Falcon 20-E5 Aircraft Flies Close Behind NASA DC-8 to Sample Exhaust – Video

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Falcon 20-E5 Aircraft Flies Close Behind NASA DC-8 to Sample Exhaust
This video was taken from a NASA HU-25C Guardian chase plane looking toward NASA #39;s DC-8, with a Falcon 20-E5 from the German Aerospace Agency (DLR) soon to fly into the DC-8 #39;s exhaust. The...

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Falcon 20-E5 Aircraft Flies Close Behind NASA DC-8 to Sample Exhaust - Video

NASA Uses GPS to Find Sierra Water Weight

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For the first time, NASA scientists have used GPS to find the total weight of winter snowpack and soil moisture in Californias Sierra Nevada. The new results complement other satellite measurements and could provide a reality check for computer models used to estimate the state's water and snowpack.

A team led by Donald Argus of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., studied data from 1,069 GPS research sites in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, extending back to 2006. For each site, they averaged the difference in the ground level between October 1 (the end of the dry season) and April 1 of each year, when the snow is likely to be at its greatest weight. They then calculated how much water would be required to create the observed height changes.

On average, the yearly change in water weight between summer and winter in the Sierra Nevada of California and Klamath Mountains on the California-Oregon border was equal to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of water.

The GPS water data could help inform water managers what water resources were likely to be available after the winter or provide early warning of how dry the mountains are going to be in a fire season. They complement airborne and space missions that measure the water cycle, such as JPL's Airborne Snow Observatory and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment spacecraft.

"Researchers have known that up-and-down movements observed in GPS sites may be due to the weight of water, but this is the first time weve inferred the volume of water from GPS movements," said Argus. The results were published recently in Geophysical Research Letters. JPL's Yuning Fu and Felix Landerer are coauthors.

GPS receivers used for scientific research are far more precise than the commercial models found in cars and backpacks worldwide. These scientific receivers can measure changes in their location smaller than a quarter of an inch (a few millimeters).

The new study took advantage of the fact that Earth sags under the weight of water, like a mattress under a sleeping person. Also like a mattress, the sagging is localized rather than widespread, so that a heavy mountain snowfall depresses the ground beneath it but barely affects flatlands 40 to 50 miles away. GPS receivers accurately monitor the location and extent of the ground's sinking in winter and rebounding in spring.

Argus noted that the precision of the new measurement was possible because of the density of the GPS network. "The spatial resolution of GPS is only limited by the spacing of sites," he said. "In California, we are blessed with all these GPS sites that were placed here because of earthquakes. We're getting a resolution of less than 100 kilometers because that's how closely the sites are spaced."

The researchers compared the new measurement with modeled estimates, finding that NASA's widely used North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) NOAH model overestimates winter water storage in the Sierra by about 50 percent.

Argus sees many future uses for the new measurement technique. "We anticipate that GPS along with other airborne and spaceborne measurements will next be used together to improve estimates of groundwater change in California's Central Valley," he said. He hopes to use the measurement technique to create a near-real-time monitoring system for snowpack, offering another tool in the arsenal of California water managers to manage flood control, hydroelectric power generation and the state's valuable and scarce water supply.

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NASA Uses GPS to Find Sierra Water Weight

NASA Hosts Media Teleconference on West Antarctic Ice Sheet Findings

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NASA will host a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EDT Monday, May 12, to discuss new research results on the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its potential contribution to future sea level rise.

The briefing participants are:

-- Eric Rignot, professor of Earth system science at the University of California Irvine, and glaciologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California;

-- Sridhar Anandakrishnan, professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, University Park; and,

-- Tom Wagner, cryosphere program scientist with the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For dial-in information, media should email their name, affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole atstephen.e.cole@nasa.govno later than 11:30 a.m. Monday. Questions can also be submitted on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

For decades scientists have recognized that this area of the massive ice sheet covering Antarctica is particularly vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate. The majority of the ice sheet in West Antarctica is grounded on bedrock that lies below sea level, making it susceptible to melting from warm ocean waters.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

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NASA Hosts Media Teleconference on West Antarctic Ice Sheet Findings

NASA Laser Demo Promises Interplanetary Internet

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WASHINGTON -- A NASA laser communications demonstration that succeeded in transmitting high-rate data to the moon and back has laid the groundwork for an even more ambitious relay demonstration scheduled for as early as 2017. If successful, a future optical relay network could serve as the basis for an interplanetary Internet with as much as 100 times higher data rates than conventional communication satellites with the same mass and power, NASA claims.

The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) carried aboard a NASA lunar orbiter successfully transmitted data at a record rate of 622 megabits per second on October 17, 2013. The optical system delivered six times the bandwidth of standard radio-frequency communications networks now used for space communications. The two-way optical system also demonstrated an error-free upload rate of 20 megabits per second.

The download rate of the 0.5-watt laser system used in the lunar demonstration is roughly equivalent to streaming 30 HDTV channels simultaneously, program managers said. Measured another way, they said a Google map of Mars using current communications technology would require nine years. A future laser communications network could reduce mapping time to nine weeks.

NASA Administrator Charles Boldin noted in a message transmitted to the moon via the laser system that the trial was a precursor to a more ambitious demonstration later in the decade called the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration. "With optical communications, we'll be able to transmit more data so that future rovers on other planets and human missions to an asteroid and Mars will enjoy Internet-like connections," he claimed.

Next Page: Atmospheric turbulence

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Nigeria: Nigerian newspapers hardly cover nanotechnology

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Salvador, Brazil Despite nanotechnology's huge potential to alleviate poverty, it is one of the least covered science topics in Nigerian newspapers, a study finds.

The study, which is yet to be published, was presented by Herbert Batta, a communication lecturer at Nigeria's University of Uyo, at the 13th International Public Communication of Science and Technology conference (PCST2014) in Brazil, this week (5-8 May).

"This may indicate the lack of knowledge among journalists in that area, and an underdeveloped state of that science in the country, or the difficulties experienced in the science-journalism interface," it says.

The study analysed the science coverage of three national newspapers, The Guardian, Daily Trust and Leadership, in 2012.

The study found little difference between the papers' coverage of nanoscience and nanotechnology issues, with these subjects being covered by only 3.6 per cent of The Guardian's science articles, just over one per cent of those in the Leadership and none in the Daily Trust.

In all, the three papers produced 329 individual science stories in 2012. The most frequent topics covered by The Guardian were related to health, in the Leadership it was stories on robotics, biotechnology and information and communications technology, while in the Daily Trust nearly all science articles were about health and medicine.

Batta said: "Nanoscience and nanotechnology can be used to solve problems ranging from the provision of healthcare, especially for chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, water purification and the supply of clean energy, but the media hardly covers them." This means those in the newspapers' audience who could make use of them are unaware of their possible benefits, he added.

Batta said there are few nanotechnology experts in Nigeria and in Africa more generally. The few there are in Nigeria often work at institutions that are not active in raising awareness among the public about nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is still an emerging area of science in Africa, in which there has been modest progress, he said. "Scientists involved also seem fearful of engaging with the media without [having] any breakthroughs [to report]," he added.

According to Batta, science journalists' associations and nanotechnology scientists could work to bridge the gap by organising events to help the media understand the subject.

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Nigeria: Nigerian newspapers hardly cover nanotechnology

MIT uses nanotech to hit cancer with one-two punch

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Computerworld - In a second report this week on scientists' use of nanotechnology to battle cancer, researchers at MIT announced a new way to use nanoparticles to give cancerous cells a one-two punch.

MIT reported that researchers used nanoparticles to carry two drugs and release them one at a time. The treatment was shown to "dramatically shrink" lung and breast tumors in mice.

"I think it's a harbinger of what nanomedicine can do for us in the future," said Paula Hammond, an MIT professor of engineering, in a statement. "We're moving from the simplest model of the nanoparticle -- just getting the drug in there and targeting it -- to having smart nanoparticles that deliver drug combinations in the way that you need to really attack the tumor."

The university explained that first the nanoparticles disarm the cancer cell's defenses by releasing a drug called Erlotinib, also known as Tarceva, which shuts down one of the pathways that promote uncontrolled tumor growth. Then the nanoparticles release another drug called Doxorubicin, also known as Adriamycin.

Once weakened by the administering of the Erlotinib, the cancer cells are more susceptible to being treated with the second drug.

"It's like rewiring a circuit," said Michael Yaffe, an MIT professor. "When you give the first drug, the wires' connections get switched around so that the second drug works in a much more effective way."

Scientists have known that treating cancer patients with the prolonged attack of two or more drugs can bring greater success than using one medication. In more recent years, they've also determined that the specific timing of the drug delivery has a significant affect on the outcome.

According to MIT, using Erlotinib and Doxorubicin in a specifically timed succession proved a powerful tool to beat back a specific type of breast cancer known as triple-negative tumors, an aggressive cancer that tends to strike young women.

To deliver these drugs, the scientists turned to nanotechnology.

The researchers designed the nanoparticle so that the Erlotinib is embedded in the outer layer of it, while Doxorubicin is inside the particle's core. The particles are coated with a polymer, protecting them from breaking down in the body or being filtered out by the liver and kidneys.

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MIT uses nanotech to hit cancer with one-two punch

Get Your Glasses: Comic Strip Etched on Human Hair

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The eye-strain implications alone are staggering.

To promote the upcoming Exceptional Hardware Software Meeting (EHSM) in Hamburg, Germany, a team of DIY artists and scientists has etched the worlds smallest comic strip on a single human hair.

PHOTOS: Dazzling OMG Microscope

Titled Juana Knits The Planet, the strip was created by German artist Claudia Puhlfurst, then carved into the hair using a process called focused ion beam (FIB) etching. A very sharp and high-speed jet of matter is produced and directed towards the hair to etch it similar to a fine laser beam, according to the projects YouTube page.

Each of the strips 12 frames measures in at around 25 micrometers. A micrometer, or micron, is one millionth of a meter. A typical human hair is anywhere from 20 to 200 microns in width.

NEWS: Worlds Smallest Image Nano-Chiseled from Polymer

The second annual EHSM event bills itself as a meeting of international makers, hackers, scientists and engineers aiming to deliver on the third industrial revolution. The rest of the conference looks pretty trippy, too.

Among the presentations: electron beam welding, quantum cryptography and the interesting things that happen when molten glass, heated to 1,260 degrees Celcius, hits water. Ive always been curious about that.

You can check out the Juana Knits the Planet project video below.

via Gizmag

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Get Your Glasses: Comic Strip Etched on Human Hair

How to Prevent and Treat Diabetes With Natural Medicine – Home Remedies For Diabetes – Video

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How to Prevent and Treat Diabetes With Natural Medicine - Home Remedies For Diabetes
Natural Remedies For Diabetes http://www.ReverseAnyDiabetes.com Reverse Your Diabetes Today Reverse Your Diabetes Today Review Reverse Your Diabetes Today Download Reverse Your Diabetes...

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How to Prevent and Treat Diabetes With Natural Medicine - Home Remedies For Diabetes - Video