NASA Administrator Tours Facility Where New Deep Space Rocket is Being Built

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Monday visited the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to see the progress being made on the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket ever built that will take American astronauts into deep space, first to an asteroid beyond the Moon and eventually on to Mars.

Bolden, who was joined by Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, toured construction of Michoud's advanced welding facility, the Vertical Assembly Center. There, 27.5-foot diameter cylinders, domes, rings and other elements will be brought together to form the fuel tanks and core stage of SLS, which is targeted for its first flight test in 2017. When completed in March, the Vertical Assembly Center will be home to one of the largest welding tools of its kind.

Three of four major robotic welding tools already are installed at Michoud, where SLS's core stage prime contractor, the Boeing Co. of Chicago, is leading a team producing test articles for the rocket. Michoud's advanced manufacturing facilities and workforce also built Orion's structure for its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md.

"American astronauts are living and working in space aboard the International Space Station, preparing for deeper space exploration and the SLS is the rocket that will take them there," Bolden said during the tour. "We're making tremendous progress on SLS, and I salute the team at Michoud for making sure the United States continues to lead the world in exploration."

Bolden also took time during his tour to place a call to the International Space Station mission control at NASA's Johnson Space Center. He congratulated the flight team there, the International Space Station (ISS) crew and the Orbital Sciences team in Dulles, Va., on the successful installation of Orbital's Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the station Sunday.

"The United States no longer has to rely on others to get cargo and science experiments to the International Space Station," said Bolden following the call. "Thanks to the bold commercial space plan we've been pursuing, we now have two American companies to resupply station, launching once again from U.S. soil. My hat's off to the Orbital and NASA teams who worked so hard over the weekend to successfully capture and berth the Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS."

For more than 50 years, Michoud has built large-scale space systems for NASA, including stages of the Saturn V moon rockets and external tanks for the space shuttles. Michoud has more than 43 acres of advanced manufacturing space under one roof.

"The Space Launch System is becoming a reality thanks to the unique workforce and tools at Michoud and NASA facilities across the country," said SLS Program Manager Todd May, who joined Bolden on the tour. "We're on schedule and looking forward to SLS's first launch."

During his visit, Bolden, a former astronaut, donned part of a spacesuit to make a plaster cast of his boot print to commemorate Michoud's historic role in space exploration. Bolden traveled to orbit four times aboard space shuttles between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions and piloting two others. His flights included deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission, which featured a cosmonaut as a member of his crew.

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NASA Administrator Tours Facility Where New Deep Space Rocket is Being Built

NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan Available to Media at Johnson Space Center

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NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan will be available to meet with local media at 4 p.m. CST Wednesday, Jan. 15, at the Johnson Space Center, Houston.

Stofan will discuss the effects of NASA Earth and space science research on the JSC community and how this research is a critical element in the agency's long-term science and exploration roadmap. This roadmap includes maximizing the International Space Station as a platform for groundbreaking Earth and space science research; plans to identify, redirect and send human explorers to an asteroid; optimize future deep space exploration vehicles to carry spacecraft to the outer solar system in half the time; and eventually to place the first human footsteps on Mars.

Media interested in attending should contact William Jeffs in JSC's Office of Communications and Public Affairs at 281-483-5111 or william.p.jeffs@nasa.gov no later than 5 p.m. Jan. 14.

A planetary scientist, Stofan became NASA's chief scientist in August 2013. As principal science advisor to the NASA administrator, she is responsible for maximizing a scientific portfolio that literally spans the universe. Her own research has covered the geology of Earth, Venus, Mars and Titan.

For additional information about Stofan, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ocs/stofan_bio.html

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NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan Available to Media at Johnson Space Center

NASA Kennedy, Florida Institute of Technology, MIT Experiment Among NASA Cargo on Space Station

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An experiment designed by NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Florida Institute of Technology, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is among the cargo that arrived at the International Space Station Sunday on the Orbital-1 cargo resupply mission.

The experiment, entitled "SPHERES-Slosh," is part of the SPHERES-Slosh payload.

This experiment seeks to examine how liquids move around inside containers in microgravity. This investigation will allow middle-school and high-school students to control the Synchronized Position Hold Engage Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) as part of a planned outreach program to continue to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Orbital-1 is NASA's first contracted resupply mission to the space station by U.S. company Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va. Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft launched atop the company's Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia on Jan. 9. Expedition 38 crew members captured the Orbital-1 Cygnus using the space station's robotic arm at 6:08 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 12.

Orbital developed its Antares and Cygnus with NASA and successfully completed a test mission to the space station in September, enabling the first of eight planned contract resupply flights by the company. The capsule is scheduled to remain attached to the station through mid-January. It then will return for a destructive re-entry in Earth's atmosphere.

The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has had continuous human occupation since November 2000. In that time, it has been visited by more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.

For more information about the Orbital-1 mission and the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

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NASA Kennedy, Florida Institute of Technology, MIT Experiment Among NASA Cargo on Space Station

Using Nanotechnology To Build Thinner, Stronger Condoms

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Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Discovery Magazine reports that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has granted $100,000 to Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) to develop a nanoparticle coating for condoms that will make them more comfortable and stronger while simultaneously keeping them thin to preserve and increase sensation in order to make them more appealing to use. According to the Gates Foundation, in the time that condoms have been in use, not much has changed: '[Condoms] have undergone very little technological improvement in the past 50 years. The primary improvement has been the use of latex as the primary material and quality-control measures, which allow for quality testing of each individual condom. Material science and our understanding of neurobiology has undergone revolutionary transformation in the last decade, yet that knowledge has not been applied to improve the product attributes of one of the most ubiquitous and potentially underutilized products on earth.' The nanotechnology that the Boston doctors intend to use for their improved condoms will be superhydrophillic nanoparticles that coat the condom and trap water to make them more resilient and easier to use. 'We believe that by altering the mechanical forces experienced by the condom, we may ultimately be able to make a thinner condom which reduces friction, thereby reducing discomfort associated with friction increases pleasure, thereby increasing condom use and decreases rates of unwanted pregnancy and infection transmission.'"

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Nobel Prize Lectures in Uppsala 2013 – Medicine Laureate Prof. James E Rothman – Video

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Nobel Prize Lectures in Uppsala 2013 - Medicine Laureate Prof. James E Rothman
Nobel Laureates in Medicin 2013 - Professor James E. Rothman, The principle of membrane fusion in the cell For many years it has been a tradition to invite t...

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Nobel Prize Lectures in Uppsala 2013 - Medicine Laureate Prof. James E Rothman - Video

Medical school to arm students with iPads

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Media Credit: Photo Illustration by Samuel Klein | Photo Editor

Medical students, following in the footsteps of doctors across the country, will use iPads as part of a new curriculum next year.

Next years new GW medical students will have made it through one of the most selective admissions processes in the country. But theyll each get a bonus: a new iPad.

The School of Medicine and Health Sciences will distribute iPads to its about 180-student first-year class for the first time next fall, joining a host of medical schools that are investing in a tool that is becoming more prevalent for doctors around the country.

Theyll get their white coats and their iPads and theyll be new GW medical students, said Jeffrey Akman, dean of the medical school, at a recent Faculty Senate meeting.

The iPads will complement a new curriculum that cuts down on basic science classes taken in the first two years to get students into the clinics and hospitals more rapidly, Akman said. The school will also reduce lecture time and stress team-based learning.

Its about continuing to emphasize areas as we look toward what a physician of next generation should look like in terms of training, he added.

Purchasing iPads for each member of the first-year class could rack up to nearly $70,000, but Bernhard Wiedermann, a professor of pediatrics who is leading the curriculum revision, said the school will likely receive an educational discount. She added that the school plans to cover the cost with money from school's academic fundraising White Coat Initiative.

Howard Lee, a fourth-year student, said the iPads are a good investment for budding doctors. He bought one in his second year because it seemed more practical for note taking, textbooks and filing information on patients.

You can do two things at once, so sometimes if youre listening to an audio recording of your lecture you can look at your notes at the same time, Lee said, adding that he sometimes watches videos of procedures before heading to class.

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Medical school to arm students with iPads

Should medical school be shortened to three years? Some programs try fast tracking.

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For Travis Hill, it was an offer too good to refuse. Last year when the 30-year-old neuroscientist was admitted to a new program at New York University that would allow him to complete medical school in only three years and guarantee him a spot in its neurosurgery residency, he seized it. Not only would Hill save about $70,000 the cost of tuition and living expenses for the fourth year of medical school he would also shave a year off the training that will consume the next decade of his life.

Im not interested in being in school forever, said Hill, who earned a PhD from the University of California at Davis in June 2013 and started med school in Manhattan a few weeks later. Just knowing where youre going to be for residency is huge. So is Hills student loan debt: about $200,000, dating back to his undergraduate days at the University of Massachusetts. And he wont begin practicing until he is 40.

The chance to finish medical school early is attracting increased attention from students burdened with six-figure education loans: The median debt for medical school graduates in 2013 was $175,000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. This year, the combined cost of tuition and fees for a first-year medical student ranges from just over $12,000 to more than $82,000.

Some medical school administrators and policymakers see three-year programs as a way to produce physicians, particularly primary-care doctors, faster as the new health-care law funnels millions of previously uninsured patients into the medical system. Enormous student loans are cited as one reason some newly minted doctors choose lucrative specialties such as radiology or dermatology, which pay twice as much as pediatrics or family medicine.

But debt and the shortage of primary-care doctors are not the only factors fueling interest in accelerated programs.

Some influential experts are raising questions about the length of medical school in part because much of the fourth year is devoted to electives and applying for a residency, a process that typically takes months. (Similar questions are being raised about the third year of law school.)

In a piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2012, University of Pennsylvania Vice Provost Ezekiel Emanuel and Stanford economist Victor Fuchs proposed that a year of medical school could be eliminated without adversely affecting academic performance. The overall time it takes to train physicians, they wrote, is an example of waste in medical education and could be shortened without affecting patient care or eroding clinical skills; students could be assessed on core competencies rather than on time served.

A 2010 report by the Carnegie Foundation recommended that fast-tracking be considered.

So far, fewer than a dozen of the nations 124 medical schools are offering or actively considering three-year programs, which typically involve the elimination of electives, attendance at summer classes and the provisional guarantee of a residency offered because three-year graduates might be at a disadvantage compared with other applicants.

NYU launched its program in September with Hill and 15 other students chosen from a pool of 50 applicants nearly a third of the medical schools 160-member class.

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Should medical school be shortened to three years? Some programs try fast tracking.