Space Station Astronaut Demonstrates the COLBERT Treadmill | NASA Science Video – Video


Space Station Astronaut Demonstrates the COLBERT Treadmill | NASA Science Video
Visit my website at http://www.junglejoel.com - Expedition 37 flight engineer Karen Nyberg demonstrates how astronauts use the COLBERT treadmill in the weigh...

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Space Station Astronaut Demonstrates the COLBERT Treadmill | NASA Science Video - Video

NASA's Hubble and Chandra Find Evidence for Densest Nearby Galaxy

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 -- NASA issued the following news release:

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory and telescopes on the ground may have found the most crowded galaxy in our part of the universe.

The ultra-compact dwarf galaxy, known as M60-UCD1, is packed with an extraordinary number of stars and may be the densest galaxy near Earth. It is providing astronomers with clues to its intriguing past and its role in the galactic evolutionary chain.

M60-UCD1, estimated to be about 10 billion years old, is near the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 4649, also called M60, about 54 million light years from Earth. It is the most luminous known galaxy of its type and one of the most massive, weighing 200 million times more than our sun, based on observations with the W.M. Keck Observatory 10-meter telescope in Hawaii.

What makes M60-UCD1 so remarkable is that about half of this mass is found within a radius of only about 80 light years. The density of stars is about 15,000 times greater -- meaning the stars are about 25 times closer to each other -- than in Earth's neighborhood in the Milky Way galaxy.

"Traveling from one star to another would be a lot easier in M60-UCD1 than it is in our galaxy, but it would still take hundreds of years using present technology," said Jay Strader of Michigan State University in Lansing. Strader is the lead author of a paper about the research, which was published Sept. 20 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The 6.5-meter Multiple Mirror Telescope in Arizona was used to study the amount of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in stars in M60-UCD1. The values were found to be similar to our sun.

"The abundance of heavy elements in this galaxy makes it a fertile environment for planets and, potentially, for life to form," said co-author Anil Seth of the University of Utah.

Another intriguing aspect of M60-UCD1 is the presence of a bright X-ray source in its center, revealed in Chandra data. One explanation for this source is a giant black hole weighing in at about 10 million times the mass of our sun.

Astronomers want to find out whether M60-UCD1 was born as a jam-packed star cluster or became more compact as stars were ripped away from it. Large black holes are not found in star clusters, so if the X-ray source is in fact due to a massive black hole, it was likely produced by collisions between M60-UCD1 and one or more nearby galaxies. M60-UCD1's great mass and the abundances of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are also arguments for the theory it is the remnant of a much larger galaxy.

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NASA's Hubble and Chandra Find Evidence for Densest Nearby Galaxy

12 NASA Explorer Schools Receive Honor Awards and Grants

NASA has recognized 12 NASA Explorer Schools from 11 U.S. states for their contributions to science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) education in the 2012-2013 school year.

All 12 schools will receive a NASA certificate of recognition that includes an American flag that was flown in space. Six of the 12 also submitted successful proposals to a recent NASA Explorer Schools solicitation and will receive a $5,000 grant to help implement a STEM project in their classrooms by April 2014.

The schools identified as leaders in STEM education and selected to receive a NASA Explorer Schools Honor Award are:

Forest Lake Technology Magnet, Columbia, S.C. Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, Stamford, Conn. Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Glendale, Calif. Mack Benn Jr. Elementary School, Suffolk, Va. Franke Park Elementary School, Fort Wayne, Ind. Ferndale Middle School, High Point, N.C.

The six schools also receiving a $5,000 grant are:

Cardinal Gibbons High School, Raleigh, N.C. Northland Preparatory Academy, Flagstaff, Ariz. Stoney Creek High School, Rochester Hills, Mich. St. Marys Visitation School, Elm Grove, Wis. Corpus Christi Catholic School, Chambersburg, Pa. Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Germantown, Tenn.

"Congratulations to the 2012-2013 honor award and grant winners," said Diane DeTroye, NASA's director of STEM engagement in Washington. "By using NASA educational resources, innovative teachers brought new approaches to their classrooms to engage their students in STEM studies."

A team of NASA education professionals selected these 12 schools for their exemplary classroom practices and innovative uses of NASA educational content to engage a broad school population in STEM activities.

The NASA Explorer Schools project infuses STEM content related to the agency's missions and programs into classroom lessons for students in grades 4-12.

For more information about NASA Explorer Schools visit: http://explorerschools.nasa.gov

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12 NASA Explorer Schools Receive Honor Awards and Grants

NASA and Homeland Security Test Radar for Locating Disaster Victims

NASA and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are collaborating on a first-of-its-kind portable radar device to detect the heartbeats and breathing patterns of victims trapped in large piles of rubble resulting from a disaster.

The prototype technology, called Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) can locate individuals buried as deep as 30 feet (about 9 meters) in crushed materials, hidden behind 20 feet (about 6 meters) of solid concrete, and from a distance of 100 feet (about 30 meters) in open spaces.

Developed in conjunction with Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, FINDER is based on remote-sensing radar technology developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., to monitor the location of spacecraft JPL manages for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

"FINDER is bringing NASA technology that explores other planets to the effort to save lives on ours," said Mason Peck, chief technologist for NASA, and principal advisor on technology policy and programs. "This is a prime example of intergovernmental collaboration and expertise that has a direct benefit to the American taxpayer."

The technology was demonstrated to the media Wednesday at the DHS's Virginia Task Force 1 Training Facility in Lorton, Va. Media participated in demonstrations that featured the device locating volunteers hiding under heaps of debris. FINDER also will be tested further by the Federal Emergency Management Agency this year and next.

"The ultimate goal of FINDER is to help emergency responders efficiently rescue victims of disasters," said John Price, program manager for the First Responders Group in Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate in Washington. "The technology has the potential to quickly identify the presence of living victims, allowing rescue workers to more precisely deploy their limited resources."

The technology works by beaming microwave radar signals into the piles of debris and analyzing the patterns of signals that bounce back. NASA's Deep Space Network regularly uses similar radar technology to locate spacecraft. A light wave is sent to a spacecraft, and the time it takes for the signal to get back reveals how far away the spacecraft is. This technique is used for science research, too. For example, the Deep Space Network monitors the location of the Cassini mission's orbit around Saturn to learn about the ringed planet's internal structure.

"Detecting small motions from the victim's heartbeat and breathing from a distance uses the same kind of signal processing as detecting the small changes in motion of spacecraft like Cassini as it orbits Saturn," said James Lux, task manager for FINDER at JPL.

In disaster scenarios, the use of radar signals can be particularly complex. Earthquakes and tornadoes produce twisted and shattered wreckage, such that any radar signals bouncing back from these piles are tangled and hard to decipher. JPL's expertise in data processing helped with this challenge. Advanced algorithms isolate the tiny signals from a person's moving chest by filtering out other signals, such as those from moving trees and animals.

Similar technology has potential applications in NASA's future human missions to space habitats. The astronauts' vital signs could be monitored without the need for wires.

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NASA and Homeland Security Test Radar for Locating Disaster Victims

Foundation Medicine IPO Greeted with Open Wallets

Cancer-treatment company Foundation Medicine Inc. (FMI) held its initial public offering (IPO) Wednesday morning. The company sold 5.9 million shares at an offering price of $18 a share, above its proposed range of $14 to $16 for a total of 5 million shares. Following the offering the company will have around 27 million shares outstanding, not including the underwriters options on 833,300 additional shares.

At the IPO price the company raised about $106 million. Foundation Medicine expects to use its net proceeds to fund expansion, new and ongoing clinical trials, working capital, and general corporate purposes. The company plans to spend about $18 million to expand its sales force in the U.S. and internationally, another $12 million to fund clinical trials, and $10 million on both expanding its laboratory operations and infrastructure expansion.

ALSO READ: The Worst States to Be Unemployed

Foundation Medicine is a commercial-stage company that sells molecular information derived from its proprietary methods for analyzing cancer tumors to physicians and biopharmaceutical companies.

Shares have jumped about 78% shortly after noon, to $32.00 after hitting a high of $33.25.

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Foundation Medicine IPO Greeted with Open Wallets

Modernizing Medicine and Miraca Life Sciences Partner to Create Enhanced EMR and Pathology Lab Integration

BOCA RATON, FL--(Marketwired - Sep 25, 2013) - Modernizing Medicine, the creator of the Electronic Medical Assistant (EMA), a cloud-based, specialty-specific electronic medical record (EMR) system, and Miraca Life Sciences (MLS), a specialist in the development and commercialization of subspecialty expert anatomic pathology services, announced today that they are partnering to develop an enhanced diagnostic data bridge.

Pathologists normally analyze tissue samples with limited clinical background on patients, which can delay accurate diagnoses. EMA dermatologists and MLS pathologists will be able to share additional diagnostic information, which can help the pathologist create a more timely, informed and accurate analysis.

"This is truly the future of healthcare technology," said Dr. Michael Sherling, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Modernizing Medicine. "Structured data stored in the cloud with Modernizing Medicine's EMA EMR is the key to letting us share information with MLS. Working together, we intend to build an enhanced system to improve communications between dermatologists and pathologists which should ultimately help patients -- improved patient care through technology is what we're all about."

Modernizing Medicine's user-friendly EMA adapts to each healthcare provider's unique style of practice and integrates seamlessly into the practice's workflow, saving physicians and their staff time and increasing efficiencies. EMA's cloud-based approach to collecting and storing patient information enables physicians to utilize the EMA Network to create, visualize and consume treatment data to better care for their patients.

"Partnering with Modernizing Medicine is a natural fit, since we share the same goals of using technology to accelerate positive change in healthcare," said Richard Lash, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Miraca Life Sciences. "Miraca's existing structured data based on our consensus approach to diagnostic terminology and criteria will complement the rich clinical information provided by Modernizing Medicine, helping ensure the most definitive diagnoses for individual patients while creating a powerful database to help clinicians and pathologists improve patient outcomes."

Available as a native iPad application or from any web-enabled Mac or PC, Modernizing Medicine's EMA is developed by physicians for the dermatology, ophthalmology, optometry, orthopedics and plastic and cosmetic surgery markets. This year, Software Advice named EMA the #1 tablet EHR and the company was listed on Forbes' annual ranking of America's Most Promising Companies.

About Modernizing Medicine

Modernizing Medicine is transforming how healthcare information is created, consumed and utilized in order to increase efficiency and improve outcomes. Its product, Electronic Medical Assistant (EMA), is a cloud-based, specialty-specific electronic medical record (EMR) system with a massive library of built-in medical content, designed to save physicians time. Available as a native iPad application or from any web-enabled Mac or PC, EMA adapts to each provider's unique style of practice and is designed to interface with hundreds of different practice management systems. Today, Modernizing Medicine provides specialty-specific offerings for the dermatology, ophthalmology, optometry, orthopedics and plastic and cosmetic surgery markets, and to more than 1,000 physician practices across the country.In 2013 Modernizing Medicine was listed at No. 47 on Forbes' annual ranking of America's Most Promising Companies.

About Miraca Life Sciences

Serving more than 3,500 patients each day, Miraca Life Sciences is a leader in providing an academic-caliber pathology laboratory with diagnostic services in the fields of dermatology, gastroenterology, hematology and urology. Building upon our experience with health IT, we also offer accessible technology solutions to assist healthcare professionals as they work towards accordance with Meaningful Use initiatives.

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Modernizing Medicine and Miraca Life Sciences Partner to Create Enhanced EMR and Pathology Lab Integration

ECONOMIC LIBERTY LECTURE SERIES – George Selgin ""Free Banking and the Economics of a Free Society" – Video


ECONOMIC LIBERTY LECTURE SERIES - George Selgin ""Free Banking and the Economics of a Free Society"
George Selgin is a Professor of Economics at the University of Georgia #39;s Terry College of Business. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. His research...

By: The Future of Freedom Foundation

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ECONOMIC LIBERTY LECTURE SERIES - George Selgin ""Free Banking and the Economics of a Free Society" - Video

Liberty Global CEO Fries Downplays Apple TV Threat

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Liberty Global (LTBTYA) CEO Mike Fries doesn't expect Apple (AAPL) to build a TV, amid speculation that Tim Cook and Co. are working on a strategy to upend the cable TV industry.

At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference on Tuesday, Fries, who heads one of the top cable providers in Europe, downplayed the threat Apple TV poses to traditional cable bundles and said conversations he had with Cook don't indicate that Apple will manufacture an actual TV.

"I don't think they're going to build a TV. They want to be in the interface business. They want essentially to get in between cable operators and customers," Fries said on Tuesday.

"That's a tricky proposition when you think about the economics of that and who wins and who loses and how you share revenue. So I don't anticipate any bold moves in our space from them but -- so they're not a big threat," he added.

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Liberty Global CEO Fries Downplays Apple TV Threat