  • Mars One plans to launch a series of robotic cargo missions between 2016 and 2021, which will build a habitable Red Planet outpost ahead of the arrival of the first four colonists in 2023.
  • More settlers will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return the pioneers to Earth
  • The project will be largely funded by staging a global reality-TV event
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Mars One introduction film | MarsOneProject
  • YouTube Construction steps of Mars One settlement | MarsOneProject
  • YouTube Channel [Mars One
  • Social Media
  • Mars One @MarsOneProject
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Mars One Homepage
  • Mars Colonists Wanted to Explore Red Planet | Space.com

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

MoonKAM

  • The low down
  • The MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students) took more than 115,000 total images of the lunar surface, and imaging targets were proposed by middle school students
  • Some of the final images taken by the GRAIL MoonKAM educational cameras on board Ebb and Flow, the twin spacecraft for the mission
  • The spacecraft had lowered their orbit to only about 6.8 miles [11 km] above the lunar surface. While these images aren’t of the highest of resolution, they provide a great sense of what it would be like to orbit close to the Moon
  • This footage was shot just three days prior to when the mission ended with the planned impacts on a rim of a crater near the lunar north pole.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Parting Moon Shots from NASA’s GRAIL mission | JPLnewsJPLnews
  • Social Media
  • GRAIL MoonKAM @GRAIL_MoonKAM
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • New Video Shows the GRAIL MoonKAM’s Final Looks at the Moon | UniverseToday.com

– CURIOSITY UPDATE –

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • Jan 21, 1979 : 34 years ago : Neptune : Pluto has a highly elliptical orbit, completing its journey around the Sun every 248 years. Pluto’s distance from the Sun varies, most of the time, Pluto is the farthest planet from the Sun, but every 497 years, for 20 years during its orbit, Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune. In reality Pluto is actually quite a distance “above” Neptune and orbits the Sun twice for every three orbits of Neptune. Pluto “crossed” Neptune’s orbit on January 21, 1979, and temporarily became the 8th planet from the sun. On February 11, Pluto moved farther from the Sun than Neptune, regaining its status as the most distant planet in the solar system. well planet at that time Image| Orbits of Pluto and Neptune
  • PLUTO TO BECOME MOST DISTANT PLANET | Feb 09, 1999
  • Pluto and Neptune: Collision? | imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov

Looking up this week

The post Breath Analysis & Large Structures | SciByte 77 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Spinal Cord Injuries & Venus Transit | SciByte 49 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/20252/spinal-cord-injuries-venus-transit-scibyte-49/ Tue, 05 Jun 2012 22:18:17 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=20252 We take a look at new rehabilitation for spinal cord injuries, nanotech medical diagnosis, Guinness bubbles, tomato's, spacecraft updates and back into history.

The post Spinal Cord Injuries & Venus Transit | SciByte 49 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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We take a look at new rehabilitation for spinal cord injuries, nanotech medical diagnosis, Guinness bubbles, tomato’s, a quiet room, tornado map, spacecraft updates and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

Direct Download:

MP3 Download | Ogg Download | HD Video | Mobile Video | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

MP3 Feed | Ogg Feed | iTunes Feed | HD Feed | Mobile Feed

Support the Show:

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Spinal Cord injury treatment



YouTube channel Sergeytule | Credit: Courtesy of EPFL

  • The low down
  • Most spinal injuries in people do not sever the spinal cord completely
  • Spinal injuries cause paralysis because they sever or crush nerve fibers that connect the brain to neurons in the spinal cord that move muscles throughout the body
  • These fibers, or axons, are the long extensions that convey signals from one end of a neuron to another, and unfortunately, they don’t regrow in adults
  • Restoring axons’ ability to regrow using growth factors, stem cells, or other therapies has been a longstanding and elusive goal for researchers.
  • Significance
  • To approximate a spinal injury in rats, researchers made two surgical cuts in the spinal cord, severing all of the direct connections from the brain, but leaving some tissue intact in between the cuts (it wouldn’t work for a completely severed cord)
  • The rats then began a rehab regime intended to bypass the fractured freeway, as it were, by pushing more traffic onto neural back roads and building more of them
  • The physical therapy began about a week after the rats were injured, and lasted about 30 minutes a day
  • During each session, the researchers injected the animals with a cocktail of drugs to improve the function of rats’ neural circuits in the part of the spinal cord involved in leg movements
  • They then stimulated this area with electrodes to prime the spinal cord for action
  • A rat was then fitted into a harness attached to a robotic device that supported its weight and allowed it to walk forward on its hind legs to the extent that it was able
  • At first, the rats could not move their legs at all, after 2 or 3 weeks, the rodents began taking steps toward a piece of food after a gentle nudge from the robot
  • By 5 or 6 weeks, they were able to initiate movement on their own and walk to get the food
  • After a few additional weeks of intensified rehab, they were able to walk up rat-sized stairs and climb over a small barrier placed in their path
  • Rats suspended over a moving treadmill that elicited reflex-like stepping movement
  • The amount of recovery depending on making intentional movements, not just any movement
  • Additional experiments in the paper make a compelling case that the rats’ recovery is due to new neural connections forming to create a detour around the injury
  • This study suggests that all three components of the rehab strategy are needed; the drugs, the electrical stimulation, and the robot-assisted physical therapy
  • Of Note
  • A case study published last year reported some recovery of voluntary movements in a man paralyzed in a vehicle accident, after he underwent a combination of electrical stimulation and physical therapy
  • Two more patients are undergoing similar rehab now, and his group hopes to add drug therapy to enhance nerve repair in the future
  • For the rats they could only make voluntary movements while the electrical stimulation was turned on, and the same was mostly true of the human patient in case study
  • YouTube
  • Robotic Rehab Helps Paralyzed Rats Walk Again | Sergeytule
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Robotic Rehab Helps Paralyzed Rats Walk Again | news.sciencemag.org

— NEWS BYTE —

Nanotechnology meets medical diagnosis



Credit: Stephen Chou/Analytical Chemistry

  • The low down
  • A common biological test called immunoassay, mimics the action of the immune system to detect the presence of biomarkers
  • When biomarkers are present they produce a fluorescent glow (light) that can be measured in a laboratory
  • The greater the glow, the more of the biomarker is present; however, if the amount of biomarker is too small, the fluorescent light is too faint to be detected
  • Princeton researchers have tackled this limitation by using nanotechnology to greatly amplify the faint fluorescence
  • Significance
  • The key to the breakthrough lies in a new artificial nanomaterial called D2PA
  • The new material consists of a series of glass pillars in a layer of gold, speckled on their sides with gold dots and capped with a gold disk.
  • The sides of each pillar are speckled with even tinier gold dots about 10 to 15 nanometers in diameter Each pillar is just 60 nanometers in diameter, 1/1,000th the width of a human hair
  • The pillars are spaced 200 nanometers apart and capped with a disk of gold on each pillar
  • Using this material laboratory test used to detect disease and perform biological research could be made more than 3 million times more sensitive
  • Increased performance could greatly improve the early detection of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders by allowing doctors to detect far lower concentrations of telltale markers than was previously practical.
  • Of Note
  • When a sample such as blood, saliva or urine is added to small glass vials containing antibodies that are designed to “capture” or bind to biomarkers of interest in the sample
  • Another set of antibodies that have been labeled with a fluorescent molecule are then added to the mix
  • When biomarkers are not present in the vials the fluorescent detection antibodies do not attach to anything and are washed away
  • This new technology could play a significant role in other areas of chemistry and engineering, from light-emitting displays to solar energy harvesting
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Nanotechnology breakthrough could dramatically improve medical tests

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

The rise and fall of Guinness bubbles

Credit : E. S. Benilov, et al.

  • The low down
  • Why do the bubbles in a glass of stout beer such as Guinness sink while the beer is settling, even though the bubbles are lighter than the surrounding liquid?
  • Stout beers such as Guinness foam due to a combination of carbon dioxide and nitrogen bubbles, while other beers foam due only to carbon dioxide bubbles
  • In 2004 high-speed photography proved that bubbles do indeed sink
  • Significance
  • Simulations of the elongated vortices in a pint glass, where bubbles sink near the glass wall, and an anti-pint glass, where bubbles rise near the wall
  • A team of mathematicians from the University of Limerick has shown that the sinking bubbles result from the shape of a pint glass
  • As the glass narrows downwards and causes a circulation pattern that drives both fluid and bubbles downwards at the wall of the glass
  • It is not just the bubbles themselves that are sinking (in fact, they’re still trying to rise), but the entire fluid is sinking and pulling the bubbles down with it.
  • Of Note
  • Researchers are still uncertain of the specific mechanism responsible for reducing the bubble density near the wall for the pint geometry and increasing it for the anti-pint one.
  • The same flow pattern occurs with other types of beers, but the larger carbon dioxide bubbles are less subject to the downward drag than the smaller nitrogen bubbles in stout beers.
  • For a tilted straight-sided glass the side in the direction of the tilt represents the normal situation of a pint glass, while the opposite side is the “anti-pint” – and bubbles can be seen to both rise and fall in the same glass.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Irish mathematicians explain why Guinness bubbles sink | Phys.org
  • Falling stout bubbles explained | BBC News

You say tomato I say potato?

  • The low down
  • The genome of the tomato has been sequenced one from the “Heinz 1706” tomato as well as the sequence of a wild relative
  • Researchers report that tomatoes possess some 35,000 genes arranged on 12 chromosomes
  • Significance
  • The team has captured virtually all the genes for various characteristics, such as taste, natural pest resistance or nutritional content
  • Now that the genome sequence of one variety of tomato is known, it will also be easier and much less expensive for seed companies and plant breeders to sequence other varieties
  • The sequencing of the tomato genome has implications for other plant species such as Strawberries, apples, melons, bananas and many other fleshy fruits, share some characteristics with tomatoes
  • Information about the genes and pathways involved in fruit ripening can potentially be applied to them, helping to improve food quality, food security and reduce costs
  • Of Note
  • The gene sequencing confirms that the tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable
  • The tomato shares 92% of its more than 34,000 protein-coding genes with its close relative, the recently sequenced potato
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Tomato genome fully sequenced | phys.org
  • ScienceShot: Tapping the Tomato’s Secrets | news.sciencemag.org

Hear your own heart beat



Credit: Renee Jones Schneider / Minneapolis Star Tribune.

56 years of Tornado’s



Credit: John Nelson

  • The low down
  • Using information from data.gov, tech blogger John Nelson has created this spectacular image of tornado paths in the US over a 56 year period
  • The storms are categorized by F-scale with the brighter neon lines representing more violent storms
  • The tracker shows straight lines, but it is only because the data used in this study only tracked start and stop points
  • Also provided are some stats on all the storms in the different categories
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Stunning Visualization of 56 Years of Tornadoes in the US | UniverseToday.com
  • Data.gov

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo receives permit



Credit: VirginGalactic YouTube Channel | Credit: TSC

  • The low down
  • Virgin Galactic’s flight system consists of two vehicles, SpaceShipTwo and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft
  • SpaceShipTwo is designed to launch six passengers and two pilots into suborbital space and offer a few minutes of weightlessness, then return to Earth
  • Significance
  • Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital space tourism vehicle has won U.S. regulatory approval to begin powered flight testing of the rocket-propelled craft later this year
  • The experimental launch permit from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorizes the Scaled Composites development team "to progress to the rocket-powered phase of test flight
  • Before the rocket-powered testing phase they will perform aerodynamic performance of the spacecraft with the full weight of the rocket motor system on board
  • Integration of key rocket motor components, already begun during a now-concluding period of downtime for routine maintenance, will continue in the autumn
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Video : SS2 First Feather Flight, Mojave, May 2011)
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • FAA Clears Virgin Galactic to Begin SpaceShipTwo Rocket Test Flights | Space.com

GRAIL Moon mission extension



Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT

Dragon SpaceCraft Splashdown



Credit: YouTube Channel ReelNASA

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • June 09 1822 : 190 years ago : False teeth : Charles Graham received the first patent for false teeth. His were not the first false teeth in use, however. In the Colonial years, rotten teeth were considered the cause of many illnesses, and they would be extracted. Varied ways of replacing them were tried. For example, George Washington had at least four sets of false teeth (though none were wooden, despite a myth to that effect). Washington’s first dentures were made using human teeth inserted into carved ivory. In 1789, dentist John Greenwood of New York, made Washington another set from gold, hippo teeth, and hippo and elephant ivory. The one natural remaining tooth was a molar, and a hole was left for that.
  • June 08 1937 : 75 years ago : Titan Arum : A specimen of the world’s largest flower, first bloomed in the U.S. in the NY Botanical Garden. The giant Sumatran Titan Arum, Amorphophallus titanum, measured 8½-ft high and 4-ft diam. Its putrid rotting-corpse fragrance repelled visitors. Native in Sumatran jungles of Indonesia, it is known there as the “corpse flower.” Dr. Odoardo Beccari, an Italian botanist, was the first western expert to find the Titan Arum in the Pading Province during 1878. Seeds he sent back to his patron, the Marchese Corsi Salviati were grown in Italy, and a few plants were at Beccari’s request sent to Kew Gardens in England in 1879. One of those seedlings flowered in June 1887. Another plant bloomed there in 1926, to wide attention.

Looking up this week : You May Have Seen

Looking up this week

The post Spinal Cord Injuries & Venus Transit | SciByte 49 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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