Betty White is headed to Washington to see the wildlife — not the donkeys and elephants on Capitol Hill, but the animals in the National Zoo.
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Gold Heads Into The Red In 2012
Year-to-date gold prices dropped into the red this week as fears of the eurozone falling apart gripped investors and led them to turn their backs on gold as a safe havenpartly because they were bidding up the dollar.
The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD - News), the $63.87 billion physical bullion ETF, was trading at $149.86 a share, 1.5 percent lower than at the end of last year, according to data on Google Finance.
Spot gold prices were at $1,543.50 a troy ounce Wednesday morning, their lowest since late December. The slide, around 7 percent in the past month, comes even as legendary hedge fund manager George Soros said in a regulatory filing yesterday that he tripled his GLD holdings in the first quarter, Bloomberg News said.
Gold is behaving very differently than it did last summer around the time of S'Ps downgrade of U.S. debt. Gold rose at the time to a record of around $1,900 an ounce, before the price began to crater due largely to redemptions by banks and hedge funds seeking to cover positions as worries turned to the debt-laden eurozone.
The strengthening of the dollar is a big reason gold prices are sliding, though ETF holdings are relatively stable, meaning much of the price action is being driven by the gold futures market. Gold is priced in U.S. dollars.
If the price of gold is unchanged, but the dollar appreciates, gold will then likely trade lower, said Timothy Harvey, a senior vice president at ETF Securities, an ETF firm that specializes in precious metals.
Harvey said about 400,000 ounces has been redeemed globally in the past week and that this amount represents less than half a percent of the gold held in ETF structures globally, hardly enough to affect prices significantly.
Sell-off Could Turn Sharper
If Greece does get kicked out of the eurozonea possibility some observers have dubbed a Grexitand the contagion spreads to Spain or Italy, gold could fall even further.
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Private Space Taxi Builders Ponder Future Beyond NASA
The private spaceflight company SpaceX is poised to launch a robotic capsule toward the International Space Station Saturday (May 19) on a test flight that, if successful, could be a watershed moment for the commercial space industry. But while SpaceX has a NASA contract to provide cargo deliveries to the space station, the company and other private spaceship developers are looking to a future ...
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Picture of the Day: NASA's Mars Rover Gets Back to Roving
After 19 weeks in one place, NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity hit the road -- well, not so much road as Martian ground -- now that Mars' winter is over and the sun is shining on Opportunity's solar panels once again. This was Opportunity's fifth winter on the planet, and it spent the time on an outcrop called Greeley Haven in Mars' Meridiani region. Next up for the little robot? An area a few meters north with a "bright-looking patch," possibly dust. "We haven't been able to see much dust in Meridiani," explained Opportunity science-team member Matt Golombek. "This could be a chance to learn more about it." Above, a map of the rover's 21.4 miles of travel on the planet's surface so far.
Below, recent Pictures of the Day:
Image: NASA.
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NASA survey counts potentially hazardous asteroids
ScienceDaily (May 16, 2012) Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous asteroids. The results reveal new information about their total numbers, origins and the possible dangers they may pose.
Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are a subset of the larger group of near-Earth asteroids. The PHAs have the closest orbits to Earth's, coming within five million miles (about eight million kilometers), and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth's atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.
The new results come from the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission, called NEOWISE. The project sampled 107 PHAs to make predictions about the entire population as a whole. Findings indicate there are roughly 4,700 PHAs, plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters). So far, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of these objects have been found.
While previous estimates of PHAs predicted similar numbers, they were rough approximations. NEOWISE has generated a more credible estimate of the objects' total numbers and sizes.
"The NEOWISE analysis shows us we've made a good start at finding those objects that truly represent an impact hazard to Earth," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Object Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "But we've many more to find, and it will take a concerted effort during the next couple of decades to find all of them that could do serious damage or be a mission destination in the future."
The new analysis also suggests that about twice as many PHAs as previously thought are likely to reside in "lower-inclination" orbits, which are more aligned with the plane of Earth's orbit. In addition, these lower-inclination objects appear to be somewhat brighter and smaller than the other near-Earth asteroids that spend more time far away from Earth. A possible explanation is that many of the PHAs may have originated from a collision between two asteroids in the main belt lying between Mars and Jupiter. A larger body with a low-inclination orbit may have broken up in the main belt, causing some of the fragments to drift into orbits closer to Earth and eventually become PHAs.
Asteroids with lower-inclination orbits would be more likely to encounter Earth and would be easier to reach. The results therefore suggest more near-Earth objects might be available for future robotic or human missions.
"NASA's NEOWISE project, which wasn't originally planned as part of WISE, has turned out to be a huge bonus," said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Everything we can learn about these objects helps us understand their origins and fate. Our team was surprised to find the overabundance of low-inclination PHAs. Because they will tend to make more close approaches to Earth, these targets can provide the best opportunities for the next generation of human and robotic exploration."
The discovery that many PHAs tend to be bright says something about their composition; they are more likely to be either stony, like granite, or metallic. This type of information is important in assessing the space rocks' potential hazards to Earth. The composition of the bodies would affect how quickly they might burn up in our atmosphere if an encounter were to take place.
The WISE spacecraft scanned the sky twice in infrared light before entering hibernation mode in early 2011. It catalogued hundreds of millions of objects, including super-luminous galaxies, stellar nurseries and closer-to-home asteroids. The NEOWISE project snapped images of about 600 near-Earth asteroids, about 135 of which were new discoveries. Because the telescope detected the infrared light, or heat, of asteroids, it was able to pick up both light and dark objects, resulting in a more representative look at the entire population. The infrared data allowed astronomers to make good measurements of the asteroids' diameters and, when combined with visible light observations, how much sunlight they reflect.
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NASA astronaut to attend Dunedin science festival
NASA astronaut Stephanie D. Wilson, a veteran of three space flights who has logged more than 42 days in space, will be making her next touchdown at this year's eighth New Zealand International Science Festival taking place in Dunedin, from 30 June to 8 July 2012.
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NASA estimates 4,700 'potentially hazardous' asteroids
By Matt Smith, CNN
updated 8:29 PM EDT, Wed May 16, 2012
This image, taken by NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission in 2000, shows a close-up view of the asteroid Eros.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- About 4,700 asteroids are close enough and big enough to pose a risk to Earth, NASA estimated Wednesday after studying data beamed back from an orbiting telescope.
The figure -- give or take 1,500 -- is how many space rocks bigger than 100 meters (330 feet) across are believed to come within 5 million miles (8 million km) of Earth, or about 20 times farther away than the moon.
"It's not something that people should panic about," said Amy Mainzer, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. "However, we are paying attention to the issue."
NASA defines a potentially hazardous asteroid as one large enough to survive the intense heat generated by entry into the atmosphere and cause damage on a regional scale or worse. The figure released Wednesday is lower than a previous rough estimate had projected, but more are now thought to be in orbits inclined like Earth's, making them more likely to cross its path.
Read more space and science news at CNN.com's Light Years blog
Mainzer said asteroids in orbits pitched at a similar angle offer not only a hazard, but also an opportunity. They would be easier for spacecraft to reach.
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NASA's massive renovation
The best time to do a little renovating is when everyone is out of the house -- something homeowners know and something NASA appears to appreciate too. The space agency is experiencing empty-nest syndrome in a big way, with the shuttles heading for museum retirement and the next manned American space vehicle not scheduled to fly until 2016 -- unless it's 2018 or 2025 or who knows when?
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NASA lends Galaxy Evolution Explorer to Caltech
ScienceDaily (May 16, 2012) NASA is lending the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, where the spacecraft will continue its exploration of the cosmos. In a first-of-a-kind move for NASA, a Space Act Agreement was signed May 14 so the university soon can resume spacecraft operations and data management for the mission using private funds.
"NASA sees this as an opportunity to allow the public to continue reaping the benefits from this space asset that NASA developed using federal funding," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "This is an excellent example of a public/private partnership that will help further astronomy in the United States."
The Galaxy Evolution Explorer spent about nine years as a NASA mission, probing the sky with its sharp ultraviolet eyes and cataloguing hundreds of millions of galaxies spanning 10 billion years of cosmic time.
"This mission was full of surprises, and now more surprises are sure to come," said Chris Martin, who will remain the mission's principal investigator at Caltech. "It already has scanned a large fraction of the sky, improving our understanding of how galaxies grow and evolve. The astronomy community will continue those studies, in addition to spending more time on stars closer to home in our own galaxy."
The spacecraft was placed in standby mode on Feb. 7 of this year. Soon, Caltech will begin to manage and operate the satellite, working with several international research groups to continue ultraviolet studies of the universe. Projects include cataloguing more galaxies across the entire sky; watching how stars and galaxies change over time; and making deep observations of the stars being surveyed for orbiting planets by NASA's Kepler mission. Data will continue to be made available to the public.
"We're thrilled that the mission will continue on its path of discovery," said Kerry Erickson, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The Galaxy Evolution Explorer is like the 'little engine that could,' forging ahead into unexplored territory."
During its time at NASA, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer made many discoveries involving various types of objects that light up our sky with ultraviolet light. Perhaps the most surprising of these was the discovery of a gargantuan comet-like tail behind a speeding star called Mira. Other finds included catching black holes "red-handed" as they munch away on stars, spying giant rings of new stars around old, presumed dead galaxies, and independently confirming the nature of dark energy.
For astronomers, the most profound shift in their understanding of galaxy evolution came from the mission's findings about a "missing link" population of galaxies. These missing members helped explain how the two major types of galaxies in our universe -- the "red and dead" ellipticals and the blue spirals -- transition from one type to another.
"We were able to trace the life of a galaxy," Martin said. "With the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's ultraviolet detectors, we were able to isolate the small amounts of star formation that are the signatures of galaxies undergoing an evolutionary change. We found that galaxies don't have a single personality, but may change types many times over their lifetime."
The mission also captured a dazzling collection of snapshots, showing everything from ghostly nebulas to a spiral galaxy with huge, spidery arms. A slideshow showing some of the top images can be seen here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/gallery-index.html .
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NASA Loans Space Telescope to Caltech
NASA is lending the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) ultraviolet space telescope to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, which intends to put the 9-year-old spacecraft back into service using private funds.
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AIBN builds bridges with US nanotechnology researchers
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology Professor Justin Cooper-White has spent a week sharing ideas with US defence force researchers in Washington DC.
Prof Cooper-White represented the Australian National Fabrication Facility Queensland node (ANFF-Q) as director and was among more than 30 leading Australian researchers at the week-long review program.
The program aimed to identify areas of collaboration in micro- and nanofabrication, with researchers sharing ideas in high-temperature and lightweight materials, smart sensing, nanoelectronics and data management.
The meeting was very well organised, Prof Cooper-White said.
I was impressed by the attendance of very high-profile personnel from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Laboratory, Air Force Research Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, exemplifying the commitment of the significant research powerhouses in the US to forging new ties with leading Australian researchers and institutions.
I was buoyed by the significant activity under way in these laboratories in biosensors and diagnostics, organic electronics and photonics, nanoelectronics, robotics, biofuel cells and regenerative medicine areas that are highly aligned with research at AIBN and ANFF-Q.
It was an open forum for exchange of ideas and discussions on research challenges and opportunities for co-operation and exchange of researchers between Australia and the US.
Prof Cooper-White said ANFF infrastructure put Australian researchers in a good position to underpin collaborations in micro- and nanofabrication.
Australia's ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, welcomed the Australian researchers ahead of the meetings, saying international collaboration was important for Australian scientists.
We have some unique capabilities and some of the smartest people in the world, Mr Beazley said. But the truth is that no country not even one the size of the US can be self-sufficient in science in the 21st century.
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Global Nanobiotechnology Industry
NEW YORK, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:
This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Nanobiotechnology in US$ Million by the following Technology Segments: Nanomaterials (Solid Inorganic Nanoparticles, Nanocomposites, Nanostructured Materials & Membranes, Nanotubes and Fullerenes, & Other Nanomaterials), and Nanodevices/Tools. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Japan, Europe, and Rest of World. Annual forecasts are provided for each region for the period of 2009 through 2017. Also, a six-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. The report profiles 117 companies including many key and niche players worldwide such as Aduro BioTech, Arrowhead Research Corporation, Calando Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Agilent Technologies Inc., Asklepios BioPharmaceutical Inc., Biosante Phosphate Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Celgene Corporation, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Elitech Group, Flamel Technologies, Inc., Gilead Sciences Inc., Life Technologies Corporation, NanoBio Corporation, Nanogen, Inc., Nanophase Technologies Corporation, pSivida Ltd., Sigma Aldrich Company, Starpharma Holdings Ltd., Dendritic Nanotechnologies, Inc., SkyePharma Pharmaceuticals, Unidym, Inc., and Zyvex Instruments LLC. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Company profiles are primarily based upon search engine sources in the public domain.
I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & PRODUCT DEFINITIONSStudy Reliability and Reporting Limitations I-1Disclaimers I-2Data Interpretation & Reporting Level I-3Quantitative Techniques & Analytics I-3Product Definitions and Scope of Study I-31. Nanomaterials I-4Solid Inorganic Nanoparticles I-4Nanocomposites I-4Nanostructured Materials and Membranes I-4Nanotubes and Fullerenes I-4Other Nanomaterials I-4Nanoshells I-4Nanohorns I-5Nanocapsules I-52. Nanodevices/Tools I-5II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW II-1
A Curtain Raiser II-1
Nanobiotechnology - The Next Big Thing II-2
Nanotechnology & Biology Tie the Knot: "Two to Tango" II-4
Where Conventional Molecular Science Falls Short Nanobio
Steps In II-4
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Finnish researchers identified the cause for LGL leukemia
Public release date: 16-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dr. Satu Mustjoki satu.mustjoki@helsinki.fi 358-947-171-898 University of Helsinki
LGL leukemia is a relatively rare, malignant blood disease of the mature T-cells and, in many cases, it is related to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. The pathogenetic mechanism of the disease has been unknown and it has previously been unclear if the disease is an overreaction of the normal defense system or a malignant hematological disease.
One of the key symptoms of LGL disease is a low count of white blood cells (neutrophils), which may predispose the patients to life-threatening infections.
It was discovered that patients suffering from LGL leukemia have a mutation in the STAT3 gene in a very restricted SH2 area, which has a key effect on the function of the gene. This is not an inherited gene mutation but a so-called acquired mutation. The cause for the mutation is not known, but probably chronic viral infection or some other long-term antigen exposure can be predisposing factors. The STAT3 gene plays a key role in many cell signaling pathways.
After the finding, the prevalence of the mutation in LGL patients was verified using a larger patient group (77 patients) in cooperation with research groups at the Ohio (Prof. Maciejewski) and Pennsylvania (Prof. Loughran) Universities. It was discovered that 40% of all LGL patients present with the STAT3 mutation.
In the future, this result can be utilized in diagnosing the disease and possibly also in treatment, since the first STAT3 inhibitors are already undergoing early clinical trials. In addition, the research discovered that those LGL patients who had a mutation in the STAT3 gene were also more likely to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. Hence, the research group intends to clarify next if patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis can be found with similar gene mutations. If such mutations were to be found this would introduce new opportunities to the pathogenetic mechanisms of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
###
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Press Release
Foundation Medicine Inc.Posted on:17 May 12
Foundation Medicine, Inc., a molecular information company that brings comprehensive cancer genomic analysis to routine clinical care, today announced that new clinical data highlighting the companys comprehensive cancer genomic profile and next-generation sequencing approach in clinical oncology will be presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) being held June 1-5, 2012 in Chicago.
The data to be presented at ASCO support Foundation Medicines deep sequencing approach to simultaneously detect all classes of genomic alterations across hundreds of genes known to be related to cancer, said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Foundation Medicine. In our clinical experience abstract, this approach detected actionable alterations those associated with available targeted treatments or ongoing clinical trials for 74% of tumor samples in the study. Foundation Medicines test has also been shown to identify novel genomic alterations in multiple tumor types, including potentially druggable gene fusions. The combined evidence presented in these studies suggests that fully informative genomic profiling can now become a routine component of cancer patient care.
The schedule for Foundation Medicines oral presentation is as follows:
Date & Time:
Session:
Abstract Number:
Title:
Discovery of recurrent KIF5B-RET fusions and other targetable alterations from clinical NSCLC specimens.
Location:
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The Mind Beakers Gathering. Upload By Danyal Alam. 03433049864 – Video
16-05-2012 00:33
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The Mind Beakers Gathering. Upload By Danyal Alam. 03433049864 - Video
Sebastian Ingrosso
15-05-2012 19:04 My edit of the global hit Calling by Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso. The first verse is the instrumental and the second has the vocals...ideal for club use. I do not own the rights to this track. No copyright infringement intended by the uploading of this video. For promotional purposes only.
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Hopsin – Ill Mind Of Hopsin 4 – Video
16-05-2012 10:54 No copyright infringement for the audio and video was intended when uploading this video.
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Pokemon Light Platinum Part 2 – I Changed My Mind – Video
16-05-2012 16:07 Yeah we got part 2 already :] Not gunna upload till Saturday possibly. Depends on how I'm feelin. Random, Feebas is random.
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UPDATE: FFA Commentary | Precise – Video
16-05-2012 16:46 Please watch entire video, and leave feedback ! And keep in mind guys that I upload because of my viewers, not just to upload. I hope you guys enjoy it. - Precise Song used: Wiz Khalifa - Blindfolds
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Russian researchers build partial android for bizarre mind-transfer project (video)
A Team of Russian researchers are building a conceptual mind-transfer android, and we're definitely not talking about Ice Cream Sandwich. However bizarre, their goal is to help mankind achieve immortality using a combination of humanoid robots and interstellar space travel to get away from a dangerous and overcrowded planet -- but most of the needed technology seems so far off that we could probably power cycle the world's slowest Linux computer a million times before we see any of it. One prototype includes the torso of an android that will one day house a a computer rig that would be theoretically capable of acting as a personal proxy -- essentially, a place to upload "human souls." This absolutely insane ber-ambitious project is the stuff of science fiction, but the big shots over in the birthplace of Tetris say it'll all be possible by 2045. Need more convincing? Check out the two videos after the break.
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Russian researchers build partial android for bizarre mind-transfer project (video)