NASA's Curiosity Rover Brushes Mars Rock Clean, a First

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has pulled out another item from its toolkit for the first time, using a brush to sweep Martian rocks clean of the planets ubiquitous red dust, the space agency announced Monday (Jan. 7).

Curiositys first use of the Dust Removal Tool at the tip of its robotic arm marks another milestone for the rover, which has spent about five months on the Red Planet. The Curiosity rover landed Aug. 5 to begin a two-year mission to determine if the Mars may have once been habitable for primitive life.

The Dust Removal Tool is a brush that allows Curiosity to sweep away the reddish-brown particles that coat most surfaces on Mars, in order to get a better look at rocks that could be worth drilling intofor further study. The motorized brush is made with wire bristles, and is attached to the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

The tool, built by New York City-based Honeybee Robotics, resembles brushes that flew to Mars on NASA's previous rover missions, the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

"This is similar to the brush on board the Rock Abrasion Tools on Spirit and Opportunity, and will let researchers get a look at the rock (rather than the pervasive dust) before deciding whether to drill for a sample," Honeybee Robotics spokesman John Abrashkin told SPACE.com.

For its inaugural run, Curiosity mission planners chose to use the brush on a Martian rock called "Ekwir_1," which sits in the "Yellowknife Bay" area of Curiosity's landing site in Mars' Gale Crater.

"We wanted to be sure we had an optimal target for the first use," Diana Trujillo, the mission's activity lead for the Dust Removal Tool at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "We need to place the instrument within less than half an inch of the target without putting the hardware at risk. We needed a flat target, one that wasn't rough, one that was covered with dust. The results certainly look good."

Cleaning the dust off rocks not only allows Curiosity to get a better look at them, but clears away surface contaminants that might confuse samples taken from deeper in the rocks after the rover digs down into them with its hammering drill.

The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover is exploring Yellowknife Bay as it makes its way toward a point called Glenelg at the base of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high (5 kilometers) mountain that rises up from the center of Gale Crater.

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz.Follow SPACE.com on Twitter@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook&Google+.

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NASA's Curiosity Rover Brushes Mars Rock Clean, a First

Mysteriously Bright Black Holes Revealed by NASA Telescope

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LONG BEACH, CALIF. A NASA space telescope snapped a new view of two oddball black holes shining ultra-bright in X-ray light in a distant spiral galaxy.

NASAs NuSTAR X-ray observatory spotted the bright black holes while observing the galaxy Caldwell 5, which is located 7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (the Giraffe).

The black holes, which appear in magenta superimposed on a visible-light view of the galaxy in NuSTARs view, present a cosmic mystery: Their X-ray emissions shine as bright as supermassive black holes, yet haven't sunk to the galaxy's core, as such monster black holes usually do. Scientists have dubbed such objects ultra-luminous X-ray sources, or ULXs.

The Milky Way galaxy is filled with so-called stellar black holes created by the collapse of individual giant stars, with masses of up to 12 times that of the sun. Yet those black holes don't emit the intense levels energy to form such blazingly bright black holes as those seen by NuSTAR.

Supermassive black holes, by comparison, contain millions to billions of times the mass of the sun, usually are found at the center of a galaxy.

One possibility is that the black holes seen by NuSTAR are actually of an intermediate size, said NuSTAR principal investigator Fiona Harrison, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology. But intermediate-sized black holes are thought to be much rarer than their bigger and smaller cousins.

"High-energy X-rays hold a key to unlocking the mystery surrounding these objects," Harrison said in a statement. "Whether they are massive black holes, or there is new physics in how they feed, the answer is going to be fascinating."

NASAs NuSTAR telescope (the name is short for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) launched into space in June 2012. It focuses its observations on high-energy light wavelengths between 6keV and 79 keV in order to take a census of black holes and understand how elements are formed.

The two black holes were first spotted by NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory, but past images of the objects were blurry. The view from NuSTAR is much more refined, offering a clearer picture of their location in the galaxy, researchers said.

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In The Market For A Very Large Garage? Call NASA.

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NASA is facing a conundrum of large proportions; shuttle-sized, in fact. Now that the shuttle program has ended, NASA is no longer using shuttle facilities and equipment. That includes everything from a launch pad to space in the building where rockets were assembled. So NASA is conducting a secret auction. Orlando Sentinel staff writer Scott Powers explains what NASA is selling, why, and who the buyers might be.

Copyright 2013 National Public Radio. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

If you're in the market for a garage, a very large garage, say big enough to hold a space shuttle, well, you're in luck. A year and a half after the last shuttle landed, NASA is seeking renters or buyers for some of its shuttle facilities and equipment. That includes a hangar and even the launch pad of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Scott Powers is with us to tell us more about this unusual auction. He wrote about it for the Orlando Sentinel. Hi there, Scott.

SCOTT POWERS: Hi, Audie.

CORNISH: So basically, NASA is selling off anything that was made just for the shuttle program. Is that correct?

POWERS: Yeah. It's - most of the leased facilities are actually for rent at this point. They're everything from a parachute packing plant. There's an array of radar stations. There's a couple of buildings out there that are used to refurbish and install shuttle tiles. Those kinds of things have a lot of specialized equipment in them and they can be used for other things, I suppose. But NASA realizes their money is going to run out for these facilities soon, and they figured that they need to get partners to continue their use or shut them down and padlock them. They'd rather find partners.

CORNISH: So let's talk about that launch pad for a minute. Given that the shuttle program is over, who's going to want to use that?

POWERS: Probably no one. The problem is with all of the government launch pads out there, there are a lot of hoops that a private space company would have to jump through to use it. A lot of private industry would rather have their own launch pad out there. And there's some talk about building a private launch pad out there someday. And if that were the case, then many of those would work together with a new launch pad.

CORNISH: So other than commercial space flight companies, who else would want to buy some of this stuff? Who are the potential customers?

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In The Market For A Very Large Garage? Call NASA.

Hubble Space Telescope Could Last Until 2018, NASA Says

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LONG BEACH, Calif. NASA's 23-year-old Hubble Space Telescope is still going strong, and agency officials said Tuesday (Jan. 8) they plan to operate it until its instruments finally give out, potentially for another six years at least.

After its final overhaul in 2009, the Hubble telescope was expected to last until at least 2015. Now, NASA officials say they are committed to keeping the iconic space observatory going as long as possible.

"Hubble will continue to operate as long as its systems are running well," Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said here at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Hubble, like other long-running NASA missions such as the Spitzer Space Telescope, will be reviewed every two years to ensure that the mission is continuing to provide science worth the cost of operating it, Hertz added.

In fact, Hubble supporters hope it will continue to run even after its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is launched an event planned for 2018.

"We are not planning to arbitrarily end the operation of Hubble when JWST is launched," Hertz said during a NASA Town Hall Meeting at the AAS conference. "It may be great if we get at least one year of overlap between JWST and Hubble." [Building the James Webb Space Telescope (Photos)]

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990, and has since been upgraded five times by astronauts in orbit. Its last space shuttle servicing mission in May 2009 left the scope with two new instruments, including a wide-field camera and a high-precision spectrograph to spread out light into its constituent wavelengths. The space telescope is named after the late astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), who proved that the universe is expanding.

"It's working better than ever, 23 years in," Dan Coe, an astronomer working with Hubble at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., told SPACE.com. "We're still pushing the frontier."

Coe agreed that overlap time with both Hubble and James Webb operating simultaneously would be ideal. Such a plan would allow the observatories to work on complementary projects and provide crosschecks between the two telescopes' measurements.

How long Hubble can run also depends on NASA's budget, which, like funding for all federal agencies, is uncertain given the economic challenges in the United States.

"It all comes down to money," Coe said.

Continued here:

Hubble Space Telescope Could Last Until 2018, NASA Says

NASA to Announce Launch of New Earth-Observing Satellite

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NASA plans to announce tomorrow (Jan. 10) the launch of a new satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), to monitor Earth's landscape and the changes to it.

The new satellite, scheduled to launch Feb. 11, will replace the Landsat 5 satellite, which is to be decommissioned in the coming months, the U.S. Geological Survey reported in December.

The announcement will be made at 1 p.m. EST at NASA headquarters in Washington. You can watch it live here, as well as on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Landsat 5 is the longest-operating Earth-observing satellite mission in history, according to the USGS. Launched in 1984 with a three-year design life, it has been taking images and recording changes on the Earth's surface ever since. The satellite almost failed several times, but engineers brought it back to life. However, the recent failure of a gyroscope (which helps satellites maintain their orientation) left no option but to end the mission, the USGS said in its release.

"Any major event since 1984 that left a mark on this Earth larger than a football field was likely recorded by Landsat 5, whether it was a hurricane, a tsunami, a wildfire, deforestation or an oil spill," USGS Director Marcia McNutt said in the statement. "We look forward to a long and productive continuation of the Landsat program, but it is unlikely there will ever be another satellite that matches the outstanding longevity of Landsat 5."

The satellite monitored the effects of the devastating floods along the Mississippi River in 2011, snapped an image of the path of a tornado in Massachusetts that same year, and helped the effort to battle raging wildfires in Arizona.

LDCM, like Landsat 5, is a collaboration between NASA and the USGS that will continue the Landsat program's 40-year data record of monitoring Earth from space. Landsat 5 has orbited the globe more than 150,000 times and recorded over 2.5 million images.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter@OAPlanet. We're also onFacebookand Google+.

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NASA Deal May Put Inflatable Private Module on Space Station

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WASHINGTON NASA and Bigelow Aerospace have reached an agreement that could pave the way for attaching a Bigelow-built inflatable space habitat to the International Space Station, a NASA spokesman said.

The $17.8 million contract was signed in late December, NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto told SpaceNews Monday (Jan. 7). Perrotto declined to provide other terms of the agreement, except to say that it centers around the Bigelow Expanded Aerospace Module(BEAM). He said a formal announcement is in the works.

That inflatable space habitat, which is similar to the Genesis-model prototypes Bigelow launched in 2006 and 2007, could be used for extra storage at the space station and provide flight data on the on-orbit durability of Bigelows inflatable modulescompared to the outposts existing metallic modules.

Bigelow and NASA have been discussing an inflatable addition to the space station for years.

The deal signed in December follows a nonpaying NASA contract Bigelow got in 2011, under which the North Las Vegas, Nev., company worked up a list of procedures and protocols for adding BEAM to the space station. Bigelow got that contract, which did not call for any flight hardware, in response to a 2010 NASA Broad Agency Announcement seeking ideas for support equipment and services meant to help the U.S. portion of the International Space Station live up to its billing as a national laboratory.

Last March, NASA spokesman Josh Buck said the agency would tap one of its Commercial Resupply Services contractors, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) or Orbital Sciences Corp., to get BEAM to the space station.

SpaceX and Orbital are under contract for space station cargo deliveries through 2016. So far, only SpaceX has flown to the station. The company, which flies Dragon cargo capsulesatop Falcon 9 rockets, completed its first contracted run in October. Orbital, which is developing a cargo freighter called Cygnus for launch aboard its new Antares rocket, is now scheduled to launch a demonstration cargo run in February from NASAs Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.

SpaceX and Orbital both signed Commercial Resupply Services contracts in 2008. SpaceXs $1.6 billion resupply pact calls for 12 flights. Orbitals $1.9 billion deal is for eight flights.

This story was provided bySpace News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

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NASA Deal May Put Inflatable Private Module on Space Station

Liquipel 2.0 Debuts Latest in Nanotechnology Science at CES

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LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwire - Jan 7, 2013) - Liquipel LLC, the sole owner and licensor of the Liquipel technology (http://www.liquipel.com/), announced today new scientific breakthroughs in nanotechnology protection, dubbing them "Liquipel 2.0." The science behind Liquipel 2.0 represents significant advancements in durability, corrosion resistance and water protection. Extensive company testing has shown Liquipel 2.0 to be up to 100 times more effective than its predecessor, Liquipel 1.0, while maintaining component integrity and RF sensitivity.

"Liquipel version 2.0 is a huge advancement for super-hydrophobic nanotechnology," said Danny McPhail, Liquipel's Head of Product Development and Co-Founder. He further stated, "The release of 2.0 represents our ongoing R&D commitment to advancing our technology and products. Innovation is the key to our success. Our customers have reconfirmed that the science behind 2.0 places us at the forefront of the industry."

Liquipel's patent-pending process creates a liquid-repellant coating, that is microscopic and forever lasting because the coating becomes a part of the device. Liquipel is virtually untraceable and will not affect, nor compromise the look, feel and performance of the device.

For more information and videos, please visit Liquipel's website, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. To contact Liquipel, LLC, email info@liquipel.com.

About Liquipel

Liquipel LLC is the sole owner and licensor of Liquipel (http://www.liquipel.com/), an award-winning process that uses nanotechnology to make smartphones and other devices Watersafe from accidental exposure to water and other liquids. Since its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show 2012, it has won an Edison Award, a FierceWireless Fierce 15 Award, was named by Popular Science as the Grand Award Winner in the Gadgets Category of the magazine's "Best of What's New" issue. It has also been included in Entrepreneur Magazine's "100 Brilliant Companies" list. It is available in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Liquipel makes us rethink how we utilize our electronic devices. By merging the latest in nanotechnology and consumer products, Liquipel creates a no limits lifestyle free from boundaries.

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Liquipel 2.0 Debuts Latest in Nanotechnology Science at CES

Heart Failure and Palliative Medicine – Video

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Heart Failure and Palliative Medicine
Ernst Schwarz, MD, Phd, FESC, FACC, FSCAI Dr. Schwarz is the Chief Medical Officer of the Heart Institute of Southern California. He is also Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Schwarz is board certified in Cardiology and Advanced Heart Failure Transplant Cardiology in the USA.

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Heart Failure and Palliative Medicine - Video

Bill Gates invests in Foundation Medicine, which uses genome data for cancer diagnostics

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By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Foundation Medicine Inc. said that Bill Gates of Microsoft fame is among investors who expanded the Cambridge companys Series B financing round by an additional $13.5 million.

Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates. (AP File Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Advances in understanding the human genome are having a dramatic impact on almost every area of medicine, Gates said in a statement. Foundation Medicines approach in harnessing the power of genomic data to improve care for cancer patients could represent an extremely important step forward in improving routine cancer care.

Besides Gates, new investors included Evan Jones and Yuri Milner, said the company, which added that their investments bring the total raised in the round to $56 million.

Foundation Medicines first product is called FoundationOne, and it is a genomic assay for all solid tumors that analyzes tumor DNA and provides a concise report to help doctors match patients with the targeted drugs or clinical trials best suited to treat their individual cancers, the company said in a press release.

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Bill Gates invests in Foundation Medicine, which uses genome data for cancer diagnostics

Ancient Shipwreck Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Eye Medicine

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Ancient gray disks loaded with zinc and beeswax found aboard a shipwreck more than 2,000 years old may have been used as medicine for the eyes, researchers say.

These new findings shed light on the development of medicine over the centuries, scientists added.

Scientists analyzed six flat gray tablets approximately 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) in diameter and 0.4 inches (1 cm) thick that were found in a round tin box aboard the so-called Relitto del Pozzino shipwreck, which was discovered about 60 feet (18 meters) underwater in 1974 on the seabed of the Baratti Gulf off the coast of Tuscany. The hull, only 50 to 60 feet (15 to 18 m) long and about 10 feet (3 m) wide, dated back to about 140 B.C.

The Roman shipwreck lay near the remains of the Etruscan city of Populonia, which at the time the ship foundered was a key port along sea trade routes between the west and east across the Mediterranean Sea. A number of artifacts were unearthed during the excavation, including wine jars, an inkwell, tin and bronze jugs, stacks of Syrian-Palestinian glass bowls and Ephesian lamps. [Shipwrecks Gallery: Secrets of the Deep]

"Such objects suggest that the ship, or at least a great part of its cargo, came from the east, probably the Greek coasts or islands," the researchers wrote in a study detailed online Jan. 7 in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The cargo also included medical equipment, such as an iron probe and a bronze vessel that may have been used for bloodletting or for applying hot air to soothe aches. These findings suggest a physician was traveling by sea with his professional equipment, the researchers said.

To learn more about these potentially medicinal tablets, researchers investigated the chemical, mineralogical and botanical composition of fragments of a broken tablet.

"In archaeology, the discovery of ancient medicines is very rare, as is knowledge of their chemical composition," the researchers wrote. "The data revealed extraordinary information on the composition of the tablets and on their possible therapeutic use."

The disks were about 80 percent inorganic, with zinc making up about 75 percent of the inorganic components. Zinc compounds have been known since ancient times to serve as medicines, with the ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder writing that they could help treat the eyes and skin.

The tablets also contained starch, pine resin, beeswax and a mix of plant- and animal-derived fats, perhaps including olive oil. Starch was a known ingredient of Roman cosmetics, olive oil was used for perfumes and medicines, and pine resin may have kept the oil from going rancid and fought microbes due to its antiseptic properties.

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Ancient Shipwreck Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Eye Medicine

Emergency Medicine Physicians Partners with athenahealth to Drive Improved Practice Management and Patient …

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WATERTOWN, Mass. & CANTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

athenahealth, Inc. (ATHN), a leading provider of cloud-based electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination services to medical groups and health systems, today announced that Emergency Medicine Physicians (EMP), a physician-owned medical group comprised of more than 800 emergency medicine physicians, has selected athenaCollector, athenahealths Best in KLAS cloud-based practice management service, and athenaCommunicator, athenahealths cloud-based service for patient communications, to support EMP physicians to deliver top-quality patient care and outcomes.

EMP, an industry leader and innovator in emergency medicine and one of the largest physician-owned emergency department groups in the U.S., has partnered with athenahealth to support its continued national growth and expanding hospital partner network. With athenahealth, EMP will benefit from additional workforce scale and revenue cycle management workflow capabilities, which will allow the group to streamline revenue collection and maximize its focus on patient care. Through its work with athenahealth, EMP will also strengthen its point-of-contact with the approximately three million patients it treats annually by launching a new communication services tool to support and streamline patient-physician interactions outside of the exam room.

Our nationwide network of emergency physicians has tripled in size over the past decade, making the task of overseeing financial and clinical performance all the more challenging. Partnering with athenahealth helps ensure that we are managing operations to scale, said Dominic Bagnoli, Chairman and CEO, EMP. In addition to the clear value that athenahealths practice management services will bring to EMP, we were also struck by the ability to use athenahealths integrated communications services to more effectively communicate with patients and providers of health care in our partner health systems.

With athenaCollector, EMP will gain real-time insight into a broad range of business activities, including things like claim status, patient eligibility, and payer monitoring. In addition, because athenaCollector is cloud-based and backed by a highly engaged services team, EMP will benefit from a proprietary rules database that not only monitors billing and practice management activity in real-time, but flags mistakes and fixes them based on best practices and knowledge that is constantly advanced through input from all athenahealth customers.

athenaCommunicator will help EMP more effectively support its patients as they navigate the current medical environment. Using athenaCommunicator, EMP will be able to more effectively communicate with patients without the hassle of traditional methods.

EMP is a category leader in terms of privately owned, managed medical groups with a rapidly growing network of physicians across the U.S. This is exactly the type of medical environment that benefits from athenahealths cloud-based serviceswe can scale up and down as needed, we get the job done whether youre a solo practitioner or part of a large practice, and the more doctors and patients added to the network, the smarter and more effective athenaNet becomes, said Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO, athenahealth. We cant wait to continuously learn and improve from the 800-plus EMP physicians that are joining athenahealth, and in turn, share our financial and clinical knowledge with the expanding EMP universe.

For more information on athenaCollector, athenahealths cloud-based practice management services, and athenaCommunicator, athenahealths cloud-based patient communications service, please visit our website, http://www.athenahealth.com, or follow along on our blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

About athenahealth

athenahealth, Inc. is a leading provider of cloud-based Best in KLAS electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination services to medical groups and health systems. athenahealths mission is to be the most trusted service to medical care givers, helping them do well by doing the right thing. For more information, please visit http://www.athenahealth.com or call 888-652-8200.

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Emergency Medicine Physicians Partners with athenahealth to Drive Improved Practice Management and Patient ...

CORRECTED-Institute of Medicine to study US youth sports concussions

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(Corrects first and second paragraphs, headline to show that Institute of Medicine is not part of government)

WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The Institute of Medicine launched on Monday a sweeping study of rising sports-related concussions among U.S. youth, amid concerns that the injuries may have contributed to the suicides of professional football players.

The Institute, part of the private, non-profit National Academies, will probe sports-related concussions in young people from elementary school through early adulthood. The study will include military personnel and their dependants, and review concussions and risk factors.

The study, one of the most extensive ever done, will be scrutinized intently by Americans worried about brain injuries in sports, said Robert Graham, head of the panel carrying out the study.

"You start talking about, 'Is it safe for Sally to be playing soccer?,' you get lots of public interest," Graham, a public health expert at George Washington University in Washington, told Reuters after the committee's first meeting.

He said the panel likely would submit its report to the Institute of Medicine in the middle of the summer, with publication expected in late 2013.

A 2010 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that U.S. emergency rooms yearly treat 173,000 temporary brain injuries, including concussions, related to sports or recreation among people less than 19 years of age.

The number of emergency room visits for such injuries rose 60 percent in the previous decade among children and adolescents, the CDC study showed.

A separate 2007 study showed that the incidence of brain injury was highest in football and girls' soccer.

About 2,000 former National Football League players sued the league last year, alleging it concealed the risk of brain injury from players while marketing the ferocity of the game.

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CORRECTED-Institute of Medicine to study US youth sports concussions

Research and Markets: General Medicine Education Publishing Market – Global Industry Size, Market Share, Trends …

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/35pljq/general_medicine) has announced the addition of the "General Medicine Education Publishing Market - Global Industry Size, Market Share, Trends, Analysis And Forecast, 2012-2018" report to their offering.

General Medicine or internal medicine is a branch of medicine which deals with the prevention, diagnosis and subsequent treatment of adult diseases. The specialists who deal with this branch of medicine are called internists and ones who work with children are called pediatricians. General Medicine is further specialized depending on the organ or organ systems, such as cardiology, anesthesiology, endocrinology, nephrology etc. On an average 75,000 medical students choose internal medicine as a career option annually around the world.

The global publishing market for general medicine education is highly dynamic in nature since there is a strong disparity in the availability and adoption of modern technology along with its cost. It is estimated that in the Asian and developing European regions along with RoW, more than half of the people do not have access to internet as a source of education in their homes. This severely undermines the quality of education. Printed books and literature are thus the major tools of spreading education here.

The report presents an excellent environmental analysis with emphasis on market drivers, restraints and future opportunities. It gives an impact of various factors on the market with a business perspective and highlights potential shortcomings, advantages for key players and new entrants as well. The global publishing market for general medicine education is highly dynamic in nature since there is a strong disparity in the availability and adoption of modern technology along with its cost. It is estimated that in the Asian and poorer European regions along with RoW, more than half of the people do not have access to internet as a source of education in their homes. This severely undermines the quality of education. Printed books and literature are thus the major tools of spreading education here.

Key Topics Covered:

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CHAPTER 3 OVERVIEW OF PUBLISHING MARKET FOR GENERAL MEDICINE EDUCATION

CHAPTER 4 GLOBAL PUBLISHING MARKET FOR GENERAL MEDICINE EDUCATION

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Research and Markets: General Medicine Education Publishing Market - Global Industry Size, Market Share, Trends ...

Institute of Medicine to study U.S. youth sports concussions

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Institute of Medicine launched on Monday a sweeping study of rising sports-related concussions among U.S. youth, amid concerns that the injuries may have contributed to the suicides of professional football players.

The Institute, part of the private, non-profit National Academies, will probe sports-related concussions in young people from elementary school through early adulthood. The study will include military personnel and their dependants, and review concussions and risk factors.

The study, one of the most extensive ever done, will be scrutinized intently by Americans worried about brain injuries in sports, said Robert Graham, head of the panel carrying out the study.

"You start talking about, 'Is it safe for Sally to be playing soccer?,' you get lots of public interest," Graham, a public health expert at George Washington University in Washington, told Reuters after the committee's first meeting.

He said the panel likely would submit its report to the Institute of Medicine in the middle of the summer, with publication expected in late 2013.

A 2010 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that U.S. emergency rooms yearly treat 173,000 temporary brain injuries, including concussions, related to sports or recreation among people less than 19 years of age.

The number of emergency room visits for such injuries rose 60 percent in the previous decade among children and adolescents, the CDC study showed.

A separate 2007 study showed that the incidence of brain injury was highest in football and girls' soccer.

About 2,000 former National Football League players sued the league last year, alleging it concealed the risk of brain injury from players while marketing the ferocity of the game.

Concerns about a possible link between concussions and mental illnesses, such as depression, grew in the wake of the suicides of former NFL players Junior Seau, Ray Easterling and Dave Duerson in the last two years.

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Institute of Medicine to study U.S. youth sports concussions

Foundation Medicine Expands Series B Financing to $56 Million

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Foundation Medicine, Inc. today announced an expansion of its Series B financing, raising an additional $13.5 million and bringing the total raised in the round to $56 million. The new investors include Bill Gates, Evan Jones and Yuri Milner.

Advances in understanding the human genome are having a dramatic impact on almost every area of medicine, said Bill Gates. Foundation Medicines approach in harnessing the power of genomic data to improve care for cancer patients could represent an extremely important step forward in improving routine cancer care. Im happy to be supporting this quite promising approach.

Expansion of Series B Supports Continued Growth

The proceeds from the expanded Series B financing will help Foundation Medicine continue to expand commercial operations and clinical trials, scale laboratory capabilities, and develop additional genomic profiling and information services.

Bill Gates, Evan Jones and Yuri Milner have each driven the widespread adoption of innovations that continue to impact the lives of millions of people, said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Foundation Medicine. This innovation is critically important in healthcare and medicine, which often lag behind in the adoption of new information technology. We are proud that these individuals support the mission of Foundation Medicine as we continue to bring advanced cancer genomics into everyday clinical practice.

Foundation Medicines first product, FoundationOne, is a genomic assay for all solid tumors that analyzes tumor DNA and provides a concise report to help physicians match patients with the targeted drugs or clinical trials best suited for their unique cancer. Launched in June 2012, FoundationOne has been ordered by more than 700 oncologists from 21 countries.

This second closing for the Series B financing follows the first closing completed on September 10, 2012. The first closing attracted a number of new investors, including public crossover funds Deerfield Management Company, L.P., Casdin Capital, Redmile Group and one undisclosed investor, and strategic investors Roche Venture Fund, WuXi Corporate Venture Fund and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp). These investors joined founding investor Third Rock Ventures and previous venture capital backers Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Evan Jones to Join Board of Directors

Also, Foundation Medicine today announced that Evan Jones has been nominated to join Foundation Medicines Board of Directors. Mr. Jones is the managing member of jVen Capital, LLC and previously was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Digene Corporation.

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Foundation Medicine Expands Series B Financing to $56 Million

State sees surplus of medical school financial aid

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Strict federal guidelines for medical school financial aid programs have left the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission with more than a quarter-million dollars and no one to give it to.

On Monday, higher education officials asked members of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability to consider giving them more flexibility to work with the feds and help state medical students pay off their debts.

Strict federal guidelines for medical school financial aid programs have left the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission with more than a quarter-million dollars and no one to give it to.

On Monday, higher education officials asked members of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability to consider giving them more flexibility to work with the feds and help state medical students pay off their debts.

"Our people aren't using our money to go to school," Dr. Robert Walker, the commission's vice chancellor for health sciences, said during a legislative interim meeting Monday afternoon.

"We don't need more money; we may just need more flexibility to adapt."

Speaking after the meeting, Walker said both the state and federal governments offer loan forgiveness programs to medical students who agree to work in underserved areas.

A few years ago, the federal government changed the criteria for its programs so any student receiving money with post-graduation obligations from a state would not be eligible for any federal dollars.

Walker said that has caused many state medical students to opt for federal programs, since those typically pay more money: Some federal loan forgiveness programs pay up to $200,000 over a doctor's medical career.

Meanwhile, the state's fund for medical school financial aid continues to grow. Walker said a small percentage of each West Virginia medical school student's tuition goes into the pot. That has left the state with more than $750,000 collected over the last 17 years.

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State sees surplus of medical school financial aid

Legacies at first FAU medical school gala

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The new medical school at Florida Atlantic University is named for his father, Charles E. Schmidt, so Dick Schmidt and his wife Barbara were the honorees at the inaugural Your Medical School Celebration on Jan. 5.

But as the final speaker, a Levitt family $3 million gift caught everyone by surprise at the sold-out event at Royal Palm Yacht Club. It was meant to.

"This brings to fruition a lifelong dream for me," Dr. Morton Levitt, chairman of the integrated medical science department, told nearly 300 people before announcing the Dr. Morton and Cynthia Levitt FAU Medical School Endowment Fund. Forty years ago his late parents asked him to give the charitable gift to a medical school, after they set up a trust in the 1970s, he said in an interview later.

"Isn't this a great way to start a new year?" Jon Kaye, who was chairman of the event with his wife, Bonnie Kaye, said to applause. "You have the opportunity to meet your medical students and raise the funds to keep your medical school competitive."

"I can't tell you how much this means to studentsyour overwhelming support," second-year class president Saima Siddiqi said in her remarks. "Now Palm Beach County is our home, and I plan to stay and practice medicine here."

"It speak volumes this community is aware we personally stand to benefit to have highly trained doctors stay here," the gala's honorary chairwoman Mayor Susan Whelchel said in her remarks, as medical students in white coats assembled in front of the podium. "This event was so successful, they couldn't even get stamps on the invitations"

FAU president Mary Jane Saunders also noted that invites never went out before the gala was at capacity, and the foundation's development director Kari Oeltjen got shout-outs with the Kayes, who own Kaye Communications Inc.

Dr. David Bjorkman, the medical school dean, presented the award to the Schmidts, who received a standing ovation. Dick Schmidt kissed the crystal vase, calling it his "Heisman trophy moment." His father would be "proud to see his name" on the medical school, he said.

Bjorkman said the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine has received 3,064 applications for the third medical school class with 64 openings.

"None of this would be possible without Dick and Barbara Schmidt," Saunders said, noting this is the third college at FAU that carries the Schmidt name.

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Legacies at first FAU medical school gala