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Tibetan Scholar Creating Spiritual Mandala with Students – Noozhawk

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Posted on March 10, 2017 | 9:00 a.m.

Santa Barbara Middle School continues to cultivate connection with Tibetan people and culture

Venerable Lama Losang Samten works on sand mandala with Santa Barbara Middle School students. (Santa Barbara Middle School)

Santa Barbara Middle School (SBMS) is hosting Venerable Lama Losang Samten who will be on campus through Friday, March 10, creating the Mandala of Compassion. Samten has also been visiting classrooms and teaching students about Tibetan art and culture.

In 2014, Samten visited SBMS to create the first mandala at the local middle school. Shortly after his visit Ngodup Tsering, the secretary of Education for Tibet in Exile visited the school as well. In continuation of these efforts, Samten has returned for his second visit to SBMS.

In honor of his visit, SBMS is raising $10,000 for a renewed effort to support Tibetan education, art and culture.

Over the past 40 years, SBMS has cultivated a deep connection with Tibetan culture and people, including students, educators, lamas, monks, nuns and others, including a lunch audience with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

In 1999, a Tibetan Art teacher traveled to SBMS and an SBMS teacher traveled to India to establish a digital connection between SBMS and the Tibetan Home Foundation School in Mussoorie, India.

Samten has been sharing teachings of loving-kindness, joy and compassion, as well as the path to enlightenment for almost 30 years.

He lived and studied over 20 years in the Namgyal Monastery (the monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama) earning the highest degree attainable at the monastery, equivalent to a doctoral degree in the West.

He also became a master of ritual dance and sand mandalas, and was the personal attendant to the Dalai Lama prior to moving to the U.S. in 1988.

Samten is one of the mandala masters who created the first public sand mandala in the West in 1988. He is the spiritual director of several Buddhist Centers in North America, with a home base currently in Philadelphia, known as the city of brotherly love.

Samten has led an illustrious career creating sacred sand mandalas that follow the ancient Buddhist tradition. These have been created in museums, universities, schools, community centers, and galleries throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe.

He has received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a PEW Fellowship, and two honorary doctoral degrees from Trinity College in Hartford, Ct., and the Maine College of Art.

He played the role of the attendant to the young Dalai Lama in Martin Scorsese's film Kundun, where he also served as the religious technical advisor and sand mandala supervisor. He has written two books, one in Tibetan on the history of the Monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and one in English, Ancient Teachings in Modern Times: Buddhism in the 21st Century.

Losang embodies the qualities of loving-kindness, patience, and joy, which have touched the hearts of all those whom he meets.

Kara Petersen for Santa Barbara Middle School.

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Tibetan Scholar Creating Spiritual Mandala with Students - Noozhawk

Benjamin Booker Announces New Album, Shares ‘Witness’ : All … – NPR

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Benjamin Booker's new album, Witness, comes out June 2. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Benjamin Booker's new album, Witness, comes out June 2.

What does it mean to say you've witnessed something? Maybe you were simply in the right place at the right time; maybe you were a bystander who watched silently as an event played out before you. But to bear witness implies something more powerful. When you bear witness in a courtroom or a church, you're an active party, testifying as to what you've seen. One who bears witness speaks of her firsthand experience of an incident, of spiritual enlightenment, of truth itself back into the world so that it might change an outcome or a life.

It's that second sort that interests Benjamin Booker in "Witness," the title track from the follow-up to his explosive 2014 debut. The New Orleans-based songwriter who's favored a sound like the blues, soul and rock 'n' roll mixed with gasoline and a lit cigarette leans into more explicitly gospel territory here, letting his strepitous guitar take a backseat to an upright-piano melody and choral harmonies. Booker mourns violence against black bodies and hints at the insidious consequences of bearing false witness: "Thought that we saw that he had a gun / Thought that it looked like he started to run." Meanwhile, Mavis Staples sings the song's chorus, lending her typical moral urgency to its central question: "Am I going to be a witness ... just going to be a witness?"

To accompany the announcement of the album, Booker has written an essay detailing the experience that led him towards writing the album's title song, which you can read in full below.

"Once you find yourself in another civilization you are forced to examine your own."

James Baldwin

By February of 2016, I realized I was a songwriter with no songs, unable to piece together any words that wouldn't soon be plastered on the side of a paper airplane.

I woke up one morning and called my manager, Aram Goldberg.

"Aram, I got a ticket south," I said. "I'm going to Mexico for a month."

"Do you speak Spanish?" he asked.

"No," I answered. "That's why I'm going."

The next day I packed up my clothes, books and a cheap classical guitar I picked up in Charleston. I headed to Louis Armstrong Airport and took a plane from New Orleans to Houston to Mexico City.

As I flew above the coast of Mexico, I looked out the plane window and saw a clear sky with the uninhabited coast of a foreign land below me.

I couldn't help but smile.

My heart was racing.

I was running.

I rented an apartment on the border of Juarez and Doctores, two neighborhoods in the center of the city, near the Baleras metro station, and prepared to be mostly alone.

I spent days wandering the streets, reading in parks, going to museums and looking for food that wouldn't make me violently ill again. A few times a week I'd meet up with friends in La Condesa to sip mezcal at La Clandestina, catch a band playing at El Imperial or see a DJ at Pata Negra, a local hub.

I spent days in silence and eventually began to write again.

I was almost entirely cut off from my home. Free from the news. Free from politics. Free from friends.

What I felt was the temporary peace that can come from looking away. It was a weightlessness, like being alone in a dark room. Occasionally, the lights would be turned on and I'd once again be aware of my own mass.

I'd get headlines sent to me from friends at home.

"More Arrests at U.S. Capitol as Democracy Spring Meets Black Lives Matter"

"Bill Clinton Gets Into Heated Exchange with Black Lives Matter Protester"

That month, Americans reflected on the murder of Freddie Gray by Baltimore police a year earlier.

I'd turn my phone off and focus on something else. I wasn't in America.

One night, I went to Pata Negra for drinks with my friend Mauricio. Mau was born and raised in Mexico City and became my guide. He took me under his wing and his connections in the city made my passage through the night a lot easier.

We stood outside of Pata Negra for a cigarette and somehow ended up in an argument with a few young, local men. It seemed to come out of nowhere and before I knew it I was getting shoved to the ground by one of the men.

Mau helped me get up and calmly talked the men down. I brushed the dirt off of my pants and we walked around the block.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"It's fine," he said. "Some people don't like people who aren't from here."

He wouldn't say it, but I knew what he meant.

Benjamin Booker, Witness Courtesy of the artist hide caption

It was at that moment that I realized what I was really running from.

Growing up in the South, I experienced my fair share of racism but I managed to move past these things without letting them affect me too much. I knew I was a smart kid and that would get me out of a lot of problems.

In college, if I got pulled over for no reason driving I'd casually mention that I was a writer at the newspaper and be let go soon after by officers who probably didn't want to see their name in print.

"Excuse me, just writing your name down for my records."

I felt safe, like I could outsmart racism and come out on top.

It wasn't until Trayvon Martin, a murder that took place about a hundred miles from where I went to college, and the subsequent increase in attention to black hate crimes over the next few years that I began to feel something else.

Fear. Real fear.

It was like every time I turned on the TV, there I was. DEAD ON THE NEWS.

I wouldn't really acknowledge it, but it was breaking me and my lack of effort to do anything about it was eating me up inside.

I fled to Mexico, and for a time it worked.

But, outside of Pata Negra, I began to feel heavy again and realized that I might never again be able to feel that weightlessness. I knew then that there was no escape and I would have to confront the problem

The song "Witness" came out of this experience and the desire to do more than just watch.

If you grew up in the church you may have heard people talk about "bearing witness to the truth."

In John 18:37, Pilate asked Jesus if he is a king. Jesus replies, "You say that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I may bear witness to the truth. Everyone being of the truth hears My voice."

In 1984, the New York Times printed an article titled "Reflections of a Maverick" about a hero of mine, James Baldwin.

Baldwin has the following conversation with the writer, Julius Lester.

Witness is a word I've heard you use often to describe yourself. It is not a word I would apply to myself as a writer, and I don't know if any black writers with whom I am contemporary would, or even could, use the word. What are you a witness to?

Witness to whence I came, where I am. Witness to what I've seen and the possibilities that I think I see. ...

What's the difference between a spokesman and a witness?

A spokesman assumes that he is speaking for others. I never assumed that I never assumed that I could. Fannie Lou Hamer (the Mississippi civil rights organizer), for example, could speak very eloquently for herself. What I tried to do, or to interpret and make clear was that what the Republic was doing to that woman, it was also doing to itself. No society can smash the social contract and be exempt from the consequences, and the consequences are chaos for everybody in the society.

"Witness" asks two questions I think every person in America needs to ask.

"Am I going to be a Witness?" and in today's world, "Is that enough?"

Witness comes out June 2 via ATO Records.

Benjamin Booker Announces New Album, Shares 'Witness' : All ... - NPR

The International Space Station Will Soon Host the Coolest Spot in the Universe – Seeker

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

The International Space Station (ISS) will soon host the coldest spot in the entire universe, if everything goes according to plan.

This August, NASA plans to launch to the ISS an experiment that will freeze atoms to less than 1 billionth of a degree above absolute zero more than 100 million times colder than the far reaches of deep space, agency officials said. (Earlier NASA statements put the experiment temperature at one ten billionth of a degree.)

The instrument suite, which is about the size of an ice chest, is called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL). It consists of lasers, a vacuum chamber and an electromagnetic "knife" that together will slow down gas particles until they are almost motionless. (Remember that temperature is just a measurement of how fast atoms and molecules are moving.) [Watch a video about the CAL]

If successful, CAL could help unlock some of the universe's deepest mysteries, project leaders said.

"Studying these hypercold atoms could reshape our understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity," Robert Thompson, a CAL project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "The experiments we'll do with the Cold Atom Lab will give us insight into gravity and dark energy some of the most pervasive forces in the universe."

Attempts to create Bose-Einstein condensates on Earth have been only partially successful to date. Because everything on Earth is subject to the pull of gravity, atoms and molecules tend to move toward the ground. This means the effects can only be seen for fractions of a second. In space, where the ISS is in perpetual freefall, CAL could preserve these structures for 5 to 10 seconds, NASA officials said. (Future versions of CAL may be able to hold on for hundreds of seconds, if technology improves as expected, officials added.)

The researchers hope CAL observations will lead to the improvement of several technologies, such as quantum computers, atomic clocks for spacecraft navigation and sensors of various types including some that could help detect dark energy. The current model of the universe suggests we can only see about 5 percent of what's out there. The remainder is split between dark matter (27 percent) and dark energy (68 percent).

"This means that even with all of our current technologies, we are still blind to 95 percent of the universe," JPL's Kamal Oudrhiri, CAL deputy project manager, said in the same statement. "Like a new lens in Galileo's first telescope, the ultra-sensitive cold atoms in the Cold Atom Lab have the potential to unlock many mysteries beyond the frontiers of known physics."

CAL, which was developed at JPL, is scheduled to fly to the ISS this August aboard SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule. Final testing is underway ahead of CAL's shipment to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA officials said.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace. Original article on Space.com.

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The International Space Station Will Soon Host the Coolest Spot in the Universe - Seeker

Within 3 Years, We Could Have Private Space Stations Orbiting the Moon – Futurism

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

In Brief

Aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow thinks space stations could be orbiting the Moon by 2020. However, he stresses, these giant refueling depots will only be possible by that time if the Trump administration prioritizes the national urgency and funding that such an initiative will need.

The key is going to be how fast the Trump administration can react, Bigelow told Space.com in a March 3 interview, adding that the administration would have to move quickly to energize funds and to galvanize the private sector.

Bigelow, who heads Bigelow Aerospace, understands the industry. His company has already launched three private inflatable space-habitat prototypes into orbit. The most recent is the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) project, which was delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 via a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship. BEAM is the first inflatable room ever privately built and installed on the space station. It was created as part of a NASA future space habitats test, and thus far, Bigelow reports that it is performing well.

Space tourismis a hot topic for Bigelow and other space entrepreneurs.

On February 26, Elon Musk announcedthat SpaceX will launch a private flight to the Moon in 2018. The charter aboard the Dragon capsule already has two passengers who have made significant deposits. Those private citizens will have the opportunity to orbit the Moon after launching via SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket. Also with his eyes on the Moon is Jeff Bezos,who told The Washington Poston March 2 that his private space company, Blue Origin, is making its own plans for a Moon venture.

Habitats for the Moon and beyond and private space stations are goals for Bigelow and his company. He hopes to launch a colossal inflatable space habitat and free-flying private space station into orbit in 2020 and claims that Bigelow Aerospaceaims to provide habitats at a fraction of NASAs cost. As his company and others make space flight cheaper and more accessible, humanity will be able to extend its reach beyond our home planet, perhaps one day visiting and even colonizing new ones.

Call to space: Blair Pointe Elementary contacts the International … – Kokomo Tribune

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

What happens when an astronaut gets sick in space? Do the astronauts get on each other's nerves? What would happen if the International Space Station were struck by debris?

These were a few of the questions students from Blair Pointe Elementary School asked Thursday when they spoke to ISS Commander Shane Kimbrough.

Blair Pointe Elementary is one of only 12 organizations around the world to speak with the ISS in a 6-month period as part of a grant through Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, otherwise known as ARISS.

Blair Pointe applied for the grant last year after Maconaquah Elementary was awarded it in 2015. Bill McAlpin, president of the Miami County Amateur Radio Club, assisted in the grant application and helped the school connect with the ISS Thursday morning.

The students were given approximately 11 minutes to speak with Kimbrough. The ISS moves so quickly that they had to connect as soon as it was within range of their radio set-up, and they lost contact as it passed over the Atlantic Ocean. Within those 11 minutes, the ISS traveled about 3,000 miles.

It was a tense few minutes when McAlpin began trying to contact Kimbrough.

November Alpha One Sierra Sierra, this is Whiskey Delta Nine Golf India Uniform, he said several times, followed only by static.

Finally, Kimbrough responded.

Fifteen students lined up to ask Kimbrough questions. One student asked how many people live on the ISS at one time. Kimbrough said only six, because the shuttle used to get to it can hold only three people.

Another student asked what happens when astronauts get sick in space. Kimbrough said they have a well-stocked supply of medicine and equipment.

But fortunately for us, nobodys gotten sick on our mission, he said.

Kimbrough provided several answers during the 11-minute contact with the school. He said he and the astronauts perform several kinds of experiments every day, and they have to exercise regularly to keep their bones from deteriorating in zero gravity.

He said the astronauts go through extensive training before going into space, but nothing prepared him for his first space walk, which he said is the hardest physical thing about his job.

You just cant train for that experience, he said.

Hannah Baker asked whether bones break differently in space than they do on Earth. Kimbrough said he wouldnt know for sure because none of his crew have broken bones while on the ISS. He speculated that bones would probably break in a similar way, though the healing process might be different.

It was amazing to get to talk to an astronaut, Baker said after the event.

A few other students asked questions that Kimbrough could only answer theoretically because they havent happened, such as what would happen if an astronaut became unhooked from the ISS or if the ISS were struck by debris. One student asked if he worried about the ISS traveling beyond the Milky Way Galaxy. Kimbrough said thankfully those situations have not happened, though they are trained for most emergency scenarios.

One student asked if the other astronauts ever get on Kimbrough's nerves. He answered by saying that it's always a possibility with six people in a small space disconnected from the rest of the world, but the astronauts are trained to be able to work well together.

Kimbrough will return to earth next month after having been in space for six months. He said hes looking forward to seeing his family, adding that if he could bring his family on the ISS with him, it would be a perfect set-up.

Terri McCain, a fifth-grade teacher at Blair Pointe, said she was grateful for the opportunity to speak with the ISS.

I thought the kids had wonderful questions, she said. I thought it was amazing.

The ISS's next contact is with a junior high school in Komotini, Greece.

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Call to space: Blair Pointe Elementary contacts the International ... - Kokomo Tribune

Orbital ATK’s 7th resupply mission to space station delayed – Business Standard

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

IANS | Washington March 11, 2017 Last Updated at 11:38 IST

The launch of Orbital ATKs seventh commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station has been delayed and it is now targetted for no earlier than March 21, NASA said.

The Orbital ATK CRS-7 mission was earlier scheduled for March 19.

Orbital ATK aims to launch the Cygnus spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket for delivery of essential crew supplies, equipment and scientific experiments to astronauts aboard the space station.

During prelaunch testing on March 10, ULA discovered a booster hydraulic issue at the pad.

Both the cargo spacecraft and Atlas V rocket remain secure in their processing facilities, NASA said in a blog post on Friday.

The Cygnus spacecraft, packed with about 3,447 kgs of supplies and research for crew aboard the orbiting laboratory, will be launched atop the Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

--IANS

gb/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The launch of Orbital ATKs seventh commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station has been delayed and it is now targetted for no earlier than March 21, NASA said.

The Orbital ATK CRS-7 mission was earlier scheduled for March 19.

During prelaunch testing on March 10, ULA discovered a booster hydraulic issue at the pad.

Both the cargo spacecraft and Atlas V rocket remain secure in their processing facilities, NASA said in a blog post on Friday.

--IANS

gb/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

IANS

http://bsmedia.business-standard.com/_media/bs/wap/images/bs_logo_amp.png 177 22

Orbital ATK's 7th resupply mission to space station delayed - Business Standard

Falcon 9 for Echostar 23 conducts static fire test – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Jason Rhian

March 10th, 2017

The Falcon 9 that will take EchoStar 23 into orbit conducts a static fire test at LC-39A. Photo Credit: SpaceX

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. On March 9, 2017, SpaceX successfully conducted a static fire test of the Hawthorne, California-based companys Full Thrust Falcon 9 rocket. This is the final milestone in advance of a planned launch set to take place Tuesday, March 14.

If everything goes as planned, the launch window will open at 1:34 a.m. EDT (05:34 GMT). The window closes two and a half hours later at4:04 a.m. EDT (08:04 GMT).

This flight will mark the first time Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center will be used by a commercial launch service provider to send a commercial satelliteto space. Echostar 23is set to be sent intoa geostationary transfer orbit.

Built bySpace Systems/Loral, Gunters Space Page describes the spacecraft as: a very flexible Ku-band satellite capable of providing service from any of eight different orbital slots. Planned for launch in 2016 it is designed to provide service for 15 years or longer. It will utilize SS/Ls flight-proven SSL-1300 spacecraft bus.

Tagged: EchoStar-23 Falcon 9 Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A SpaceX The Range

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

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Falcon 9 for Echostar 23 conducts static fire test - SpaceFlight Insider

Atlas V technical issue delays OA-7 Cygnus flight to NET March 21 – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Derek Richardson

March 10th, 2017

Cygnus OA-7 / S.S. John Glenn. Photo Credit: Michael Howard / SpaceFlight Insider

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The launch of Orbital ATKs S.S. John Glenn OA-7 Cygnus spacecraft has been postponed by two days to March 21, 2017, due to a technical issue discovered on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V set to send the freighter toward the International Space Station (ISS).

According to ULA, a booster hydraulic issue was discovered during pre-launch testing. The additional time will allow engineers to replace a component and continue with mission preparations.

While an exact liftoff time has not be specified, opportunities for ISSmissions typically shift about 20 minutes earlier for each day postponed. The mission was originally targeting the beginning of a 30-minute window that opened at 10:56 p.m. EDT March 19 (02:56 GMT March 20) from Space Launch Complex 41.

S.S. John Glenn is poised to send some 7,700 pounds (3,500 kilograms) of supplies and experiments to the orbiting laboratory. Once in orbit, it will take about three days for the craft to rendezvous with the ISS before being captured by the stations robotic Canadarm2.

Cygnus will spend about 90 days attached to the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. Afterward, it will be unberthed to spend about a week at a safe distance from the outpost in order to perform a remote fire experiment called Saffire-III.

After the experiment is performed, the results will be downloaded via telemetry before the spacecraft is deorbited to safely burn up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Tagged: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cygnus International Space Station Lead Stories OA-7 Orbital ATK Space Launch Complex 41 United Launch Alliance

Derek Richardson is a student studying mass media with an emphasis in contemporary journalism at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is currently the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also writes a blog, called Orbital Velocity, about the space station. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on Oct. 29, 1998. He saw his first in-person launch on July 8, 2011 when the space shuttle launched for the final time. 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 that his true calling was communicating to others about space exploration and spreading that passion.

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Atlas V technical issue delays OA-7 Cygnus flight to NET March 21 - SpaceFlight Insider

SpaceX science Dragon delivers experiments for busy science period – NASASpaceflight.com

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

March 10, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt

SpaceXs CRS-10 resupply mission has enjoyed a smooth period following its somewhat eventful berthing to the Station last month. In the two weeks since the cargo craft arrived at the orbital outpost, the Expedition 50 crew has unloaded all experiments and cargo from the internal and external compartments of Dragon and is now busy reloading the vehicle with experiments and equipment that will return to Earth for recovery later this month.

CRS-10 delivers multitude of experiments:

Given the unexpectedly fun start to Dragons time at the Station for CRS-10, which saw a flawless launch from the Kennedy Space Center followed by a rendezvous abort the first ever for Dragon during approach to the ISS, the Expedition 50 crew has made quick work of unloading the vehicle of all of its supplies from both inside and outside the spacecraft.

In all, this marks the start of a particularly busy science period for the ISS, with over 300 individual experiments scheduled to be conducted over the next six months.

Moreover, the vast majority of these experiments are slated to be brought to the Station over the course of the CRS-10, -11, and -12 missions (with -11 and -12 launching in April and June, respectively) from SpaceX and the Orbital ATK OA-7 mission later this month.

With the first of these supplies arriving on CRS-10, the Expedition 50 crew got right to work following the Dragons berthing on 23 February.

STP-H5 SpaceCube Mini:

On 26 February, the ISS crew removed the Space Test Program Houston 5 (STP-H5) experiment package from Dragons external trunk using the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRSM) more commonly known as Canada Arm 2 or the Stations robotic arm.

On 27 February, the crew used the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM, or Dextre) to remove the Optical PAyload for Lasercom Science (OPALS) experiment from the Express Logistics Carrier 1 (ELC 1) and move it to the Enhanced ORU Temporary (EOTP) platform.

This was done to make room for STP-H5 installation on ELC 1, which was accomplished on 27 February.

Overall, STP-H5 includes numerous payloads for NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy: including: the Raven autonomous space navigation demonstration, Lightning Imaging Sensor, and SpaceCube Mini for NASA; the Spacecraft Structural Health Monitoring payload and the Radiation Hardened Electronic Memory Experiment for the U.S Air Force; and two Naval Research Laboratory payloads.

The U.S. Navy experiments will examine the structure, composition, and density of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere while the Air Forces Spacecraft Structural Health Monitoring payload will examine the effects of space on fasteners and mechanical components of spacecraft.

For NASA, the SpaceCube Mini experiment is a miniaturized version of the SpaceCube 2.0 system a hybrid computer processor that can provide a 10- to 100-fold improvement in computing power while lowering power consumption and cost.

The SpaceCube Mini experiment will remain attached to the ISS through at least September 2017 (with the goal of remaining on Station for a full year or longer), will validate the advanced onboard processing capabilities for Earth Science/atmospheric chemistry, and will increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of this technology from TRL 6 to TRL 8 while reducing overall programmatic risk of using such technology on future missions.

Previous versions of this experiment have already flown three times the first aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2009, as a SpaceCube on MISSE (Materials on International Space Station Experiment) 7/8, and as a SpaceCube on STP-H4.

Running in conjunction with STP-H4, the -H5 SpaceCube Mini will validate the miniaturized version of the SpaceCube 2.0 system as well as perform real-time onboard Earth science product generation algorithms for atmospheric methane.

Earth- and Space-based applications for this technology included use on future small satellite missions to study and generate a better understanding of climate change, natural disasters, weather, land use, and ecosystem changes.

SAGE-III:

Continuing with robotic operations within Dragons trunk, the Expedition 50 crew removed the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) instrument payload (IP) on 2 March and installed it onto the EOTP.

This was followed on 3 March by the removal of the SAGE Nadir Viewing Platform (NVP) from Dragon and the subsequent installation into the trunk of the OPALS experiment which will be discarded into Earths atmosphere when Dragon returns to Earth later this month.

The following day, the SSRMS was commanded through a choreographed sequence that involved stowage of Dextre, with SAGE NVP firmly grasped in Dextres Arm 1, on the Power and Data Grapple Fixture 2 (PDGF 2) on the Mobile Base System (MBS) before the SSRMS walked itself from the Node 2 PDGF to the MBS PDGF 1.

The entire Mobile Transporter (MT) was then translated from WS6 (Workstation 6) to WS2.

On 5 March, the SPDM Dextre removed the Robotics Refueling Mission (RRM) payload from ELC4 with Arm 2 before using Arm 1 to place the SAGE NVP experiment on to ELC4.

This was then followed on 7 March by the use of Dextre to remove the SAGE IP from its temporary storage location on EOTP and install the IP onto the SAGE NVP.

SAGE III is a key part of NASAs mission to provide crucial, long-term measurements that will help humans understand and care for Earths atmosphere and is part of NASAs mission to measure the composition of the middle and lower atmosphere.

Specifically, SAGE III will measure Earths ozone layer along with other gases and aerosols by scanning the limb, or thin profile, of Earths atmosphere.

In all, SAGE IIIs role is to provide global, long-term measurements of key components of the Earths atmosphere, the most important of which is the vertical distribution of aerosols and ozone from the upper troposphere through the stratosphere.

SAGE III also provides unique measurements of temperatures in the stratosphere and mesosphere and profiles of trace gases such as water vapor and nitrogen dioxide that play significant roles in atmospheric radiative and chemical processes.

Earth-based benefits of SAGE III include enhancement of our understanding of Earths atmosphere and enabling informed policy decisions regarding climate.

Of particular interest for the various science teams that study Earths ozone layer and the damage that has been inflicted to it by aerosoles is SAGE IIIs ability to confirm just how much progress has been made in reversing ozone layer damage.

Internal experiments:

Impressively, prior to the start of robotics operations to remove the external elements of Dragons payload, the Expedition 50 crew completed the removal of all 1,530 kg (3,373.1 lbs) of internal cargo and supplies within three days of the vehicles arrival at the Station.

As stated by the 27 February 2017 ISS daily summary report, Crew completed unloading the Dragon vehicle on Saturday. Instructions for loading cargo for return will be uplinked to the crew later this week.

Of the 1,530 kg of internal cargo, 732 kg (1,613.8 lbs) comprises science experiments/hardware for 35 separate investigations sponsored by the ISS U.S. National Laboratory project.

Some of these experiments include: the Merck Microgravity Crystallization Projects (CASIS PCG-5), CASIS Stem Cell Mayo, the Effect of Macromolecular Transport On Microgravity PCG (Protein Crystal Growth), NANOBIOSYM Predictive Pathogen Mutation Study, and Rodent Research-4.

The Merck Microgravity Crystallization Projects, a CASSIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) sponsored PCG experiment, aims to gather information on the impact of the microgravity environment on the structure, delivery method, and purification of KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), Mercks anti-PD-1 therapy.

KEYTRUDA is a humanized monoclonal antibody that works by increasing the ability of the bodys immune system to help detect and fight tumor cells.

Meanwhile, the CASIS Stem Cell Mayo will investigate the microgravity environment of the Station to cultivate clinical-grade stem cells for therapeutic applications in humans.

Currently, there is no safe, reliable, and effective method to rapidly grow certain types of human stem cells on Earth for use in the treatment of disease, and this experiments results will help support clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of microgravity-expanded stem cells as well as support subsequent studies for large-scale expansion of clinical-grade stem cells for the treatment of stroke patients.

The Effect of Macromolecular Transport On Microgravity PCG will test the idea that the improved quality of microgravity-grown biological crystals or proteins is the result of a buoyancy free, diffusion-dominated solution environment.

Specifically, the experiment will examine if slower crystal growth rates are due to slower protein transport to the growing crystal surface as well as if the proclivity of growing crystals to incorporate protein monomers versus higher protein aggregates is due to differences in transport rates.

This project seeks to improve the understanding of fluid dynamics and reaction kinetics in microgravity to enhance models of protein crystal growth that will promote utilization of the ISS for drug discovery.

Moreover, the NANOBIOSYM Predictive Pathogen Mutation Study will explore the ability of computational algorithms to predict mutations in the genes of pathogenic bacteria grown in microgravity.

As numerous species of bacteria have evolved resistance to one or more antibiotics used to treat common infections, there is now concern that some bacteria may develop resistance to multiple antibiotics that would make infections by them difficult to eradicate.

Thus, the NANOBIOSYM Predictive Pathogen Mutation Study is a proof-of-concept experiment that will provide data regarding the evolution of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, which will be of significant value to antibiotic drug development.

Lastly, the Rodent Research-4 experiment is part of a broader effort to understand the effects of spaceflight on tissue healing.

Microgravity impairs the wound healing process and has been shown to have negative effects on skin health in astronauts.

Thus, the Rodent Research-4 experiment will attempt to identify the molecular foundations of skin wound healing that are vulnerable to spaceflight-induced stress, potentially unlocking treatment methods for the next generation of wound healing therapies.

Additionally, the experiment could yield new treatment approaches for more than 30% of the patient population that do not respond to current therapeutic options for chronic, non-healing wounds.

Rodent Research-4 will be the first time a comprehensive systems biology approach is used to understand the impact of spaceflight on wound healing.

CRS-10 coming home:

Currently, the Expedition 50 crew is in the process of loading the CRS-10 Dragon with thousands of pounds of now unneeded cargo, supplies, and trash as well as various experiments and hardware that will be returned to Earth for recovery.

Under the current plan, the CRS-10 Dragon will be unberthed from the Station on 19 March, at which point the vehicle will begin a choreographed sequence to dispose of its trunk before reentering the atmosphere for splashdown and recovery in the Pacific Ocean.

Presently, the next resupply mission to the ISS is Orbital ATKS OA-7 Cygnus spacecraft, which has been named for former NASA astronaut and the first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn.

OA-7 is as of Friday, 10 March, now set to launch on 21March aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station within a 30min launch window.

After OA-7, the next resupply flight is slated to be the CRS-11 mission from SpaceX which is currently targeting liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on 9 April.

(Images: NASA, SpaceX, CASIS, JAXA)

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SpaceX science Dragon delivers experiments for busy science period - NASASpaceflight.com

The NASA-Hollywood Bromance – Men’s Journal

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

During preproduction for Ridley Scott's 2015 filmThe Martian, the director ran into an issue: He and his production designer, Arthur Max, realized they had no idea what a human outpost on Mars would actually look like. So Scott made a call to NASA.

I had just come back from the cafeteria when I was asked if I could speak with Ridley," recalls Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, who counts Scott's Alien among his favorite films. I said that I could probably clear my schedule." That afternoon, Green spent roughly an hour on the phone with Scott, discussing things like how artificial gravity works in a spaceship, what a radioisotopic power system looks like, and how ion engines create thrust.

Green was even able to arrange a field trip for Max to the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, where he got a rare look at NASA's prototypes for its Mars habitats and rovers items only a handful of civilians" had ever seen. He must have taken a couple thousand pictures," says Green.

The result was one of the most realistic depictions of a mission to the Red Planet ever constructed, full of ergonomic space suits, massive spaceships, and Mars living pods. It was a laborious undertaking on all sides. For four months during The Martian's production, Green received 30 to 50 questions a week from the crew, with concerns about everything from radiation shielding to the Pathfinder communications system. He dutifully responded. Still, he wasn't able to catch everything. There is a scene where Matt Damon's character watches the sun go down on Mars," says Green. They made it red, but sunsets there are blue [because of fine dust in the air]. I wish I had told them about that."

You could argue that the head of a $1.6 billion division has better things to do than answer endless questions from a movie studio, but NASA's investment in The Martian paid off: In addition to seven Oscar nominations, the film generated priceless publicity for the space program, something the agency believes is crucial to maintaining public interest in its missions, which are sometimes hard to explain or even see. After the movie was completed, Damon even visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory facility in California for a press event alongside real-life astronaut Drew Feustel and other NASA employees.

It was an exciting opportunity to start conversations about our work," says Green.

As you may have noticed, Hollywood has been bingeing on space movies as of late: Gravity, Hidden Figures, and Passengers, among others. February saw the release of The Space Between Us, about a boy born on Mars, and in March, Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Rebecca Ferguson starred in Daniel Espinosa's Life, a sci-fi thriller about a rogue martian life-form. In many of these cases, NASA offered expertise and personnel, even shooting locations, to help bring these films to life. The goal, simply, is to promote the space agency and its next big-picture mission: a manned flight to Mars.

I wouldn't consider what we do propaganda," says Bert Ulrich, NASA's multimedia liaison for film. But we are looking to inspire kids to look to the stars and other planets."

The U.S. government has a long history of leveraging Hollywood for publicity purposes Top Gun, for example, was given free rein to use Navy aircraft carriers and fighter jets but no agency has become so intertwined with Hollywood as NASA. Without Cold War competition to justify its $19 billion annual budget, the space agency has had to stoke the public's fascination (and support) for its missions with increasingly savvy PR gambits: interviews with astronauts from space, kid-friendly science experiments from the International Space Station, and, yes, material support for big-budget thrillers.

As the liaison between NASA and filmmakers, Ulrich has worked on dozens of films, including The Avengers, Hidden Figures, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. During the filming of Tomorrowland at the Kennedy Space Center, Ulrich watched the launch of the Mars maven probe alongside Hugh Laurie and George Clooney, who star in the sci-fi flick. He's currently waiting to see, for approval, a revised script for La La Land director Damien Chazelle's First Man, with Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong. This position didn't exist when I started in 1990," he says.

The first big-budget film that NASA worked on was Ron Howard's Apollo 13, in 1995, about the near-disastrous moon shot. At first the agency was skeptical of how the dramatization would play out, but Howard convinced them with the help of mission commander Jim Lovell, whom Howard had wooed by buying his life rights. It helped a lot to have Jim as our ambassador," says Howard, a two-time Oscar winner. But I also think they saw the value in sharing a story with that kind of heroism."

Among other help, the production was given use of NASA's Boeing KC-135 aircraft, better known as the vomit comet." The plane, used to prepare astronauts for zero gravity, allowed Howard to shoot the weightless scenes with Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton 25 seconds at a time. In total, the production did 612 drops in the plane. The process was grueling but worth it: The movie earned several technical Oscar nominations, and Hanks spent the press tour singing the praises of Lovell and all of NASA.

Their movie and the Mars Pathfinder mission really helped get the program back into the public eye," says Ulrich.

NASA's latest PR win came last year, after director Theodore Melfi was sent Margot Lee Shetterly's book Hidden Figures, the true story of how three African-American mathematicians helped launch John Glenn. Not only did the movie's script have an important civil rights message, but it also harkened back to the agency's golden era.

That one was a complete no-brainer for us," says Ulrich, who connected Melfi with the agency's historian to consult on the script. For a critical scene in a wind tunnel, they filmed at Lockheed Martin, one of NASA's primary contractors. I couldn't have done this movie without NASA," says Melfi. Their crew was integral to every part of the process."

Of course, not every film gets approval. You wont see any official NASA logos in Life, for example, about a martian life-form terrorizing the space-station crew. It is not the kind of story that we wanted to tell," says Ulrich. NASA's general policy is that a film needs to have a NASA story line in it, with clear value to the agency. When the producers of Marvel's The Avengers applied to shoot, they were initially denied. They sent the script, but there was no mention of us," says Ulrich. So the writers went back and drafted a few shiny new scenes. The whole opening sequence ended up about us," says Ulrich.

These days NASA's moon-shot mission is Mars Donald Trump even met with Elon Musk and reportedly talked about a possible flight and that's reflected in the agency's choice of projects. One of the most prominent was Ron Howard's Mars, a National Geographic special combining documentary vignettes with a futuristic story line. They seem to realize better now that the story of space needs exposure," says Howard. Both about what they are working toward for the future and what they have done in the past, like we showed in Apollo 13."

Other movies coming down the pike include the documentary The Mars Generation, Transformers: The Last Knight, and a yet-to-be-titled film produced by J.J. Abrams, about a space station crew that fights for survival all to be released this year. Of course, the project that Ulrich is most looking forward to is about a human civilization extending its reach beyond its home planet, and NASA hopes to have it ready in a decade or two.

NASA is on the journey to Mars," Ulrich says. It may be science fiction today, but it will be science fact tomorrow."

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The NASA-Hollywood Bromance - Men's Journal

NASA’s Jupiter moon mission gets a super-retro name – CNET

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Jupiter's moon Europa beckons a new NASA mission.

NASA has some questions about the potential habitability of Jupiter's fascinating icy moon Europa and it hopes a new mission will help answer them. That mission now has an official name: Europa Clipper.

The name has nothing to do with coupons, but rather references an old-school type of sailing ship. The space agency revealed the formal name on Thursday.

NASA offers up this history lesson: "The moniker harkens back to the clipper ships that sailed across the oceans of Earth in the 19th century. Clipper ships were streamlined, three-masted sailing vessels renowned for their grace and swiftness. These ships rapidly shuttled tea and other goods back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean and around globe."

The Europa Clipper spacecraft will zip past the moon multiple times, gathering data and images as it goes. NASA expects it will engage in at least 40 flybys.

Europa is especially intriguing due to a hidden saltwater ocean below its frozen crust. Scientists have also seen evidence of what may be water vapor plumes erupting from the surface. Researchers are curious if Europa might host the building blocks of life, or even microorganisms.

Europa Clipper is scheduled to sail away into space in the 2020s. It will take several years for it to reach Europa and begin its investigations, but the results should be fascinating.

Tech Enabled: CNET chronicles tech's role in providing new kinds of accessibility.

Special Reports: CNET's in-depth features in one place.

Jaw-dropping Jupiter: NASA's Juno mission eyes the gas giant

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NASA's Jupiter moon mission gets a super-retro name - CNET

NASA Found an Indian Spacecraft Lost Since 2009 – Atlas Obscura

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California. NASA/Public Domain

Ground control to Major Tom: NASA has just rediscovered a lunar satellite that was wandering on an unknown course around the moon, a bit lost in space.

Locating small objects in the vast distances of space is no easy task, even with the most advanced technologies, but as Gizmodo is reporting, scientists at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory have devised a new radar scheme that has allowed them to pinpoint the location of a couple errant satellites.

Both NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Indian Space Research Organizations Chandrayaan-1 (the first lunar craft India ever sent to space) were launched in the late 2000s. Thanks to the moons pockets of irregular gravity, their paths have diverged from their original orbits. NASA is still tracking its orbiter, but the last contact anyone on Earth had with the Indian craft was in 2009.

To locate the two spacecraft, NASA beamed a high-powered microwave at the moon from the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California and caught the signal when it bounced back to Earth with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. This one-two punch was not only able to help track the two orbiters but also demonstrated how this strategy could letNASA track future lunar satellites with greater precision.

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NASA Found an Indian Spacecraft Lost Since 2009 - Atlas Obscura

NASA Releases Images of Saturn’s Ravioli-Shaped Moon Pan – KTLA

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

NASA on Thursday released pictures of Pan, one of Saturns many moons, and its distinctive shape is drawing comparisons to flying saucers and stuffed pasta.

Saturns ravioli-shaped moon Pan is seen in recently released photos. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

The images of the moon come courtesy of NASAs Cassini spacecraft, and reveal the UFO-like form of the tiny satellite, which has an average radius of just 8.8 miles.

Cassinis Twitter account tweeted a gif showing the raw images.

Twitter users quickly chimed in. Should or could be called Wonton or Ravioli but thats amazing!!! one wrote. Sign me up! Ravioli is one of my favorite foods, said another.

One artist even took the time to make a little comic.

According to NASAs website, Pans strange shape comes from what is called an equatorial ridge, a characteristic it shares with one of its sister moons, Atlas.

The ridge has formed over the course of Pans history because it orbits Saturn inside the planets rings, collecting stray particles as it goes, said Preston Dyches, a spokesman for NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Pan is Saturns closest moon, and orbits the planet in just 13.8 hours.

Earlier this year, Cassini sent back images of Tethys, another Saturn moon that has a striking resemblance to the Death Star from Star Wars.

Cassini is a joint effort between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. It was originally launched in June 2008 on a mission to explore the Saturn System.

In September, Cassinis mission will come to an end when it hurtles towards Saturns surface for what NASA is calling the Grand Finale. On its way down, the spacecraft will collect information and data such as the strength of Saturns gravity as well as more pictures of the planets rings.

But for now, it will continue to beam back stunning images of Saturn and space ravioli.

38.907192 -77.036871

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NASA Releases Images of Saturn's Ravioli-Shaped Moon Pan - KTLA

Getting Students Into STEM With Help From NASA – Rhode Island Public Radio

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Select middle school students from across Rhode Island meet with a NASA engineer Saturday as part of NASAs Globe Challenge. The program, a collaboration between NASA and U.S. Department of Education, aims to get lower income and at-risk students interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers.

Ayana Crichton is director of the Rhode Island program, based in Cranston. She says the programs design is key to keeping students engaged.

We just try and focus on real-world application in our program to keep the middle school student interest because theyre the first one to say, 'This is boring, said Crichton.

Crichton says students take the work seriously, knowing they have to submit results to NASA engineers.

The challenge had students studying cloud coverage and its effects on the earths surface temperature. Students conducted their research and experiments for weeks and had opportunities to Skype with actual NASA engineers throughout the process.

It felt like they were working with NASA scientists, right alongside them, said Crichton.

Rhode Island is one of 15 states chosen to participate in the program this year.

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Getting Students Into STEM With Help From NASA - Rhode Island Public Radio

When you can get tickets to visit NASA’s 2017 JPL open house – 89.3 KPCC

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Tickets for the annual "Explore JPL" event at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena will be distributed starting at 9 a.m. Saturday morning. The tickets are free, but will only be availableonlineon a first-come, first-served basis.

The weekend-long event takes place May 20-21. With a ticket, attendees will get an up-close look at JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility, along with the chance to see models of spacecraft and Mars rovers, according to the event's website.

Until last year, the event wasn't ticketed. But, due to its increasing popularity, JPL was forced to limit the number of attendees:

NASA scientists will be around to answer questions and educate guests, Kimberly Lievense, JPL's public services office manager, told KPCC. It's an event the staff looks forward to every year, she said.

"JPL is a NASA facility, and it's difficult to get into NASA facilities just because it's a working environment not like Disneyland," she said. "It's an opportunity to see things [the public] wouldn't normally get to see."

Each day of the event has 18,000 tickets available, all of which will probably sell out in less than hour, Lievense said.

The maximum number of tickets per visitor is five. Children under 2 don't require a ticket. Guests must have a ticket in hand, plus they need to bring a matching ID if they're 18 years old or older. The tickets can't be sold, according to the event's website.

The facility has held public open houses for decades. In addition to the "Explore JPL" event each year, the facility hosts public lectures and weekday tours that draw tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world, according to its website.

The JPL Public Services Office also offers tours free of charge for groups and individuals on a limited reservation basis. Visitor parking is also available free of charge, according to JPL's website.

JPL is a federally funded research and development facility, carrying out robotic space and Earth science missions, according to its website.

With contributions from Matt Bloom

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When you can get tickets to visit NASA's 2017 JPL open house - 89.3 KPCC

NASA’s aerial survey of polar ice expands its Arctic reach – Science Daily

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Science Daily

NASA's aerial survey of polar ice expands its Arctic reach
Science Daily
"This is IceBridge's ninth year in the Arctic and we're expecting this to be one of our most extensive campaigns to date," said Nathan Kurtz, Operation IceBridge's project scientist and a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in ...

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NASA's aerial survey of polar ice expands its Arctic reach - Science Daily

Stretchy electrode paves way for flexible electronics | Stanford News – Stanford University News

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

The brain is soft and electronics are stiff, which can make combining the two challenging, such as when neuroscientists implant electrodes to measure brain activity and perhaps deliver tiny jolts of electricity for pain relief or other purposes.

Go to the web site to view the video.

Courtesy Bao Research Group

A robotic test instrument stretches over a curved surface a nearly transparent, flexible electrode based on a special plastic developed in the lab of Stanford chemical engineer Zhenan Bao.

Chemical engineer Zhenan Bao is trying to change that. For more than a decade, her lab has been working to make electronics soft and flexible so that they feel and operate almost like a second skin. Along the way, the team has started to focus on making brittle plastics that can conduct electricity more elastic.

Now in Science Advances, Baos team describes how they took one such brittle plastic and modified it chemically to make it as bendable as a rubber band, while slightly enhancing its electrical conductivity. The result is a soft, flexible electrode that is compatible with our supple and sensitive nerves.

This flexible electrode opens up many new, exciting possibilities down the road for brain interfaces and other implantable electronics, said Bao, a professor of chemical engineering. Here, we have a new material with uncompromised electrical performance and high stretchability.

The material is still a laboratory prototype, but the team hopes to develop it as part of their long-term focus on creating flexible materials that interface with the human body.

Electrodes are fundamental to electronics. Conducting electricity, these wires carry back and forth signals that allow different components in a device to work together. In our brains, special thread-like fibers called axons play a similar role, transmitting electric impulses between neurons. Baos stretchable plastic is designed to make a more seamless connection between the stiff world of electronics and the flexible organic electrodes in our bodies.

A printed electrode pattern of the new polymer being stretched to several times of its original length (top), and a transparent, highly stretchy electronic skin patch forming an intimate interface with the human skin to potentially measure various biomarkers (bottom). (Image credit: Bao Lab)

One thing about the human brain that a lot of people dont know is that it changes volume throughout the day, says postdoctoral research fellow Yue Wang, the first author on the paper. It swells and deswells. The current generation of electronic implants cant stretch and contract with the brain and make it complicated to maintain a good connection.

If we have an electrode with a similar softness as the brain, it will form a better interface, said Wang.

To create this flexible electrode, the researchers began with a plastic that had two essential qualities: high conductivity and biocompatibility, meaning that it could be safely brought into contact with the human body. But this plastic had a shortcoming: It was very brittle. Stretching it even 5 percent would break it.

As Bao and her team sought to preserve conductivity while adding flexibility, they worked with scientists at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to use a special type of X-ray to study this material at the molecular level. All plastics are polymers; that is, chains of molecules strung together like beads. The plastic in this experiment was actually made up of two different polymers that were tightly wound together. One was the electrical conductor. The other polymer was essential to the process of making the plastic. When these two polymers combined they created a plastic that was like a string of brittle, sphere-like structures. It was conductive, but not flexible.

The researchers hypothesized that if they could find the right molecular additive to separate these two tightly wound polymers, they could prevent this crystallization and give the plastic more stretch. But they had to be careful adding material to a conductor usually weakens its ability to transmit electrical signals.

After testing more than 20 different molecular additives, they finally found one that did the trick. It was a molecule similar to the sort of additives used to thicken soups in industrial kitchens. This additive transformed the plastics chunky and brittle molecular structure into a fishnet pattern with holes in the strands to allow the material to stretch and deform. When they tested their new materials elasticity, they were delighted to find that it became slightly more conductive when stretched to twice its original length. The plastic remained very conductive even when stretched 800 percent its original length.

We thought that if we add insulating material, we would get really poor conductivity, especially when we added so much, said Bao. But thanks to their precise understanding of how to tune the molecular assembly, the researchers got the best of both worlds: the highest possible conductivity for the plastic while at the same transforming it into a very robust and stretchy substance.

By understanding the interaction at the molecular level, we can develop electronics that are soft and stretchy like skin, while remaining conductive, Wang says.

Other authors include postdoctoral fellows Chenxin Zhu, Francisco Molina-Lopez, Franziska Lissel and Jia Liu; graduate students Shucheng Chen and Noelle I. Rabiah; Hongping Yan and Michael F. Toney, staff scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Christian Linder, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering who is also a member of Stanford Bio-X and of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute; Boris Murmann, a professor of electrical engineering and a member of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute; Lihua Jin, now an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles; Zheng Chen, now an assistant professor of nano engineering at the University of California, San Diego; and colleagues from the Materials Science Institute of Barcelona, Spain, and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.

This work was funded by Samsung Electronics and the Air Force Office of Science Research.

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Stretchy electrode paves way for flexible electronics | Stanford News - Stanford University News

UAE students launch first nano satellite into space – Arab News

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) and the American University of Sharjah (AUS) have announced the successful launch of Nayif-1, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) first nano satellite launched into space. Nayif-1 takes on added importance as an educational project with the goal of providing hands-on experience to Emirati engineering students on designing, building, testing and operating nano satellites. The launch was a step toward the implementing of the Mars 2117 Project. The Nayif-1s mission aims to send and receive text messages on amateur radio frequencies. The project objectives include characterizing and validating the accuracy of a thermal model of Nayif-1 with in-situ temperature measurements in space, as well as determining the evolution of the solar cells performance in space. The nano satellite was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Center in India. The ground station, located at the AUS, received the first signal from Nayif-1, 18 minutes and 32 seconds after it reached its orbit. A team of engineers and students were present at the ground station during launch. Nayif-1 will be operated and controlled from the ground station at AUS moving forward. Speaking on this occasion, Bjorn Kjerfve, chancellor of the AUS, said: The AUS is an institution dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in academia and research. The successful launch of Nayif-1 is a reflection of that vision and a proud moment for the AUS, considering the important part played in its development by seven Emirati students from the AUS. The nano satellite will be monitored by the ground station based at AUS. We are very pleased to have developed this project with MBRSC and look forward to future collaborations that will advance the skills and knowledge of AUS Emirati engineers in space technologies. Kjerfve said: We are proud of our students role in the development of the satellite and their participation in completing all the phases of the space program. This is a living example of our strategy to move toward a knowledge-based economy, to promote innovation in the region, and serve the post-oil needs of the GCC countries. Commenting on the launch, Fatma Lootah, deputy project manager of Nayif-1, said: Through the ground station at the AUS, we will continue to monitor the satellite to understand how it responds to commands in the daytime and in the evening; however it will be shifted later on to the autonomous mode. We will also verify the active control system board in Nayif-1, which determines the satellites direction and maintains its balance.

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UAE students launch first nano satellite into space - Arab News

Precision Medicine Project Mulls How to Return Genetic Test Results to 1M Participants – GenomeWeb

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) Before the National Institutes of Health can begin to genetically test participants within its precision medicine initiative, it will have to figure out what results to return, how to minimize reporting false positives, and how to provide counseling to help them navigate the often uncertain and evolving evidence on genetic information.

And the project will have to figure out how to do all this on an unprecedented scale, for a million participants that the All of Us Research Program hopes to enroll over the next four years.

A trial upgrade to GenomeWeb Premium gives you full site access, interest-based email alerts, access to archives, and more. Never miss another important industry story.

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Precision Medicine Project Mulls How to Return Genetic Test Results to 1M Participants - GenomeWeb

Forgetting to Upload Your Disavow File – Business 2 Community

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Danzig

Uh oh. Of all the mistakes to make when moving your site from insecure HTTP to totally safe HTTPS, forgetting to upload your disavow file is one of the biggest.

Whys that, exactly? Well, if you forget to upload your disavow file to the new HTTPS site, all those bad links you already disavowed will transfer over. Youre basically taking all the hard work you put in and flushing it down the drain. All because of one teensy little file.

We at SEO Inc. have inspected hundreds, if not thousands of backlink profiles over the years. Weve seen mistakes for just about every problem under the sun. But what is it about the disavow file that makes it so easy to get lost in the HTTP-to-HTTPS shuffle?

Join us in taking a long, hard look at why the disavow file is so often overlooked, and why overlooking it is so darn irresponsible.

Forgetting to upload your disavow file is astounding to us because of how important it is to your websites success.

Your disavow file is a critical part of link detox. Detoxifying your link profile rids your site of unwanted links spammy, artificial, or low quality. Its a painstaking process, and one we have performed hundreds of times, removing 21 manual penalties and countless algorithmic penalties. Clients who have benefited from our link detox services have seen their rankings return.

Ultimately, thats what a link detox is designed to do: restore your rankings. Think about it you get a bunch of crummy links pointing at your site, and Google slaps you with a penalty. Obviously, you dont want your site to be associated with a bunch of spam, so you start thinking about disavowing them.

(Warning!! Indiscriminately disavowing links without doing the full required work could be damaging to your site! Make absolutely certain youre disavowing the worst illegitimate links. In a worst case scenario, contact a professional.)

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But if you dont add your disavow file to your shiny new HTTPS site in Google Search Console, there is no layer of protection between you and all those crummy links you had already disavowed. All of the linking signals, both good and bad, will eventually transfer over to the HTTPS site.

When you forget to upload your disavow file, youre making a lot more work for yourself during a site move by having to find your most recent disavow file and import it to the new property. But whats even worse is that all those toxic links are now pointing to your new site.

So, yeah forgetting to upload your disavow file is a big deal.

The next question we need to answer is: why does it happen? How do we keep making such a gigantic mistake?

Too much on your mind thats what it all comes down to. When moving from HTTP to HTTPS, you have to juggle many different tasks to make the transition smooth, and lets face it the disavow area in Google Search Console isnt the most accessible section.

Google offers a thorough guide on how to prepare your new site for a move, but wed like to share some specific mistakes weve seen that have led to some bumpy website moves.

Preserving your links is a high priority when moving your site to HTTPS. If you neglect this, you could end up with a bunch of broken links that will not only frustrate users but will sever valuable sources of precious link juice. 301 redirects ensure that your old links send users (and search engines) toward the right places.

Heres how to use 301 redirects in the best way for SEO.

Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools a webmaster can wield. But if you dont update it for your HTTPS property, youll miss out on all the data for your new site. When ROI is on the line, thats a mistake you cant afford to make.

Old links pointing to the HTTP page that are then redirected to the HTTPS version will lose some link juice or pagerank. Make sure to link to the correct versions.

The irony is that all the things weve mentioned above are usually kept front-of-mind over the disavow file. Is it any wonder that, with so many critical pieces to include, something even as important as the disavow file gets forgotten?

To help you out, here are a few reminders when moving your site over.

Our advice: Know your domains. Big blogging sites like WordPress and Blogspot that link back to you should be judged on a page-by-page or subdomain basis. Dive into the links you find and see if the sites actually link back to you legitimately or if they deserve to get disavowed.

Mistakes happen. Theyre unavoidable especially when youre attempting a huge, multi-step process like moving a site from HTTP to HTTPS. But failing to upload your disavow fail should not be one of them. Not anymore. Theres simply too much at stake to forget.

Add a reminder to your smartphone calendar. Write DISAVOW FILE on a sticky note and slap it onto your monitor. Heck, print up this blog post and read it every day. Do whatever it takes to remember, so long as you remember.

Just do not forget to upload your disavow file. When your new HTTPS site is flourishing with nothing but healthy, carefully curated links, youll thank us later.

John Caiozzo is a SEO, PPC, and WordPress expert based in Carlsbad, CA. John provides companies with custom tailored digital marketing strategies to drive more traffic and conversions to their websites. When he's not working or blogging about internet marketing you can find him hiking, biking, and skiing in Southern Viewfullprofile