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Space station flyover visible from Greenville, Asheville tonight – WYFF Greenville

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

GREENVILLE, S.C.

If you looked up at the right time Monday night, you might have been able to see the International Space Station fly over.

The space station was visible starting at 9:43 p.m. in Greenville and Asheville and the surrounding areas. Weather permitting, it was visible in the northwest sky for about three minutes.

It moved across the sky and pass out of sight at 9:47 p.m.

The space station looked like a small, bright star moving across the sky. It was traveling at more than 17,000 mph as it passes by. It only takes 90 minutes for the laboratory to make a complete circuit of Earth. Astronauts working and living on the station experience 16 sunrises and sunsets each day.

The Expedition 52 crew of two NASA astronauts and one cosmonaut from Russia's space corporation, Roscosmos, is in its second week aboard the International Space Station.

To track the International Space Station, click here.

The tracker, developed by the European Space Agency, shows where the space station is right now and its path 90 minutes ago and 90 minutes ahead. Because of the Earth's rotation the space station appears to travel from west to east.

LOOK UP! The International Space Station flies over Asheville Monday night – WLOS

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

At 9:43 p.m. on Monday, June 12, 2017 the ISS will fly over Asheville, and if you know where to look, you can see it fly by. It will look like a bright, fast-moving star. (Image credit: MGN)

At 9:43 p.m. on Monday, June 12, 2017 the ISS will fly over Asheville, and if you know where to look, you can see it fly by.

It will look like a bright, fast-moving star.

If skies are clear in your area, look northwest at 9:43 and wait for the ISS to clear the horizon. This pass will move out of sight into the southeast, and the ISS will be visible for about three minutes.

The ISS travels at about 17,150 mph as it flies by, and you can view how many people are aboard it right here.

You can track where the ISS is here. There's even a livecam on the ISS, and you can see what the international astronauts are seeing here.

(If you're seeing this story ahead of the flyover, a good way to remember to watch the ISS is to set an alarm on your cell phone.)

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LOOK UP! The International Space Station flies over Asheville Monday night - WLOS

View the International Space Station during Riverbend – Chattanooga Times Free Press

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Sometimes the stars align just right and for Graham Truelove, a fan of both music and the International Space Station, this week is one of those times.

By happenstance, the ISS will be traveling above Chattanooga every night of Riverbend, meaning fans watching the show can look to the heavens at just the right time to see the ship fly over, weather permitting, of course. It will happentonightat9:42and will be visable for four minutes. There will be another good opportunityon Wednesday.

"We saw iton Fridayduring Boz Scaggs," Truelove said.

"I told everyone around us and they didn't believe me, but they were impressed. People like science I guess."

Tonight, the ISS will come from the north traveling towards the east. Riverbend moves to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevardtonight, so you will have to turn around to see it. "When the music is on the Coke Stage, you just have to look up," Truelove said.

Normally, the ISS is viewable a couple a nights a month. It's rare to see it this many days in a row, Truelove says.

"It's just an accident of science that it is viewable during the entire Riverbend festival."

He said his family has been following the ISS for 25 years. You can check for information and the station's path atspotthestation.nasa.gov.

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View the International Space Station during Riverbend - Chattanooga Times Free Press

OA-7 Cygnus re-enters Earth’s atmosphere after 2-month mission – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Derek Richardson

June 12th, 2017

The re-entry of the second Cygnus spacecraft in 2014. Photo Credit: NASA

Burning up in a blaze of glory, Orbital ATKsOA-7 Cygnus cargo ship re-entered Earths atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean on June 11, 2017, ending its nearly two-month-long flight.

The spacecraft, which spent some six weeks attached to the International Space Station, delivered more than 7,300 pounds (3,300 kilograms) of supplies to the outpost and, after unberthing last week, performed a fire experiment.

The S.S. John Glenn, as it was named, launched to the station atop an Atlas V rocket on April 18, 2017. After a four-day trek to the outpost, it was berthed by the then Expedition 51 crew.

Once attached, the crew began transferring the cargo, which included various experiments and hardware, such as a new plant growth facility, biology samples, and more. There were also more than 30 CubeSats inside for future deployment from the Kibo module airlock.

After being loaded with trash and unneeded equipment, the spacecraft was detached from the outpost at 9:10 a.m. EDT (13:10 GMT) on June 4. The unberthing came more than a month earlier than originally planned. The schedule for the current Expedition 52 crew opened up when the launch of the CRS-11 Dragon capsule was by postponed by several days.

According to Spaceflight101, station managers on the ground seized the opportunity to have the crew detach the OA-7 spacecraft in early June because crew operations for the rest of the month and into July were expected to be fairly busywith experiments to conduct as well as cargo and crew crafts coming and going.

Cygnus did not immediately de-orbit, however, as it had a fire experiment called SAFFIRE-III to perform. The experiment occurred remotelyas to not endanger the space station crew.

The SAFFIRE experiments are the largest flame studies conducted in space. They are designed to better understand flame propagation on various materials in a bid to design safer spacecraft.

For this experiment, a cotton-fiberglass sample, identical to the one forSAFFIRE-I in 2016, was set ablaze. For this run, however, two fans were set atdifferent speeds to measure how airflow can influence flame propagation in zero gravity.

The experiment was performed only hours after departing the space station, at 5:17 p.m. EDT (21:17 GMT). Over the next several days, video and other data from the study were downlinked.

Three more SAFFIRE experiments are being developed to follow up on the results from the first three. According to NASA, the series will focus on the creation and spread of toxic combustion gases.

In the days before Cygnus deorbit burn, two pairs of Lemur-2 CubeSats were deployed. These Spire Global satellites will join its larger constellation of ship-tracking and remote sensing satellites. The four are expected to remain in orbit for at least two years.

Cygnus performed three orbit-lowering maneuvers on June 10 to set itself up for its deorbit the following day. Then, at 12:37 p.m. EDT (16:37 GMT), a final 5.5-minute deorbit burn was performed by its BT-4 engine, setting it up for re-entry over the Pacific Ocean and away from major shipping lanes.

Although its mission was almost accomplished, the spacecraft had one more experiment on board called RED-Data2.The study consisted of three soccer-ball-sized capsules designed to survive re-entry, but they are not recoverable.

RED-Data2 has two objectives. The first is totrack vehicle parameters including its location, acceleration, temperature, pressure, etc to allow for a full digital reconstruction of Cygnus atmospheric breakup. This will help engineers better understand how large objects break apart during re-entry. The second is to test new heat shield material.

There are three capsules, each with a different material: a lightweight Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator called C-PICA, aConformal Silicone Impregnated Refractory Ceramic Ablatorcalled C-SIRCA, anda modification to the Avcoat shield that will be used by Orion.

With the OA-7 mission completed, Orbital ATK is now shifting its focus toward the OA-8E mission, which is currently targeting launch atop an Antares rocket in September.

Cygnus is unberthed and readied for release on June 4, 2017. Photo Credit: NASA

Tagged: Cygnus International Space Station Lead Stories OA-7 Orbital ATK SAFFIRE-III

Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a blog about the International Space Station, called Orbital Velocity. He met with members of the SpaceFlight Insider team during the flight of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the MUOS-4 satellite. Richardson joined our team shortly thereafter. His passion for space ignited when he watched Space Shuttle Discovery launch into space Oct. 29, 1998. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized his true calling was communicating to others about space. Since joining SpaceFlight Insider in 2015, Richardson has worked to increase the quality of our content, eventually becoming our managing editor.

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OA-7 Cygnus re-enters Earth's atmosphere after 2-month mission - SpaceFlight Insider

Progress MS-06 spacecraft set for supply run to ISS – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Curt Godwin

June 12th, 2017

The Soyuz 2.1a, set to launch Progress MS-06, can be seen rolling out to the pad. Photo Credit: Roscosmos

Progress MS-06, Russias first supply delivery to the International Space Station (ISS) in nearly four months, is closing in on its targeted launch date of June 14, 2017.

The uncrewed missionis set to lift off at 5:20 a.m. EDT (09:20 GMT) from Site 31/6 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and will deliver approximately 5,400 pounds (2,450 kilograms) of cargo to the orbiting outpost.

Russias Progress freighter is an uncrewed variant of the crewed Soyuz vehicleand is capable of fully autonomous flightand will automatically dock with the Russian segment of the ISS once it arrives. However, unlike the Soyuz, no part of Progress is designed to survive re-entry at the end of its mission.

The Soyuz 2.1a israised to the vertical position after rolling out to the pad. Photo Credit: Roscosmos

Among the supplies and consumables, Progress MS-06 will be carrying some 1,554 pounds (705 kilograms) of propellant, 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of oxygen, and 926 pounds (420 kilograms) of water.

Upon reaching orbit, the cargo craftwill embark on a two-day, 34-orbit rendezvous profile with the space station and is expected to spend about sixmonths attached to the outpost. Docking with the Zvezda service module is expected to take place at 7:42 a.m.EDT (11:42 GMT) on June 16.

The spacecraft will make use of the same upgraded avionics and navigation hardware flown on Soyuz MS-04.Outfitted with a more modern suite of digital communications and radar systems, the MS series will be able to maintain communications with Russian mission control in Moscow through nearly 70 percent of an orbit. It will do this by utilizing the Luch-5 relay satellites rather than relying on ground stations over Russian territory.

Additionally, the Kurs-NA docking system has received a substantial upgrade, providing greater efficiency during docking sequences.

Progress MS-06 or 67P, as it is classified by NASA will launch atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket,which is an upgraded version of the venerable Russian launcher thathas seen decades of successful use.

The Soyuz family has been a workhorse of the Soviet and Russian space programs since 1966, tallyingmore than 1,700 launches in the past 50 years. The launcher family has seen flights from Russian/Soviet launch sites as well as from Arianespacesfacilities in French Guiana in South America. This particular variant is capable of lofting more than 15,480pounds (7,020kilograms) to a low-Earthorbit.

Composed of a core surrounded by four strap-onliquid-fueled boosters, the first stage of the rocket is an iconic design immediately recognizable by its distinctive lookof the four boosters as they taper to meet the core stage.

Making use of slightly different versions of the same family of Russian-designed and manufactured engines, the core sports a single RD-108A, while each booster utilizes an RD-107A. Both engine typesare powered by a single turbopump assembly feeding liquid oxygen (LOX) and highly refined kerosene (RG-1) into four independent combustion chambers.

Although both the RD-107A and RD-108A are based on the same design, their outputis somewhat different. The boosters each provide 188,500 pounds-force (838.5 kilonewtons) of sea-level thrust totaling 754,000 pounds-force (3,354 kilonewtons) of supplemental powerduring their two minutes of operation; the core stage provides a bit less at 178,100 pounds-force (792.5 kilonewtons).

The Soyuzs second stage, also known as the Blok-I, is powered by the Russian-made RD-0110. Like its larger RD-107A/108A cousins, the RD-0110 has four combustion chambers into which is fed LOX and RG-1 from a single turbopump system. The smaller RD-0110 provides nearly 67,000 pounds-force (298 kilonewtons) of vacuum thrust and has been in production for more than 57 years.

Finally, the upper stage for the Progress MS-06 launch will be the Russian Fregat. It is powered by a lone S5.92 engine burning a mixture of nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine. It produces 4,460 pounds-force (19.85 kilonewtons) of vacuum thrust and is responsible for placing the spacecraft into a proper orbit.

The launch will be covered live on NASA TV.

The Progress MS-06 spacecraft beforebeing encapsulated in its protective payload fairing. Photo Credit: Energia

Tagged: Baikonur Cosmodrome International Space Station Lead Stories Progress MS-06 Roscosmos Soyuz-2

Curt Godwin has been a fan of space exploration for as long as he can remember, keeping his eyes to the skies from an early age. Initially majoring in Nuclear Engineering, Curt later decided that computers would be a more interesting - and safer - career field. He's worked in education technology for more than 20 years, and has been published in industry and peer journals, and is a respected authority on wireless network engineering. Throughout this period of his life, he maintained his love for all things space and has written about his experiences at a variety of NASA events, both on his personal blog and as a freelance media representative.

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Progress MS-06 spacecraft set for supply run to ISS - SpaceFlight Insider

Weather frustrates Wallops launch of sounding rocket with light show – NASASpaceflight.com

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

June 12, 2017 by Chris Bergin

ATerrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket is set to provide people on the mid-Atlantic coast with a luminescent cloud light show. However, several attempts have been scrubbed, including one on Monday night. The sounding rocket set for launch from Wallops Flight Research Facility will help NASA test a new system that supports science studies of the ionosphere and aurora. Sounding Rocket Launch:

The launch has been delayed a few times, first due to unacceptable weather and the most recent on Sunday night due to a boat in the range. Mondays attempt was also scrubbed due to cloud cover over the ground stations tasked with observing the deployment of the payload.

The Terrier-Malemute launch vehicle which will launch this mission is a high-performance two-stage vehicle used for payloads weighing less than 400 pounds.

The first stage booster consists of a Terrier MK 12 Mod 1 rocket motor with four 340 square inch fin panels arranged in a cruciform configuration. The Terrier booster has an overall diameter of 18 inches.

For a payload weight of 200 pounds, the longitudinal acceleration during the boost phase is 26gs. The second stage propulsion unit is a Thiokol Malemute TU-758 rocket motor which is designed especially for high altitude research rocket applications. The external diameter of the Malemute is 16 inches.

The average thrust is 9,604 pounds. The maximum thrust level is approximately 14,200 pounds which results in a maximum longitudinal acceleration during second stage burning of 32gs for a 200 pound payload.

Liftoff weight of the Terrier-Malemute launch vehicle, less payload, is approximately 3260 pounds. This vehicle is usually rail launched and can be accommodated at most established launch ranges.

However, Wallops is its usual launch site a spaceport that is best known for its launches of Orbital ATK rockets, with the next scheduled to be the launch of the Antares rocket with the OA-8 Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The previous Cygnus was launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V.

During the flight of a two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket, 10 canisters about the size of a soft drink can will be deployed in the air, 6 to 12 miles away from the 670-pound main payload.

The canisters will deploy between 4 and 5.5 minutes after launch forming blue-green and red artificial clouds. These clouds, or vapor tracers, allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space.

The development of the multi-canister ampoule ejection system will allow scientists to gather information over a much larger area than previously allowed when deploying the tracers just from the main payload.

Ground cameras will be stationed at Wallops and in Duck, North Carolina, to view the vapor tracers.

Clear skies are required at one of the two ground stations for this test.

The vapor tracers are formed through the interaction of barium, strontium and cupric-oxide. The tracers will be released at altitudes 96 to 124 miles high and pose no hazard to residents along the mid-Atlantic coast.

The blue-green and red vapor tracers may be visible from New York to North Carolina and westward to Charlottesville, Virginia.These clouds, or vapor tracers, allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space.

The total flight time for the mission is expected to be about 8 minutes. The payload will land in the Atlantic Ocean about 90 miles from Wallops Island and will not be recovered.

(Images via NASA).

The Parson Red Heads Celebrate ‘Blurred Harmony’ Album Release With The Minus 5 in Portland (SHOW REVIEW … – Glide Magazine

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

On Thursday, June 8th Portlands Mississippi Studios played host to a local-centric bill from some of this citys finest acts. The occasion for such a gathering was the release of a new album, Blurred Harmony, from The Parson Redheads. Joining the venerable folk rockers were The Reverberations and The Minus 5.

Following an impressive opening set by local psych rockers The Reverberations complete with vintage Rickenbackers and plenty of pop-laden rock that sounded straight out of the 60s The Minus 5 took the stage. Wearing his trademark ball cap and raising a shot of tequila, Scott McCaugheycheerfully lead the band through one song after another while joking about how many in a row they could play and be able to nail a tight ending. Minus 5 member and sometime Portland resident Peter Buck did not make an appearance, but the audience hardly noticed as they bobbed their heads along to the bands playful garage rock. Much of the set focused on songs from the most recent release, Of Monkees and Men, a loving tribute to the Monkees where each song is about a member. McCaughey and co. delivered a set that was fun and rambunctious, offering up a jolly mood before the seriousness and focus of The Parson Red Heads.

This being an album release show, it was only natural that the band would want to show off their new material. That is exactly what they did, playing all of Side A, breaking with a few older tunes, and then playing all of Side B. Nobody in the audience seemed to have an issue with this as the album may be their strongest to date. The set kicked off with the soothing bass line of Come Save Me, a twangy power pop number that establishes the mostly mellow mood of the rest of the album. Coming Down a faster Paisley Pop tune reminiscent of The Creation came next and was quickly followed by the groovy infectiously harmonized Time After Time. Other highlights of the night included the cosmically twangified and Pink Floyd-esque Sunday Song, the soaring and catchy Time Is A Wheel, the riff-driven euphoria of Waiting For The Call, and the punchy upbeat rocker Out of Range.

As a whole, Blurred Harmony is one of the finest efforts yet from The Parson Red Heads. Its also a reminder that though they have a small following beyond Portland this band remains a hidden gem. Though the group is anchored by the soft-spoken vocals of front man Evan Way and his dynamic with wife and drummer Brette Marie Way, there is a communal spirit to the way this band sounds. At Mississippi Studios, this spirit was on full display as each band member seemed to be perfectly tuned in, focused not on standing out but rather playing an equal role in building the textural folk sounds within each song. The band seemed a bit nervous to be sharing the new album in front of an audience for the first time, yet their performance was flawless, as if they had been playing these songs for years.

All photos by Chad Lanning.

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The Parson Red Heads Celebrate 'Blurred Harmony' Album Release With The Minus 5 in Portland (SHOW REVIEW ... - Glide Magazine

Those Redheads From Seattle (Blu-ray) – DVD Talk

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Billed just somewhat accurately as "the first 3-D musical" upon its 1953 release, Those Redheads From Seattle appears on 3D Blu-Ray as yet another title rescued from oblivion by the 3-D Film Archive. Set in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, a "boomtown" called Dawson sprouts up in the Yukon territory with a casino called the Klondike Club being its social focal point. However there's still plenty of moral high ground in the town who don't approve of the gambling and burlesque shows going on there, and Vance Edmonds, a transplant from Seattle, often prints editorials about this in his newspaper. Someone at the club gets fed up with this and shoots him, hoping to put a stop to the paper altogether. Meanwhile back in Seattle, Vance's wife (Agnes Moorehead) is keeping their home under control with their four daughters, the youngest of them, Nell (Kay Strother, half of the singing group the Bell Sisters) being blonde but the other three redheads and the title characters: Connie (Cynthia, the other Bell Sister), Kathie (Rhonda Fleming, who you can also see in 3D in Inferno) and Pat (Teresa Brewer), who aspires to be a professional singer the most although the entire family is musically talented, partly at the insistence of their mother. Mom is quite strict and traditional however, wanting the girls to sing hymns at their church and not any of that immoral up-beat stuff- in this era it was also considered quite risqu for a girl to show as much as her ankle onstage as well.

Before he's shot, Vance mails a letter home saying that things are going OK for him but not great up north, so Mom decides for the whole family, including their pregnant cat, to make a surprise trip up to see him- not knowing that he's been shot since news traveled slow in those days (no email or cell phones, you see.) On the way up they meet Joe (Guy Mitchell, who likely could have inspired Harry Connick Jr.'s look a few decades later) who is also headed to Dawson to sing and dance at the Klondike Club. The girls take a liking to him right away, but of course Mom has her reservations. Kathie also quickly falls for the club's owner Johnny Kisco (Gene Barry), who knows who shot her father but isn't quite sure if he should reveal this- at least until the girls suspect him of it. Before that comes to a head however the girls integrate into the town rather quickly. The whole family has to decide what to do with the newspaper after Vance's death and stay there for a while, with Pat becoming a dancer at the club despite Mom's severe disapproval.

Five songs are performed in the movie, but I wouldn't quite call this a "musical" since my definition of that is when the cast breaks into song and dance spontaneously for the sake of the movie. Here all the songs are performed on stage or in other situations when they reasonably could have in the real world- for example the Bell Sisters sing "Take Back Your Gold" on the boat up north while playing a game that requires them to sing a song. There's a couple of good stage numbers at the club as well, of course played to the audience there. While this might not seem like a movie that calls for 3-D, it's used here in a way I haven't quite seen in any other movie of the past or present. The effect is quite strong the instant the Paramount logo opens with the familiar mountain pushed far into the screen with the stars and lettering pushed outwards. Through the entire movie this sense of depth remains not quite as strongly, but as obvious to the picture as the colors. There's a few well-placed 3-D gimmicks including characters subtly thrusting things they're holding at the camera, and an amusing sequence where barrels filled with liquor are shot with the contents gushing out towards the audience before a herd of booze-happy mountain men crowd around to catch it. Unfortunately by the time this movie made it to theaters, the technical problems of 3-D at the time had given the technology a bad name and Paramount gave theaters the option to play it in plain old 2D. Reports of some of the 3D engagements were less than enthusiastic as well, mainly from the two film projectors refusing to stay in proper sync. The extras on this disc tell that story.

Shot with Paramount's "Paravision" 3D camera rig, similar to the "Natural Vision" camera that shot many of the other famous 1950s 3D movies, the effect again is very immersive. If you've watched any of the more recent 3D movies and have failed to notice much of an effect, you'll be in for a revelation here. In fact, this is another older movie that today's filmmakers need to take a look at to see how 3D should be done. While the theatrical showings in 1953 might have had a few flaws, Bob Furmanek and company have seen to it that it looks as good here as it possibly can. They have pointed out that the biggest problem with this movie was the vertical alignment wasn't consistent throughout the film prints, causing one eye's view in some shots to appear higher up than the other. When a new film print of this movie was projected in Hollywood in 2006, the projectionist was said to have had to "ride" the framing knobs through the showing to keep them lined up- all of that has been done more precisely for this 3D Blu-Ray transfer.

This was also an early non-anamorphic widescreen film, shown in a 1.66 aspect ratio which is maintained on this disc. As for the quality of the picture itself, there's a definite graniness throughout which is likely inherent in how it was shot. The color doesn't quite "shine" the way you might expect, again partly from a likely intended look but also because of the shape the film elements were in. There's no sign of excessive film wear however, and this is another case where when hearing the challenges of making this transfer you'll be thankful for it looking as good as it does. The disc also includes a 2D viewing option which shows just the left eye's view, sampling this it appears watchable but really takes away a big part of the picture.

In the "premiere" venues the sound was presented in discrete 3-channel stereo- the traditional stage channels but no surrounds. This was played off of a third machine in the projection booth from another reel of 35mm film with full magnetic coating- I got to see one of these in action at the Cinerama Theatre in Seattle. This of course also has to stay in perfect sync with the film projectors to work properly. The bad news is that like the WarnerPhonic track for House of Wax the multi-channel tracks for this movie have been lost, but the good news is that a fairly accurate re-creation was done from the existing elements. Encoded as a 3-channel DTS Master Audio Track, it's a lively mix with most of the music isolated to the left and right (I went up close to the center speaker a few times and heard no music at all in that channel, similar to more recent digital mixes) with some dialogue and sound effects also venturing into the left and right. The levels of the left and right channels on this disc seem to be a bit higher than the center however, with music often drowning out dialogue. There's also a transfer of the mono track available, in 2-channel DTS Master Audio that stays centered as it should.

A very informative commentary track accompanies the movie- most of it with Hillary Hess with 3-D Film Archive's Bob Furmanek and Jack Theakston with Greg Kintz appearing in a separately-recorded portion around the middle of the film. While they talk a bit about the movie itself including the story and the actors, the main focus is on the technical aspects which of course delighted me and likely will anyone else interested in the history of 3-D filmmaking. They give plenty of time to the problems the 3-D presentation had, reading quotes from reviews of the first showings. I'd always found it a bit frustrating that the industry gave up on 3-D for so long after that, as it seems the problems with it were so notorious but I haven't heard anything about what was done to fix them until digital projection came along decades later. The work done to restore the movie for this disc is discussed as well, with the statement "this was a really tough film to bring back to life" summing it up.

Separately there's a 3D segment with Greg Kintz talking more about the restoration, showing before and after comparisons of a few shots showing the alignment problem as well as the faded color and general poor condition of parts of the film. A "Stereophonic Sound Demo" is kind of a waste of time, as it just re-plays Guy Mitchell's "Chick-A-Boom" number inside a graphic of a theater screen with analog waveforms on the sides and above the picture- I would have liked to have seen how the mix was actually done instead. In 2D there's an interview with star Rhonda Fleming at the 2006 Hollywood showing of the new film print, and the theatrical trailer is included (in 2D but flagged for 3D) from an analog video source with a lot of dot crawl and appearing to be stretched from 4x3. Amusingly it includes text saying the movie is actually in "4-D" with "4 Delightful singing stars". A 1970s porn film called The Starlets later used the term "4-D" in its advertising, with the fourth dimension being something not suitable for family discussion.

Those Redheads From Seattle is yet another essential title for any 3-D enthusiast's collection- that applies to just about everything the 3-D Film Archive has done so far, although A*P*E still has a few caveats being that it really isn't a very good movie. Redheads however should appeal to anyone who appreciates a good classic.

Now if I may editorialize for a bit, I do need to point out that while 3-D Film Archive remains committed to restoring more vintage 3-D movies and putting them out on Blu-Ray, the fact remains that hardware support for home 3-D is alarmingly declining. None of the major TV manufacturers are including 3-D in any of their models for this year in the US (there are a handful of projectors that still include it), and this prompted me to buy an LG set with 3-D while it was still available when I hadn't been planning on buying another TV for a few more years. While the 3-D on my previous Sharp TV was adequate, this LG blows that out of the water with not only a better picture but also much more affordable glasses- you can even use the same glasses you might have brought home from the theater with it. While the commentary on this disc discusses how 3-D movies came and went rather quickly in 1953 (it was likely recorded before this year's announcement from the electronics manufacturers and thus that isn't addressed), I think it's safe to say there have been far fewer problems with home 3-D and it can only improve with each generation of displays- but only as long as the manufacturers continue to include it! Having 3-D disappear from home displays would be a huge mistake, rendering discs like this to not be viewable to their full potential and less likelihood for more to be released. I'd even argue that if not a single new 3-D Blu-Ray disc were released after this, the discs that have been put out from 3-D Film Archive plus the hundreds of other recent 3-D movies that have been issued are reason enough to keep including it on at least some displays on the market for a long time to come.

Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.

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Those Redheads From Seattle (Blu-ray) - DVD Talk

King Black Acid, The Parson Red Heads, and LiquidLight at Doug Fir Lounge – Vortex Music Magazine

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

King Black Acid, The Parson Red Heads, and LiquidLight at Doug Fir Lounge
Vortex Music Magazine
After 13 years, the folk family are set to release their fourth LP via Fluff & Gravy on June 9 but they'll celebrate their cosmic Americana a day early at Mississippi Studios with The Minus 5 and... King Black Acid: 'Big Gummo - It's Cool To Be In Love ...

NASA launching colorful clouds over the East Coast — here’s how to watch – CBS News

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

An artist's impression of the luminescent clouds, which should be visible along the mid-Atlantic coast after a NASA rocket launch.

NASA

Last Updated Jun 12, 2017 9:40 PM EDT

NASA is gearing up to launch a rocket that will create colorful, luminescent clouds that will be visible to skywatchers along the mid-Atlantic coastline.

The so-called sounding rocket was scheduled to launch Monday night a little after 9 p.m. EDT from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia shore. However, NASA decided at the last minute to postpone due to cloud cover at the observation sites and said it will try again to launch Tuesday night. Four previous launch attempts also had to be scrubbed for various reasons.

A few minutes after the rocket launch takes place, NASA will release ten soda-can-sized canisters containing blue-green and red vapor to form artificial clouds, the space agency explainedon its website.

These colorful clouds will allow NASA to visually track particle motions in space. The rocket launch will support deeper studies of the ionosphere -- a zone of the Earth's outer atmosphere -- andaurora, NASA said.

The luminescent clouds should make for a dramatic spectacle for East Coast residents in an area stretching from New York City and parts of Long Island south to the middle of North Carolina.

This map shows the projected visibility of the vapor tracers during the May 31 mission. The vapor tracers may be visible from New York to North Carolina and westward to Charlottesville, Virginia.

NASA

Not in the visibility zone?

You can watch live streaming coverage on the WallopsUstreamsite, and follow updates via its Facebook andTwitteraccounts.

NASA’s Newest Class of Astronauts Is Ready to Hit the Pool – New York Times

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

New York Times

NASA's Newest Class of Astronauts Is Ready to Hit the Pool
New York Times
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NASA's Newest Class of Astronauts Is Ready to Hit the Pool - New York Times

IKEA partners with NASA to make space a little more cozy – New York Post

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Setting up IKEA furniture may be difficult, but its not rocket science or is it? Thanks to a new collaboration between NASA and the Swedish furniture store, the two challenges may not be so differentafter all. IKEA is now looking into how a Mars habitat can become more like home, so that one day, if we do leave this planet, well be able to set up cheap, mass-produced furniture on new horizons, too.

In order to determine how best to create a Mars-ready home, an IKEA team is spending three days at MDRS Habitat in Utah, which the company describes as a confined spacecraft-like environment that simulates the experience of outer space. Its no joke NASAs own astronauts spend up to three years in this habitat in order to ready themselves for space travel.

Its a crazy, fun experience, IKEA creative leader Michael Nikolic said of the experience.Were basically completely isolated for three days to get a taste of what astronauts go through for three years. Its almost like that misery you feel when youre out camping.

But the hope is that it doesnt always have to be so miserable. Its unclear exactly what will come out of this collaboration, but IKEA says its curious to find out how this newfound space knowledge might be relevant to the urban life in mega cities, where small-space living, air and water pollution is the norm. So it may not even be that IKEA is making furniture for us to use on Mars rather, theyre attempting to use lessons gleaned from being an astronaut (or at least living like one) to improve the furniture that we have here on Earth.

I think that the essence of this collection will be about appreciating what we have on Earth: human beings, plants, clean water and air. But also diversity and a sense of belonging things that we take for granted on a daily basis, Nikolic added. After this journey, itll probably feel pretty awesome to come home to my own bed.

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IKEA partners with NASA to make space a little more cozy - New York Post

NASA cancels rocket launch because of cloud cover – Delmarva Daily Times

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

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DelmarvaNow Staff Report Published 7:36 p.m. ET June 12, 2017 | Updated 8 hours ago

A Black Brant IX sounding rocket takes off Tuesday, May 16, from Wallops Flight Facility.(Photo: Submitted image)

The launch ofa Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket from Wallops Flight Facility, attempted several times before, canceled again on Monday, June 12.

NASA said the plan is to try to launch again Tuesday night shortly after 9.

FULL STORY: NASA to attempt colorful rocket launch tonight

Read or Share this story: http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/virginia/2017/06/12/watch-live-monday-nasa-launches-rocket-wallops/390084001/

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NASA cancels rocket launch because of cloud cover - Delmarva Daily Times

NASA Hosts Briefing on Latest Results of Exoplanet-Hunting Mission – PR Newswire (press release)

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --NASA will hold a media briefing at 11 a.m. EDT Monday, June 19, to announce the latest planet candidate results from the agency's exoplanet-hunting Kepler mission. The briefing, taking place during the Kepler Science Conference, will be held at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley.

The event will stream live on NASA's website at:

http://www.nasa.gov/live

The latest Kepler catalog of planet candidates was created using the most sophisticated analyses yet, yielding the most complete and reliable accounting of distant worlds to date. This survey will enable new lines of research in exoplanet study, which looks at planets outside our solar system.

The briefing participants are:

Media who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents may attend in person, and all media may participate by phone. To register for attendance or obtain dial-in information, contact Ames Public Affairs at 650-604-4789 or michele.johnson@nasa.gov by noon Friday, June 16. Media and the public may submit questions via Twitter using #AskKepler.

With its 2009 launch, NASA's Kepler space telescope became the first agency mission capable of finding Earth-sized planets in or near the habitable zone the range of distances from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet. In the data collected during the four years of its principal mission, Kepler has detected thousands of planets and planet candidates, varying widely in size and orbital distances, helping us better understand our place in the universe.

For more information about the Kepler mission and to view the digital press kit, visit:

Kepler

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-hosts-briefing-on-latest-results-of-exoplanet-hunting-mission-300472619.html

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NASA Hosts Briefing on Latest Results of Exoplanet-Hunting Mission - PR Newswire (press release)

NASA gives away free posters to share big moments in history – WFLA

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

(WFLA) Just when you thought NASA couldnt get any cooler, we discovered theyre giving away free posters.

You can now enjoy 14 different retro poster designs for free.

The poster series is titled Visions of the Future and features big moments in space history.

On the JPLwebsite, you can download one or all of these posters for free, and learn a little bit more about the moment in history each design represents.

NASA said the classic posters imaginative nature serves as a window into the future.

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NASA gives away free posters to share big moments in history - WFLA

New Nanotechnology-Based Blood Test for Predicting Prostate … – AZoNano

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Written by AZoNanoJun 12 2017

Alberta Scientists have developed a new diagnostic that will allow men to avoid painful biopsies to check for aggressive prostate cancer. The test includes a unique nanotechnology system to make the diagnostic using just a single drop of blood, and is considerably more accurate than existing screening techniques.

University of Alberta prostate cancer researcher Dr. John Lewis, left, works with graduate student Srijan Raha. (CREDIT - University of Alberta)

The Extracellular Vesicle Fingerprint Predictive Score (EV-FPS) test applies machine learning to incorporate information from millions of cancer cell nanoparticles in the blood to identify the unique fingerprint of aggressive prostate cancer. The diagnostic, developed by members of the Alberta Prostate Cancer Research Initiative (APCaRI), was tested on a group of 377 Albertan men who were referred to their urologist with suspected prostate cancer. It was discovered that EV-FPS precisely identified men with aggressive prostate cancer 40% more accurately than the most common test used today - Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test.

Higher sensitivity means that our test will miss fewer aggressive cancers. For this kind of test you want the sensitivity to be as high as possible because you don't want to miss a single cancer that should be treated.

John Lewis, the Alberta Cancer Foundation's Frank and Carla Sojonky Chair of Prostate Cancer Research, The University of Alberta

According to the team, existing tests such as the PSA and digital rectal exam (DRE) frequently lead to unnecessary biopsies. Lewis says over 50% of men who undergo a biopsy do not have prostate cancer, yet have to go through the pain and side effects of the procedure such as sepsis or infection. Below 20% of men who undergo a prostate biopsy are diagnosed with the aggressive form of prostate cancer that could highly benefit from treatment.

It is projected that effective implementation of the EV-FPS test could ultimately eliminate up to 600 thousand needless biopsies, 24 thousand hospitalizations and up to 50 % of avoidable treatments for prostate cancer annually in North America alone. Besides cost savings to the health care system, the Researchers say the diagnostic test will have a great impact on the health care experience and quality of life for men and their families.

Compared to elevated total PSA alone, the EV-FPS test can more accurately predict the result of prostate biopsy in previously unscreened men. This information can be used by clinicians to determine which men should be advised to undergo immediate prostate biopsy and which men should be advised to defer biopsy and continue prostate cancer screening.

Adrian Fairey, Urologist, The Northern Alberta Urology Centre and Member of APCaRI

The team will be launching the test into market through university spin-off company Nanostics Inc, which was founded by John Lewis, Desmond Pink, Catalina Vasquez and Robert Paproski.

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New Nanotechnology-Based Blood Test for Predicting Prostate ... - AZoNano

Are Enterprises Ready to Take a Quantum Leap? – IT Business Edge

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

The exciting landscape of modern life has been built with the aid of powerful computers. They have done dazzling things, from making the trains run on time to helping to build skyscrapers. Now, imagine a discontinuity in computing in which these capabilities are suddenly expanded and enhanced by orders of magnitude.

You wont have to imagine too much longer. It is in the process of happening. The fascinating thing is that this change is based on quantum science, which is completely counter-intuitive and not fully understood, even by those who are harnessing it.

Todays computers are binary, meaning that they are based on bits that represent either a 1 or a 0. As fast as they go, this is a basic, physical gating factor that limits how much work they can do in a given amount of time. The next wave of computers uses quantum bits called qubits that can simultaneously represent a 1 and a 0. This root of the mysteries that even scientists refer to as quantum weirdness allows the computers to do computations in parallel instead of sequentially. Not surprisingly, this greatly expands the ability of this class of computers.

The details of how quantum computers operate are more or less impossible to understand. A couple of related points are clear, however: Harnessing the power of quantum mechanics to create incredibly powerful machines is not a pipe dream: Companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Google, as well as startups and universities, dont sink billions of dollars in flights of fancy.

The second point is that the payoff is here, or at least quite near. The world of computing wont instantaneously change once quantum actions are proven. It is still a long road to being fully commercialized, bypassing classical approaches and, finally, living up to the most extravagant promise.

In late May, Microsoft and Purdue University announced research on quantum computing that focuses on one of the key challenges, which is the extraordinarily fragile nature of the qubits. Indeed, the subject of the research is a good example of the amazing complexity of the field and how far it has to go.

In quantum mechanics, the mere act of looking at the system makes it choose between the 1 and the 0 and exit the quantum state. The task of the Microsoft/Purdue research is to develop topological qubits that are stable enough to function in the real world.

In essence, according to Professor Michael Manfra, the university's Bill and Dee O'Brien Chair Professor of Physics and Astronomy, stability increases as the quantum properties are spread out.

The quantum variable that houses information is really a property of the quantum system as [a] whole, he wrote to IT Business Edge in response to emailed questions. More particles may be needed to define the qubit, but this complexity has an advantage while a local disturbance or perturbation can flip an individual spin, it is much less likely to change the state of the entire quantum system that comprises a topological qubit.Therefore these topological qubits are expected to be more robust.They do not couple well to the commonly occurring noise in the environment.

Preparing for the Quantum Future

There is an angle to all of this that is refreshingly straightforward and accessible, however: Great change is coming and companies need to prepare for quantum computing. Indeed, even assuming that the high-profile changes are down the road a bit, they will be massive when they do arrive.

The bottom line is that planners need to think about quantum computing. A logical first step in assessing the impact is identifying the tasks it will most likely perform. In responses to emailed questions, Jerry Chow, the manager of Experimental Quantum Computing for IBM, told IT Business Edge that four areas likely to be affected are business optimization (in areas such as the supply chain, logistics, modeling financial data and risk analysis); materials and chemistry; artificial intelligence and cloud security.

Things may not be quite as clear cut, however. David Schatsky, the managing director of Deloitte LLP, told IT Business Edge, in response to emailed questions, that risk management, investment portfolio design, trading strategies, and the design of transportation and communications networks will be affected. Quantum computer, he wrote, could be disruptive in cryptography, drug design, energy, nano-engineering and research.

Thats an almost intimidating list. However, Schatsky prefaced it with a disclaimer: Quantum computing will entirely transform some kinds of work and have negligible impact on others. The truth is, researchers dont yet know all the types of problems quantum computing may be good for.

There Is Still Time to Prepare

Luckily, planners have time. Quantum computing will be a massive change, but one that will be gradual. It makes sense to think of quantum computing as a new segment of the supercomputer market, which is a small fraction of overall IT spending, Schatsky wrote. Annual supercomputer server sales total about $11 billion globally by some estimates. I suspect quantum computing revenues will be a very small fraction of that for years to come. So Im not sure its going to become common anytime soon.

Though it clearly will be quite a while before people are buying quantum computers on Amazon, organizations need to be thinking about quantum computing today. The power of quantum computing is so extreme, especially when coupled with artificial intelligence and other emerging techniques, it is clear that all of that time must be put to good use.

IBMs Chow said that quantum-driven platforms such as Watson will be able to find patterns that are buried too deeply for classical computers. This will open new frontiers for discovery, he wrote.

It is a new age, not a new computer.

Corporations should ask: How do I learn about quantum computing to get a feel for where it might make a difference? Now is the time to realize its enormous potential, and that this is a field ripe for innovation and exploration that goes beyond simply just an end application. Becoming quantum-ready is about participating in a revolution within computing. People need to learn the details enough to open their minds up about what could be possible.

And, eventually, quantum mechanics may go beyond computing.

In general terms, I believe the development of quantum technologies is inevitable quantum computing is perhaps just the most visible example, Manfra wrote. It is not hard to imagine that certain businesses in which innovation may be enhanced by dramatic improvement in computational capabilities will need to have long-term plans which exploit quantum machines once they become available.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at cweinsch@optonline.net and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.

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Are Enterprises Ready to Take a Quantum Leap? - IT Business Edge

Donald Trump’s coal bet faces Moore’s Law – Livemint – Livemint

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Donald Trump justified his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate deal by claiming that compliance would impose crippling economic burdens on the US. I happen to love the coal miners, Trump declared, before reaffirming his intention to make the fossil fuel the centrepiece of the nations energy policy.

The backlash against the president was ferocious, but mainly focused on his lack of concern for the catastrophic effects of climate change. Far less attention has been directed at his conviction that coal will be cheaper than renewable sources of energy in the foreseeable future.

This is a question, luckily, that history can help answer. Recent research suggests that certain technologies introduced over the past two centuries exhibit very predictable rates of advancement, becoming more efficientand thus cheaperat a steady clip. And solar energy is one of those technologies. Looking into the past can give us a glimpse of the future.

In 1965, Gordon Moore, one of the founders of chip giant Intel, noticed that the number of transistors per integrated circuit doubled every two years on average, with corresponding advances in speed and declines in cost. This quickly became known as Moores Law. In the succeeding half century, Moores Law has held up, with the cost of computing power plunging dramatically over the years.

Last year, two economists named J. Doyne Farmer and Francois Lafond published an intriguing paper that riffed off Moores Law. Many technologies, they correctly observed, followed a generalized version of Moores Law in which costs tend to drop exponentially. Some technologies, however, do not follow this model, and it can be hard to distinguish between them. Past performance, in other words, is not always predictive of future results.

In order to sort out the ones that follow a version of Moores Law from the ones that dont, the researchers engaged in an interesting thought experiment. They selected 53 very different technologies across a range of sectors and built a deep database of historical unit costs for producing milk; sequencing DNA; making laser diodes, formaldehyde, acrylic fibre, transistors, and many other things; and electricity from nuclear, coal, and solar.

They then engaged in a statistical method called hindcasting. This entails going back to various points in the past for each technology, taking whatever trend existed at the time and then extrapolating it into the future. They then took this prediction and compared it to what actually happened. This has the virtue of actually testing the predictive power of the data rather than fitting the data to a model. Moreover, it gives some insights into the accuracy of future forecasts. After all, the authors note, a sceptic who looks at the trends in the cost of solar and coal would rightfully respond, how do we know that the historical trend will continue? Isnt it possible that things will reverse, and over the next 20 years coal will drop dramatically in price and solar will go back up? Hindcasting offers a way to answer that question in quantitative terms.

And the answers are rather interesting. The researchers found that many technologies dont follow a robust version of Moores Law, even if the cost per unit can fluctuate a great deal in the short term. The cost of chemicals, household goods, and many other goods dont stay the same, but they fluctuate in a random fashion, going up for a number of years and then going back down again. Others, like transistors and DNA sequencing, are eerily predictable.

Energy, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. The current unit cost of coal is approximately the same as it was in the year 1890 in inflation-adjusted terms. It has, however, fluctuated randomly over time by a factor of three, exhibiting short-term trends that eventually reverse themselves. The same is true of gas and oil. Nuclear has also fluctuated, but is actually more expensive now than when it was first introduced in the 1950s. In short, theres no equivalent for Moores Law when it comes to fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Which brings us to solar. Here the trend has been unmistakable, with the price per unit dropping a very steady 10% per year. This has been a very rapid decline with little variability. Despite changes in demand, the ebb and flow of government subsidies, solar has steadily dropped in cost.

This very Moore-ish trajectory permits us to make reasonably secure predictions about the future cost of solar power. Theres a very slim chance those predictions could be wrong, but compared to predicting the cost of coalwhich is akin to spinning a roulette wheelwe can get some glimpse of the future.

And that future will almost certainly be dominated by solarnot because its green, but because its cheap. Indeed, the authors data suggests that theres a fifty-fifty chance that solar will become competitive with coal as early as 2024; theres a good chance that could happen even sooner. Indeed, it already has in some countries.

In the near future, it will likely be the coal industry that will need subsidies to compete with solar, not the other way around.

Trump can love coal miners all he wants. But he cannot stop solar from becoming the cheapest energy source any more than he could have halted the rise of ever cheaper, more powerful computers. Hes going to loseagain. Bloomberg

Stephen Mihm is an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia

Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com

First Published: Tue, Jun 13 2017. 12 14 AM IST

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Donald Trump's coal bet faces Moore's Law - Livemint - Livemint

Researchers aim to repurpose former experimental cancer therapy to treat muscular dystrophy – Nevada Today

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine have demonstrated that a drug originally targeted unsuccessfully to treat cancer may have new life as a potential treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The candidate drug, SU9516, represents a different kind of approach for treating DMD, a degenerative muscle disease that usually begins in childhood and has no known cure. It is caused by a faulty gene that leads to progressive muscle weakness, with death often occurring around age 25. Rather than trying to fix or replace the broken gene, SU9516 ramps up the muscle repair process, helping reinforce muscle structure.

NCATS Chemical Genomics Center Acting Branch Chief Juan Marugan, Ph.D., and UNR Med Professor of Pharmacology Dean Burkin, Ph.D., led a team that screened more than 350,000 compounds to find SU9516, which had been previously developed as a treatment for leukemia. The research demonstrated that this compound improved muscle function in both laboratory and animal DMD models. The results, published recently in Molecular Therapy, may provide a promising approach against the disorder and other muscle-wasting conditions.

Those with DMD lack dystrophin, a protein akin to a molecular shock-absorber that helps keep muscle cells intact. Without dystrophin, muscles are fragile and easily injured. Individuals lose muscle strength and the ability to repair damaged muscle tissue. Most die from heart or respiratory problems.

"Our findings open the door to develop new drug treatments for DMD," Marugan said.

In earlier research, Burkin, who is senior author of the current study, and his co-workers showed that boosting the levels of a cell structural protein, 71 integrin, in affected muscle cells could alleviate DMD symptoms in a mouse model. In addition, increased amounts of the protein slowed the disease's progress.

Burkin and his UNR Med colleagues collaborated with NCATS researchers, including co-team leaders Marc Ferrer, Ph.D., and Noel Southall, Ph.D., to screen a large collection of compounds for molecules that could increase 71 integrin production in mouse muscle cells grown in the laboratory. The screen revealed that SU9516 raised integrin production and promoted the formation of muscle cells and fibers from DMD muscle stem cells, another important indication of its potential as a drug.

In a series of pre-clinical experiments, the researchers showed that SU9516 increased the production of 71 integrin in human and mouse DMD muscle cells. Subsequent tests found SU9516 improved muscle function and slowed indicators of disease progression. Apurva Sarathy, a Mick Hitchcock Scholar, was the lead author on these earlier, published findings, completed as part of her PhD thesis at UNR Med.

Burkin suggests that such a drug could be used alone, or in combination, with other therapies yet to be developed. There might be wide ranging applications to other muscle-damaging conditions, like cachexia, a wasting syndrome characterized by weight loss and muscle atrophy that is often seen in the late stages of cancers, and the effects of aging and injury, he noted.

"Integrin stabilizes muscle structure, and helps stimulate muscle repair and regeneration," Burkin said. "If we can artificially increase its production with drugs, we think it can help protect muscle cells from damage."

The NCATS-UNR Med team plans to work with medicinal chemists to make the molecule more specific for DMD, while also removing the toxic anticancer components, creating a safer version with a goal of future testing in patients.

The work was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases grants, Cure CMD and Struggle Against Muscular Dystrophy. Other co-authors on the Molecular Therapy article include: Apurva Sarathy, Ryan Wuebbles, Tatiana Fontelonga, Ashley Tarchione, Andreia Nunes, Suzann Duan, Paul Brewer, Tyler Van Ry, Dante Heredia, Grant Hennig and Thomas Gould with UNR Med; and Leslie Mathews Griner, Andres Dulcey, Amy Wang, Xin Xu, Catherine Chen, Xin Hu and Wei Zheng with NCATS.

This story was written by Steven Benowitz, science writer with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health.

Shown in the photo are (l-r) Dean Burkin; Pamela Barraza, graduate student; Marisela Dagda, lab manager; Brennan Jordan, undergraduate assistant; Vivian Cruz, lab assistant; Tyler Allen, chief intern; Tatiana Fontelonga, graduate student; and Ryan Wuebbles, research assistant professor.

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Researchers aim to repurpose former experimental cancer therapy to treat muscular dystrophy - Nevada Today

GE Healthcare’s new CEO has been leading Mass.-based division – Boston Business Journal

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Danzig

Boston Business Journal

GE Healthcare's new CEO has been leading Mass.-based division
Boston Business Journal
He has overseen significant revenue growth of the molecular medicine business which now accounts for more than $4 billion in sales. Now, Murphy will be tapped to lead the $20 billion GE Healthcare, which is responsible for manufacturing medical ...
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