Monthly Archives: February 2014

NASA gets ready to assemble the most powerful telescope

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Washington, Feb 4:

All the pieces of the most powerful space telescope ever are ready for assembly at NASA, the US space agency has said.

The $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for launch in 2018 and aims to provide an unprecedented look at far-away planets and the first galaxies formed.

A successor to the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, it is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

All 18 of its primary mirror segments and four science instruments are now housed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre facilities in suburban Maryland.

The recent completion of the critical design review for Webb, and the delivery of all its instruments to Goddard, mark significant progress for this mission, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said yesterday.

Its very exciting to see it all coming together on schedule.

The project has gained support from US lawmakers despite a number of delays and cost hikes that delayed delivery from its initial 2013 date and pushed spending way over its primary budget of $3.5 billion.

(This article was published on February 4, 2014)

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NASA gets ready to assemble the most powerful telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope Will Be Like Going From A Biplane To The Jet Engine, Says Sen. Mikulski

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NASA hosted a news conference detailing the JWST'sprogress. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., were on hand to tour the Goddard Space Flight Center and discuss what the JWST means for the space agency and the future of space research.

Mikulski, as chairwoman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, fought to save NASA from budget cuts in the recently announced $1.02 trillion spending bill. Forfiscal 2014, NASA received a budget of $17.6 billion, and Congress kept the provision that capped the James Webb Space Telescopes budget at $8 billion.

The JWST was on the chopping block ahead of 2011s spending bill but was saved following cuts on other ventures and the acceptance of a budget cap on the project by NASA. Mikulski discussed the smashing success of Hubble, saying the space telescope has rewritten the science books and likened the evolution of space telescopes to going from a biplane to the jet engine and has high hopes for the JWST.

As chairwoman, Ive continued to fight for funds in the federal checkbook to keep the James Webb Space Telescope mission on track, supporting jobs today and jobs tomorrow at Goddard. NASA Goddard is home to leaders in Marylands space and innovation economies, making discoveries that not only win Nobel Prizes, but create new products and jobs. The James Webb Space Telescope will keep us in the lead for astronomy for decades to come, spurring the innovation and technology that keep Americas economy rolling, said Mikulski in a statement.

According to NASA, the JWST is almost complete as the final set of primary mirrors have been delivered to Goddard and the telescopes four science instruments are also sitting in the facilitys clean room. The science instruments include a Near-Infrared Camera, a Near-Infrared Spectrograph that can analyze 100 objects simultaneously, a Mid-Infrared Instrument and a Fine Guidance Sensor and Near-infrared Imager to boost the telescopes resolution.

All thats left for the JSWT is the assembly as NASA waits for the telescope structure while the telescope sunshield, developed by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, is in the final stages of completion. NASA says the James Webb Space Telescope will be assembled by 2016 and will undergo final testing before its launch in 2018.

The full James Webb Space Telescope conference can be viewed below.

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The James Webb Space Telescope Will Be Like Going From A Biplane To The Jet Engine, Says Sen. Mikulski

Red Light Secrets Museum opens in Amsterdam

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In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014, the entrance of the 'Red Light Secrets' prostitution museum is seen, right, in Amsterdam. On any given evening, thousands of tourists stroll down the narrow streets of Amsterdam's famed Red Light District, gawking at ladies in lingerie who work behind windows, making a living selling sex for money. Now a small educational museum is opening in heart of the district that aims to show reality from the other side of the glass. Organizer Melcher de Wind says the Red Light Secrets museum is for those who want to learn more about how the area works without actually visiting a prostitute. (AP Photo/Evert Elzinga)

AMSTERDAM (AP) On any given evening, thousands of tourists stroll down the narrow canal-side streets of Amsterdam's famed Red Light District, gawking at ladies in lingerie who work behind windows, making a living selling sex for money. Now a small educational museum is opening Thursday in the heart of the district to show reality from the other side of the glass.

RED LIGHT SECRETS

Organizer Melcher de Wind says the Red Light Secrets museum is for those who want to learn more about how the area works without actually visiting a prostitute. It's located in a former brothel, one of the narrow buildings typical of Amsterdam.

Visitors enter the museum by passing a hologram of a beckoning prostitute. Then the displays attempt to place prostitutes as part of society. There's a short film showing the many people who work with the prostitutes: cleaning or repairing their rooms, doing their laundry, or running over to their windows with coffee or food during shifts.

Prostitutes rent windows on a half-day basis and can work shifts that are 11 hours long, six days a week. They spend a lot of time waiting for customers. In their free time, they visit local hairdressers, nail salons and clothing shops.

There's also a nursery school in the heart of the Red Light District, right next to the windows. In one scene in the film, a middle-aged prostitute in red leather receives an afternoon visit from her grade-school daughter.

A LONG HISTORY IN AMSTERDAM

The museum makes only a passing attempt to document the history of prostitution tolerance in Amsterdam starting from the 16th century, when it was a port city flush with wealth from the spice trade and authorities turned a blind eye when sailors went ashore looking for women. Or during the Napoleonic Wars, when prostitutes first began to have mandatory medical checkups to combat venereal disease among soldiers.

The museum focuses on the era since 2000, when prostitution became legal in the Netherlands. Since then the city has been struggling it says with some success to eradicate pimps and human trafficking.

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Red Light Secrets Museum opens in Amsterdam

Red Light Secrets Museum opens in Amsterdam – NBC40.net

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By TOBY STERLING Associated Press

AMSTERDAM (AP) - On any given evening, thousands of tourists stroll down the narrow canal-side streets of Amsterdam's famed Red Light District, gawking at ladies in lingerie who work behind windows, making a living selling sex for money. Now a small educational museum is opening Thursday in the heart of the district to show reality from the other side of the glass.

RED LIGHT SECRETS

Organizer Melcher de Wind says the Red Light Secrets museum is for those who want to learn more about how the area works without actually visiting a prostitute. It's located in a former brothel, one of the narrow buildings typical of Amsterdam.

Visitors enter the museum by passing a hologram of a beckoning prostitute. Then the displays attempt to place prostitutes as part of society. There's a short film showing the many people who work with the prostitutes: cleaning or repairing their rooms, doing their laundry, or running over to their windows with coffee or food during shifts.

Prostitutes rent windows on a half-day basis and can work shifts that are 11 hours long, six days a week. They spend a lot of time waiting for customers. In their free time, they visit local hairdressers, nail salons and clothing shops.

There's also a nursery school in the heart of the Red Light District, right next to the windows. In one scene in the film, a middle-aged prostitute in red leather receives an afternoon visit from her grade-school daughter.

A LONG HISTORY IN AMSTERDAM

The museum makes only a passing attempt to document the history of prostitution tolerance in Amsterdam - starting from the 16th century, when it was a port city flush with wealth from the spice trade and authorities turned a blind eye when sailors went ashore looking for women. Or during the Napoleonic Wars, when prostitutes first began to have mandatory medical checkups to combat venereal disease among soldiers.

The museum focuses on the era since 2000, when prostitution became legal in the Netherlands. Since then the city has been struggling - it says with some success - to eradicate pimps and human trafficking.

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Red Light Secrets Museum opens in Amsterdam - NBC40.net

NASA plans to make coldest spot in universe

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NASA is working on making things a lot colder on the International Space Stationas in, about as cold as physically possible. Scientists are building a "Cold Atom Lab," which would be able to bring matter within down as low as 0.0000000001 degrees above absolute zero, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

(The lab itself will be a "fridge-sized box," it notes.) Absolute zero, which is equivalent to 459.67 Fahrenheit, is the theoretical point at which matter loses all thermal energy.

As matter approaches it, things get weird; it begins acting like a wave, and can be in two places at once. NASA will be studying in particular Bose-Einstein condensates, which are created when millions of atoms begin coalescing into a single wave.

Building the lab in zero gravity will make it a lot easier to generate these low temperatures, allowing particles to sit comfortably within a force field.

The effort is piggybacking on a broader microgravity lab, the Tech Times adds, and like that lab, isn't expected to launch until 2016. But once it's live, it'll be the coldest place in the known universeeven deep space between galaxies only reaches 3 Kelvin, or -454.27 degrees Fahrenheit, Geek.com points out, compared to the lab's 100 pico-Kelvin.

(In other chilly news, scientists have identified the coldest spot on Earth.)

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NASA plans to make coldest spot in universe

NASA Moon Dust Probe Gets Longer Lunar Life

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NASA's newest lunar probe now has a longer lease on life, giving it more time to investigate the mysteries of moon dust as it orbits Earth's natural satellite.

Space agency official have granted theLADEE spacecraft(short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) a 28-day mission extension. Scientists will use the additional time to make different measurements of lunar dust in the moon's thin atmosphere from a lower orbit than LADEE has used before, NASA representatives said.

"The science team has already established a baseline of data for the tenuous lunar atmosphere, or exosphere, and dust impacts," Rick Elphic, LADEE project scientist, said in a statement. "One cool thing about this extension is that we plan to fly LADEE at only a few kilometers above the lunar surface. This will be much lower than weve been before." [Photos: NASA's LADEE Moon Dust Mission in Pictures]

LADEE launched to the moon on Sept. 6, 2013 on a mission to investigate the nature of moon dust and solve a long-standing mystery dating back to before the Apollo program.

Scientists are trying to uncover what caused a glow Apollo astronauts saw on the lunar horizon before sunrise. Researchers expect that magnetically charged dust in the moon's exosphere is to blame for the unexpected glimmering. However, LADEE is designed to collect more data on the subject.

LADEE started science operation on Nov. 10, 2013 and originally, the couch-sized spacecraft was only expected to conduct 100 days of science around the moon. But the probe has enough fuel to collect another lunar cycle's worth of data before crashing into the moon's surface. LADEE is now expected to impact the moon on April 21 of this year.

"The launch vehicle performance and orbit capture burns using LADEE's onboard engines were extremely accurate, so the spacecraft had significant propellant remaining to enable extra science," Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at NASA Ames in California, said in a statement. "This extension represents a tremendous increase in the amount of science data returned from the mission."

Moon Master: An Easy Quiz for Lunatics

For most of human history, the moon was largely a mystery. It spawned awe and fear and to this day is the source of myth and legend. But today we know a lot about our favorite natural satellite. Do you?

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NASA Moon Dust Probe Gets Longer Lunar Life

Gold Nanowires for Ultrathin, Flexible Sensors

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Pressure sensors are used in all kinds of applications, including touch screens, wearable technology and even in aircraft and cars. Unlike current pressure sensors, which rely on semiconductor material, "this approach is low-cost and doesn't require lithography or expensive equipment, and it does not need a clean room," said study co-author Wenlong Cheng, a nanomaterials researcher at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. "It's environmentally friendly."

The new sensor, described today (Feb. 4) in the journal Nature Communications, could one day be used as artificial skin for heart-rate monitors or other body sensors. [The Best Fitness Trackers]

Most pressure sensors typically rely on either capacitors or piezoelectric materials, both of which accumulate electric charge when subject to mechanical stress. But both of these elements require semiconductor material, which is brittle and has to be fabricated in clean rooms, free of dust and contaminants, by people wearing astronautlike suits.

Cheng and his colleagues had another idea. The team mixed a gold salt with another chemical called oleylamine, and then waited a day or two. The chemical reaction forms miniscule, threadlike nanowires of gold.

They then soaked a paper-towel-like material in the nanowires, and the golden threads were automatically absorbed into the paper towel. The team then sandwiched the paper-towel material between two thin, synthetic rubber sheets.

The total thickness was about 0.02 inches (0.5 millimeters), Cheng said.

When exposed to pressure, the nanowires change how easily electrical current flows through them, and this change in current can then be detected.

Sensitive and Flexible

The new devices are as sensitive as the best pressure sensors, and can withstand twisting and bending without cracking.

The device could be used as artificial skin to monitor many mechanical properties of the blood, including heartbeat. The sensor would be placed on top of a person's skin, where it would sense the acoustic and pressure changes from blood flow.

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Gold Nanowires for Ultrathin, Flexible Sensors

Using nanotechnology to protect grain exports

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6 hours ago by Robyn Mills

(Phys.org) University of Adelaide researchers are using nanotechnology and the fossils of single-celled algae to develop a novel chemical-free and resistance-free way of protecting stored grain from insects.

The researchers are taking advantage of the unique properties of these single-celled algae, called diatoms. Diatoms have been called Nature's nanofabrication factories because of their production of tiny (nanoscale) structures made from silica which have a range of properties of potential interest for nanotechnology.

"One area of our research is focussed on transforming this cheap diatom silica, readily available as a by-product of mining, into valuable nanomaterials for diverse applications - one of which is pest control," says Professor Dusan Losic, ARC Future Fellow in the University's School of Chemical Engineering.

Their research is being presented at this week's ICONN2014-ACMM23 conference for nanoscience and microscopy being hosted by the University of Adelaide at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

"There are two looming issues for the world-wide protection against insect pests of stored grain: firstly, the development of resistance by many species to conventional pest controls - insecticides and the fumigant phosphine - and, secondly, the increasing consumer demand for residue-free grain products and food," Professor Losic says.

"In the case of Australia, we export grain worth about $8 billion each year - about 25 million tonnes - which could be under serious threat. We urgently need to find alternative methods for stored grain protection which are ecologically sound and resistance-free."

The researchers are using a natural, non-toxic silica material based on the 'diatomaceous earths' formed by the fossilisation of diatoms. The material disrupts the insect's protective cuticle, causing the insect to dehydrate.

"This is a natural and non-toxic material with a significant advantage being that, as only a physical mode of action is involved, the insects won't develop resistance," says Professor Losic.

"Equally important is that it is environmentally stable with high insecticidal activity for a long period of time. Therefore, stored products can be protected for longer periods of time without the need for frequent re-application."

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Using nanotechnology to protect grain exports

Dr. Lawrence Mayer – President and Head of Research at Celator Pharmaceuticals – Video

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Dr. Lawrence Mayer - President and Head of Research at Celator Pharmaceuticals
Script: As you probably know, treatment of AML have been the same for the last 30 years; and it has not been particularly effective. You uses two drugs: cyta...

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Dr. Lawrence Mayer - President and Head of Research at Celator Pharmaceuticals - Video

Electronically controlled drugs could minimize side effects

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Feb-2014

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society

Potential side effects of many of today's therapeutic drugs can be downright frightening just listen carefully to a drug commercial on TV. These effects often occur when a drug is active throughout the body, not just where and when it is needed. But scientists are reporting progress on a new tailored approach to deliver medicine in a much more targeted way. The study on these new electronically controlled drugs appears in the journal ACS Nano.

Xinyan Tracy Cui and colleagues note that in the lab, "smart" medical implants can now release drugs on demand when exposed to various cues, including ultraviolet light and electrical current. These advances are largely thanks to developments in nanomaterials that can be designed to carry drugs and then release them at specific times and dosages. Researchers have also experimented with loading anti-cancer drugs on thin, tiny sheets of graphene oxide (GO), which have a lot of traits that are useful in drug delivery. But current techniques still require tweaking before they'll be ready for prime time. Cui's team wanted to work out some of the final kinks.

They incorporated GO nanosheets into a polymer thin film that can conduct electricity, loaded it with an anti-inflammatory drug and coated an electrode with it. When they zapped the material with an electric current, they showed that it released the drug consistently in response. They could do this several hundred times. Also, by experimenting with the sizes and thicknesses of the GO sheets, the scientists could change how much drug the nanosheets could carry. Cui said this approach could be useful in treating epilepsy, for example. In that case, medication already lying in wait inside the body could be released at the onset of a seizure.

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The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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Electronically controlled drugs could minimize side effects

Top 10 Internet-censored countries

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Countries where the Internet is most controlled and speaking your mind on it can get you in serious trouble with the government, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists:

1. North Korea. All websites are under government control. About 4% of the population has Internet access.

2. Burma. Authorities filter e-mails and block access to sites of groups that expose human rights violations or disagree with the government.

3. Cuba. Internet available only at government controlled "access points." Activity online is monitored through IP blocking, keyword filtering and browsing history checking. Only pro-government users may upload content.

4. Saudi Arabia. Around 400,000 sites have been blocked, including any that discuss political, social or religious topics incompatible with the Islamic beliefs of the monarchy.

5. Iran. Bloggers must register at the Ministry of Art and Culture. Those that express opposition to the mullahs who run the country are harassed and jailed.

6. China. China has the most rigid censorship program in the world. The government filters searches, block sites and erases "inconvenient" content, rerouting search terms on Taiwan independence or the Tiananmen Square massacre to items favorable to the Communist Party.

7. Syria. Bloggers who "jeopardize national unity" are arrested. Cybercafes must ask all customers for identification, record time of use and report the information to authorities.

8. Tunisia. Tunisian Internet service providers must report to the government the IP addresses and personal information of all bloggers. All traffic goes through a central network. The government filters all content uploaded and monitors e-mails.

9. Vietnam. The Communist Party requires Yahoo, Google and Microsoft to divulge data on all bloggers who use their platforms. It blocks websites critical of the government, as well as those that advocate for democracy, human rights and religious freedom.

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Top 10 Internet-censored countries