Discovery Lifts off

Posted on by
An exhaust cloud billowed around Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as space shuttle Discovery lifted off to begin the STS-131 mission. The seven-member crew will deliver the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, filled with supplies, a new crew sleeping quarters and science racks that will be transferred to the International Space Station's laboratories. The crew also will switch out a gyroscope on the station’s truss, install a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior.

View my blog's last three great articles...

View this site auto transport car shipping car transport business VoIP business class flights

Small Companion to Brown Dwarf

Posted on by
As our telescopes grow more powerful, astronomers are uncovering objects that defy conventional wisdom. The latest example is the discovery of a planet-like object circling a brown dwarf. It's the right size for a planet, estimated to be 5-10 times the mass of Jupiter. But the object formed in less than 1 million years -- the approximate age of the brown dwarf -- and much faster than the predicted time it takes to build planets according to some theories.

Kamen Todorov of Penn State University and co-investigators used the keen eyesight of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Observatory to directly image the companion of the brown dwarf, which was uncovered in a survey of 32 young brown dwarfs in the Taurus star-forming region. Brown dwarfs are objects that typically are tens of times the mass of Jupiter and are too small to sustain nuclear fusion to shine as stars do.

The mystery object orbits the nearby brown dwarf at a separation of approximately 2.25 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers -- which is between the distances of Saturn and Uranus from the Sun). The team's research is being published in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

There has been a lot of discussion in the context of the Pluto debate over how small an object can be and still be called a planet. This new observation addresses the question at the other end of the size spectrum: How small can an object be and still be a brown dwarf rather than a planet? This new companion is within the range of masses observed for planets around stars -- less than 15 Jupiter masses. But should it be called a planet? The answer is strongly connected to the mechanism by which the companion most likely formed.

There are three possible formation scenarios: Dust in a circumstellar disk slowly agglomerates to form a rocky planet 10 times larger than Earth, which then accumulates a large gaseous envelope; a lump of gas in the disk quickly collapses to form an object the size of a gas giant planet; or, rather than forming in a disk, a companion forms directly from the collapse of the vast cloud of gas and dust in the same manner as a star (or brown dwarf).

If the last scenario is correct, then this discovery demonstrates that planetary-mass bodies can be made through the same mechanism that builds stars. This is the likely solution because the companion is too young to have formed by the first scenario, which is very slow. The second mechanism occurs rapidly, but the disk around the central brown dwarf probably did not contain enough material to make an object with a mass of 5-10 Jupiter masses.

"The most interesting implication of this result is that it shows that the process that makes binary stars extends all the way down to planetary masses. So it appears that nature is able to make planetary-mass companions through two very different mechanisms," says team member Kevin Luhman of the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University. If the mystery companion formed through cloud collapse and fragmentation, as stellar binary systems do, then it is not a planet by definition because planets build up inside disks.

The mass of the companion is estimated by comparing its brightness to the luminosities predicted by theoretical evolutionary models for objects at various masses for an age of 1 millon years.

Further supporting evidence comes from the presence of a very nearby binary system that contains a small red star and a brown dwarf. Luhman thinks that all four objects may have formed in the same cloud collapse, making this in actuality a quadruple system. "The configuration closely resembles quadruple star systems, suggesting that all of its components formed like stars," says Luhman.

View my blog's last three great articles...

View this site auto transport car shipping car transport business VoIP business class flights

Ready, Set, RACE! Student Teams Gear Up for NASA’S 17th Annual Moonbuggy Race

Posted on by
2009 Moonbuggy Race
Nearly 100 student teams from around the globe will drive their specially crafted lunar rovers through a challenging course of rugged, moon-like terrain at NASA's 17th annual Great Moonbuggy Race in Huntsville, Ala., April 9-10. More than 1,000 high school, college and university students from 19 states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, Serbia, India and Romania are registered to race at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

› News Release
› Moonbuggy Race Fact Sheet (PDF)
› NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race
› Previous Race Results/Photos

Flickr: Moonbuggy 2009 -- The 'Face' of the Race

View my blog's last three great articles...

View this site auto transport car shipping car transport business VoIP business class flights

The Setting Sun

Posted on by

The sun sets on the space shuttle Discovery’s almost empty cargo bay at the successful conclusion of the mission, as the seven astronauts inside the crew cabin approach one of the final mission chores--that of closing the cargo bay doors.

View my blog's last three great articles...

View this site auto transport car shipping car transport business VoIP business class flights

James Hansen on Nuclear Power, Energy and Obama

Posted on by

Hansen speaking in Adelaide, March 2010

NASA climate scientist James Hansen has been very busy lately, discussing climate change all over the world.  James Hansen is considered the U.S. voice of authority on climate change.  He still works for NASA, and soon NASA is getting a big infusion of money for climate change research – $2.4 billion. Below are two recent articles Hansen has written.  The second one is already widely distributed because it’s about President Obama and his leadership on climate change.

Most environmental groups do not agree with Hansen’s stand on nuclear power as a good option, (but some do).  He doesn’t talk about nuclear power a lot, but he does say it’s a good source of power to compete with renewable energy and that it has to be used. In his speech in Sydney he goes much further.   Another reason to republish the first article is that although this article appears on an Australian media website, it does not appear in American ones, at least not so far.  He wrote it while he was in Australia in March.

Only a carbon tax and nuclear power can save us

“It is clear that we have a crisis — a planetary emergency.” — Hansen, in his speech in Adelaide.

by Dr. James Hansen, reprinted from The Australian

AUSTRALIA will suffer if fossil fuel use continues unabated. Climate extremes will increase. Poleward expansion of the subtropics will make Australia often hotter and drier, with stronger droughts and hotter fires, as the jet stream retreats southward.

But when ocean temperature patterns bring rain, the warmer air will dump much more water, causing damaging floods. Storms will become more devastating as the ice sheets on Antarctica and Greenland begin to disintegrate and cool the neighboring ocean, as I describe in [my book] Storms of My Grandchildren. Ice discharge from Antarctica has already doubled in the past five years.

Science has shown that preservation of stable climate and the remarkable life that our planet harbours require a rapid slowdown of fossil fuel emissions. Atmospheric carbon dioxide, now almost 390 parts per million, must be brought back to 350ppm or less. That is possible, with actions that make sense for other reasons.

But the actions require a change to business-as-usual. Change is opposed by those profiting from our fossil-fuel addiction. Change will happen only with courageous political leadership.

Leaders must draw attention to the moral imperative. We cannot pretend that we do not understand the consequences for our children and grandchildren. We cannot leave them with a situation spiralling out of their control. We must set a new course.

Yet what course is proposed? Hokey cap-and-trade with offsets, aka an emissions trading scheme. Scheme is the right word, a scheme to continue business-as-usual behind a fig leaf.

The Kyoto Protocol was a cap-and-trade [...]

Rachel Lehmann-Haupt Line by Line Take Down

Posted on by

Rachel Lehmann-Haupt writes about Counsyl

I’d like this to sit on the Internet for the next fifty years —just in case Rachel feels like it is ever personally expedient for her to pretend this article was never published should fashions and politics in reproductive medicine ever shift like they tend to do…

Title: Want a Perfect Baby? Counsyl Says: Just Spit

Translation: Eugenics is bad, but Counsyl isn’t Credible

Breakdown: Spitting is considered crude in all cultures, but especially European cultures. The idea of a “Perfect Baby” is taboo because it is an allusion to eugenics. However, all parents want “perfect babies.” Thus, Rachel allusion is that Counsyl promises something both impossible and taboo —but as immature upstarts who need gentle correction and merit little actual attention.

1: Counsyl is a me-too scam

Every expecting parent wants to have a perfect kid. Counsyl, a new Redwood City, Calif.- based genetics company, hopes to profit off this fantasy by selling a cheap(er) genetic test that claims to screen out 100 dangerous genetic anomalies.

Breakdown: [everybody wants something perfect but that's impossible.] Counsyl: “new” “hopes” “profit” “fantasy” “cheap(er)” (even less credible than other already low-value tests) “claims” [something vague, dubious, but scary].

Photo: Little Child Spitting Water

flickr for “Spit”

Caption:

“Water play in my bathroom. -Homage to rebekka’s “talk” series

Translation: First word Rachel associated with “Counsyl” is “spit.” What a buccal DNA sample has anything to do with “water play in my bathroom” is: nothing. Rachel doesn’t care because she doesn’t take Counsyl seriously. She didn’t even bother to post a picture of the logo, company, or product. Flickr “spit,” copy-paste… next!

2: Counsyl is Heterodox

Even with the creepy Gattaca undertones, Counsyl’s technology could potentially save lives and health care dollars as a kind of preventative medicine. But the accuracy of the new technology is still in question, and it’s unclear if the masses really want to know these answers to such questions — even if insurance is willing to pay. Accuracy and large-scale adoption is the formula Counsyl needs to make its business model work.

Breakdown:

Even with the creepy Gattaca undertones,

First: “creepy” is intelligentsia for “heterodox.” Also: a movie reference. Pop culture. Not serious.

Counsyl’s technology could potentially save lives and health care dollars as a kind of preventative medicine.

[dubious... unrecognized technology] “could” “potentially” [dubious... impossible promise] [dubious... includes profit motive] “kind of” [dubious] [dubious].

Also: there is no such thing as “saving health care dollars.” YOU DON’T PAY FOR HEALTH CARE! There is only “insurers not paying claims with money they’ve already collected from your employer.” Any “savings” is money already paid by you to pay the margin calls for your big broke investment bank medical insurer (Aside: Medicare of Connecticut flat refused to pay providers for all claims this month. Your “cost saving initiatives” in action.)

But the accuracy of the new technology is still in question

This is a baldfaced lie so astounding that it breaks my concentration just to read it. The Counsyl “technology” is extremely accurate —especially by medical standards —and you can rerun tests if necessary. It’s the immediate clinical application of this extremely accurate data which is not well understood —which is not especially problematic considering the low cost and immutability of your genotype. I don’t expect Rachel to understand the distinction —in fact, she would probably be insulted if you challenged her casual dismissal of the entire core substance of the product —because “she’s more about the people-side” and “I don’t ‘do’ math.” I’m not an idiot, but the shear sophistication behind Counsyl humbles me, and I’m a complete asshole. Calling Counsyl “inaccurate” is like calling Idaho “the Moon.”

and it’s unclear if the masses really want to know these answers to such questions — even if insurance is willing to pay.

1) the masses don’t care about rs230492384, but they do care such questions including “how I not have retard baby?” 2) the opinion of the masses is irrelevant because first, even if 99% of people didn’t want this test, that shouldn’t restrict the remaining 1%, and second, the masses don’t have any coherent or useful medical opinion, and third, the masses don’t pay for health care — insurers do— but Rachel doesn’t consider that relevant because she already has decided that genetic testing is heterodox in the same way that I have already decided that homeopathy is heterodox —your insurer’s reimbursement policy be damned.

Accuracy and large-scale adoption is the formula Counsyl needs to make its business model work.

No. All Counsyl needs to do is

  1. Not be 23andMe
  2. Not engage in expensive lawsuits
  3. Have more money than they spend —which largely amounts to: 1) sales higher than debt service 2) not hiring anybody who ever expects to participate normal salaryman society, or really, to ever work at any other company ever again, and probably will (should) kill themselves if the company catastrophically fails (not official medical recommendation) 3) unix, which is apparently cheap in dollars but impossibly expensive in humans

Large-scale adoption is the EXACTLY WRONG formula, because a dozen 30-somethings cannot compete dollar for dollar with big providers which have almost unlimited credit and a monopoly on distribution. All a Labcorp would have to do would be add checkbox to their superbill —as so goaded by an army of blueshirt blabbermouths screaming about “widespread adoption” in the press, and… whoops! Counsyl just missed one payment on its “world domination sales numbers” to service all that pushed debt to buy “widespread adoption.” Knock knock! Hello! It’s me! Your friendly pharma VC bagman! I would like to sit on your board now. Would you like an Xbox to play while you sit out this forced acquisition?

The market point for a generic genetic test is about the cost of a vaccine. You may as well try to compete in the medical gauze market —at least cotton has a longer shelf life. Go for the impossible-to-replicate speciality test in public, while building a local vertical for complete medical testing in private. What’s the big difference between a genetic test and all other medical labs? Another machine? It’s not the technology that makes a medical test: it’s the distribution! Your own single-internist medical center can be bought for about $200,000 if you already know a doctor who’d work there. Why would you want to know about that terrible business? Because you know which test the doctor orders in real practice? The one on the superbill. You know who puts which labs on which superbills? I do. (actually, Steve uses Google Docs to make his own forms) The risk is: which is more expensive, the liability of launching a medical practice (probably illegal, as in “American in China” illegal), or the liability of missing the market for your product (certain death)?

to be continued…

Spoiler: You ARE the “Valids”

Posted on by

Rachel Lehmann-Haupt writes about Counsyl:

Even with the creepy Gattaca undertones, Counsyl’s technology could potentially save lives and health care dollars as a kind of preventative medicine. But the accuracy of the new technology is still in question, and it’s unclear if the masses really want to know these answers to such questions — even if insurance is willing to pay. Accuracy and large-scale adoption is the formula Counsyl needs to make its business model work.

“Creepy Gattaca undertones?” Tell me more, Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, about who you are to declare what “The Masses” think. From Rachel’s Lehmann-Haupt’s website:

I [Rachel Lehmann-Haupt] graduated with honors in English Literature from Kenyon College and attended The Graduate School of Journalism at The University of California at Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley I was the founding editor of F magazine, a post-feminist zine for which I received a fellowship from Women in Communications, Inc. I was also an assistant editor to Clay Felker, the founder of New York magazine, at The Felker Magazine Center.

Oh right. Kenyon College, UC Berkeley, “post-feminist zine,” New York magazine. I see that neither your subsidized intelligentsia education nor your vagina crippled your ambitions to write about your ambitions to write as a Woman who Writes. Good for you. If not for your harrowing quest to achieve your superior understanding of cultural justice, how else would you credibly justify your plea that “The Masses” may not be ready to not die from Tay Sachs?

Oh. Because genomics is “creepy.” Fuck you.

Fact: any plea on behalf of “the masses” is bullshit —unless your car is on fire —and even then, bet on an accident. “The Masses” don’t move around much anymore.

In fact, a lot of idiots seem to think that prenatal disease screening is the de facto harbinger of some lock ‘n stock B+ “Write about a Dystopia” 10 pager for ”Composition and Social Issues” 205. A quick Google search:

The hilarious part is that “The Masses” don’t want this “help” —and you are not “The Masses.” Think: when was the last time you read anything by anybody who self-identified as a member of “The Masses?” I bet it was about Jesus and published as a YouTube comment.

Listen: the primary complaint of “The Masses” is that television commercials are so loud that you have to turn down the TV, but then the show comes back on and you can’t hear it so you have turn up the TV… and what if you can’t find the channel changer?

That’s right: “The Masses” have no useful opinion on any subject —most people don’t even know what DNA is, let alone read books almost 100 years old. If The Masses did have a coherent collective opinion, it would be that they hate you —Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, The People’s Champion— for the excellent, all-purpose reason that you are a “know-it-all fag bitch.” (Nothing personal about you, that’s just the reason.) Either that, or they’d be obsequiously picking stray clutter during casual conversation which will include “Um, Sorry for [triviality]” and “Uhh… did you need help with [errand]?”

But why DNA, Rachel? What is so “creepy” about an esoteric biomedical laboratory for fatal inheritable diseases?

Because The Big Cultural Taboo in America is that you could not free to be who you want to be. That there could exist some universal, standardized report —never “mandatory,” always “understood”— which the inalterable, indisputable broadcast to the entire world exactly your place and where you belong, and to behave otherwise is blasphemy.

The real taboo is that record already exists: it’s called:

a “RESUME.”

Nobody cares about your DNA unless daddy is a big customer for The Firm . What people DO care about is 1) degree caste 2) occupational class 3) have you admitted to anything which could cast doubt on your suitability for your appointed social track.

No? Oh, right… I forgot. That’s not how this debate is suppose to go, right? Yes, please save us from all the scary DNAs! Save us Rachel! [My Employment Owner] paid [my wages] to the Death’s Protection Racket, but now I can’t cash out for a CT scan because my rs2384234 was an A and not a T! *GASP* I dropped an eyelash —my  precious FICO! I missed the resume screening for my own television sitcom fantasy —all because nobody could save me from evil DNA testing! O brave new world, that has such people in’t —like creepy geneticists! If only somebody had published skeptical op-ed and put these creeps back in their place! Society wasn’t ready!

Keep your minitruth doublespeak to yourself and leave genomics alone, Rachel. It’s already a Brave New World, but some of us still really do want to be astronauts.

Job Opportunities at the Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen

Posted on by


My friend Thomas of the wonderful Biomedicine on Display blog and Medical Museion in Copenhagen just passed along a job description for two new positions at the Museion; From the intelligent and provocative discussions that regularly occur on his blog I get the distinct sense that this the Museion would be a most progressive and absorbing work place. Full details follow; please contact Thomas at the email below with any questions!

Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen, is looking for applicants for two new positions as asst./assoc. professor in medical science communication and medical heritage production, respectively.

Medical Museion is an integrated research and museum unit for promoting medical science communication based on the material and visual medical heritage. The research profile is centered around the contemporary history of the biomedical sciences, medical science communication studies, and studies of the production of the material and visual medical scientific heritage. The museum has a world-class collection of historical medical artefacts and images, an active program for the acquisitioning and preservation of the contemporary biomedical and biotechnological heritage, a permanent medical-historical public gallery, and an innovative temporary exhibition program.

The museum is looking for two new members of faculty to contribute to our integrated research, teaching, heritage and outreach programme focussing on late 20th century and contemporary medical and health sciences in a cultural, aesthetic and historical perspective. The aim of the programme is to develop new modes of research-based collecting, exhibition making and web-based outreach by combining scientific content, cultural interpretation and aesthetic expression in innovative ways.

On the outreach side, we are developing research-based science communication practices for a variety of audiences – spanning from health professionals to the general public – in the form of exhibitions and web products, and with special attention to the aesthetics of science communication.

On the acquisition side, we are in the process of developing research-based curatorial practices (heritage production) in close cooperation with research institutions, hospitals, pharma, biotech and medical device companies, and patient organisations in the region (‘museum 2.0’) .

The appointees are required to do research at an international level and research-based teaching; however most of the teaching obligations are substituted with museum work.

This is a summary only. The full announcement can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/ye8wtep, or here: http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2010/03/09/1-2-associate-assistant-professors-in-medical-science-communication-andor-medical-science-heritage-production. Application deadline is 25 May 2010.

Further info from professor Thomas Soderqvist, Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen, +45 2875 3801; thss@sund.ku.dk; http://www.corporeality.net/museion.

Image: Thomas Soderqvist, standing in front of a medical device installation in the former temporary exhbition 'Split & Splæice: Fragments From the Age of Biomedicine'.

Win the War and Take the Plywood Bus

Posted on by

Inspired by our recent post on the Kaiser articulated aluminum / magnesium bus, frequent blog contributor Gene Herman sent us a couple photos of another Santa Fe Trailways bus made out of an unusual material: plywood. Gene writes:

"Built out of plywood during WW II in Santa Fe's

EMRs a ‘double-edged sword’ for physician communication

Posted on by

By Neil Versel

While EMRs certainly do improve physician-patient communication in person, online and over the phone, systems also can detract from the relationship between doctor and patient, according to a report from the Center for Studying Health System Change.

"[M]y concern now is that we're listening less because we have more information when we walk in the room, and it's not all trustworthy," one unidentified internist said in the report. Other physicians said that the structured nature of EMR documentation reduces the number of open-ended questions they ask, which may unintentionally cause them to miss "subtle or nuanced" symptoms. And, of course, the mere presence of a computer in the exam room might be a distraction. "It's like having a two-year old in the room," said another doctor.

"Just as EMRs can tempt a clinician to disengage from patients, they also can detract from communication within a practice or between clinicians. The use of asynchronous EMR communication tools, such as email and instant messaging where there is a time lag between responses, can be a double-edged sword, according to respondents," the report adds.

The report, which was supported by the Commonwealth Fund, suggests that all of these shortfalls are fixable as vendors refine their products. "Efforts around health information technology implementation at the federal and clinical practice level might incorporate training to improve interpersonal communication skills for practitioners and medical trainees in the presence of an EMR. The modification of office processes and clinical workflows to maximize interpersonal communication while using an EMR is also likely to be helpful," the issue brief says.

To learn more:
- see this Healthcare IT News article
- read the HSC issue brief

Related Articles:
Study: Dual EMR-paper systems may exacerbate communication problem
Mobile email, SMS opening up patient-physician communication channels

Stingmate vs. The Blue Fleet

Posted on by

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog recently you may have noticed the many reports of blue jellyfish and purple sea snails (aka “the blue fleet) washing up on Florida’s Atlantic beaches in the past month or so. Above is a photo from Jeff Poje of Miami showing two Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish (Physalia) among [...]

In Memory of the Great Bear of Locktown | The Loom

Posted on by

jackToday, I’m very sad to say, the artist John Schoenherr passed away. Among his honors, Schoenherr earned a Caldecott Award for his paintings for the book Owl Moon. His dark, textured artwork did justice to all manner of life, from a Canada goose to a giant sandworm.

I met Jack when I was just ten years old, through his son Ian. He was not the typical father of your fifth-grade friends. He got up not long before noon, sat for a while at the kitchen table with some coffee, making a few jokes, and then headed to his barn, where he would paint till midnight or later. His barn was filled with dismantled MG’s, Japanese swords, a complete collection of National Geographics, snapping tortoise shells, camera equipment, years’ worth of paintings, and an atmosphere suffused with good cheer. We kids were always welcome, whether we wanted to ask questions about the latest painting on his easel, or if we just wanted to wander along his rough bookshelves and be alone in his company. I learned some of my most important early lessons about nature from Jack, and I also learned from him what it’s like to love the act of creation, day in and day out.

jackbearThe kids in the studio eventually grew up, but kept coming back. His son Ian became a fine artist and children’s book illustrator in his own right. I’m sure that much of my interest in natural history stems from my time in that barn, too. When I got older, I was proud to come back there, where Jack was still painting, his beard gray now, his shoulders stooped, and tell him about my own encounters with walking whales and enchanting flatworms. Everyone always joked that Jack was a great bear. It wasn’t just his ursine cast that earned him that name; it was also his combination of grouchiness and loyalty. Bears are also strong, and over the past few years Jack showed amazing strength as well, as he struggled with his failing health. Now the Great Bear of Locktown has left us, but we will not forget him.