Monthly Archives: August 2017

Lung fibrosis? Stem cell therapy holds promise – The Hindu

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A team of scientists from the UNC School of Medicine and North Carolina State University (NCSU), U.S. have developed promising research towards possible stem cell treatment for several lung conditions, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cystic fibrosis, all of which are known to be fatal conditions. In the journal Respiratory Research, the scientists demonstrated that they could harvest lung stem cells from people using a relatively non-invasive, doctors office technique. They were then able to multiply the harvested lung cells in the lab to yield enough cells sufficient for human therapy.

In a second study, published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine, the team showed that in rodents they could use the same type of lung cell to successfully treat a model of IPF a chronic, irreversible, and ultimately fatal disease characterised by a progressive decline in lung function. These diseases of the lung involve the build-up of fibrous, scar-like tissue, typically due to chronic lung inflammation. As this fibrous tissue replaces working lung tissue, the lungs become less able to transfer oxygen to the blood. Patients ultimately are at risk of early death from respiratory failure. In the case of IPF, which has been linked to smoking, most patients live for fewer than five years after diagnosis.

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Lung fibrosis? Stem cell therapy holds promise - The Hindu

Spinning new stories and old – The News on Sunday

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A novel strung together by themes of impermanence, immortality, human savagery and injustice against the backdrop of Lahore, Takshashila, Tilla Jogian and other cities

Reviewing a novel, a poem or an artwork is a kind of subjective process. To state at the outset, a work of literature or art is aesthetically felt felt as the emotional reactions it evokes emphatically impact our psychological and emotional state.

The aesthetic experience transforms not only our emotional being but also affects our visual cognition. New channels of vision are opened up, and we are compelled to change, in the words of John Berger, what we look at because to look is an act of choice. The altered ways of seeing, eventually, align our placement in the immediate environment. For instance, hierarchies are displaced or built anew and heroes become villains and the once-villains turn into new heroes.

So, engagement with an artistic work ushers in an alchemical presence; but story-telling, in particular, wields a magical quality, a tilism, which Scheherazade, a young Iranian queen married to King Shaharyar, breathtakingly employed to avert the prospect of impending death, night after night. Till after 1,000 nights and 1,000 stories, the king whose heart had turned hard against the fairer sex after the betrayal of his wife and who had ordered the killing of his new wife after a nights tryst was healed, his grief redeemed, and he fell in love with his story-spinning queen.

Reading Osama Siddiques novel Snuffing Out the Moon has that transformative quality, for I felt that I was entering into different thresholds manifesting manifold illusions: From Mohenjo Daro to Takshashila to the subah of Punjab to the British-administered Punjab (1857) to contemporary Lahore (2009) to the futuristic Water conglomerate (2084); the crossovers undulate forward and backward, as if you are swinging on the roots of an old Banyan tree.

The illusions of different epochs either change or in many instances remain constant and vary from Mohenjo Daros chiselled beads, deemed as a symbol of the city of bricks brilliant craftsmanship, to the Mughal Emperor Jehangirs grandiose tiles the World-Seizer to his equally grandiloquent dream of a permanent empire to the ever-elusive justice for Rafiya Begum.

Interestingly, the narrative structure of Snuffing Out the Moon cannot be fitted neatly into our traditional understanding of the genre of novel. In a conventional structure, as the plot unfolds, the characters expand through intensification of conflict and their subsequent resolutions. Not only is Snuffing Out the Moon without an overarching storyline, even various sub-plots of myriad historical ages do not gel with each other because of different characters and narrative episodes.

I entered into different thresholds manifesting manifold illusions: From Mohenjo Daro to Takshashila to the subah of Punjab to the British-administered Punjab (1857) to contemporary Lahore (2009) to the futuristic Water conglomerate (2084).

The novel is strung together by the recurring themes of dread of impermanence, desire for immortality, human savagery unleashed against nature as well as fellow human beings, and injustice. However, certain locales, such as Lahore, Takshashila and Tilla Jogian provide a steady background for contemplation and acting out of the themes. And, with a few exceptions, the characters emerge tentatively, almost like fleeting scenery observed from a moving train in more than one epoch.

Mahmood Ali, a young revolutionary in the British-administered Lahore, helps out fellow revolutionaries like Mir Sahib, a dastango, who after Oudhs annexation to British India by the East India Company, settles in a relatively less-restive Lahore, and earns the ire of Lahores gora administrators for his message of uprising, embedded within the fabled mysteries of Tilism-e-Hoshruba. Mahmood Ali aids Mir Sahib to escape from Lahore and later, in the contemporary setting of Lahore, an old woman, Rafiya Begum, discovers his grave in the Miani Sahib graveyard.

Gradually, as the tenuous hope of finding justice eludes Rafiya Begum, visits to his grave become a solace for her disconsolate heart: She developed a strange affinity for that placid patch of earth where the remains of the young man had lain for some 150 years. Similarly, Buddhamitra, the wise monk of Takshishala, who teaches his disciple how to observe the empirical reality to untangle the webs of optical illusions and use the insights for spiritual enlightenment or the minds eye leaves behind scrolls at Tilla Jogian his gift for posterity.

Essentially it is omens, nightmares and visions dwelling in the harassed minds of characters, from Prkaa to Buddhamitra to Billa the meter that coagulate the novel. Not only do omens/visions give impetus to the narrative flow and intensify conflict, they also provide the much-needed structural fluidity to the sprawling narrative. The serpents dance of death and survival, witnessed by Prkaa from a tree-top, as a recourse against inundation of the reptiles hilly habitat as a result of human degradation of environment stands as a metaphor for what catastrophes can accrue when a spanner is thrown in the working of forces of nature. Not only the exploited but exploitive, too, become victims of their fury. Again, the act of witnessing of hissing serpents is transformative and portends the calamities that fall in different historical epochs.

As a consequence of climatic uncertainty, wars, and predatory instincts of the ruling classes, Prkaa of Mohenjo Daro, Buddhamitra of Takshashila, Rafiya Begum of Lahore and Prashanto Adam Farooqui of the Water Conglomerate become exiles or pariahs. They refuse to conform to established ways of thinking and prefer to live outside the confines of society, not only physically in jungles, caves, and graveyards but also because of their seer-like intuitions to sift illusion from reality.

Seers they might be, but they still lack the roundedness which the characters can grow into when their peculiarities, idiosyncrasies and limitations are unravelled. To a considerable extent, the void of three-dimensional characters is filled by tricksters and cheaters like Sikander-i-Sani, Altaf Gulfam Amerzada, Billa the meter, Amin-ud-din Ameerzada inimitable, endearing and providing the much-needed comic relief. While seers contemplate, tricksters are men of action who invent different stratagems to make fortune and increase their clout and power.

Snuffing Out the Moon, whose title is drawn from one of Faiz Ahmed Faizs poems, is a book of journeys, cross-overs and breaching of frontiers across space and time till we abide in timeless time. The very thought that the moon, which warms the hearts of lovers in Faizs poem, can be snuffed out is horrifying, and the overall mood of the novel is melancholic. In T.S. Eliots style, it is declared this is an unloved city that we live in now. Still the scrolls of Buddhamitra and history books of Alexander Al-Murtaza Afaqi, which dont erase human history to construct self-serving versions, hold hope howsoever bleak for humanity.

Snuffing Out the Moon Author: Osama Siddique Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Year: 2017 Pages: 599 Price: Rs1,075

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Spinning new stories and old - The News on Sunday

Dragon to be packed with new experiments for International Space Station – Space Daily

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The International Space Station is a unique scientific platform enabling researchers from around the world to develop experiments that could not be performed on Earth. A line of unpiloted resupply spacecraft keeps this work going, supporting efforts to enable future human and robotic exploration of destinations well beyond low-Earth orbit.

The next mission to the space station will be the 12th commercial resupply services flight for SpaceX. Liftoff is targeted for Aug. 13 at approximately 12:56 p.m., from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This underscores the center's role as a premier, multi-user spaceport as this will be the ninth SpaceX rocket to take off from the launch pad, all this year. Pad 39A's history includes 11 Apollo flights, the launch of the Skylab space station in 1973, and 82 space shuttle missions.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will boost a Dragon spacecraft filled with almost 6,000 pounds of supplies. The payloads include crucial materials to directly support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 52 and 53.

About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit and deploy its solar arrays. A carefully choreographed series of thruster firings are scheduled to allow the spacecraft to rendezvous with the space station.

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli will grapple Dragon using the space station's robotic arm and install it on the station's Harmony module.

The station crew will unpack the Dragon and begin working with the experiments that include plant pillows containing seeds for NASA's Veggie plant growth system experiment. The plant pillows were prepared in Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility.

Veggie, like most of the research taking place on the space station, is demonstrating how the research benefits life on Earth as it advances NASA's plans to send humans to Mars.

The Dragon spacecraft will spend approximately one month attached to the space station. It will remain until mid-September when the spacecraft will return to Earth with results of earlier experiments, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.

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Dragon to be packed with new experiments for International Space Station - Space Daily

Shuttle-era structure dismantled piece-by-piece at pad 39A – Spaceflight Now

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A heavy-duty crane towering over launch pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in recent weeks has removed several large sections of a disused structure once needed to install satellites and space station modules into space shuttle cargo bays.

A demolition crew hired by SpaceX, the launch pads current tenant, has plucked pieces of the rotating service structure and lowered them to the ground since the facility hosted its most recent launch July 5. Officials took advantage of a quiet period in SpaceXs launch schedule to make progress on disassembling the structure, which is not required for Falcon rocket flights.

SpaceX said the rotating service structure is on track to be completely gone by the end of the year. NASA retains ownership of the historic launch complex, and will sell scrap metal from the demolition work, which started in minor form last year and has accelerated in recent weeks.

NASA added the moveable gantry at pad 39A in the late 1970s before the first space shuttle mission blasted off from the site in 1981. After a space shuttle rolled out to the pad from the space centers Vehicle Assembly Building, the rotating structure would wheel into position to cocoon the orbiter, giving workers the ability to load cargo into the shuttles bus-sized payload bay and pump maneuvering fuel into the ships propellant tanks.

The gantry would then rotate around 120 degrees on a vertical hinge into liftoff position in the final 24 hours before a shuttle launch.

The rotating service structure stood at a maximum height of 189 feet (57 meters) above the surface at pad 39A before the demolition started. The structure itself, which looms over the pad deck, extended 130 feet (39 meters) tall.

Originally built in the 1960s for the Apollo moon program, pad 39A hosted 12 Saturn 5 rocket flights including Apollo 11 and 82 shuttle missions departed from the seaside launch complex.

NASA decided it no longer needed pad 39A after the shuttles retirement. Nearby launch pad 39B, also built for Apollo and shuttle flights, will be home to NASAs Space Launch System, a government-owned heavy-lift rocket that will launch astronaut crews on deep space expeditions.

The shuttle-era structures at pad 39B were dismantled in 2010 and 2011.

SpaceX signed a 20-year lease agreement with NASA in 2014 to take over pad 39A, which re-entered service in February with a Falcon 9 launch to resupply the International Space Station. Eight SpaceX missions have lifted off from pad 39A so far this year.

The next Falcon 9 rocket launch is scheduled for Aug. 13, again from pad 39A, on another station cargo run.

SpaceX says Falcon 9 flights from Florida will move to nearby pad 40 later this year, once repairs of that facility are completed after a rocket explosion last year. That will free up pad 39A for more extensive renovations and upgrades for the inaugural flight of SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket, a triple-body booster designed to heave massive payloads into space.

Elon Musk, SpaceXs founder and CEO, said last month that the first Falcon Heavy test flight is scheduled for November.

The taller fixed service structure will remain in place at pad 39A. It is not needed for Falcon flights with satellites and robotic payloads, but SpaceX will connect an access arm and white room to the tower to allow astronauts to board human-rated Dragon capsules.

Along with Boeing, SpaceX has a crew transportation contract with NASA to ferry astronauts to and from the space station and end U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for the job. The latest schedule calls for the first two astronauts to fly on a Crew Dragon spaceship no earlier than June 2018, and officials said the crew access arm should be added to the fixed tower at pad 39A in late fall.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Shuttle-era structure dismantled piece-by-piece at pad 39A - Spaceflight Now

New Horizons’ KBO target may be a binary – SpaceFlight Insider – SpaceFlight Insider

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Laurel Kornfeld

August 4th, 2017

Artists impression of NASAs New Horizons spacecraft, en route to a January 2019 encounter with Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69. Image & Caption Credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI

New Horizons second target Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69 may actually be a binary system composed of two objects that either touch one another or orbit very close together, according to observations conducted by mission scientists when the KBO passed in front of a star on July 17, 2017.

Members of the New Horizons team observed the occultation by deploying a network of telescopes along the path of MU69s shadow in a remote part of Argentina.

Their goal was to capture its shadow, thereby obtaining data about the KBOs size, shape, orbit, and environment as well as information that will enable accurate refining of the spacecrafts trajectory.

MU69 is thesecond targetof NASAs New Horizons spacecraft and part of its approved extended mission by the space agency. It will be the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft.

The probe famously flew by the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, obtaining a plethora of images and data about the binary Pluto-Charon and their four small moons.

The July 17, 2017, occultation was the third of three such events this year, all of which were carefully observed by mission scientists after they used both the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agencys (ESA) Gaia satellite to pinpoint exactly where MU69s shadow would fall on Earth each time.

Based on data collected during the first occultation in June, mission scientists raised the possibility that MU69, located a billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto and more than four billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, might actually be a swarm of many small objects rather than a single object.

However, observations conducted during the third occultation indicate the object is either two objects closely orbiting each other, a contact binary in which the two objects actually touch one another, or a single, strangely shaped object missing a large chunk of material.

Mission scientists think it or both objects may be shaped like a skinny football a shape formally described as an extreme prolate spheroid.

LEFT: An artists concept of Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69, the next flyby target for NASAs New Horizons mission. This binary concept is based on telescope observations made at Patagonia, Argentina, on July 17, 2017, when MU69 passed in front of a star. New Horizons scientists theorize that it could be a single body with a large chunk taken out of it, or two bodies that are close together or even touching. RIGHT: Another artists concept of Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69, which is the next flyby target for NASAs New Horizons mission. Scientists speculate that the Kuiper Belt object could be a single body with a large chunk taken out of it, or two bodies that are close together or even touching. Images & Captions Credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI / Alex Parker

Two of Plutos small moons, Kerberos and Hydra, as well as Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko, are single objects composed of two lobes.

This new finding is simply spectacular. The shape of MU69 is truly provocative, and could mean another first for New Horizons going to a binary object in the Kuiper Belt, said mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. I could not be happier with the occultation results, which promise a scientific bonanza for the flyby.

New Horizons will fly by MU69 on January 1, 2019.

From observations of the third occultation, scientists now have a better handle on MU69s size, which they estimate to be no longer than 20 miles (30 kilometers) if the KBO is a single object.

If MU69 is a binary composed of two objects, each one is estimated to have a diameter of nine to twelve miles (1520 kilometers).

Stern credited the successes of the occultation observations to the Hubble Space Telescope and Gaia Observatory, which provided crucial information about the path of MU69s shadow on Earth on all three occasions.

Occultation data and images are available on New Horizons KBO Chasers site.

Tagged: KBO 2014 MU69 Kuiper Belt Object NASA New Horizons The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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New Horizons' KBO target may be a binary - SpaceFlight Insider - SpaceFlight Insider

The world’s weirdest billionaires – Herald Scotland

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Last week Jeff Bezos, the head honcho at Amazon, briefly ousted Bill Gates from his spot as the richest man in the world. His arrival at the top also marks the rise of a new generation of billionaires whose investment portfolios look like something out of a science fiction novel. Once upon a time, the worlds mega-rich spent their money on getting richer, or gifted it, like Bill Gates, to humanitarian causes such as saving the world from Aids. Now their projects sound as if they have been ripped from the pages of a Bond villain manual. Tesla founder, Elon Musk, for example, wants to colonise Mars and save us from destruction by intelligent robots. Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, meanwhile, wants to create libertarian utopian societies on artificial islands in the sea. The fusion of human and artificial intelligence, the creation of utopian societies on sea or in space, and immortality, are the obsessions of these men - and they are all men incidentally. Todays billionaires want to live forever and fly us to Mars.

Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel (net worth 2 billion) has long been developing a reputation for investing in outlandish projects: reintroducing the woolly mammoth, the creation of small countries on the sea, life extension therapies. Thiel even donated to the Donald Trump election campaign, making him one of the few tech entrepreneurs to have backed the current US President.

An openly gay, evangelical Christian, Thiel has expressed some startling views and philosophies, including an affinity for hardcore libertarianism and support of anti-democratic capitalism. Its not surprising therefore that some of the projects he funds are about creating escape from current society. To this end, in 2011 he pledged $125 million to the Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to launching small countries on oil-rig-type platforms in international waters. These he believes are the only option to create new societies on Earth the libertarian utopias of his dreams.

But Thiel is not just interested in alternative societies. He also hopes to escape death. He has channelled millions into biotech start-ups to cure diseases and spent significant time and energy in researching life-extending therapies for his own use. On Bloomberg TV in 2014, Thiel explained that he was taking human-growth hormone pills as part of his plan to live for 120 years. He has even expressed an interest in parabiosis the transfusion of blood from the young into the old as a form of therapy. Its one of these very odd things where people had done these studies in the 1950s, he said, and then it got dropped altogether. I think there are a lot of these things that have been strangely under-explored. He also sponsored the longevity studies of the SENS Research Foundation, run by controversial biomedical gerontologist and anti-ager Aubrey de Grey.

In a more banal, though sinister effort, he put $10 million into helping to bankrupt Gawker Media through litigation, a project which he told the New York Times, he felt was one of my greater philanthropic things that Ive done.

He says: I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives, and the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual.

Jeff Bezos

Back in 2016, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO with a net worth around 65 billion, joked that he wanted to send Donald Trump into space and created the hashtag #SendDonaldToSpace. He even quipped: I have a rocket company, so the capability is there.

Briefly, for about four hours last week, Jeff Bezos was the richest man on the planet, ousting Microsoft's Bill Gates from the number one spot before shares in Amazon plummeted and he slipped back down to third again. Some of this extraordinary wealth is being put into extraordinary schemes, and, naturally, some of these involve space. Bezos is behind Blue Origin, a space tourism company that is creating reusable rockets and plans to send its first passengers into space next year.

What he wants to create is an Amazon-like shipment service for the moon that would deliver gear for experiments, cargo and habitats by mid-2020, and help to enable "future human settlement". And Bezos is a real space nerd, who grew up with space exploration as his childhood obsession and dream. Such is his personal interest that he also funds, and participates in a project that combs the oceans for the discarded historic NASA rocket ships which fell down into the sea and were never traced. One of his teams even found the Apollo 11 rocket.

Space, however, is just one of Bezoss interests. He owns the Washington Post. He has donated 32 million and part of his land in Texas to the construction of The Clock Of The Long Now, an underground timepiece designed to work for 10,000 years and tick only once a year.

He says: People will visit Mars, they will settle Mars, and we should because it's cool.

Elon Musk

The 21st century has brought a new space race, not between countries, but between tech entrepreneurs, and if it could be measured by the size and power, of the funders respective rockets, it would be a tight competition between Amazons Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Bezos, has, in New Glen, created the bigger rocket, but Musks Falcon Heavy, reportedly, has more thrust. It's all very 'mine is bigger than yours'.

But also Musk, the Tesla founder who has driven the electric car revolution, has with SpaceX, and his plans to colonise Mars, for many years owned space in the public imagination. Hes been going at it for longer SpaceX was founded in 2002, and was the first private space company to create plans for reusable rockets, and then propose Mars colonisation. Hes also a key idol for many a tech geek.

Musk views space travel as a matter of species survival. He has claimed that there are two fundamental paths for humanity. "One is that we stay on Earth forever and then there will be an inevitable extinction event...the alternative is to become a space-faring civilisation, and a multi-planetary species."

SpaceX has already become the first private company to deliver cargo and dock at the International Space Station, and earlier this year Musk announced that SpaceX will fly two tourists around the Moon in 2018. He said that the passengers will "travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them."

And space isnt Musks only frontier. The eccentric billionaire (net worth around 11 billion) has become one of the most vocal doomsayers regarding artificial intelligence. He has described AI as humanitys biggest existential threat, and has talked of his fears that we will create a fleet of artificial intelligence-enhanced robots capable of destroying mankind. His solution? Some sort of merger of biological intelligence and machine intelligence, or what he has called a neural lace, through which our brains will connect to the web, or cloud, enhancing our own intelligence. To this end, he has created Neuralink, a company launched in March, dedicated to creating such a brain-computer interface.

He says: I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.

Igor Ashurbeyli

As billionaire plans go, you cant really get more theatrically megalomaniac than the project Russian billionaire scientist, Igor Ashurbeyli has put his wealth behind that of the creation of the very first space state, dubbed Asgardia. Last autumn, the former head of Russia's military-industrial corporation, Almaz-Antey, made a video announcement to the world: Hello Asgardians. Igor Ashurbeyli, the founding father of Asgardia, welcomes you to his office in Moscow.

Naturally, Ashurbeyli is the head of nation of this state, to which half a million people have signed up as citizens. Asgardia, ultimately, according to plans, will be a permanent space station that will house space tourists, run asteroid mining missions, and provide defence for Earth against meteorites, space debris, and other serious threats. It will be a nation that exists outside current earthly political and legal restraints. Some speculate that it could be a data haven and tax haven.

But right now, it's something much smaller. This year, Asgardia plans to send its first envoy up into space, in the form of a small satellite, piggybacking on a supply mission to the International Space Station. That satellite will carry and store data for the nation's newly selected citizens and will represent the first bit of Asgardia in space.

He says: Greetings to over half a million Earthlings from over 100 Earth countries who have joined Asgardia!

Dmitry Itskov

Within the next 35 years Im going to make sure we can all live forever. This was how Russian internet billionaire Dmitry Itskov introduced himself in the documentary, The Immortalist. Itskov had, in 2013, funded a conference in New York with the aim of seeing if a system could be created to allow him to become immortal. Without such help, he has said, he expects not to be alive in 35 years time. Hence, in order to outpace death, he has founded the 2045 initiative, which aims by that year not only to have devised the technology to map the brain, but to be able to transfer the human mind and personality onto computer, and from there into a robot body.

As preparation for his eternal life and transferral into other bodies, Itskov is now focused on developing a higher consciousness and spends several hours a day devoted to doing yoga or breathing exercises.

He says: In an ancient text, I read that whatever we have in our mind, in our consciousness, whatever we intend to achieve, we will achieve. It depends when, and it depends on the internal certainty."

Robert Mercer

This super-secretive computer scientist Robert Mercer was an early developer of artificial intelligence who is so rich he spent around $2.6million on the construction of a model railroad at his mansion in Long Island before suing the builder saying he had been overcharged by around $1.9 million.

The American is also a billionaire hedge fund manager who became the biggest single donor to the Republican Party during Donald Trumps presidential election campaign, handing over a reported $23.5 million.

Mercer, who is also a major donor to the hard-rightwing Breitbart News Network, funnelled the money to fuel the presidents political ambitions using a so-called super PAC (political action committee) which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money advocating for or opposing political candidates but cannot directly donate money to their favoured candidate.

The hedge fund manager was initially the main donor to the super PAC 'Keep the Promise 1' which was supporting Trumps rival Ted Cruz but when Cruz dropped out of the race the super PAC was rebranded 'Make America Number 1' and focused on highlighting the corruption of the Clinton machine as Mercer threw his support behind Trump. The PAC also goes by the name 'Defeat Crooked Hilary' - one of the Trump campaigns mantras.

Mercer, 71, from New Mexico, is a long-time friend of Nigel Farage and became a backer of Brexit during the EU referendum. He directed the data analytics firm his family funds to provide expert advice to the Leave campaign on how to target swing voters via Facebook.

Mercer and his wife Diana live in New York and have three daughters. As well as train sets, Mercer enjoys competitive poker, spending time on his 200-feet yacht named Sea Owl, and guns. He is a part owner of Centre Firearms, a company that claims to have the countrys largest private cache of machine guns, as well as a weapon that Arnold Schwarzenegger wielded in The Terminator.

He says: We've no idea what he says as he's so secretive.

Clive Palmer

Australian mining industry tycoon Clive Palmer has a taste for bizarre investments and his five private jets and collection of dinosaur fossils are only the start of it. Among his biggest extravagances have been the, not yet completed, rebuilding of the Titanic, equipped to take 2,435 passengers and planned to actually take to the oceans in 2018, and the Palmer Coolum Resort Dinosaur Park, the biggest robotic dinosaur theme park in the world. When asked if his Titanic II could sink, he said: Anything will sink if you put a hole in it.

He says: "I dont want to die wondering. Ive always wondered can we build another Titanic?"

Donald Trump

An elderly house-builder worth an estimated $3.5 billion. Currently President of the United States. Interests include: p***y-grabbing, spray-tans, wall-building, Russia, nepotism, the possible destruction of America as a global power, the definite destruction of truth, and casual racism.

He says: "Bigly Covfefe."

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The world's weirdest billionaires - Herald Scotland

Commentary: Red-headed Woodpeckers are a remarkable species … – SW News Media

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Recently I had a wonderful opportunity to study and photograph a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers nesting in an old tree and feeding their young. All of this happened because a reader of this column gave me a shout to share the exciting news of this cool woodpecker.

The Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythocephalus) was once a very common woodpecker. In the mid 1800's John James Audubon stated that the Red-headed Woodpecker was the most common woodpecker in North America. He called them semi-domesticated because they weren't afraid of people. He stated that they were camp robbers and also a pest.

According to the National Audubon Society, Christmas Bird Count data, between the 1950's and the year 2010 the population of Red-headed Woodpeckers dropped dramatically. Over 80 percent of the population died out in just over 50 years. Currently we continue to lose approximately 2 percent each year. That means within a couple decades we could see this bird become extinct if the trend continues.

The reason behind this decline is not understood. Many are quick to blame loss of habitat for their decline. While it is true that we have had a decline in mature tree habitat, no conclusive study indicates this to be the cause. I would point to the fact that the similar size, shape and habitat requirement Red-bellied Woodpecker populations are exploding across the country. If it were truly a habitat issue it should affect both species equally since they both have the same habitat requirements.

Competition with European Starlings for the nest cavity has also been implicated in the decline of the Red-heads. While no doubt competition for the nest cavity with the starling will impact the Red-heads, the population of the European Staring is also dropping across the country at the same time. Also, if the starling usurps the Red-head the woodpecker can always excavate a new cavity.

It has been proposed that Red-headed Woodpeckers are habitat specialists and require a very unique habitat called the oak savanna. The argument goes that as oak savanna habitat is reduced so goes the woodpecker. I would maintain that the amount of oak savanna habitat was never very large and perhaps the reason why we find Red-heads in this habitat now is because it's the last hold out where the woodpeckers can still live. All you need to do is ask anyone over the age of 50 who grew up on a farm if they remember Red-headed Woodpeckers and they didn't have oak savanna habitat.

Over the past 30 years of studying and photographing Red-headed Woodpeckers the vast majority have not been in oak savanna habitat. In fact the nest I was photographing recently was in a dead birch tree in a mixed deciduous forest.

There are over 200 species of woodpecker in the world and only 4 species cache food. Caching food is a process of storing nuts such as acorns in a cavity for later consumption. This might be a clue. For example the number of nut bearing trees has declined dramatically over the past 100 years. The number of oak trees, hickories and beech trees have declined and the American Chestnut is completely gone. Whether or not this is the cause of the decline is not known.

The Red-headed Woodpecker has many interesting aspects. In nearly all of the woodpeckers species it is easy to see the difference between the male and female. Usually the male has some kind of marking on its head. However the Red-headed Woodpecker male and female look exactly the same. Even if you have these birds in your hands and you can examine them, you won't be able to tell the difference between the male and the female. This is an interesting difference between the Red-headed Woodpeckers and the rest of the woodpeckers.

Red-headed Woodpeckers are remarkable species and I always feel honored to be able to see and film this bird. If you have a nest in your yard, no matter how common the species, give me a shout. You never know, I might come visit. Until next time...

Stan Tekiela is an author/naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the U.S. to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. He can be contacted via his web page at http://www.naturesmart.com.

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Commentary: Red-headed Woodpeckers are a remarkable species ... - SW News Media

A 9-year-old ‘Guardian of the Galaxy’ applies for NASA job – CNN

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Jack Davis, a self-proclaimed "Guardian of the Galaxy" from New Jersey, piqued NASA's interest.

"I may be nine but I think I would be a fit for the job," Jack said in the handwritten letter.

He went on to list his interstellar work experience.

"I have seen almost all the space and alien movies I can see," the 9-year-old explained.

He also showed he's on the case when it comes to career development.

"I have also seen the show Marvel Agents of Shield and hope to see the movie Men in Black."

Jack also described his fine motor skills and the ability to quickly learn and apply new concepts. "I'm great at video games," he said. "I am young, so I can learn to think like an Alien."

NASA replied to the letter and Jack even got a phone call from Planetary Research Director Jonathan Rall.

In the letter, they congratulated Jack on his interest and offered some extra insights about the job.

"It's about protecting Earth from tiny microbes when we bring back samples from the Moon, asteroids and Mars. It's also about protecting other planets and moons from our germs as we responsibly explore the Solar System," wrote James L. Green, director of NASA's planetary science division.

While NASA ended up not offering him the job, it wasn't an outright rejection.

"We are always looking for bright future scientists and engineers to help us, so I hope you will study hard and do well in school," Green said.

"We hope to see you here at NASA one of these days," Green added.

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A 9-year-old 'Guardian of the Galaxy' applies for NASA job - CNN

9-year-old applies for planetary protection job at NASA – New York Daily News

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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Saturday, August 5, 2017, 7:13 PM

When NASA announced it was hiring a planetary protection officer, a role designed to protect the planet from aliens, the space agency received applications from candidates of all ages.

Nine-year-old Jack Davis, a self-described Guardian of the Galaxy, was among them.

He threw his hat in the ring, undeterred by the job requirements, which include advanced knowledge of Planetary Protection and a degree in physical science, engineering, or mathematics.

I may be nine but I think I would be fit for the job, he wrote in a handwritten letter addressed to NASA.

Aaron Judge defied NASA equations by hitting roof of Marlins Park

The job posting describes planetary protection as the protection of earth from alien organisms, as well as the protection of other planets from earthly germs.

Davis listed his job qualifications in his letter. One of the reasons is my sister says I am an alien...also, I have seen almost all the space and alien movies I can see, he wrote.

He touted his age as an asset, too.

I am young, so I can learn to think like an Alien, he said.

NASA tracking sunspot as it becomes visible

NASA officials were impressed and reached out to Davis to say so.

Dr. James L. Green, the director of NASAs planetary science division told Davis its great that hes interested in being a NASA planetary protection officer.

He described the work as really cool and very important.

Its about protecting Earth from tiny microbes when we bring back samples from the Moon, asteroids and Mars. Its also about protecting other planets and moons from our germs as we responsibly explore the Solar System, Green wrote from NASAs Washington headquarters.

Gwyneth Paltrow's $120 stickers get smacked down by NASA brain

He encouraged Davis to study hard, and said he hoped to see him at NASA one day.

The daring New Jersey fourth-grader also received a congratulatory phone call from NASAs planetary research director Jonathan Rall.

A NASA press release said that although the position may not be in real-life what the title conjures up, it does play an important role in promoting the responsible exploration of our solar system by preventing microbial contamination of other planets and our own.

NASA is accepting applications for the role through Aug. 14.

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9-year-old applies for planetary protection job at NASA - New York Daily News

After 5 Years on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity Rover Is Still Making Big Discoveries – Space.com

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NASAs Mars rover Curiosity took this selfie in the Murray Buttes area, on the lower flank of Mount Sharp.

Five years after touching down on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover mission is still making big discoveries.

On the night of Aug. 5, 2012, the car-size robot aced a dramatic and harrowing landing, settling softly onto the Red Planet's surface after being lowered on cables by a rocket-powered "sky crane." The success of this unprecedented (and seemingly improbable) maneuver sparked eruptions of emotion at mssion control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California and at late-night viewing parties all over the world.

Curiosity landed on Mars at 10:17 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5, that's 1:17 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6 (0517 GMT), with the signal of its success reaching Earth 14 minutes later after crossing the 154 million miles between Mars and Earth.

Within weeks of its arrival inside Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater, Curiosity hit scientific pay dirt, rolling through an ancient streambed where water once flowed. And, not long after that, mission scientists revealed a bombshell: Billions of years ago, a nearby area known as Yellowknife Bay was part of a lake that could have supported microbial life. [The 10 Biggest Moments from Curiosity's First 5 Years on Mars]

But that's not where Curiosity's story ends. The rover has continued to piece together details about the ancient Gale Crater environment work that has led to another exciting find.

"I feel like we're arriving at a second conclusion from the mission that's just as powerful as the first, which is that habitable environments persisted on Mars for at least millions of years," Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of JPL, told Space.com.

Curiosity worked near its landing site on Gale's floor for its first year on Mars. Then, the nuclear-powered rover began a 5-mile (8 km) trek to the towering Mount Sharp, which rises about 3.4 miles (5.5 km) into the Red Planet sky from Gale's center.

The mountain's foothills had long been Curiosity's main science destination, even before the rover's November 2011 launch. Mission team members wanted the six-wheeled robot to work its way up through Mount Sharp's lower reaches, studying the rock layers there for clues about Mars' long-ago transition from a relatively warm and wet world to the cold, arid place it is today.

And that's what Curiosity has been doing for the past three years. Since arriving at Mount Sharp in September 2014, the robot has climbed about 600 vertical feet (180 meters), drilling, sampling and studying numerous rocks that are part of a geological division that mission scientists call the Murray Formation.

Curiosity found that most of this rock is fine-grained mudstone classic lake-bed deposits, Vasavada said. Such deposits on Earth generally take millions of years to accumulate, leading the team to conclude that Gale Crater's lake system was long-lasting.

That's a big deal, because Curiosity's work at Yellowknife Bay captured just "a snapshot in time," Vasavada said.

Based on the initial findings, "that lake may only have been around for 100 or 1,000 years at the minimum," he said. "There was a risk that our habitability discovery only applied to a short amount of time." [Photos: Ancient Mars Lake Could Have Supported Life]

Curiosity has already seen some changes during its climb up Mount Sharp. For example, the mudstone was pretty much continuous at and near the mountain's base, but that finely grained stuff gets broken up by other deposits closer to the top of the Murray Formation, Vasavada said.

"There are intervals of deposits that are consistent with forming in near-shore environments where rivers are reaching the edge of the lake, or even in dry environments where the lake has presumably receded," he said. "But the lake then reappears."

And Gale Crater likely remained habitable even through such periodic dry spells, Vasavada added. That's because groundwater probably remained, even if the lake site was dry on the surface.

This groundwater also outlasted the lakes, he said. Mission scientists know this because Curiosity has spotted evidence that liquid water flowed through Gale's lake deposits after they dried out and were buried, compressed and fractured.

"So there's a whole other era of water that's, by definition, after the lakes," Vasavada said. "It suggests that the water was there even longer than the timescale of the lakes."

Vasavada and his colleagues hope to learn more about this other era, and Gale's early history in general, as Curiosity goes higher up the mountain. Ideally, mission scientists would like to reach three other rock layers that are above the Murray Formation. The first is Vera Rubin Ridge, a feature with lots of the iron-containing mineral hematite; the second is a clay-rich unit; and the third is one dominated by sulfates.

The clay unit was probably exposed to lots of liquid water in the ancient past, whereas sulfates imply that water was scarcer, Vasavada said.

"There's this idea that you go from the clays to the sulfates, and you're going to be witnessing some kind of drying out of the environment at Gale Crater," he said. "Whether that has anything to do with the global drying out of Mars we'd love to figure out. But at the very least, it's a major environmental change within Gale Crater."

Curiosity has already been eyeing Vera Rubin Ridge and should start studying the formation in earnest in the next month or two, Vasavada said. If everything goes according to plan, the rover should get to the clay unit by the end of the year and arrive at the sulfate region, which is about 650 feet (200 m) above Curiosity's current location, a year or two after that.

"In the next three years or so, we'll probably see all of those units," Vasavada said.

Curiosity has already far outlasted its warranty; the rover's $2.5 billion mission was originally scheduled to last just two Earth years.

But there's no reason to think Curiosity won't be able to power through three more years on the Red Planet; the rover is in good shape overall, Vasavada said. (The mission team has been able to slow an initially worrying rate of wheel damage, primarily by choosing routes with softer ground, he added.)

But one major health problem continues to afflict Curiosity: The rover has been unable to use its drill since December 2016. This is a big blow, because the drill which sits at the end of Curiosity's 7-foot-long (2.1 m) robotic arm allows the robot to access the pristine interiors of rocks and, therefore, characterize ancient environments. (Without this capability, the rover is mostly limited to analyzing surface material such as sand, which was shaped and altered in the recent past.)

The issue lies in the drill feed mechanism, which moves the drill bit forward and backward. Until about a month ago, Curiosity engineers were focused primarily on diagnosing the problem and fixing it in a way that would restore normal drill operations, Vasavada said. But the team is now investigating an alternative drilling method using the arm itself, not the feed motor, to move the drill.

"That requires a lot of work to figure out if that's safe, and to figure out how to do it, and how to command it," Vasavada said. "But it's promising, and that may be where we concentrate our efforts going forward."

Though he and other mission team members are chiefly concerned with the future fixing the drill and continuing Curiosity's climb up Mount Sharp, for example the events of Aug. 5, 2012, still have a special place in Vasavada's heart.

"When I look at the landing video, I still get really emotional; I have a hard time giving talks when I show the video, because it takes me like a minute to recover," he said. "It's remembering the emotion of that night, where your whole career is depending on seven minutes of this stuff going right and when it actually did work, realizing that you had a future."

Note: Space.com Senior ProducerSteve Spaletacontributed to this report.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwallandGoogle+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published onSpace.com.

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A Fourth-Grader Made A Convincing Handwritten Pitch Explaining Why NASA Should Hire Him – GOOD Magazine

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NASA recently made waves online with the news that theyre in the market to fill the position of planetary protection officer. While the job title might sound like something ripped from the script of a sci-fi movie, the reality of the position is a little less exciting. The job actually entails ensuring that the stuff we send to outer space is clean and germ-free so humans dont end up contaminating planets when they land rovers, ships, and such.

Fourth-grader Jack Davis was one of many to jump at the opportunity based on the title alone. Hell probably balk at the reality of the job (scrubbing spaceships?), but its nice to know hes at the ready should we ever need to protect our planet from aliens.

He quickly sent NASA a letter applying for the gig, and, preteen or not, he makes a convincing case for employment.

Image via millamber/Reddit.

I think we can also add "nice handwriting" to the list of qualifications young Jack has going for him.

The letter reads:

Dear NASA:

My name is Jack Davis and I would like to apply for the planetary protection officer job. I may be nine but I think I would be fit for the job. One of the reasons is my sister says I am an alien alsoI have seen almost all the space and alien movies I can see. I have also seen the show Marvel Agents of Shield and hope to see the movie Men in Black. I am great at video games. I am young, so I can learn to think like an Alien.

Sincerely,

Jack Davis

Guardian of the Galaxy

Fourth Grade

Can we just create a position for this kid? Failing that, NASA, can you ship him a copy of Men in Black? Sure, hes allegedlyan alien, according to his (unreliable?) sister, but I say wegive this human/alien enigma the benefit of the doubt.

I mean, hes more qualified than this rocket scientist, right?

Share image via millamber/Reddit.

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A Fourth-Grader Made A Convincing Handwritten Pitch Explaining Why NASA Should Hire Him - GOOD Magazine

Hampton History Museum to host Daily Press panel on book about NASA Langley’s 100-year history – Daily Press

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Three Daily Press reporters are taking on the 100-year history of NASA Langley and the book they wrote about it in a panel discussion Monday.

Tamara Dietrich, Mark St. John Erickson and Mike Holtzclaw, who collaborated on "The Unknown and Impossible: How a Research Facility in Virginia Mastered the Air and Conquered Space," will participate in a panel discussion about the book at the Hampton History Museum at 7 p.m. Monday.

The book, released in July, chronicles the centennial at NASA Langley in Hampton, where some of the most prominent astronauts, including John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, trained for their missions. At Langley, engineers and astronauts played roles in designing the space shuttle and developing the Viking program, which took photos of Mars in the 1970s.

The lab broke ground in July 1917.

"This was the cutting edge of aviation, right here in Hampton," Holtzclaw said. "Anybody who was in aviation and wanted to know what is the latest or if they wanted to test their design at the place to test it, they came here."

The book took at least six months to write, Holtzclaw said. Monday night, books will be on sale for $15.99, and the writers will be signing copies of the book.

Museum members get a 10 percent discount on the book.

Hopefully, the event will inspire people to learn more, said Seamus McGrann, promotions director for the museum.

"It's just another way to showcase the city's past, and for a city that is so integral to the story of America itself, it's just a wonderful way to bring history to people," he said.

A newly minted rule is still in place, Holtzclaw said: "If your footprints are on the lunar surface, you get a free copy."

Mishkin can be reached by phone at 757-641-6669.

What: Panel discussion and book signing of "The Unknown and Impossible."

Where: 120 Old Hampton Lane in Downtown Hampton. Free parking is in the garage across the street.

When: 7-8 p.m. Monday.

Cost: Free.

Buy the book

"The Unknown and Impossible" is available online at BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com and dailypress.com/langley. Copies also are available in the Daily Press lobby at 703 Mariners Row in Newport News.

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Hampton History Museum to host Daily Press panel on book about NASA Langley's 100-year history - Daily Press

Do You Have What It Takes To Be NASA’s Next Planetary Protection Officer? – NPR

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The goals of the planetary protection officer are to protect the Earth and to protect other planets from being contaminated by substances from Earth during exploration. NASA hide caption

The goals of the planetary protection officer are to protect the Earth and to protect other planets from being contaminated by substances from Earth during exploration.

The survival of life of Earth (and elsewhere) may rest on the shoulders of NASA's next planetary protection officer and they're taking applications.

The job posting has elicited headlines about how the space agency is seeking a person to defend our planet from aliens. But it's more concerned with microorganisms than little green men.

And while it's true that the role is trying to prevent Earth from being contaminated by extraterrestrial materials, say from samples collected on missions, the job is just as focused on preventing contamination from Earth on planets and moons that humans explore.

NPR's Ari Shapiro chatted about the job with someone who would know what it takes former Planetary Protection Officer Michael Meyer. He's now the lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program.

As researchers explore places that could harbor life, "when you bring samples back there's the possibility that you're bringing something alive from another planet," Meyer says. "In which case, you ought to be cautious and keep those samples contained until you can determine whether or not there's anything perhaps hazardous in those samples."

He explains that "the very nature of the job is that you have to be conservative," because we may not know whether an extraterrestrial sample is dangerous or not.

By the same token, as scientists search for life, they don't want to confuse a stowaway microbe from Earth with a groundbreaking discovery of life on another planet.

That's why Meyer spent his time "making sure that the spacecraft going somewhere else was actually of a clean enough nature so that we're not worried about contaminating the planet that we're trying to explore."

He also points out a potentially unexpected set of skills that come in handy: diplomacy.

The planetary protection officer is "dealing with other countries that are also sending spacecraft to targets of opportunity such as Mars and [Jupiter's moon] Europa." The European Space Agency also has a similar role, but other countries with space programs do not.

"We're not in the business of telling other countries how to conduct their business but we do have to pay attention to what they're doing because when we're collaborating with them it's incumbent on us, on NASA, to make sure that they're exploring safely," Meyer added.

Not all missions require the same level of cleanliness, however. He explains that "planetary protection has a gradation of bodies of concern."

For example, sending a spacecraft to an asteroid that is not deemed to have potential for life requires a less conservative approach than sending a spacecraft to Mars. In places that could potentially support life, Meyer says, "we have to sterilize the spacecraft or sterilize the instruments that might touch that region."

Still interested in the job? Here are a few specifics. The application period closes on Aug. 14. It pays $126,406-$187,000 annually. You need a "broad engineering expertise" and must be a "recognized subject matter expert." And "demonstrated experience planning, executing, or overseeing elements of space programs of national significance" is also a must.

The job is open only to U.S. citizens and residents of American Samoa. It also explicitly mentions eligibility of the several dozen residents of Swains Island, a U.S.-administered island in the South Pacific.

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Do You Have What It Takes To Be NASA's Next Planetary Protection Officer? - NPR

NASA Invites You to Become a Citizen Scientist During Solar Eclipse – WCYB

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NASA is inviting citizens across the US to participate in a nationwide science experiment by collecting cloud and air temperature data and reporting it via their phones.

The experiments are part of the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, or GLOBE Program. GLOBE is a NASA-supported research and education program that encourages students and citizen scientists to collect and analyze environmental observations. Observers gather their data through a free, easy to use app which guides you through the experiment.

On Aug. 21, a total solar eclipse will occur across the entire continental United States. Crossing the country from Oregon to South Carolina over the course of an hour and a half, 14 states will experience night-like darkness for approximately two minutes in the middle of the day. The eclipse enters the U.S. at 10:15 a.m. PDT off the coast of Oregon and leaves U.S. shores at approximately 2:50 p.m. EDT in South Carolina.

All of North America will experience at least a partial eclipse, including here in the Tri-Cities.

For more about what we'll see in the Tri-Cities, click here.

No matter where you are in North America, whether its cloudy, clear or rainy, NASA wants as many people as possible to help with this citizen science project, said Kristen Weaver, deputy coordinator for the project. We want to inspire a million eclipse viewers to become eclipse scientists.

In order to participate, first download the GLOBE Observer app and register to become a citizen scientist. The app will instruct you on how to make the observations. Second, you will need to obtain a thermometer to measure air temperature.

To join in the fun, download the GLOBE Observer apphttps://observer.globe.gov/about/get-the-app. After you log in, the app explains how to make eclipse observations.

Observations will be recorded on an interactive map.

To learn more about how NASA researchers will be studying the Earth during the eclipse visithttps://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-looks-to-the-solar-eclipse-to-help-understand-the-earth-s-energy-system

News 5 will provide special coverage of the eclipse starting at 2pm on August 21st. Join the StormTrack 5 Weather Team and News 5's reporters as they bring you live reports from the path of totality and across the Tri-Cities. Nature's Blackout: Tracking the 2017 Solar Eclipse begins at 2pmon News 5, WCYB.

Have a question about the eclipse? Send our weather team an email at weather@wcyb.com or contact them on social media.

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Will NASA’s Ruined Apollo Mission Control Room Rise Again … – NBCNews.com

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Aug.04.2017 / 2:27 PM ET

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HOUSTON The storied room that first saw humans land on the moon has fallen into a shocking state of disrepair. Once a gleaming state-of-the-art facility, Apollo Mission Control at Johnson Space Center here has become a place of flickering lights and worn carpet held together with tape. The keyboards of its old flight consoles are missing buttons.

NASA says it lacks the money to renovate the room, which was decommissioned in 1992. In recent years, it's been a stop on guided tours of the space center and in 2015 was designated a "threatened facility" by the National Park Service.

But Space Center Houston and other philanthropic groups have stepped in to fill the void, starting a Kickstarter campaign that aims to renovate the facility in time for the 50th anniversary of the first manned mission to the moon. That comes in 2019.

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What we envision is when you step into the visitor viewing area to see the mission control center, it will be as if the men who worked here had just gone on break, said William Harris, president of Space Center Houston.

The campaign has garnered support from more than 3,000 people from around the world. Its estimated that $5 million will be enough to bring the room back to its original state, as seen on television back in the day and as depicted in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13."

Behind the effort to restore mission control is a handful of NASA workers who spent countless stressful hours working in the room, including the former Apollo flight director, Gene Kranz.

Kranz, 84, believes not enough was done to prevent the room's deterioration.

"This is frustrating to me that NASA allowed this room to deteriorate to the condition it was in, he said. They did not have the feeling that comes from having worked and lived...in this room. We saw incredible tragedy, but we also triumphed.

Kranz and his colleagues were in the room for Apollo 11 and the other successful manned missions to the moon. They were also there when three astronauts died during testing for the first Apollo mission in 1967 and in 1970 when the Apollo 13 astronauts returned safely to Earth after their space capsule was disabled by an explosion.

Among the contributors to the Kickstarter campaign is the City of Webster, Texas, which was home to many of the flight controllers and other personnel who worked in the room during the during the Apollo era. In early 2017, the city stepped forward with a gift of $3.1 million on top of a dollar-for-dollar matching campaign.

We hope that by restoring this room, it will make create greater awareness about the incredible work, achievements, of the U.S. space program," Harris said. "We are really standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.

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Low-cost, sensitive CO sensor from IISc – The Hindu

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Indian Institute of Science researchers have developed a highly sensitive nanometre-scale carbon monoxide sensor by employing an innovative fabrication technique. It is known that carbon monoxide (CO) can have adverse effects on the health of people exposed to it. Hence, it becomes necessary to have good, low-cost carbon-monoxide sensors. The research is published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

Right size

Typically, a sensor would be a thin, current carrying plate whose resistance changes on exposure to carbon monoxide. This in turn changes the value of the current flowing through it. This change when measured indicates the level of carbon monoxide in the air. Most available sensors are in the micrometer range, a nanometer-sized detector would have a higher sensitivity, but the cost of manufacturing it goes up as the size decreases. This is where the work of C.S. Prajapati and coworkers of Indian Institute of Science comes in.

To build this zinc-oxide (ZnO) nanostructure on a silicon wafer substrate, the researchers first placed tiny polystyrene beads on the wafer. These beads arrange themselves into what is called a hexagonal close-packed structure on the oxidised silicon wafer.

Maintaining a reasonable level of vacuum, a high voltage is applied which etches away the surfaces of the beads until a gap of desired thickness is formed between adjacent beads. Then zinc oxide is deposited on the system.

This occupies the spaces between the beads, forming a honeycomb like nano-mesh that can function as a nanosenor.

Scaling down from 10 micrometer feature size to 10 nanometer feature (used in this work) can enhance the efficiency 1,000 times. However, the development cost of nanostructured gas sensors using existing lithography tools is really very high, which eventually impacts the overall cost of the device, explains Navakanta Bhat, Chair and Professor, Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, an author of the paper, in an email to The Hindu.

This device is also easy to scale for mass production. Nanostructure-based gas sensors are very promising in their performance due their high surface-to-volume ratio. The existing techniques to create honeycomb nanostructures using photolithography and e-beam lithography are expensive and time-consuming. The proposed technique can potentially reduce the cost by more than 50%, says Prof. Bhat.

Smart cities

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has a vision of deploying such sensors in large scale for pollution monitoring in large cities like Delhi and Bengaluru. For instance, if the sensors are installed in all traffic intersections, we can do real time mapping of pollution hot-spots in a city. This would be an enabler in realizing smart cities, says Prof. Bhat.

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Low-cost, sensitive CO sensor from IISc - The Hindu

New Haven doctor works to repair central nervous system injuries – New Haven Register (blog)

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Photo: Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media

Erika R. Smith, CEO of ReNetX Bio Inc., is photographed with Dr. Stephen M. Strittmatter, founder of the company, in his lab at the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine in New Haven.

Erika R. Smith, CEO of ReNetX Bio Inc., is photographed with Dr. Stephen M. Strittmatter, founder of the company, in his lab at the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine in New Haven.

New Haven doctor works to repair central nervous system injuries

NEW HAVEN >> There is now no way to regenerate severed nerves in the central nervous system, but Dr. Stephen M. Strittmatter is confident hes found a way to repair them.

Hes even founded a company, ReNetX Bio Inc., to shepherd his new therapy through the maze of regulations, clinical trials and manufacturing processes, ultimately hoping to cure patients with devastating injuries.

We have this amazing, complex neural network that manages all our functions, stemming from the brain and spinal cord, said Strittmatter, professor of neurology and neuroscience in the Yale School of Medicine.

When a nerve fiber, or axon, in the central nervous system is damaged, such as in a paralyzing spinal cord injury, it doesnt grow back. Even though the nerve cell is still healthy in the adult brain or spinal cord, it cant grow and therefore function doesnt come back, he said.

(The central nervous system, which manages all our functions, is separate from the peripheral nervous system, which performs other tasks, such as carrying stimuli from our senses, and which can regenerate.)

The axon, which starts at the cell body, or soma, can extend up to a meter in length, Strittmatter said. If the cell were the size of a baseball, the extension, the nerve fiber, would be the width of a pencil and be a quarter of a mile long, he said.

Strittmatter said he has investigated why nerve fibers cant grow in adults, and that led us to the idea that there are inhibitors that are present in the adult brain and spinal cord. They stop the axons from growing back to where theyre supposed to be.

In fact, there are three such inhibitors, called Nogo, MAG and OMgp, which exist in the myelin that coats the nerve fibers. They stick to the axon and tell it not to grow, Strittmatter said.

He and the researchers in his lab studied ways to stop the inhibitors from attaching to the axon. So we developed this protein, which we call Nogo Trap Its sort of like a double negative; it blocks the inhibitors [and] those new connections allow function to be recovered, he said.

So far, the therapy looks promising. Weve done experiments here that have shown that that works after rats and mice have spinal cord injuries, he said.

Now, ReNetX Bio, a new name for a company founded in 2010 as Axerion Therapeutics, faces the long process of turning an experimental therapy into a marketable drug, which they hope also will be effective for stroke and glaucoma.

Thats what the company is about, bringing it out of the lab and into the clinic, Strittmatter said.

The next step is getting Food and Drug Administration approval of Nogo Trap, also known as Axer-204, as an investigative new drug, which allows phase one clinical trials. That initial phase is only concerned with the drugs safety. The second and third phases test whether or not the drug is effective.

Erika R. Smith, named CEO of ReNetX in July, said there is a long list of other tasks to be addressed, including toxicology testing, scaling up manufacture of the drug and lots of paperwork. A lot of boxes get checked to make sure its OK to try in a clinical setting, she said.

Both Smith and Strittmatter said there are advantages to forming their own company.

I guess I feel like being involved I can help make sure that the right clinical trials are done, Strittmatter said.

Smith added, Theres a lot of challenges in early research that a lot of pharma companies arent willing to take the risk themselves. A lot of times companies wont come in really early.

Along the way, theres all kinds of roadblocks, things we cant expect, Strittmatter said. Drugs might get degraded faster in one species than another or there could be secondary complications like infections.

Were very excited that the experiments that have happened in the lab have gone very well, he said. However, there is a risk. Experimental animal studies can look great but maybe only 20 percent of the time can that be turned into a drug that can be used in people, he said.

But Smith noted the substantial funding that has come into the company to this point were estimating $15 million that has gotten the program to where it is. Much of that support has come from the National Institutes of Health, she said.

The company has a staff of five and is seeking to hire a chief medical officer, Smith said.

Yale University holds intellectual property rights and is a part owner of ReNetX. The company has licensed those patents from Yale so they can go on to do sales and clinical development, Strittmatter said. Yale would receive royalties if it were eventually sold as a drug.

The end goal that it gets to people and it makes a difference in their lives, Strittmatter said.

Smith said, The big picture of this is its a whole new paradigm change for any kind of injury in the central nervous system.

Call Ed Stannard at 203-680-9382.

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New Haven doctor works to repair central nervous system injuries - New Haven Register (blog)

Former CDC Director: Medicine Should Look Beyond Randomized … – Regulatory Focus

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Posted 04 August 2017 By Michael Mezher

In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden calls for greater use of alternative data sources, other than randomized controlled trials (RCTs), for health care decision making.

"For much, and perhaps most, of modern medical practice, RCT-based data are lacking and no RCT is being planned or is likely to be completed to provide evidence for action. This 'dark matter' of clinical medicine leaves practitioners with large information gaps for most conditions and increases reliance on past practices and clinical lore," Frieden writes.

The article comes as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) looks to flesh out a framework for the use of so-called real world evidencesuch as data from observational studies, routine safety surveillance, patient registries and insurance claimsto evaluate drugs and medical devices.

Last week, FDA announced it will hold a public workshop in collaboration with the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy in September focused on the development of such a framework.

While RCTs are considered the "gold standard" for generating evidence to support the approval of new drugs, Frieden argues that in some cases, observational studies may be more appropriate for determining health outcomes.

"Although they can have strong internal validity, RCTs sometimes lack external validity; generalizations of findings outside the study population may be invalid," Frieden writes.

But, Vinay Prasad, a hematologist-oncologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Oregon Health and Sciences University, told Focus that this assertion somewhat misses the mark.

"When are randomized trials desperately needed? To prove that at least in some circumstances a therapy can work you have to show that something can work under some circumstances to move forward. You cannot assume this. Only an RCT can tell you this unless the effect size is huge," Prasad said. Prasad also said that sponsors can increase the external validity of RCTs by loosening their inclusion criteria to allow for a more varied patient population.

Frieden also argues that RCTs often have insufficient study periods and small sample sizes, which can lead to unanswered questions about treatment effect duration and rare adverse events that are only answered after a product enters the market.

As an example, Frieden points to the case of FluMist, the live attenuated influenza vaccine nasal spray, which was shown to be superior to inactivated influenza vaccine in children in multiple RCTs. Despite the effect shown in those studies, a later observational study found that FluMist was less effective than previous studies showed.

Here, Prasad argues that RCTs are still necessary to hash out the effect of the two treatments. "Most interventions, including the ones discussed by Frieden have modest effect sizes. For these things you need RCTs to separate true effect from your bias," Prasad said.

Frieden also points to a number of issues that limit the practicality of conducting RCTs, including their high cost and difficulty to plan and implement. As a tradeoff, Frieden says these constraints can lead sponsors to rely on surrogate markers or recruit patients from high-risk patient populations that might not reflect the broader patient population to speed along their studies.

But, Prasad says these issues are not inherent with RCTs, arguing that innovations could be made to bring down their costs and startup times.

Despite these issues, Frieden says that "current evidence-grading systems are biased toward RCTs, which may lead to inadequate consideration of non-RCT data." Though, while advocating for greater use of other data sources, Frieden says FDA's standards for evaluating safety and efficacy should be lowered.

Rather, "there should be rigorous review of all potentially valid data sources," Frieden writes.

NEJM

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Former CDC Director: Medicine Should Look Beyond Randomized ... - Regulatory Focus

UMass Medical School welcomes largest class ever, but future … – Worcester Telegram

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Scott O'Connell Telegram & Gazette Staff @ScottOConnellTG

WORCESTER Once again, UMass Medical School has welcomed a historically large class of medical students, as 162 future doctors arrived on campus this week.

But after years of growth the schools enrollment cap used to be 100 students not long ago Chancellor Michael F. Collins said he doesnt expect new records to be set anytime soon.

Im not seeing the enrollment rising beyond that (162) at the moment, he said, explaining the lack of available clinical assignment spaces for additional students, as well as the potential reduction in instructional quality that could come from straining the medical schools staff and facilities, are the two main arguments against further expansion.

But Mr. Collins said the medical schools relatively fast enrollment growth since 2009, when its enrollment maximum increased to 125, has been managed well so far, which he credited in large part to the extraordinary commitment from UMasss faculty. In the last couple years in particular the medical school began accepting out-of-state students for the first time in 2016 the school has had to stretch its capacity to take on 150 students last year and now 162 this summer.

Nearly half of those students will go into primary care, Mr. Collins said, which is one of the reasons UMass the states lone public medical school has sought to expand its enrollment recently.

Obviously the nation needs more doctors, he said, especially in primary care. We feel a responsibility its good weve been able to increase the class size. We have the facilities and competent faculty to do it.

The true challenge of accommodating this years additional students wont come until their third year, however, when theyll be placed in clinical assignments.

Its easy to put a row of chairs in a classroom, Mr. Collins said. Its not so easy to find clinical placements for everybody.

Some students will be going to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, which UMass partnered with two years ago for the purpose of creating more clinical opportunities for medical students. Others will go to the medical schools new Baystate campus in Springfield; 22 from this years class, in particular, will participate in the new Urban and Rural Community Health track, which will take them to Springfield after two years to train to become primary care doctors in an urban or rural setting.

Most of this years record-setting class has come from within the state. According to UMass, 131 are Massachusetts residents, while the other 31 are from out of state, which is up from 19 a year ago. Technically, the new out-of-state acceptance policy is supposed to be capped at 25 students. But James Fessenden, a spokesman for UMass, said the acceptance process is ultimately an inexact science we manage it the best we can, which sometimes leads to slightly more or fewer students being accepted.

Mr. Collins said opening up the medical school to non-Massachusetts residents a move driven by UMasss desire for more high-quality candidates, as well as more revenue, since it can charge out-of-staters a higher rate has not in his view led to any changes to the culture or environment at the school.

Its imperceptible, he said. These are just students going to medical school.

But Mr. Collins said accepting large numbers of new students could negatively affect the program, which is why UMass has tried to keep year-over-year increases below 10 percent.

If we all of a sudden took 50 more students, it would be a different place here, he said.

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UMass Medical School welcomes largest class ever, but future ... - Worcester Telegram

Twists, turns and maybe TMI about USC – Los Angeles Times

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The unfolding saga of the downfall of ex-USC medical school dean Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito has saddened, surprised and angered readers. Dozens of Times letter writers have reacted to the many angles of the developing scandal, with the weekend article detailing the history of internal complaints about Puliafitos drinking and abusive behavior eliciting especially sharp replies.

Here are a few of the responses.

Sandra Perez in Santa Maria has praise:

I cant thank your reporters enough for so doggedly pursuing the appalling story of how USC all but ignored Puliafitos egregious conduct while continuing to exploit his fund-raising prowess.

In Culver City, Meta Valentic is direct:

I read the article and wondered how USC could keep Puliafito at the helm of the Keck School of Medicine despite the many complaints logged about his behavior. Then, I found the answer in one short quote from former HR director James Lynch: Hes kind of a pain in the ass, but he gets results.

That's entitled privilege laid bare. Until USC looks at its problem with enabling people like Puliafito, they won't find any answers in this embarrassing debacle.

From Sherman Oaks, Nick Batzdorf questions The Times priorities:

We are living in tumultuous times with all kinds of vitally important things going on locally, nationally, and internationally. It's remarkable how uninterested I am in knowing more about the crazy former dean of the USC medical school. Is it possible that these many above-the-fold stories about this idiot is excessive?

Observes Nancy A. Stone from Santa Monica:

The lengths to which USCs administrators went to bury the Puliafito story speaks volumes about the universitys misplaced priorities. Obviously, money is far more important than integrity to the Trojan brand.

Cheryl Clark-O'Brien of Long Beach offers:

When I first read about the allegations against Dr. Puliafito, I thought he must be some kind of superhuman, raging with 20-year-olds by night, saving eyesight by day. Grudging respect.

Now it seems his colleagues already thought he was a bully and were concerned about his drinking. They tried to go through channels, but the doctor remained an honored employee. What a surprise.

Please fill in your full name, mailing address, city of residence, phone number and e-mail address below. Submissions that do not include this information cannot be published. This information is seen only by the letters editors and is not used for any commercial purpose. We generally do not publish...

Please fill in your full name, mailing address, city of residence, phone number and e-mail address below. Submissions that do not include this information cannot be published. This information is seen only by the letters editors and is not used for any commercial purpose. We generally do not publish...

Added Armen Goenjian, a physician from Long Beach:

Missing in these reports was a salient feature of the narrative, that the dean was suffering from a progressive disease.

The humiliating repetitive description of his inappropriate behavior adds insult to his psychological injuries, reduces the chances of his recovery and ability to find decent employment in the future.

Nancy Becklund Spencer in Glendale sees it differently:

Once again, a very good article ... My anger is that he is now portrayed as a victim. The victims are the great doctors and nurses at USC and those who left.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

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Twists, turns and maybe TMI about USC - Los Angeles Times