Monthly Archives: July 2012

Aerospace Futures Alliance endorses McKenna

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Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna has earned the endorsement of one of the state's most influential aerospace groups.

On Thursday, the Aerospace Futures Alliance announced its first-ever endorsement of a political candidate, embracing Republican McKenna's bid for governor. An industry interest group, AFA lobbies on behalf of the state's 720 aerospace-related companies. Its board consists of representatives from Boeing, state community colleges, Mukilteo aerospace supplier Electroimpact, Everett maintenance company Aviation Technical Services and other government and commerce groups.

The success of AFA's member companies has meant tens of thousands of family wage jobs for our state," McKenna said in a statement. "I will help this industry remain globally competitive long into the future.

AFA previously has contributed to at least two candidates' campaigns: $900 to House Speaker Frank Chopp and $1,600 to Gov. Chris Gregoire's 2008 campaign.

Another influential group in the industry, the local District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, already has given its endorsement to McKenna's opponent, Democrat Jay Inslee. The local IAM represents nearly 30,000 Machinists who work for Boeing in the Puget Sound region.

In interviews with the Herald published in March, both candidates identified the need to maintain a steady pipeline of aerospace workers as the main challenge facing the industry in the state.

Boeing and its suppliers are increasing jet production rates. The company also faces a many retirements in the coming years, both Machinists and engineers. As a result, Boeing has upped hiring in Washington, adding 2,850 workers through the end of June. Company officials have said employment will level out this year but hiring to replace workers who retire still will require Boeing to hire thousands of workers.

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Gentris Corporation Announces Collaboration to Study Blood Stability

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MORRISVILLE, N.C., July 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Gentris Corporation (www.gentris.com), a global leader in pharmacogenomics and biorepository solutions, announced today that it will begin a collaborative study with a major pharmaceutical company to test the long-term stability of DNA in whole blood samples that have been stored for five and ten years. This study will provide insight into the optimal, long-term storage of clinical samples to ensure adequate DNA integrity for future pharmacogenomics testing.

The three phase collaboration aims to investigate the effects of multiple freeze-thaw cycles on DNA from whole blood, both fresh and archived. In order to evaluate these effects, DNA will be extracted from archived whole blood samples after several freeze-thaw cycles and will undergo quantitative genotyping for specific genetic variations. Variants were chosen to evaluate both large and small deletions to assess DNA integrity. The results will be compared to genotyping data from the same samples before long-term storage and to similarly treated, freshly collected blood samples. A pharmaceutical partner will provide archived samples and the associated data. Gentris will provide freshly collected samples and perform the genotyping analysis.

The goal of this collaboration is to determine the impact of long term storage and multiple freeze-thaw cycles on the integrity of DNA from whole blood samples. With this data, Gentris will be able to determine whether archived samples would be best stored as whole blood or extracted DNA to ensure sufficient sample quality for future analysis. Maintaining high-quality samples allows pharmaceutical companies to utilize these biospecimens as needed during the entire drug development process, which typically takes several years to complete.

Related Links: http://www.gentris.com

Quotes: "We look forward to collaborating with our pharmaceutical partner to investigate an important question as more companies establish long-term archives of clinical samples," said Eric Hall, Gentris Vice President of Clinical Operations and Biorepository Services. "Because technologies are improving rapidly and the drug development process is lengthy, pharmaceutical companies can gain significant value from reanalyzing samples in order to refine later phases of clinical trials or answer questions that arise during development. Proper handling and storage of samples is the foundation for driving innovation in pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine."

About Gentris Corporation: Founded in 2001, Gentris is located in Research Triangle Park, NC, where it provides pharmacogenomics and biorepository support for all phases of clinical studies and genomic biomarker programs. The Company works with academic and industry leaders to translate innovations in pharmacogenomics into safer, more effective medicines, which can lead to accelerated drug development and improvement in patient care globally. In the past year, Gentris significantly expanded its facility and onsite biorepository to meet the increased needs of biopharma clients, while maintaining a preeminent quality system.

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No medical school for Brandon: Study

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The Brandon Medical Education Study was released Wednesday. (TIM SMITH/BRANDON SUN)

A stand-alone medical school at Brandon University proposal has been deemed ill-advised because western Manitobas population base is too small, according to the Brandon Medical Education Study that was released to the public on Wednesday.

Instead, the report offers a progression of steps, such as offering more residencies to Brandon and other hospitals, eventually leading to a satellite medical school that works in conjuction with the University of Manitoba.

"The study recommends focusing on more rural medical residencies and doctors, when they are in that final stage of their studies, they start making those decisions on where they want to practice and very often thats the point when they start putting down roots in the community," Manitoba Advanced Education Minister Erin Selby said. "Those decisions are often linked to where they want to where they want to practice afterwards."

The study examined how to recruit and retain more doctors to serve in rural Manitoba, and one of the recommendations to create more residencies in Brandon, Steinbach, as well as the Boundary Trails hospital between Morden and Winkler has already started. Ten more residencies are recommended to start next year, with increases of seven positions each year for four years also planned.

"Thats an effective way to encourage more doctors to practice in rural Manitoba because they have already started to develop connections with the community," Selby said.

There were other components to the 10 key recommendations listed in the report, such as ensuring rural students have access to medical school spots and that the University of Manitoba plan for an increase in the number of students wanting to work in rural, remote and underserved areas. Once the residencies are in place, rural clinical teaching units will be set up in Brandon and other communities for third- and fouth-year medical student.

While the 110 spots at the University of Manitoba medical school are considered adequate for the provinces population, plans to increase capacity to 130 students may be required, and its at that point a satellite campus could be considered for Brandon, Thompson, Steinbach, Boundary Trails and/or Dauphin.

"When we came into office, there were 70 seats in the medical school and now there are 110," Selby said. "A population of our size is probably best served with 110 to a maximum of 130, but should we be looking down the road at increasing seats, thats what the study recommends. We have a number of things already in place to help increase the number of doctors practicing in rural Manitoba. We have seen an increase of 100 doctors practicing in rural communities, including 30 more since 1999. The study reinforces some of the things we are already doing."

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No medical school for Brandon: Study

Drinking from a firehose: can research into the human mind help with medical school memorization?

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Ive come across many analogies that try to convey the amount of memorization required in medical school. The most popular is drinking from a firehose. One physician writer put it like this: It was like being asked to enter a grocery store and memorize the names of every product in the store, their number and location, every ingredient in every product in the order in which they appear on the food label, and then to do the same thing in every grocery store in the city.

In medical school, we talk in terms of high yield and low yield information. Basically, everyone accepts that it is impossible to know everything or even close to it, so medical school becomes an exercise in figuring out what is most important. For every conversation about memorizing, there are also a couple of self-deprecating quips about forgetting. Ive had times where I studied something, took a short break, and then forgot what I was just reading. Is it sad? Yes. Demoralizing? Can be. But unique? Talking to other medical students, Ive found the answer is a resounding no. The consensus on memorization among my peers is comically Lake Wobegon in reverse: here, everyone is convinced (s)he is below average.

Are we inherently bad at memorizing? Are we just not programmed to be effective at learning everything the modern medical landscape demands from us? I wondered about that. But more so, I wondered about solutions. If we ask for help, most of us rely on casual tips from those who have gone through the process before us, and we try to assemble diverse anecdotes into a feasible personal plan. But research into the human mind and its ability to remember is vast. And that knowledge says that memorization is a skill that can be improved upon with strategy and practice.

What of that knowledge can apply to medical training, specifically? Which techniques can help information stick in ways that are meaningful, relevant, and ultimately useful for patient care?

***

Chunking. Our short-term memory can store and retrieve a limited number of facts and researchers have honed in that number. In 1956, cognitive psychologist George Miller published a paper providing evidence for seven being the magic number, plus or minus two. It was one of the most widely cited psychology papers ever, and Millers figures are ones that many in modern psychology circles still go by. What does that mean if you want to remember more than seven items? The solution involves breaking down or chunking larger sequences into smaller ones. For example, if you want to remember the ten digit sequence 6256493174, you could instead think of it as 6, 256, 493, 174. Or 62, 56, 49, 31, 74. Or some other combination, as long as its in a retainable number of chunks.

We remember chunks better than long sequences. In medicine, chunking is really a way of saying simplify and organize.

Does it work? In medicine, we constantly need to remember facts that relate to a particular umbrella subject. Chunking is useful as a guide in keeping relevant concepts together, within a range that is ideal for memorization. I know, for example, that if I am trying to remember bacteria, it helps to classify them into groups with each group containing facts of nine or fewer items. In that sense, perhaps chunking is little more than a fancy way of saying organizing with the additional recommendation of what size you should organize subjects into to increase your chances of retaining.

One issue is that chunking refers to a technique for short-term memory. In medical training, I care about knowing things for the long term. Can chunking still help? Psychologist opinion seems to say yes: chunking improves the transfer of short-term memory to long-term memory. Some have used the example of language to make this point, in that we regularly use single words or phrases to capture complex meaning and remember it in the long-term. Medicine uses similar principles. That is, whenever we have a medical term for a constellation of symptoms, a disease progression, or a type of treatment, we are actually chunking multiple concepts into a single phrase. Taken in reverse a single medical term connotes multiple ideas. Medical language enables us to memorize better by having us memorize in chunks.

The bottom-line on the usefulness of chunking in medicine is that its a way of thinking consciously about something we tend to do naturally organizing complex ideas into simpler ones. Having that conscious awareness of why condensing works can make the number of facts we are expected to learn in medicine less intimidating.

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Drinking from a firehose: can research into the human mind help with medical school memorization?

Research and Markets: 2012 Report on the $90 Billion US Biotechnology Product Manufacturing Industry

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7gb7zj/biotechnology_prod) has announced the addition of the "Biotechnology Product Manufacturing" report to their offering.

The US biotechnology product manufacturing industry includes about 1,500 companies with combined annual revenue of more than $90 billion. Major companies include Amgen, Biogen Idec, Genentech (owned by Switzerland-based Roche), Genzyme, Life Technologies, and Monsanto. Because many drugs are now developed using biotechnology, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries overlap considerably. Related profiles include Biotechnology Research Services, Crop Production, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.

The global biotechnology industry includes about 7,000 companies with total revenues of $140 billion. Top regions for biotechnology include the US and Canada, Australia, and Europe, according to Ernst & Youngs Beyond Borders Global Biotechnology Report. Top companies include CSL Limited (Australia), Cangene (Canada), Galapagos nv (Belgium), and ADIMMUNE (Taiwan), as well as the biotech research arms of major international pharmaceutical companies including Novo Nordisk and Sanofi.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand for biotechnology in the fields of medicine, agriculture, food, and science is driven by insurers' willingness to pay for new medical treatments, the global need to produce more food for a rapidly expanding population, and scientists' desire to find solutions for complex scientific and medical issues. Funding for biotech research is often provided by venture capital funds hoping to cash in on new products. The profitability of individual companies depends on the discovery and effective marketing of new products.

Key Topics Covered:

Industry Overview

Quarterly Industry Update

Business Challenges

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Research and Markets: 2012 Report on the $90 Billion US Biotechnology Product Manufacturing Industry

Biotechnology Reagents Market by Technology (PCR, Cell Culture, Expression & Transfection, Chromatography, Mass …

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NEW YORK, July 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

Biotechnology Reagents Market by Technology (PCR, Cell Culture, Expression & Transfection, Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry, Electrophoresis, & Flow Cytometry), Applications (Protein Purification, Gene Expression, DNA & RNA Analysis, & Drug Testing) and

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0938971/Biotechnology-Reagents-Market-by-Technology-PCR-Cell-Culture-Expression--Transfection-Chromatography-Mass-Spectrometry-Electrophoresis--Flow-Cytometry-Applications-Protein-Purification-Gene-Expression-DNA--RNA-Analysis--Drug-Testing-and.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=In_Vitro_Diagnostic

Biotechnology reagents are the substances or compounds used to detect or synthesize another substance in order to provide a test reading. These reagents are used in the field of research, diagnosis, bioscience, and education.

The biotechnology reagent market is vast; it consists of several technologies such as PCR, cell culture, IVD, expression and transfection, chromatography, spectrometry, electrophoresis, and flow cytometry. This report studies the biotechnology reagents market, by technology, end-users, and applications. The biotechnology reagents market, by technology studied in this report are segmented as life science reagents and analytical reagents; of which life science segment accounted for the largest share of 59.37% of the total market in 2011. The global biotechnology reagents market was valued at $40.3 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach $59.3 billion by 2016; growing at a CAGR of 8% from 2011 to 2016.

The biotechnology reagents market is driven by the increasing use of reagents in therapeutics, basic research and commercial applications. The demand for biotechnology reagents is mainly dependent upon the growth of the biotechnology instrumentation market. The biotechnology instrumentation market continues to witness significant growth due to an increase in the number of biotechnology firms around the globe and increase in research and development expenditure by the biotechnology companies, thus augmenting the demand for biotechnology instruments. Continual product developments are being witnessed in various industries, such as pharmaceutical/bio-pharmaceutical, agri-biotech, and food and beverages; this is expected to facilitate market growth.

North America dominated the biotechnology reagents market with 46.28% share in 2011. Successful completion of the first phase of the Human Genome Project, ahead of schedule, has given rise in the U.S. reagent market. Investments, government funding, and new products are driving the reagents market in the U.S. The Asian market, however, shows greater opportunities, when compared to other regions, with the highest CAGR of 11.8% from 2011 to 2016; due to increased research outsourcing activities in the life technology field.

Major players in the global biotechnology reagents market include Life Technologies, (U.S.), Bio-Rad (U.S.), Thermo Fisher Scientific (U.S.), Water Corporation (U.S.), Sigma-Aldrich (U.S.), Agilent Technologies Inc. (U.S.), Betcon Dickinson (U.S.), Beckman Coulter (U.S.), Roche (Switzerland), and Abbott (U.S.).

Scope of the Report

This biotechnology reagents market report will enable strategic understanding of the following key segments of the market:

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Biotechnology Reagents Market by Technology (PCR, Cell Culture, Expression & Transfection, Chromatography, Mass ...

Science magazine prize goes to virtual world where undergrads explore DNA

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Public release date: 26-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science

When Brian White was a child, his kindergarten teacher wrote in his student record that he would only talk to the other children if the topic was science. Throughout his childhood, White's fascination with science led him to take batteries apart, blow things up, and to build radios and computer components.

Now an associate professor in the biology department at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, White is the winner of the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI). He won the award for his creation of Aipotu, a computer-simulated world in which students apply the tools of genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology and evolution to develop an understanding of the formation of color in a flower.

"What I'm trying to do is give people the tools to play around," says White, who explains that Aipotu is "utopia" backward. "What I've always liked about science is what you could do with what you learned."

Science's IBI Prize was developed to showcase outstanding materials, usable in a wide range of schools and settings, for teaching introductory science courses at the college level. The materials must be designed to encourage students' natural curiosity about how the world works, rather than to deliver facts and principles about what scientists have already discovered. Organized as one free-standing "module," the materials should offer real understanding of the nature of science, as well as providing an experience in generating and evaluating scientific evidence. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. The essay about Aipotu will be published on July 27.

"We're trying to advance science education," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science. "This competition provides much-needed recognition to innovators in the field whose efforts promise significant benefits for students and for science literacy in general. The publication in Science of an article on each laboratory module will help guide educators around the globe to valuable free resources that might otherwise be missed."

After many hours of experiments in his parents' basement, White went on to MIT for his undergraduate work. Many of his classes were lectures, but by his junior year, he was able to take a class that had him in the lab all afternoon every day.

"I cooked up many harebrained experiments," White says. "In the lab, you learn problem-solving. Most of the time, what you attempt doesn't work, so you have to figure out why."

Throughout his education, White had some wonderful teaching experiences, he says, including at a science camp in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where one of his students built a pinball machine that kept score. White said demonstrating the machine to the student's parents was an amazing moment, one of many that White had early on that drew him into education.

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Science magazine prize goes to virtual world where undergrads explore DNA

DNA evidence shown in murder trial

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Home News Courts Samuel Williams, 24, views phone records during his death penalty case. He is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping and one count of aggravated burglary in the 2011 deaths. THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON Enlarge Loading

Published: 7/26/2012

BY ERICA BLAKE AND JENNIFER FEEHAN BLADE STAFF WRITERS

Black duct tape wrapped around the necks of Lisa Straub and Johnny Clarke to hold plastic bags in place was so tight, it cut off the blood to their heads, and eventually their air, a deputy Lucas County coroner testified in Common Pleas Court.

Maneesha Pandey was the final state witness in the aggravated murder trial of Samuel Williams, who faces the death penalty if convicted. The 26th witness in the case, Dr. Pandey told a jury of nine women and three men on Wednesday that Ms. Straub and Clarke died of asphyxiation from suffocation and strangulation caused by a bag over their faces and tape around their necks.

Williams, 24, and co-defendant Cameo Pettaway, 23, are both charged with two counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping and one count of aggravated burglary in the Jan. 30, 2011, deaths of Ms. Straub, 20, and Clarke, 21.

The two were found in the home of Ms. Straub's parents with their hands bound behind their backs and plastic bags secured tightly around their necks. Clarke's ankles also were bound withduct tape.

Jurors in Williams' case are expected to hear closing arguments today, then proceed to deliberations. Dr. Pandey is expected to testify today during the trial of Mr. Pettaway, whose case is being heard by a jury of nine women and three men in a different courtroom.

During the third day of testimony at both trials, investigators and analysts spoke of the evidence collected at the Longacre Lane home in Springfield Township where the bodies were found.

Of all the evidence collected, a discarded cigarette butt -- and only that cigarette butt -- contained the DNA of both Williams and Mr. Pettaway, a DNA analyst said Wednesday in both courtrooms.

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DNA evidence shown in murder trial

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USD To Offer New Degree In Medical Biology

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VERMILLION For over a year, faculty at the University of South Dakota have been preparing a way for students to take advantage of the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Sanford School of Medicine.

The solution is a new major in Medical Biology, which is a joint undergraduate degree between the two departments, and will be offered this fall.

Executive dean of the school of medicine Ron Lindahl said the intent is to provide students who know they have a strong interest in either the medical profession the undergraduate knowledge to be most successful in a graduate program in health affairs at the medical school.

Its an official major, which will result in a Bachelor of Science degree, Lindahl said. It's targeted at students who would normally get a biology or chemistry major, who think they have a likelihood of getting into medical school. We think this major will best prepare them for medical school.

Lindahl said he and Matthew Moen, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, created a committee to develop the major.

One major advantage of the new major, is that it will focus on what the Howard Hughes program states premedical curriculum should look like going forward in the future, Moen said.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the American Association of Medical Colleges both issued reports designed to redirect premedical education across the country in the years ahead. It's a formula that is a little bit more competency-based, Moen said.

Lindahl is hoping the new program will encourage students to stay in South Dakota after graduation, he said.

(Moen) and I have always found it ironic that other schools in the region have a program they target towards students that want to go to medical school, but the university in the state that is home to the school of medicine and is the biggest liberal arts college didn't have a program that was targeted towards that group of students, he said. It was a gap that Matt and I decided we needed to fill. Hopefully, with a different undergraduate preparation, we can keep some of them in the state.

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USD To Offer New Degree In Medical Biology

Ruling frees FDA to crack down on stem cell clinics

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Peter Aldhous, San Francisco bureau chief

It's official: stem cells are drugs. At least, that's the opinion of the US District Court in Washington DC, which has ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to regulate clinics offering controversial stem cell therapies.

Treatments in which stem cells are harvested from bone marrow and injected straight back into the same patient are deemed part of routine medical practice - not regulated by the US government. But if the cells are subjected to more than "minimal manipulation", the FDA maintains that the therapy becomes a "drug", which must be specifically approved for use.

Christopher Centeno, medical director of Regenerative Sciences, vows to appeal. "This is really round one," he says. "Our position remains that a patient's cells are not drugs."

Scott hopes that the FDA will now step up its efforts to regulate other clinics offering unproven stem cell therapies. These include Celltex of Sugar Land, Texas, which rose to prominence after Texas governor Rick Perry was injected with stem cells supplied by the company to aid his recovery from back surgery.

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Ruling frees FDA to crack down on stem cell clinics

Russia to attempt space-station re-docking

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The unmanned Russian supply ship Progress 47 failed to re-dock at the International Space Station during a docking system test on July 23, 2012. Credit: NASA

MOSCOW, July 25 (UPI) -- After an initial failure, another attempt to re-dock a Russian space freighter to the International Space Station will be made Sunday, officials said.

The unmanned Progress M-15M space freighter that arrived at the ISS in April undocked from the station Monday to perform a series of engineering tests during a re-docking designed to verify an upgraded automated rendezvous system.

After separation, the freighter moved about 100 miles from the station and held position for 24 hours before attempting a re-docking Tuesday that was unsuccessful due to an apparent failure in the new Kurs-NA rendezvous system, RIA Novosti reported.

The failure of the system triggered a passive abort, a standard procedure that took Progress to a safe distance of about 1.8 miles below the space station.

"Another attempt to dock Progress with the space station is scheduled for 5 a.m. Moscow time (01:00 GMT) on July 29," a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control Center said.

Should another attempt to re-dock the freighter using the modernized Kurs-NA system fail, the ISS crew can revert to using its time-proven predecessor, the Kurs system, a space industry source told RIA Novosti.

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Russia to attempt space-station re-docking

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV Statement at Hearing Highlighting Research, Discovery aboard the International Space …

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WASHINGTON, D.C.--Assembly of the International Space Station was completed last year. It took 5 space agencies from around the world to build it. While this by itself is quite an achievement, our attention has shifted from the construction phase to maximizing the scientific return on this investment. At its core, the space station is a laboratory and a classroom - a scientific and educational asset available not only to NASA, but to all Americans and the international community for research, discovery, and education. We have already seen important discoveries and progress from research conducted on the space station - such as studies of treatments for debilitating diseases like osteoporosis, creation of new materials that the automotive and aerospace industries are interested in using, development of vaccines that may one day prevent deadly infections, and fundamental studies of the nature of our universe.

The availability of half of the U.S. portion of the station for national lab managed research opens up the microgravity environment to private companies to test and develop new products and services for use on Earth. A constant American presence on the space station also presents a unique opportunity to inspire our children's interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics - the so-called STEM fields. We know how critically important STEM skills are for jobs of the twenty-first century, whether it is in advanced manufacturing, pharmaceuticals development, new computing technologies, or designing the next generation of spacecraft.

Astronauts on the space station reach students around the world. Elementary school children can talk to and interact with astronauts via communication links through NASA, asking questions and watching the astronauts conduct experiments live 220 miles above the Earth. Just a few months ago here in Washington, D.C., I met with the student finalists from the YouTube Space Lab Challenge, an international contest for high school students to design an in-space science experiment. More than 2000 project ideas were submitted from students in more than 80 countries. Experiments from the two winning teams - one from Michigan and one from Egypt - lifted off for the space station just last Friday on board a Japanese robotic cargo spacecraft that is scheduled to berth with the space station this Friday. The students' experiments will be conducted by a NASA astronaut onboard the station. This is an unparalleled opportunity for these aspiring young scientists that I hope will encourage them and their peers to continue to pursue degrees and careers in science and engineering.

Our time with the International Space Station is limited and I want to see this nation look back on our investment as both a great achievement and a stepping stone toward our continued scientific leadership, both here on Earth and in space. I look forward to the testimony from our witnesses today and to their perspectives on how we make the most of this unique national asset.

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Senator John D. Rockefeller IV Statement at Hearing Highlighting Research, Discovery aboard the International Space ...

Antimatter-Hunting AMS Experiment in Space (Photos)

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AMS in the Clean Room

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a $2 billion experiment to hunt for cosmic rays in space, stands in the clean room at the European physics lab CERN before it is shipped to NASA to be launched on a space shuttle.

An artist's concept shows the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics detector that is installed on the starboard truss of the International Space Station.

Technicians examine the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument in a work stand ahead of its planned launch on NASA's space shuttle Endeavour. The AMS instrument will search for cosmic rays from the International Space Station.

Back on August 25, 2010, workers loaded the AMS (inside the metal box at right) aboard a giant U.S. Air Force Galaxy jet for a flight from Geneva International Airport to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Endeavour shuttle commander Mark Kelly, left, and Nobel laureate Sam Ting (principal investigator for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) look over the instrument as it sits in a work stand at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida before its launch. Kelly commanded the STS-134 mission to take the AMS to the International Space Station in May 2011. The cutting edge instrument is the brainchild of Ting.

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour heads to the launch pad for its final mission, STS-134, to transport AMS to the space station. Here Endeavour is shown bathed in bright xenon spotlights on March 10, 2011 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off at 8:56 a.m. EDT on May 16 on its final flight - STS-134 - carrying AMS.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS) is seen in space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay after the shuttle reached orbit. Shortly after this image was taken, the AMS was moved from the payload bay to the station's starboard truss on May 19, 2011 (Flight Day 4).

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is transferred out of the space shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay by the shuttle's robotic arm on May 19.

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Antimatter-Hunting AMS Experiment in Space (Photos)

NASA's Curiosity rover to explore bizarre Martian mountain (+video)

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The three-mile-tall Mount Sharp is an inviting target for investigation by NASA's one-ton Mars rover, which is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Aug. 5.

The towering mountain that NASA's next Mars rover will explore after landing on the Red Planet next month remains mysterious to scientists, who say there's nothing quite like it here on Earth.

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Mount Sharp rises 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the center of Mars' huge Gale Crater, where the car-sizeCuriosity roverwill touch down on the night of Aug. 5. Curiosity scientists are eager to study the mountain, whose many layers preserve a record of the Red Planet's changing environmental conditions going back perhaps a billion years or more.

Curiosity's rovings could also help the team understand howMount Sharpformed, because they're not entirely sure.

"In one go, you have flat-lying strata that are 5 kilometers thick. There's nothing like that on Earth," said Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena. "We don't really know what's going on there." [Curiosity - The SUV of Mars Rovers]

The 1-ton Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, which launched in late November. MSL's main goal is to determine if theGale Craterarea is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.

To get at this question, Curiosity will investigate the different layers of Mount Sharp, which is taller than any peak in the continental United States.

Life as we know it depends on liquid water. So the rover will probably spend a lot of time poking around Mount Sharp's lower reaches, whereMars-orbiting spacecraft have spotted signs of minerals that form in the presence of water, such as clays and sulfates.

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NASA's Curiosity rover to explore bizarre Martian mountain (+video)

NASA's Curiosity rover to explore bizarre Martian mountain

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The three-mile-tall Mount Sharp is an inviting target for investigation by NASA's one-ton Mars rover, which is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Aug. 5.

The towering mountain that NASA's next Mars rover will explore after landing on the Red Planet next month remains mysterious to scientists, who say there's nothing quite like it here on Earth.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

Mount Sharp rises 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the center of Mars' huge Gale Crater, where the car-sizeCuriosity roverwill touch down on the night of Aug. 5. Curiosity scientists are eager to study the mountain, whose many layers preserve a record of the Red Planet's changing environmental conditions going back perhaps a billion years or more.

Curiosity's rovings could also help the team understand howMount Sharpformed, because they're not entirely sure.

"In one go, you have flat-lying strata that are 5 kilometers thick. There's nothing like that on Earth," said Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena. "We don't really know what's going on there." [Curiosity - The SUV of Mars Rovers]

The 1-ton Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, which launched in late November. MSL's main goal is to determine if theGale Craterarea is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.

To get at this question, Curiosity will investigate the different layers of Mount Sharp, which is taller than any peak in the continental United States.

Life as we know it depends on liquid water. So the rover will probably spend a lot of time poking around Mount Sharp's lower reaches, whereMars-orbiting spacecraft have spotted signs of minerals that form in the presence of water, such as clays and sulfates.

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NASA makes Mars landing preparations

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NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft passes above Mars' south pole in this artist's concept illustration. Credit: NASA

PASADENA, Calif., July 25 (UPI) -- NASA says it has adjusted the orbit of its Mars Odyssey spacecraft to provide a more prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover.

The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying Curiosity can send limited information directly to Earth, but before the landing, Earth will set below the martian horizon from the descending spacecraft's perspective, ending that direct route of communication, the space agency reported Wednesday.

Re-positioning Odyssey will help to speed up the indirect communication process, scientists said, noting that without the orbital adjustment Odyssey would have arrived over the landing area about 2 minutes after Curiosity's scheduled landing.

"Information we are receiving indicates the maneuver has completed as planned," said Mars Odyssey Project Manager Gaylon McSmith of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Odyssey has been working at Mars longer than any other spacecraft, so it is appropriate that it has a special role in supporting the newest arrival."

Two other Mars orbiters, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency's Mars Express, will also receive radio transmissions from the Mars Science Laboratory during its descent but will be recording information for later playback, NASA said.

Only Odyssey can relay the information immediately, the agency said.

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NASA makes Mars landing preparations

NASA'S Space Launch System Passes Major Agency Review, Moves to Preliminary Design

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WASHINGTON -- The rocket that will launch humans farther into space than ever before passed a major NASA review Wednesday. The Space Launch System (SLS) Program completed a combined System Requirements Review and System Definition Review, which set requirements of the overall launch vehicle system. SLS now moves ahead to its preliminary design phase.

The SLS will launch NASA's Orion spacecraft and other payloads, and provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

These NASA reviews set technical, performance, cost and schedule requirements to provide on-time development of the heavy-lift rocket. As part of the process, an independent review board comprised of technical experts from across NASA evaluated SLS Program documents describing vehicle specifications, budget and schedule. The board confirmed SLS is ready to move from concept development to preliminary design.

"This new heavy-lift launch vehicle will make it possible for explorers to reach beyond our current limits, to nearby asteroids, Mars and its moons, and to destinations even farther across our solar system," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The in-depth assessment confirmed the basic vehicle concepts of the SLS, allowing the team to move forward and start more detailed engineering design."

The reviews also confirmed the SLS system architecture and integration with the Orion spacecraft, managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, which manage the operations and launch facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"This is a pivotal moment for this program and for NASA," said SLS Program Manager Todd May. "This has been a whirlwind experience from a design standpoint. Reaching this key development point in such a short period of time, while following the strict protocol and design standards set by NASA for human spaceflight is a testament to the team's commitment to delivering the nation's next heavy-lift launch vehicle."

SLS reached this major milestone less than 10 months after the program's inception. The combination of the two assessments represents a fundamentally different way of conducting NASA program reviews. The SLS team is streamlining processes to provide the nation with a safe, affordable and sustainable heavy-lift launch vehicle capability. The next major program milestone is the preliminary design review, targeted for late next year.

The first test flight of NASA's Space Launch System, which will feature a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity, is scheduled for 2017. As SLS evolves, a three-stage launch vehicle configuration will provide a lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions beyond low Earth orbit and support deep space exploration.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the SLS program. Across the country NASA and its industry partners continue to make progress on SLS hardware that will be integrated into the final design. The RS-25 core stage and J-2X upper-stage rocket engine in development by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., for the future two-stage SLS, will be tested at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The prime contractor for the five-segment solid rocket boosters, ATK of Brigham City, Utah, has begun processing its first SLS boosters in preparation for an initial qualification test next year, ahead of their use for the first two exploration missions. The Boeing Co. in Huntsville is designing the SLS core stage, to be built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and tested at Stennis before being shipped to Kennedy.

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NASA'S Space Launch System Passes Major Agency Review, Moves to Preliminary Design

Mars rover's crazy-looking landing plan is technically sound, says NASA (+video)

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NASA scientists say that the Mars Curiosity rover's audacious August 5landing plan, which involves a hypersonic parachute, retrorockets, and a hovering 'sky crane' system is exactly what is needed for the $2.5 billion rover.

Many have been fretting about the seemingly implausible, risky landing strategy of the new Mars rover Curiosity set to arrive on the Red Planet next month, but engineers say the worry is overblown.

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Curiosity, the Mini Cooper-size centerpiece of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, is due to be lowered onto the Martian surface by a hovering Sky Crane holding it up via tethers. Despite the audacity of the concept, many aerospace engineers say the plan is solid.

"I agree it looks scary, it looks risky, but it's technically sound," said Georgia Institute of Technology professor Bobby Braun, who served as NASA chief technologist from 2010-2011. Braun was not part of the engineering team, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., that designed the Curiosity landing system. "In my view, it's not risky, it's actually the right way to land the system they're trying to land."

The new $2.5 billion rover is designed to analyze samples of Mars rock for signs that our planetary neighbor is, or ever was, habitable to life. Weighing in at 1 ton, Curiosity is too heavy to land with the assistance of cushioning airbags, like NASA's previous two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

Instead, parachutes will slow the MSL descent stage toward Mars at first. Then, the descent stage will use rocket engines to dampen its speed further. Finally, at about 115 feet (35 meters) above the surface, the Sky Crane system will lower Curiosity, wheels-down, toward the ground, attached to nylon tethers. The rover is designed to be gently settled on the surface, after which the Sky Crane will detach and fly off to land a distance away. [How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works (Pictures)]

The plan requires a large number of sophisticated parts to work impeccably, and is utterly different than any previous mechanism used to land a machine on another planet, prompting some to charge that it's a scheme Rube Goldberg would have approved.

"A lot of people seem skeptical of it. I'm not," said Stephen Gorevan, chairman of New York City robotics firm Honeybee Robotics, which built Curiosity's internal Sample Manipulation System, but wasn't involved with the landing strategy. "I just think, the thing has been so tested. I see the electromechanical elements, I'm an engineer, I see at least each individual element of the scheme seems very reliable to me. It's new, it's daring, but I see it working."

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Mars rover's crazy-looking landing plan is technically sound, says NASA (+video)