I'm pleased to announce that beginning today and running for a week at the Intersection, we will have daily guest posts from Vanessa Woods, author of the new book, Bonobo Handshake. Vanessa is a Research Scientist in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and studies the cognition of chimpanzees and bonobos in Congo, and her posts will be about her new book. I've already seen the content, and it is spectacular....so, let bonobo week begin! The first post appears later today.
Why Bonobos Will Save the World | The Intersection
This is a guest post from Vanessa Woods, author of the new book, Bonobo Handshake. Vanessa is a Research Scientist in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and studies the cognition of chimpanzees and bonobos in Congo. When I wake up this morning, someone might try to kill me. I live 10 minutes from a small town called Durham, NC, where according to the last statistics, 22 people were killed, 76 women were raped, and there were 682 cases of aggravated assault. When a chimpanzee wakes up in the morning, they probably have the same thought. In fact, if you're a male chimpanzee, you're more likely to be killed by another chimpanzee than anything else. If you're a female chimpanzee, expect to be beaten by every adolescent male who is making his way up through the ranks. People often ask me why humans are so intelligent, as in, what is it other apes lack that makes us so unique. I'll tell you this: I would swap every gadget I own - my car, my laptop, the potential to fly to the moon - if I could wake up as a bonobo. No bonobo has ever been seen to kill another bonobo. There is very ...
Brain-Boosting Bacterium Helps Mice Conquer a Maze Twice as Fast | 80beats
This is not an “eat dirt for your health and happiness” study. You don’t need to shovel soil in your mouth. Just go outside.
Biologist Dorothy Matthews and company wanted to test a particular bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae. It’s found commonly in the soil and carried widely through the air, so if you take a walk in the park you’ll probably breathe it in. Previous studies have shown that the bacterium increases serotonin in the brain, and have even suggested that the bacterium has antidepressant qualities. Since the neurotransmitter serotonin is also involved in cognition, the team wanted to see if the bacterium could have a direct effect on learning. Indeed it did, Matthews’ team announced at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.
In a classic test of learning ability, Matthews gave mice a treat – white bread with peanut butter – as a reward to encourage them to learn to run through a maze. When she laced the treat with a tiny bit of Mycobacterium vaccae, she found that the mice ran through the maze twice as fast as mice that were given plain peanut butter [New Scientist].
The uptick in learning ability lasted as long as the researchers kept giving their mice the laced peanut butter.
But here’s a caveat: When they tested bacteria-fed mice three weeks after removing the single-cell organisms from their diet they found that these mice were still faster than the mice who never received the bacteria. The difference, however, was not significant. So the results are temporary [Scientific American].
And this is just a mouse model, too, so take that for what you will. But the least it’s another blow struck for the good name of bacteria, for the hygiene hypothesis, and for going outside, Matthews says.
“It just shows that we evolved with dirt as hunter-gatherers,” she says. “So turn off your TV and go work in your garden, or walk in the woods” [New Scientist].
Related Content:
DISCOVER: Is Dirt the New Prozac?
80beats: Special Seaweed-Chomping Bacteria Found in the Guts of Japanese Diners
80beats: Scientists Sequence DNA from the Teeming Bacterial Universe in Your Gut
80beats: Let Kids Eat Dirt: Over-Cleanliness Linked to Heart Disease
Discoblog: Let Them Eat Dirt! It Contains Essential Worms
Image: iStockphoto
Google Releases Top 1000 Sites – NASA Makes the Cut
Marc's note: In an effort to help advertisers Google has released a list of their top 1000 sites world wide. The list ranks sites based on category, unique visitors, reach and page views. NASA comes in ranked 604. Interestingly Goddard's web site came out tops for NASA subdomains with JPL a distant second. No other dedicated space site made the list including SpaceRef and NASA Watch, surprisingly 😉
Based on this ranking if NASA decided to allow some advertising on their sites they would be able to cash in on part of the $6.3 billion revenue advertisers spend on internet sites in 2009. In fact they might even be able to fund a Scout or Discovery Class mission each year or better yet start a major scholarship fund and replenish their workforce with new engineers etc. each year.
Let The Layoffs Begin
Lockheed weighs layoffs, other cuts for Orion program", Denver Post
"Lockheed Martin officials have begun looking throughout the Orion crew-capsule program for savings that can be used to cover possible contract termination costs. Those savings could include layoffs of some of the 600 to 650 Lockheed employees in Colorado who are working on the NASA spacecraft."
Save the space program, HBJ readers say, Houston Business Journal
"Houstonians are protective of the region's NASA jobs, according to responses to the latest BusinessPulse survey. Houston Business Journal asked readers if it was a waste of time to save the human space flight program, and 73 percent responded "no - we need space exploration/save jobs."
Work starts on jobs plan, Florida Today
"U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez visited Central Florida Thursday as part of his efforts to develop a plan to invest $40 million to help soon-to-be-jobless space workers by bringing in industries that can put them back to work."
Last of space shuttle segments leaves Utah, Desert News
"Even as the space shuttle program is winding down, ATK is building the five-segment first stage of the "next-generation" rocket, the Ares 1, and has all five segments in the test stand for a ground test planned in September. Due to the phasing out of the space shuttle program, ATK announced a fourth round of layoffs involving 247 workers last week. Since last April, a total of 1,500 workers have been let go."
Bishop asks NASA: Will changes be safer for astronauts?, Standard-Examiner
"In a U.S. House hearing on Capitol Hill, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, held a photo of an unidentified Utah worker who lost his job last week at ATK, one of the contractors for the Constellation program. "I hope I can tell him he lost his job because the government was going to save money or come up with a program that was safer for astronauts ... not because we are choosing winners or losers in the free market," said Bishop at a hearing of the House Committee on Science and Technology."
First-Ever NASA Ice Team HD Footage Release
NASA Releases First-Ever High-Def Footage Of Shuttle Ice Team, NASA (With video)
"NASA has released the first-ever up close, high-definition video of Kennedy Space Center's Final Inspection Team walkdown in the final hours before a space shuttle launch. The footage was shot on May 14 at Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A during the countdown for shuttle Atlantis' STS-132 mission."
Student Moon Mining Competition to be Broadcast Live
Inaugural Lunabotics Mining Competition Goes Live With NASA EDGE, NASA
"NASA EDGE, an award-winning agency talk show, will host a live webcast from the Lunabotics Mining Competition at 11 a.m. EDT on May 28 from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Astronaut Hall of Fame."
Background: "The Lunabotics Mining Competition is a university level competition designed to engage and retain students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). NASA will directly benefit from the competition by encouraging the development of innovative lunar excavation concepts from universities which may result in clever ideas and solutions that could be applied to an actual lunar excavation device or payload."
Marc's note: Count them, 22 universities competing in this National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program event. Not bad.
Marc's update: Folks, it's not about the moon vs Mars vs asteroids, it's about engaging young people in STEM activities to create a new generation of engineers. If you have time why not watch some of today's competition.
Delta IV Launched
Delta 4 Blast Off with Advanced new GPS Satellite Marks 50th Anniversary of Delta Program, Ken Kremer Special to NASA Watch (with video)
"A Delta 4 rocket roared into space on Thursday night (May 27) at 11:00 PM EDT carrying the first in powerful new series of Global Positioning System satellites for the US Air Force. The GPS IIF SV-1 satellite launched from Pad 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and marked the 349th launch in the Delta program's 50 year history."
NASA Joins World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
NASA Joins Web Consortium to Help Improve Universal Access
"NASA announced Thursday it has joined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The consortium is an international organization that develops protocols, standards and guidelines to ensure universal Web access. "Standards will play a key role in making NASA's content more accessible on the Internet and in the implementation of our Open Government plan," said Chris Kemp, chief technology officer for Information Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Additionally, standards nurture technology innovation. We are especially interested in participating in those areas where NASA's ongoing technical requirements overlap with the W3C's standardization efforts."
LIVE – Delta IV Launch
Marc's note: Tonight we're testing out our new live launch mission status center for the Delta IV launch of the Air Force's Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF SV-1 satellite.
Money Talks: Can You Speak the Language?
Chances are, your management team couldn't repair a broken bracket with a step-by-step schematic. But what they lack in vocational skills, they make up for in accounting expertise. So, when you make a case for plant improvements to the business office, do you speak in language they understand, namel
Where are You in the Flash Fight?
You've seen reports of the ongoing war of words between Adobe and Apple over Apple's decision not to support Flash on iPhones, iPods, and iPads amd looking instead to HTML5 as its platform for video support. What do you think about this Flash vs. HTML5 debate? Should Flash's (and Adobe's) grip on we
Japan Plans a Moon Base by 2020, Built by Robots for Robots
From Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now:
America may have eighty-sixed its moon base ambitions, but the Japanese have no plans to let perfectly good lunar real estate go to waste. An ambitious $2.2 billion project in the works at JAXA, the Japanese space
Safety Rules Can't Keep Up With Biotech Industry
From NYT > Science:
They are the highly trained, generally well-paid employees in the vanguard of American innovation: people who work in biotechnology labs. But the cutting edge can be a risky place to work. The casualties include an Agriculture Department scientist who spent
Man Single-Handedly Building a Metro Rail
From Boing Boing:
"Russian hero" Leonid Murlyanchik has been building his own metro rail system, single-handedly, since 1984, using materials he buys with his pension.
Read the whole article
BP Resumes Gulf Spill Top Kill After 18-Hour Delay
From NPR Topics: News:
After halting work to assess its efforts and bring in more materials, BP resumed pumping drilling mud into the Gulf well. The company insisted the top kill was progressing as planned but acknowledged drilling mud was escaping from the broken pipe along with t
Recycling a Cellphone: Responsible E-Waste Transformation
From Wired Top Stories:
Thanks to the ever-shortening product upgrade cycle, the US generates about 2 million tons of electronic waste each year. Many discarded cell phones are shipped abroad, where valuable parts are stripped out and toxic metals are burned or dumped. But most dom
Lending Landlines a Lifeline?
The U.S. telephone industry could be flooded with bankruptcy stories in the coming years as consumers opt to cancel land lines for cell phones. Smaller phone companies like Qwest and Frontier don't offer wireless options to retain customers. As their revenue decreases, they have less money to mainta
Masten Space Systems Achieves First-Ever VTVL Midair Engine Relight Milestone on Path to Space
Masten Space Systems, based at the Mojave Spaceport in California, demonstrated yesterday the ability to successfully relight the engine of a VTVL (vertical-takeoff vertical-landing) vehicle in midair. This marks the first-ever midair relight for any VTVL rocket-powered vehicle.
“We’re extremely excited and very proud to announce that we now have in-air re-light capability,” stated CEO David Masten in a press release issued by Masten Space Systems. “The ability to turn off our engine, re-ignite it in flight, successfully regain control and land was the next big milestone as we expand our flight envelope to include high altitude flights. Each milestone we hit makes the path to space much clearer.” More information from Masten is available at http://masten-space.com/blog/?p=532 .
In 2009, Masten Space Systems won the $1 million top prize in Level 2 of the NASA Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, by flying a vehicle that could hover for 180 seconds while translating between two pads, and repeating the feat within about 2 hours. Masten Space Systems is developing a series of VTVL vehicles to achieve increasingly high altitudes and achieve low-cost, rapid-turnaround access to the space environment.
Masten’s success comes days after the White House spotlighted NASA’s Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program (CRuSR), which will invest $15 million per year to enable flights of science, research, and educational payloads aboard commercial suborbital vehicles being developed by Masten Space Systems and other companies such as Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace.
In a White House blog post on Tuesday, Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), stated, “Thanks in large part to the $10 million Ansari X Prize, a new generation of commercial suborbital spacecraft has been under development by entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, John Carmack, David Masten, and Jeff Greason. CRuSR—one of several innovative priorities for NASA’s new Chief Technology Officer, Bobby Braun—is building on that momentum. Starting next year, NASA will invest $15 million per year to support a wide range of technology demonstrations, educational experiments, and science payloads on these new vehicles.” The White House OSTP blog post can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/25/nasa-nurtures-new-ideas-near-orbit .
ISDC has a strong NewSpace flavor this year
I’m at the airport waiting to catch a flight to Chicago for this year’s International Space Development Conference, the annual conference of the National Space Society. (I was already supposed to be there, but Untied, er, United, canceled my flight last night.) This year’s conference has a particular emphasis on NewSpace, more so than conventional space companies. Some highlights:
On Thursday morning Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, will announce the company’s “New Venture”, according to the title of his talk. This is likely to be the exclusive marketing agreement with Armadillo Aerospace the company announced last month; at the time the company said they would announce additional details at ISDC. We’ll hopefully learn more about the deal and why Space Adventures, which had de-emphasized suborbital space tourism in recent years in favor of orbital spaceflight, is jumping back into this market.
Virgin Galactic will be represented by its new CEO, George Whitesides, who returned to the company earlier this month after roughly 18 months at NASA in several roles, including chief of staff to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. With Virgin and Scaled continuing their captive carry flights of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, hopefully we’ll get some updated details about their plans for upcoming tests and introduction of commercial service. Whitesides is scheduled to speak late Saturday afternoon.
On Friday morning there will be updates about the progress of XCOR Aerospace and Bigelow Aerospace by XCOR CEO Jeff Greason and Bigelow DC Operations Director Mike Gold, respectively. XCOR is working on its Lynx suborbital vehicle, so we may learn more details about the progress they’re making on their prototype. Bigelow, as Aviation Week reported earlier this month, is ramping up its marketing efforts for its inflatable orbital habitats. Bigelow will also benefit from the new interest in commercial crew transportation as part of the NASA fiscal year 2011 budget proposal. On Friday afternoon Masten Space Systems president and CEO Dave Masten will talk about winning $1.15 million in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge last year, and presumably their ongoing efforts as well.
There are also several other talks from representatives of the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation, Spaceport America, and several other NewSpace companies, including a panel Saturday morning on “The ‘NewSpace’ Paradigm”. So the next few days should offer a good opportunity to see where much of the NewSpace industry stands as of 2010 and what companies think their prospects are.