Space fanatic Sir Trevor Beattie: 'I'm keeping my Virgin Galactic ticket'

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Birmingham businessman Sir Trevor Beattie has pledged that he will still take part in the Virgin Galactic space flight even after the tragic crash.

The entrepreneur, who was born in the city, took to social media site Twitter to pledge his support for the project.

Sir Trevor, who paid 100,000 to be one of the first to travel to space with Sir Richard Bransons company is undaunted by the horrific test flight explosion, which left one pilot dead and one seriously injured.

He said: For the record, I will not be cancelling my @virgingalactic ticket. Not now. Not ever.

A massive investigation is taking place following the crash, and officials said the inquiry could last more than a year.

Christopher Hart, who is spearheading the National Transportation Safety Boards (NTSB) investigation, said the recovery mission was still under way, with small parts of the SpaceShipTwo found 35 miles from the crash site.

Co-pilot Michael Alsbury, 39, died when the aircraft crashed in the Mojave Desert in California on Friday, while surviving pilot Peter Siebold, 43, was said to be alert and speaking with family members and medical staff in hospital.

In the wake of the incident Trevor also said: Sweet dreams and flying machines. In pieces on the ground. Broken hearted.

Sir Trevor has also highlighted a fund being raised in aid of Mike Alsbury, the pilot killed in the crash.

Virgin Galactic owned by Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi plans to fly passengers to altitudes more than 62 miles (100km) above Earth.

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Space fanatic Sir Trevor Beattie: 'I'm keeping my Virgin Galactic ticket'

NJMP Thunderbolt with NASA – Oct 24, 2014 (Scion FR-S / Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ) – Video

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NJMP Thunderbolt with NASA - Oct 24, 2014 (Scion FR-S / Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ)
Final session on Oct, 24 with NASA Group 3. Despite somewhat slower laps in the beginning due to traffic, drove a few hot laps towards the end of the session.

By: Hachi-Roku

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NJMP Thunderbolt with NASA - Oct 24, 2014 (Scion FR-S / Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ) - Video

NASA snaps photos of the eye of Super Typhoon Nuri

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On Nov. 1, NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image (left) of Super Typhoon Nuri. Two days later, on Nov. 3, the storm had developed an eye (right). NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 3, NASA's Aqua satellite snapped photos from space as the tropical cyclone Nuri turned into a Super Typhoon and developed an eye near Okinawa, Japan.

When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite took a picture of Super Typhoon Nuri on Nov. 1 at 12:30 a.m. EDT (shown above on the left), the storm had not yet developed an eye. But when the instrument passed over Nuri again on Nov. 3 at 12:20 a.m. EDT, the eye of the storm could clearly be seen (shown above on the right).

22 Photos

Photographer captures the drama and beauty of supercell storm clouds

Later Monday morning, Nuri's maximum sustained winds reached 178.4 mph, which turned it into a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale -- a 1-5 rating system based on a hurricane's sustained wind speed. It has since been downgraded to a Category 4.

The typhoon was centered about 591.5 miles southeast of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, traveling northeast. The storm is currently expected to pass west of Iwo Jima on Nov. 5.

The storm was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones of 2014. It is forecasted to stay southeast of the Japanese mainland, but could send high waves to the small islands due south of Tokyo on Thursday.

2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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NASA Installs Giant Composite Material Research Robot

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November 5, 2014

Image Credit: NASA/David C. Bowman

Provided by Kathy Barnstorff, NASA Langley Research Center

It looks like something out of a Transformers movie a huge robotic arm that moves and spins to pick up massive heads filled with spools of carbon fibers, then moves in preprogrammed patterns to deposit those fibers onto a 40-foot long bed. But instead of transforming from machine to Autobot, it can transform epoxy and fibers into aerospace structures and parts.

NASAs Langley Research Center is in the process of setting up this advanced composite research capability that engineers are calling ISAAC for Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites. Just to get ISAAC to the Hampton, Virginia facility was a challenge financially and physically.

We have worked for two years to obtain this precise robotic technology. But we proposed the idea more than six years ago, said structural mechanics engineer Chauncey Wu. It will really make a difference in our ability to understand composite materials and processes for use in aviation and space vehicles.

Funding was one stumbling block. But Wu and his ISAAC project teammates Brian Stewart and Robert Martin were able to convince NASA Langley to provide about $1.4 million, the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to kick in $1.1 million, and the Space Technology Mission Directorate and NASA Langleys Space Technology and Exploration Directorate contribute a combined $200,000 to the multi-million dollar system cost.

The other challenge was the actual physical move of the ISAAC system. The system is only one of three in the world manufactured by Electroimpact, Inc., headquartered in Mukilteo, Washington. The other two are used for bulk manufacturing of composites, not for research as NASA intends.

Two 53-foot long covered flatbed trucks made the trek all the way across country to bring the robot to NASA Langley in Hampton, Virginia. The trucks arrived at the crack of dawn, before most employees, because they were so large. Waiting for them was ISAACs new home a big empty space in NASA Langleys Advanced Manufacturing and Flight Test Articles Development Laboratory.

The robot is known for its precision work, but the choreography to place it inside the building had to be just as exact.

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NASA Installs Giant Composite Material Research Robot

NASA Langley Tech Transfer: Power Technology for High-altitude Airships

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TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY POWER TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGH-ALTITUDE AIRSHIPS: LAR-17213 Synopsis - Oct 15, 2014 General Information Solicitation Number: TT01091 Posted Date: Oct 15, 2014 FedBizOpps Posted Date: Oct 15, 2014 Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No Original Response Date: Sep 29, 2015 Current Response Date: Sep 29, 2015 Classification Code: 99 -- Miscellaneous NAICS Code: 927110 Set-Aside Code: Contracting Office Address NASA/Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 12, Industry Assistance Office, Hampton, VA 23681-0001 Description NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses. THE TECHNOLOGY: Scientists at NASA Langley Research Center have developed a unique concept for providing electrical power to high-altitude airships (HAA). These airships are intended to remain aloft at high altitudes for extended periods of time for various potential scientific, commercial, and defense uses. Powering HAA presents a challenge due to the extended periods between possible refueling and the weight restrictions of these lighter-than-air airships. The advanced thermoelectric materials developed by NASA offer distinct weight and performance advantages over conventional photovoltaic systems, and convert the energy from solar radiation in the form of heat directly into electricity. The NASA approach combines the high-performance thermal energy harvesting capabilities of advanced thermoelectric materials with a novel elliptical airship cross-section to maximize solar gain. To express interest in this opportunity, please respond to LaRC-PatentLicensing@mail.nasa.gov with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this FBO notice and your preferred contact information. Please also provide the nature of your interest in the technology along with a brief background of your company. For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at http://technology.nasa.gov/ . These responses are provided to members of NASA Langleys Office of Strategic Analysis and Business Development OSACB for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. If direct licensing interest results from this posting, OSACB will follow the required formal licensing process of posting in the Federal Register. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice. Point of Contact Name:Jesse C Midgett Title:Program Specialist Phone:757-864-3936 Fax:757-864-8314 Email:j.midgett@nasa.gov

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Death Ray 'Spasers' Kill Cancer

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Encircling tumors with a phalanx of miniature lasers could offer a new way to battle cancer, a team of Australian researchers is proposing.

Technically, the proposed device isnt really a laser at all, but a spaser, with surface plasmons rather than light undergoing amplification.

Plasmons are oscillations in electron density created in the surface of a small metal object when photons strike it. Its possible to design a device so that the plasmons feed back on themselves, amplifying in much the same way photons bouncing around a laser cavity stimulate the emission of other photons, creating laser light.

The spaser is basically the same as a laser, says Chanaka Rupasinghe, a postgraduate student in electrical and computer engineering at Monash University near Melbourne, Australia. He and his professor, Malin Premaratne, presented their idea in a paper at the recent IEEE Photonics Conference, in Los Angeles.

Spasers have been built of gold nanoparticles surrounded by a silica shell and from cadmium sulfide nanowires on a silver substrate. Earlier this year, Rupasinghe and Premaratne proposed a different design, using graphene and carbon nanotubes.

In their setup, a carbon nanotube would absorb the energy from a separate laser source and transfer it to the surface plasmons of a nearby nanoflake of graphene, creating the spaser effect. Pumping the spaser with 1200-nanometer light would cause it to output light at 1700 nm, Rupasinghe says. They argued their spaser would be mechanically strong but flexible, chemically and thermally stable, and compatible with biomedical applications.

Once they had their design, their next idea was to use it to replace some of the nanoparticles already being explored as cancer treatments that are being designed to deliver drugs directly to tumors. The nanotubes and graphene flakes could have antibodies or ligands attached to them that would draw them to the tumor. Once at the tumor, theyd self-assemble into an array of spasers.

You surround cancer cells with very tiny lasers, instead of nanoparticles, Rupasinghe says.

An external laser producing light between 1000 and 1350 nm could penetrate several centimeters of human tissue and act as a power source for the spaser array. The spasers would then deliver a concentrated blast of heat to the cancer cells. At the same time, Rupasinghe says, the nanotubes could be designed to carry drugs to their target, hitting the tumor with a one-two punch.

No one has yet built the graphene-nanotube spasers, let alone started the long process to see whether theyd make a safe and effective cancer treatment. Our team is basically a theoretical and modelling group, Rupasinghe says. But his hope is that this idea may someday provide another weapon in the anti-tumor arsenal.

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Death Ray 'Spasers' Kill Cancer

Take a Nano Pill and Call Google in the Morning?

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Google is in the early stages of developing a nanoparticle-covered pill to detect cancer and other serious health problems such as heart disease, according to Andrew Conrad, head of the life sciences team at Google X, who revealed the project last week at The Wall Street Journal's WSJDLive conference.

The pill would work in tandem with a wearable magnetic device worn by the patient; the device would guide the pill to different parts of the body and collect data that could reveal the person's potential for developing a variety of health problems.

"The idea is to functionalize these nanoparticles to make them do what we want," Conrad said.

There's considerable interest in the project, although it's in the early stages, with a time line of five years or more.

"Using metal nanoparticles for detecting tumor cells is an intriguing innovation," said Victoria Richards, associate professor of medical sciences at Quinnipiac University's Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine.

"It would be an advantage over invasive methods or less specific means of diagnostics," she told TechNewsWorld.

"Since specific ligands can be added to the surface of these magnetic -- or optical -- particles, specific cells can be targeted," Richards explained, including cancer cells, cancer-related biomarkers and lesions on organs.

From the patient's perspective, such a pill could lead to a radical change -- for the better -- from the current methods available, said Edward R. Flynn, chief scientific officer at Senior Scientific.

Finding and treating cancer possibly could be done without the use of radiation, for example.

"It would be done internally, with a pill, and without the use of invasive and expensive medical instruments," Flynn told TechNewsWorld.

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Entering the Nano Era

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6 hours ago

Modern hard drives only require an area of a few square nanometers for each bit of information. To protect ourselves from sunburn we use sunscreens that contain nanoparticles of titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. Is this the beginning of the nano era? Younan Xia (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) pursues this question in his editorial in the most recent edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie, which is dedicated to the topic of nanoscience (free to access until the end of 2014).

"Before 'nano' became a buzzword, people had already used nanomaterials for many decades, if not centuries," says Xia. "Take for example catalytic converters, which were commercialized in the 1970s." Our cells also contain nanoscale structures, such as those used for the production of proteins or to generate energy. These have long been the subjects of intensive research. "Nano" is thus not new at all. However, there remains much to discover, to investigate and to carry over into new areas of application.

"The quantum effect is probably the most exciting gift from the nanoworld," states Xia. "For example, nanoparticles of the same solid material (so-called quantum dots) give off light of different colors depending on particle size." This and other phenomena could be used for future electronic or photonic components. On the other hand, some applications benefit when properties remain the same as particles get smaller: although the dimensions of a transistor have shrunk from a few hundred micrometers to 22 nanometers over the last fifty years, they still operate on the same physical principles.

Nanomedicine allows for highly specific diagnosis and treatment on the molecular level. Highly efficient cancer drugs should be able to overcome barriers, recognize malignant cells, and selectively attack them. Says Xia, "A large number of drug delivery systems have been approved for cancer therapy in clinics." A complex field like nanomedicine requires interdisciplinary teams drawn from chemistry, physics, engineering, biology, genetics, proteomics, radiology, oncology, and public health. One of the biggest challenges is to draw these different people together for true collaboration.

Many nanomaterials have a long way to go to move from the lab to industrial application, because the production of precisely defined nanoparticles on an industrial scale is extremely difficult. In this area, microfluidics technology is turning out to be a highly promising alternative for scalable, reliable, and cost-effective production.

This special edition of Angewandte Chemie includes review articles by leading experts, providing an overview of the latest developments and issues: Harald Krug takes up the theme "Nanosafety Research Are We on the Right Track", Jens Rieger and his co-workers present "Formation of Nanoparticles and Nanostructures An Industrial Perspective on CaCO3, Cement, and Polymers", Reinhard Niessner discusses "The Many Faces of Soot: Characterization of Engine-released Soot Nanoparticles", and Frank von der Kammer and his co-workers offer "Spot the Difference: Engineered and Natural Nanoparticles in the Environment Release, Behavior, and Fate". Xia and his co-workers contribute "Engineered Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy".

"From electronics to photonics, information storage, communication, catalysis, energy, medicine, homeland security environment protection, cosmetics, and even building construction, every one of them could benefit from nanomaterials," concludes Xia. "Only when this relatively new and still seemingly bizarre realm of nano is able to make a positive and long-lasting impact on every aspect of our society, can we finally declare the arrival of the nano era."

Explore further: Nanosafety research: The quest for the gold standard

More information: "Editorial: Are We Entering the Nano Era?" Angewandte Chemie International Edition Volume 53, Issue 46, pages 1226812271, November 10, 2014. dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201406740

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Measuring nano-vibrations

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1 hour ago Mechanical resonator based on a carbon nanotube. The nanotube is suspended and clamped at the two anchor points, shown by the arrows. The nanotube vibrates as a guitar string. Credit: ICFO

In a recent paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, Joel Moser and ICFO colleagues of the NanoOptoMechanics research group led by Prof. Adrian Bachtold, together with Marc Dykman (Michigan University), report on an experiment in which a carbon nanotube mechanical resonator exhibits quality factors of up to 5 million, 30 times better than the best quality factors measured in nanotubes to date.

Imagine that the host of a dinner party tries to get his guests' attention by giving a single tap of his oyster spoon on his crystal glass. Now, imagine, to the amazement of all, that the crystal glass vibrates for several long minutes, producing a clear ringing sound. Surely the guests would marvel at this almost never ending crystal tone. Some might even want to investigate the origin of this phenomenon rather than listen to the host's speech.

The secret of such an imaginary non-stop vibrating system relies on the fact that it dissipates very little energy. The energy dissipation of a vibrating system is quantified by the quality factor. In laboratories, by knowing the quality factor, scientists can quantify how long the system can vibrate and how much energy is lost in the process. This allows them to determine how precise the resonator can be at measuring or sensing objects.

Scientists use mechanical resonators to study all sorts of physical phenomena. Nowadays, carbon nanotube mechanical resonators are in demand because of their extremely small size and their outstanding capability of sensing objects at the nanoscale. Though they are very good mass and force sensors, their quality factors have been somewhat modest. However, the discovery made by the ICFO researchers is a major advancement in the field of nano mechanics and an exciting starting point for future innovative technologies.

What is a Mechanical Resonator?

A mechanical resonator is a system that vibrates at very precise frequencies. Like a guitar string or a tightrope, a carbon nanotube resonator consists of a tiny, vibrating bridge-like (string) structure with typical dimensions of 1m in length and 1nm in diameter. If the quality factor of the resonator is high, the string will vibrate at a very precise frequency, thus enabling these systems to become appealing mass and force sensors, and exciting quantum systems.

Why is This Discovery so Important?

For many years, researchers observed that quality factors decreased with the volume of the resonator, that is the smaller the resonator the lower the quality factor, and because of this trend it was unthinkable that nanotubes could exhibit giant quality factors.

The giant quality factors that ICFO researchers have measured have not been observed before in nanotube resonators mainly because their vibrational states are extremely fragile and easily perturbed when measured. The values detected by the team of scientists was achieved through the use of an ultra-clean nanotube at cryostat temperatures of 30mK (-273.12 Celsius- colder than the temperature of outerspace!) and by employing an ultra-low noise method to detect minuscule vibrations quickly while reducing as much as possible the electrostatic noise.

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Measuring nano-vibrations