Students in Control of Space Station Robots: Katie Magrane at TEDxLowell – Video

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Students in Control of Space Station Robots: Katie Magrane at TEDxLowell
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live...

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Students in Control of Space Station Robots: Katie Magrane at TEDxLowell - Video

NASA Develops High-Tech Cages to Carry Rats to International Space Station

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Washington: NASA has developed high-tech cages to carry rodents from Earth to the International Space Station (ISS) to allow researchers to study the long-term effects of microgravity on mammalian physiology.

The Rodent Habitat modules will first fly in August aboard an unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo ship.

Developed at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, the new habitats are designed for transporting the animals to the space station and as part of their long-term accommodation.

They consist of a transport module, which fits inside the racks in the pressurised cargo section of the Dragon spacecraft, and an access module for moving the rodents from the transporter to the station's rodent habitat without having the mice escape and take up residence behind the control panels.

Each habitat module provides as many as 10 mice or six rats with all necessities they need to live comfortably aboard the station including water, food, lighting and fresh air.

Rodents can easily move around the living space by grasping grids that line the floor and walls. The modules include data downlink capability that enables monitoring of environmental conditions such as temperature.

A visible light and infrared video system allows the crew in space and scientists and veterinarians on the ground to monitor behaviour and overall health of the rodents on a daily basis.

Based on recommendations of the National Research Council in US, the new modules are part of a study of the effects of prolonged weightlessness, such as would be encountered on a mission to Mars, 'Gizmag' reported.

Since rodents develop and age much faster than humans, studying rodent model organisms accelerates the understanding of diseases that may take years or decades to develop in humans.

Rodents may be studied in space during different developmental stages of life. Additionally, spaceflight rodent studies are important for developing countermeasures such as procedures, drugs or devices to protect their health during spaceflight.

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NASA Develops High-Tech Cages to Carry Rats to International Space Station

NASA's Space Launch System One Step Closer To 2017 Flight

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Sun, May 25, 2014

NASA and ATK are one step closer to meeting a 2017 launch date for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) after completion of a significant structural test of the booster's main attachment mechanism. NASA is developing SLS to take humans farther into deep space than ever before.

"We test like we fly," said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of ATK's Space Launch Division, and former four-time space shuttle astronaut. "There are no second chances in spaceflightwe have to be certain we've got it right before we launch."

The article tested was a major load-bearing structure known as the forward skirt. The attach point on the forward skirt is where the main stage attaches to the five-segment solid rocket boosters that will launch SLS into deep space. ATK is providing the boosters as well as integration with the forward skirt.

The forward skirt is one of many critical components of the SLS booster design and must be tested to meet very demanding SLS requirements. For the test, ATK designed and fabricated a new test stand capable of applying millions of pounds of force to the structure.

Technicians tested the forward skirt at simulated lift-off and ascent conditions before testing it to failure. The final test demonstrated the structure's maximum load.

NASA's SLS booster program remains on track for a late 2017 launch. The booster critical design review will be held this summer.

(Image provided by ATK)

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NASA's Space Launch System One Step Closer To 2017 Flight

Amazing Science – The Future of Assembly Lines (Manufacturing & Nanotechnology) – Video

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Amazing Science - The Future of Assembly Lines (Manufacturing Nanotechnology)
There #39;s no shortage of ideas about how to use nanotechnology, but one of the major hurdles is how to manufacture some of the new products on a large scale. W...

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Amazing Science - The Future of Assembly Lines (Manufacturing & Nanotechnology) - Video

DNA nanotechnology places enzyme catalysis within an arm's length

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-May-2014

Contact: Joe Caspermeyer joseph.caspermeyer@asu.edu 480-258-8972 Arizona State University

Using molecules of DNA like an architectural scaffold, Arizona State University scientists, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Michigan, have developed a 3-D artificial enzyme cascade that mimics an important biochemical pathway that could prove important for future biomedical and energy applications.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Led by ASU Professor Hao Yan, the research team included ASU Biodesign Institute researchers Jinglin Fu, Yuhe Yang, Minghui Liu, Professor Yan Liu and Professor Neal Woodbury along with colleagues Professor Nils Walter and postdoctoral fellow Alexander Johnson-Buck at the University of Michigan.

Researchers in the field of DNA nanotechnology, taking advantage of the binding properties of the chemical building blocks of DNA, twist and self-assemble DNA into ever-more imaginative 2- and 3-dimensional structures for medical, electronic and energy applications.

In the latest breakthrough, the research team took up the challenge of mimicking enzymes outside the friendly confines of the cell. These enzymes speed up chemical reactions, used in our bodies for the digestion of food into sugars and energy during human metabolism, for example.

"We look to Nature for inspiration to build man-made molecular systems that mimic the sophisticated nanoscale machineries developed in living biological systems, and we rationally design molecular nanoscaffolds to achieve biomimicry at the molecular level," Yan said, who holds the Milton Glick Chair in the ASU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and directs the Center for Molecular Design and Biomimicry at the Biodesign Institute.

With enzymes, all moving parts must be tightly controlled and coordinated, otherwise the reaction will not work. The moving parts, which include molecules such as substrates and cofactors, all fit into a complex enzyme pocket just like a baseball into a glove. Once all the chemical parts have found their place in the pocket, the energetics that control the reaction become favorable, and swiftly make chemistry happen. Each enzyme releases its product, like a baton handed off in a relay race, to another enzyme to carry out the next step in a biochemical pathway in the human body.

For the new study, the researchers chose a pair of universal enzymes, glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6pDH) and malate dehydrogenase (MDH), that are important for biosynthesismaking the amino acids, fats and nucleic acids essential for all life. For example, defects found in the pathway cause anemia in humans. "Dehydrogenase enzymes are particularly important since they supply most of the energy of a cell", said Walter. "Work with these enzymes could lead to future applications in green energy production such as fuel cells using biomaterials for fuel."

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DNA nanotechnology places enzyme catalysis within an arm's length

Gene mutation found for aggressive form of pancreatic cancer

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25-May-2014

Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a mutated gene common to adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) tumors the first known unique molecular signature for this rare, but particularly virulent, form of pancreatic cancer.

The findings are published in the May 25 advance online issue of Nature Medicine.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, with roughly 45,220 new cases diagnosed and more than 38,400 deaths annually. Both numbers are rising. ASC cases are infrequent, but typically have a worse prognosis than more common types of pancreatic cancer.

"There has been little progress in understanding pancreatic ASC since these aggressive tumors were first described more than a century ago," said co-senior author Miles F. Wilkinson, PhD, professor in the Department of Reproductive Medicine and a member of the UC San Diego Institute for Genomic Medicine. "One problem has been identifying mutations unique to this class of tumors."

In their paper, Wilkinson, co-senior author Yanjun Lu, PhD, of Tongji University in China, and colleagues report that ASC pancreatic tumors have somatic or non-heritable mutations in the UPF1 gene, which is involved in a highly conserved RNA degradation pathway called nonsense-mediated RNA decay or NMD. It is the first known example of genetic alterations in an NMD gene in human tumors.

NMD has two major roles. First, it is a quality control mechanism used by cells to eliminate faulty messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules that help transcribe genetic information into the construction of proteins essential to life. Second, it degrades a specific group of normal mRNAs, including those encoding proteins promoting cell growth, cell migration and cell survival. Loss of NMD in these tumors may "release the brakes on these molecules, and thereby driving tumor growth and spread," said Wilkinson.

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Gene mutation found for aggressive form of pancreatic cancer