EW discusses: Does Super Smash Bros. succeed on the 3DS?

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The Super Smash Bros. franchise has become one of the cornerstones of Nintendos identity. On every console since the Nintendo 64, eager anticipation has surrounded each new entry in the brawling seriesthe lead-up to Super Smash Bros. Brawl included daily teases for almost an entire year on the games official website.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DSyes, the devices name is part of the titlemarks a first for the franchise. This entry will be the first time Nintendos all-star battle royale has appeared on a handheld. Its a curious step for a game that has become synonymous with four friends playing a game together on a couch, but Nintendo is hoping the magic can translate to the small screen.

Having had a chance to play the game for over a week now, Aaron Morales and I discussedwhether the transition has been successful, or if were just biding our time with the game until Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Jonathon Dornbush: You and I are coming to Smash Bros. from quite different places. Ive had a long love affair with the franchise. Ill never be mistaken for a professional playerfighting games are about as foreign to me as a game genre could bebut Ive played each iteration of the franchise for dozens of hours. Super Smash Bros. Melee in particular stole more than its fair share of afternoons and evenings from me as a kid. Theres something about the core idea of Smash that I just loveits like a series finale of a TV show where every major guest star and long-running gag pops up, anda decade of history is crammed into one episode.

Smash Bros. serves a bit of that purpose, but for multiple decades of Nintendos legacy. For that, Ive enjoyed the games both as a fighter and as a virtual hall of memories to the companys past. Before diving into the sheer amount of content in Smash Bros. for 3DS, Aaron, what is your history with the franchise and fighting games in general?

Aaron Morales: I love fighting games, but Ive never taken to Smash. I grew up in the arcades, dumping hundreds of dollars of quarters into venerable series such as Street Fighter, King of Fighters and Tekken. I love the intricacies of the fighting systems, memorizing combos, pulling off complex super moves. But Smash Bros. always felt like a button-masher to me, which is pretty much the worst thing you can call a fighting game. I just never really got it. My favorite fighters are razor-sharp precise, where Smash Bros.is loose and spastic. Because it eschews health bars for some percentage meter I never understood, I could finish a round of Smash Bros.and honestly have no clue whether I had finished in first or last place.

Ive always admired the insane amount of fan service that Nintendo has packed into the series. From the obscure characters to the nostalgia-drenched stages, its like your childhood exploded on the screen. But actually playing it? Not so much. Ive dabbled in each release among friends, but I could never get into it, and I certainly didnt spend much time playing single player before quickly losing interest. So the chances of the handheld version hooking me were pretty slim. And yet

Ive played more Smash 3DS in the last week than probably every other version combined, I think largely because its so pick-up-and-play easy. You can get in a quick round while waiting for the train, play a few more on the commute to work. Once you hit your stop, simply close your 3DS, and when you re-open it, youre right where you left off. Ive actually been carrying my 3DS around a lot more because of the game, getting in a quick round here and there throughout the workday while waiting on things.

Ive tried playing other fighters such as Street Fighter IV on the 3DS, and the systems wonky circle pad and tiny buttons make it challenging at best to pull off dragon punches reliably. But Smashs controls are so simple that its never an obstacle. Heres a case where button-mashing will result in amazingly flashy moves. Before I get flamed, I do realize that Smash Bros.has a respected fighting engine and tournament-level play, but you also dont really need to know much to jump in and get playing. Every characters move commands are the same, even though they do wildly different things. And while I dont have much in the ways of strategy, Im actually enjoying button-mashing my way through my commute, even if I still rarely know whether Ive won or lost.

JD: Ive always enjoyed the franchises approachabilitya newcomer can play Smash Bros.by simply mashing on a few buttons, and your favorite Nintendo personalities will pull off incredible moves with stylish flair. But there is a deep level of strategy for those who want it, and an amazing community has developed around the seriesNintendo even held aninvitationalat E3 earlier this year.

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EW discusses: Does Super Smash Bros. succeed on the 3DS?

Addiction, Homelessness, and Recovery: Recovery and Ignatian Spirituality (Part 2 of 4) – Video

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Addiction, Homelessness, and Recovery: Recovery and Ignatian Spirituality (Part 2 of 4)
"The reason why spirituality is important is we have to return to the Maker. When we find ourselves shattered and broken, we have to return to the Creator who created us." The Ignatian Spiritualit...

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Addiction, Homelessness, and Recovery: Recovery and Ignatian Spirituality (Part 2 of 4) - Video

Wing Commander IV (1995) – 04 "Capturing a Space Station " by Gaming Hoplite – Video

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Wing Commander IV (1995) - 04 "Capturing a Space Station " by Gaming Hoplite
Wing Commander IV (1995) - 04 "Capturing a Space Station " by Gaming Hoplite Game: Wing Commander IV - The Price of Freedom Developer: Origin Systems Publisher: Origin Systems URL: http://en.wiki...

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Wing Commander IV (1995) - 04 "Capturing a Space Station " by Gaming Hoplite - Video

A VIEW FROM THE WINDOW: WDRB interviews astronauts preparing for Dec. launch to International Space Station

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So what's the coolest part of space travel?

I've never been. Like the other 99.9998 percent of the world's population, I've been planet-bound and will likely remain so my entire life. But what about those blessed souls who somehow escape Earth's gravity and venture to the other side of the sky? What about the trip do they look forward to the most?

It's a pretty sure bet it's not the experiments although those are important. It's not the thrill of liftoff and the feeling of three G's pressing into your chest, as though like one astronaut put it the very "hand of God" was thrusting you into the sky and your body was fighting to catch up. It's probably not even weightlessness, although that would could a close, very, very, close second.

The coolest part about space travel must be looking out the window.

We all know this. Any kid who has ever scrambled for a window seat on an airliner and pressed his nose against the hard, sunlit plexiglass to watch the clouds and the cars and the humanity roll by underneath his feet, knows this.

Even the original Mercury astronauts steely eyed men hardly known for their maudlin protested that the two tiny portholes on their space capsules weren't enough, demanding successfully that a decent-sized window be added to the design.

The International Space Station has a very, very large window.

The entire module is called the Cupola, and it actually boasts seven large windows, one of which at 31 inches is the largest window ever to be used in space. Used in concert, the seven windows provide a fish-eye view of space that has never been available to astronauts before. Not without a spacesuit at least.

There's an iconic picture that made the Cupola famous: in it, astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson can be seeing, posing almost artistically with her head in her palm, her hair floating in weightlessness and her eyes staring tranquilly out at the breathtaking vista of the Earth below (that picture can be seen above.)

American astronaut Terry Virts knows all about the Cupola. In Feb. 2010, he traveled to the International Space Station aboard Space ShuttleEndeavor for a two-week mission, during which he actually installed the Cupola and its shutters were opened for the first time.

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A VIEW FROM THE WINDOW: WDRB interviews astronauts preparing for Dec. launch to International Space Station

SpaceShipOnes Dubious Birthday

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TIME Science anniversary SpaceShipOnes Dubious Birthday Going somewhere? The start of SpaceShipOne's maybe-historic flight in 2004 HECTOR MATA; AFP/Getty Images A decade ago the first private spacecraft crossed the boundary of space and big promises followed. But there've been big disappointments too.

Whats the last thing you want to do when you achieve something great? Easy: dont promise more greatness to come. Its fine to hoist a Super Bowl trophy, but thats not the time to predict a threepeat over the next couple years. Ditto the first-time Oscar winner who goes public about buying a new mantlepiece for all the statuettes to come; ditto too the one-hit wonder whos already boasting about one day joining the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Thats just the hubris that afflicted Burt Rutan, Paul Allen and the other folks behind SpaceShipOne a decade ago when their little rocket plane won the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, beating 25 other teams from 10 nations competing to be the first private group to pull off a piloted suborbital space flight twice within two weeks. After that mission was accomplished, Rutan, the ships designer, publicly predicted that the big aerospace players like Boeing would realize they had just lost out in the most promising new market of all: space tourism. I think theyre looking at each other now and saying, Were screwed,' he averred.

Almost immediately, he and Allenthe co-founder of Microsoftlicensed the SpaceShipOne technology to Virgin Atlantics Sir Richard Branson, who predicted a five-ship fleet with a five-person capacity on each vehicle within three years. So hows all that working out?

SpaceShipOne, for all of the understandable applause its gutsy mission earned, was always overhyped. The ship was required to achieve an altitude of at least 100 km (62.5 mi.)which it beat slightlythen arc over in three minutes of weightless flight and return safely to earth. Nifty stuff, but its also something the U.S. accomplished with the flight of Alan Shepard as long ago as 1961, and the old Soviet Union didnt even bother with since they were capable of achieving orbitwhere you can get some real flying done.

The scientific applications for SpaceShipOne are limited too. Yes, there are some basic experiments that can be run during the brief cosmic toe-dip of a suborbital flight, involving testing hardware in space conditions, studying the behavior of fluids and other substances, and making brief atmospheric measurements. But if popgun missions like that could do the really substantive stuff, we wouldnt have built a massive orbiting lab like the International Space Station (ISS).

Instead, the promise has always been space tourismoffering paying passengers the chance to experience space and, after a fashion, call themselves astronauts. There are now up to 20 companies around the world competing in this new gameincluding big names like Jeff Bezos Blue Origin and Bransons Virgin Galacticbut none have flown so much as a single paying customer.

Bransons Virgin Galactic is the closest to delivering. His SpaceShipTwo is the direct descendant of the original Rutan-Allen ship, and he has signed up a long list of potential passengers who have all put down deposits toward their $200,000 fare. Last year, TIME attended something of a pep rally at the outfits Mojave Desert headquarters, during which hundreds of those passengers-on-standby gathered, mingled, ate high-end finger food and cheered speeches and videos hyping the ride to come. But a promised test flight of the ship was scrubbed due to high winds and that days much-repeated pledge that the spacecrafts maiden space trip would occur before the end of the year has slippedas it has so many times beforethis time to what Branson describes only as earlyish in the new year. As recently as August, he said hed be bitterly disappointed if he didnt make his before-2015 deadline.

None of this is to say that space tourism is doomed, but it is to say that the thinking behind it has always been flawed. The Ansari XPrize was modeled after the 1919 Orteig Prize, which offered $25,000 (the equivalent of $344,000 in 2014) to the first person who could fly nonstop from New York to Paris. Charles Lindbergh won that one in 1927 and before long, his historic trip became one anybody could make. But air travel is not space travelan exponentially harder, riskier and costlier proposition. SpaceShipOnedespite the decade-old hooplawas never the achievement of a dream, it was merely the beginning of one. Its true fulfillment is still many years away.

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SpaceShipOnes Dubious Birthday

Image: Magnetospheric Multiscale Observatories undergo spin tests

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11 hours ago Credit: NASA

The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, Observatory #4, is undergoing spin testing on the Miller Table for Mass Properties at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Engineers use this machine to determine the spacecraft's center of gravity, adding counter balances as needed to ensure it spins correctly in orbit. All four of the MMS observatories undergo this testing prior to launch.

Explore further: NASA's MMS observatories stacked for testing

(Phys.org) Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., accomplished another first. Using a large overhead crane, they mated two Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, observatories ...

On May 20, 2013, the Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., reached an unprecedented milestone. The team mated the instrument and spacecraft ...

NASA's upcoming Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is comprised of a quartet of identically instrumented observatories aimed at providing the first three-dimensional views of a fundamental process in ...

(Phys.org) -- The decks have arrived. Engineers working on NASA'S Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission have started integrating instruments on the first of four instrument decks in a newly fabricated cleanroom ...

(Phys.org)On August 31, 2012 , NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission proved it was ready for its next steps by passing what's called a Systems Integration Review (SIR), which deems a mission ready ...

First thing every morning, the engineering team for NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission gathers for a 10-minute meeting. A white board sits at the front of the room with the day's assignments who ...

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Image: Magnetospheric Multiscale Observatories undergo spin tests

Greenville Drive 2014 Breakdown: Sizing Up Red Soxs Single-A Affiliate

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Several Red Sox prospects have made their way to the majors the last couple of seasons, in turn becoming household names. Meanwhile, other players have been making waves in the lower levels of the Red Sox organization despite far less recognition. The Drive, in particular, housed potential big leaguers in 2014.

Greenvilles 2014 Season 60-79 (34-35 in first half, 26-44 in second half) Offense: .261 average (sixth), .341 on-base percentage (third), 80 home runs (seventh), 660 runs scored (fifth) Pitching: 4.63 ERA (11th), 1.45 WHIP (11th), 999 strikeouts (eighth)

Most Valuable Player: Manuel Margot, OF (99 games, .286/.355/.449, 10 homers, 45 RBIs, 49 stolen bases)

Margot is beginning to turn heads. The 19-year-old jumped to High-A Salem in August and was named the Red Soxs Minor League Baserunner of the Year. SoxProspects.com currently has Margot listed as the third-best prospect in the organization, behind left-handed pitcher Henry Owens and catcher Blake Swihart.

Margot earned his promotion to Salem by flashing exciting tools at Greenville. The outfielder said recently he models his game after Baltimore Orioles All-Star center fielder Adam Jones.

Most Valuable Pitcher: Teddy Stankiewicz, RHP (25 starts, 140 1/3 innings, 11-8, 3.72 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 102 strikeouts)

Stankiewicz, a second-round pick in 2013, had a very encouraging first full season in the organization. The 20-year-old only issued 29 walks (1.9 walks per nine innings). He didnt wow in the sense he only struck out 6.5 hitters per nine innings. But staying in control is half the battle.

Stankiewicz finished the year with eight straight starts of at least six innings. He allowed one or zero runs in five of those starts, showing his workload didnt have a negative impact.

Three Highs

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Greenville Drive 2014 Breakdown: Sizing Up Red Soxs Single-A Affiliate

Uncommon NASA "This Bodegas" (Is Trying To Kill Me) (f/ ELUCID) (Live @ Palisade, Brooklyn, NY) – Video

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Uncommon NASA "This Bodegas" (Is Trying To Kill Me) (f/ ELUCID) (Live @ Palisade, Brooklyn, NY)
Backed by Alice In Wonderland, Uncommon Nasa ELUCID team up to put a lot of these shotty neighborhood bodegas and speak on the terrible conditions of these stores that are supposed to serve...

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Uncommon NASA "This Bodegas" (Is Trying To Kill Me) (f/ ELUCID) (Live @ Palisade, Brooklyn, NY) - Video

NASA Drops A Helicopter For Full-Scale Crash Test

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Image Caption: The former Marine CH-46E Sea Knight hit the dirt at about 30 miles an hour a severe but survivable impact condition under military and civilian standards. Credit: NASA Langley/David C. Bowman

Kathy Barnstorff, NASA Langley Research Center

Its not every day that you see a black and white polka-dotted helicopter hanging in the air, suspended by cables.

But then not every day is a crash test day at NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

[ Watch the Video: NASA Helicopter Crash Test A Smashing Success ]

NASA researchers and others from the military and national and international government agencies spent more than three years preparing for less than 10 seconds. Thats about how long it took for a 45-foot-long former Marine helicopter to fall 30 feet into a bed of dirt during the Transport Rotorcraft Airframe Crash Testbed (TRACT 2) full-scale crash test at NASA Langleys Landing and Impact Research (LANDIR) facility.

We chose soil because if you look at the mishap data the majority of the mishaps dont occur on prepared surfaces, like concrete said Martin Annett, lead test engineer. The helicopter plowed into the dirt at about 30 miles an hour a severe but survivable crash according to civilian and military standards.

Inside were 13 instrumented crash test dummies and two non-instrumented manikins. They were strapped in as cables hauled the helicopter fuselage into the air and then swung it to the ground, much like a pendulum. Just before impact pyro-technic devices released the suspension cables from the helicopter to allow free flight.

The test mimicked a similar one done last summer, but this time the helicopter stopped abruptly and only slid a few feet. Because it came to an abrupt stop theres a lot more load or jerking motion that gets imparted in the longitudinal direction, forward and backward, said Annett. One of the reasons that we do these types of tests is that we learn things when you drop them. You can design the test. Then you put the experiments into a full-scale helicopter in a combined-loading horizontal and vertical environment and they behave completely differently.

NASA and the Australian Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Composite Structures developed and installed three energy absorbing composite material concepts under the passenger floor for this test. That was in addition to other experiments designed to evaluate crashworthy concepts, including seats, restraints and the type of crash test dummies used to certify equipment inside aircraft.

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NASA Drops A Helicopter For Full-Scale Crash Test

NASA Invites Public to Participate in #SkyScience for Earth Science Week

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October 1, 2014

Image Caption: NASA is inviting people everywhere to become cloud-studying citizen scientists during Earth Science Week, Oct. 12-18. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ NASA is inviting people around the globe to step outside during Earth Science Week, Oct. 12-18, observe the sky and share their observations as citizen scientists.

http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnvar/20081007/38461LOGO

NASAs #SkyScience activity is part of an annual educational event organized by the American Geosciences Institute to encourage the public to engage in Earth sciences. Citizen scientists can participate in this global Earth science data collection event by observing, photographing and reporting on clouds over their location as a NASA satellite passes over. Reports and photos will be compared to data collected by NASA Earth-observing instruments as a way to assess the satellite measurements.

Using the hashtag #SkyScience, participants are encouraged to post their cloud and sky photos and observation experiences to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Flickr. Throughout the week, NASA will share some of the most interesting photos on the agencys social media accounts.

In addition to #SkyScience, NASA has been engaging students in cloud observation for years through the agencys Students Cloud Observations On-Line (SCOOL) Project.

#SkyScience is another opportunity to get lots of reports in a short period of time and enable additional statistical analysis, said SCOOL project lead Lin Chambers of NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

To learn how to get involved in the #SkyScience activity, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/skysci

For information about NASAs Earth science activities in 2014, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

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NASA Invites Public to Participate in #SkyScience for Earth Science Week

NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #618 3 October 2014

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Papers deriving from NASA support: 1 Goel N, Bale TL, Epperson CN, Kornstein SG, Leon GR, Palinkas LA, Stuster JW, Dinges DF. Effects of sex and gender on adaptation to spaceflight: Behavioral health considerations. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2014 Sep 26. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25259837 (PIs: D.F. Dinges, J.W. Stuster) Note:ISS results. Journal Impact Factor:1.896 Funding:Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute through NASA NCC 9-58; the Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research Award No. N00014-11-1-0361; and NIH grants: K24 DA030301, P50 MH099910, MH073030, MH091258, and MH087597. 2 Pennline JA, Mulugeta L. Evaluating daily load stimulus formulas in relating bone response to exercise. Cleveland, OH: NASA Glenn Research Center. 2014 June; 22 p. NASA/TM-2014-218306. http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140012744 (PI: J.A. Pennline) Note:This article may be obtained online without charge. Journal Impact Factor:Not applicable to this publication. Funding:This work was supported by the Digital Astronaut Project of NASAs Human Research Program. 3 Salguero L, Saadat F, Sevostianov I. Micromechanical modeling of elastic properties of cortical bone accounting for anisotropy of dense tissue. J Biomech. 2014 Sep 1. pii: S0021-9290(14)00443-6. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25234350 Journal Impact Factor:2.496 Funding:This work was supported in part by a grant from the NIH Grant no. R25GM061222 and by the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium via NASA Grant no. GR0003400. 4 Baulch JE, Aypar U, Waters KM, Yang AJ, Morgan WF. Genetic and epigenetic changes in chromosomally stable and unstable progeny of irradiated cells. PLoS One. 2014 Sep 24;9(9):e107722. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25251398 (PI: J.E. Baulch) Note:This article may be obtained online without charge. Journal Impact Factor:3.534 Funding:This work was supported by NASA Grants NNX13AK69G and NNX13AK70G to JEB as well as by Battelle Memorial Institute, Pacific Northwest Division, under Contract DE-AC05-76RL0 1830 with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research Low Dose Science Program. 5 Sanzari J, Muehlmatt A, Savage A, Lin L, Kennedy AR. Increased intracranial pressure in mini-pigs exposed to simulated solar particle event radiation. Acta Astronaut. 2014 Feb 1;94(2):807-812. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25242832 (PI: A.R. Kennedy) Journal Impact Factor:0.816 Funding:This research was supported by the Center of Acute Radiation Research (CARR) grant from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) through NASA NCC 9-58 and NIH Training Grant 2T32CA00967. 6 Derecho I, McCoy KB, Vaishampayan P, Venkateswaran K, Mogul R. Characterization of hydrogen peroxide-resistantAcinetobacterspecies isolated during the Mars Phoenix spacecraft assembly. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25243569 Journal Impact Factor:2.512 Funding:This work was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute Minority Institutional Research Support award to R. Mogul, and in part by a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) ROSES 2006 award to K. Venkateswaran. A component of the research described in this publication was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ___________________________________________________________________________ Other papers of interest: 1 Ten Hagen B, Kmmel F, Wittkowski R, Takagi D, Lwen H, Bechinger C. Gravitaxis of asymmetric self-propelled colloidal particles. Nat Commun. 2014 Sep 19;5:4829. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25234416 2 Pei YC, Bensmaia SJ. The neural basis of tactile motion perception. J Neurophysiol. 2014 Sep 24. pii: jn.00391.2014. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25253479 3 Wyller VB, Fagermoen E, Sulheim D, Winger A, Skovlund E, Saul JP. Orthostatic responses in adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome: Contributions from expectancies as well as gravity. Biopsychosoc Med. 2014 Sep 15;8:22. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25237387 Note:From the Background section: The aim of the present study was to explore the differences between autonomic responses due to gravitational stimuli and autonomic responses due to expectancies in adolescent CFS. This article may be obtained online without charge. 4 Niu Y, Li C, Pan Y, Li Y, Kong X, Wang S, Zhai Y, Wu X, Fan W, Mei Q. Treatment of Radix Dipsaci extract prevents long bone loss induced by modeled microgravity in hindlimb unloading rats. Pharm Biol. 2014 Sep 22:1-7. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25243871 Note:Hindlimb unloading study. 5 Lai LP, Lotinun S, Bouxsein ML, Baron R, McMahon AP. Stk11 (Lkb1) deletion in the osteoblast lineage leads to high bone turnover, increased trabecular bone density and cortical porosity. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25240456 Note:From the Introduction: Osteoblast specific removal of Stk11 highlights a critical role for Stk11 in regulating bone turnover and both the organization and number of cortical and trabecular osteoblast and osteoclast populations, and the microstructure and quality of the osteoblast-generated bone matrix. 6 Mader TL, Novotny SA, Lin AS, Guldberg RE, Lowe DA, Warren GL. CCR2 elimination in mice results in larger and stronger tibial bones but bone loss is not attenuated following ovariectomy or muscle denervation. Calcif Tissue Int. 2014 Sep 19. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25234653 Note:From the abstract: The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of genetic elimination of CCR2 on cortical and trabecular bones in the mouse tibia and how bone loss was impacted following disuse and estrogen loss. 7 Couch MJ, Blasiak B, Tomanek B, Ouriadov AV, Fox MS, Dowhos KM, Albert MS. Hyperpolarized and inert gas MRI: The future. Mol Imaging Biol. 2014 Sep 17. [Epub ahead of print] Review. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25228404 Note:This article is related to NASA-funded research conducted by Albert from 2003-2009. 8 Chowdhury SM, Surhland C, Sanchez Z, Chaudhary P, Suresh Kumar MA, Lee S, Pea LA, Waring M, Sitharaman B, Naidu M. Graphene nanoribbons as a drug delivery agent for lucanthone mediated therapy of glioblastoma multiforme. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25131339 9 Gao X, McDonald JT, Naidu M, Hahnfeldt P, Hlatky L. A proposed quantitative index for assessing the potential contribution of reprogramming to cancer stem cell kinetics. Stem Cells Int. 2014;2014:249309. Epub 2014 May 12. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24955094 Note:This article may be obtained online without charge. 10 Ghandhi SA, Ponnaiya B, Panigrahi SK, Hopkins KM, Cui Q, Hei TK, Amundson SA, Lieberman HB. RAD9 deficiency enhances radiation induced bystander DNA damage and transcriptomal response. Radiat Oncol. 2014 Sep 18;9:206. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25234738 Note:This article may be obtained online without charge. 11 Maeda S, Gunji S, Hanai K, Hirano T, Kazama Y, Ohbayashi I, Abe T, Sawa S, Tsukaya H, Ferjani A. The conflict between cell proliferation and expansion primarily affects stem organogenesis inArabidopsis. Plant Cell Physiol. 2014 Sep 22. pii: pcu131. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25246492 12 Maffei ME. Magnetic field effects on plant growth, development, and evolution. Front Plant Sci. 2014 Sep 4;5:445. Review. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25237317 Note:This article may be obtained online without charge. 13 Hoson T, Wakabayashi K. Role of the plant cell wall in gravity resistance. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25236694 Note:ISS results fromthe Space Seed experiment on the Kibo Module are discussed. 14 Effertz T, Scharr AL, Ricci AJ. The how and why of identifying the hair cell mechano-electrical transduction channel. Pflugers Arch. 2014 Sep 23. [Epub ahead of print] Review. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25241775 15 Kumar S. Cellular mechanotransduction: Stiffness does matter. Nat Mater. 2014 Sep 22;13(10):918-20. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25241671

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NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #618 3 October 2014

Controversy dogs new minister

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Manning never completed masters degree

Public Safety Minister Judy Manning never graduated from grad school.

Judy Manning, minister of public safety and the new attorney general is sworn in during the unveiling of Premier Paul Daviss new cabinet Tuesday morning. Mannings appointment has created a stir, for more than one reason. Photo by Keith Gosse/The Telegram

Until Tuesday, Manning was essentially unkown to the world of Newfoundland and Labrador politics, but that changed when Premier Paul Davis appointed her to cabinet.

The official government news release talked about her legal background extensive provincial, national and international experience and her official biography made special mention of graduate studies at the University of Calgary.

Manning studied at Memorial University and then graduated from law school at Dalhousie in 2004, before moving to Toronto.

Ms. Manning left private practice in Toronto in 2011 to pursue graduate studies in Natural Resources, Energy & Environmental Law at the University of Calgary, the government bio says. Having returned to legal practice in her home province in 2013, Ms. Manning now enjoys working as a sole practitioner in St. Johns.

What the official news release neglects to mention is Manning never graduated from the University of Calgary.

The University of Calgary law school website lists a title for an annotated bibliography Manning wrote in 2011, relevant to a major project or thesis paper. That document is titled,Is it within the power of the federal government to facilitate the development of hydroelectric power from Labrador to markets in Canada and the United States using the existing infrastructure of Hydro-Quebec for transmission?

When The Telegram contacted the University of Calgary asking for a copy of the full paper, a spokeswoman said that it was never completed.

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Controversy dogs new minister

Phoenix Children's Hospital announces genomics institute

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by Chloe Nordquist

azfamily.com

Posted on October 3, 2014 at 3:03 PM

Updated today at 3:03 PM

PHOENIX -- Phoenix Children's Hospital has announced its partnership with the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine that will help children with cancer with more precision.

The new Chan Soon-Shiong Children's Precision Medicine Institute will combine genomics research and new genomic technology to identify treatments and cures for young patients facing cancer or other serious illnesses.

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong's vision is to apply genomics to fight cancer and other disorders.

"When you get cancer, one of the problems is that cancer has thousands and thousands of mutations," Soon-Shiong said. "So what we need to do, we take the DNA and through our supercomputer find the mutation that is the one driving this cancer so we can know what drug to give you."

The trial and repeat diagnosis method of treating cancer will be more accurate with the new database.

The treatment will be chosen based on proteins within the cancer cells and not the DNA itself.

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Phoenix Children's Hospital announces genomics institute