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Private SpaceX Cargo Ship Launching 'New Era' for Space Station Today

Posted: October 7, 2012 at 10:20 pm

This story was updated at 5 p.m. ET.

An unmanned private spacecraft all set to launch the first commercial delivery to the International Space Station tonight (Oct. 7), marking a major shift in how NASA sends supplies and gear to the orbiting lab.

The gumdrop-shaped Dragon space capsule built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX is poised to blast off from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to begin a three-day voyage to the space station. SpaceX raised the Falcon 9 rocket that will boost the Dragon capsule spaceward into launch position this afternoon. Liftoff is set for 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 Monday GMT) and the weather forecast looks favorable for launch, NASA officials said.

"Tomorrow's SpaceX launch begins a new era for spaceflight and the International Space Station," Sam Scimemi, NASA's space station director, said in a briefing Saturday (Oct. 6). "These flights are critical to the space station's sustainment and to help begin its full utilization."

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will launch nearly 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms) of cargo for astronauts living on the space station. The crew plans to welcome the spacecraft on Wednesday (Oct. 10) by grappling it with a robotic arm and attaching it to the station.

The mission is the first of at least 12 cargo runs for NASA that SpaceX will perform under a $1.6 billion deal to deliver 20 metric tons of supplies to the station for the U.S. space agency. [SpaceX's Dragon Poised to Sunday Launch (Photos)]

SpaceX is also working to upgrade the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rockets to launch seven-astronaut crews into orbit. The spacecraft was designed from the start to enable future crewed flights, according to SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who founded the company in 2002.

With NASA's space shuttle fleet retired, the space agency is depending on commercial spacecraft like SpaceX's Dragon capsules to ferry cargo and eventually astronauts into and from low-Earth orbit. The agency is outsourcing those services to commercial companies while developing its own new rocket and spacecraft for deep-space exploration.

What goes up can come down

SpaceX is one of two companies with contracts to provide cargo shipments to the space station for NASA. The other firm, the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., has a $1.9 billion deal for station resupply flights using its new Antares rocket and unmanned Cygnus spacecraft. Of the two companies, only SpaceX's Dragon is capable of returning cargo to Earth for retrieval.

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Private SpaceX Cargo Ship Launching 'New Era' for Space Station Today

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SpaceX set to launch with cargo for International Space Station

Posted: at 10:20 pm

The first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center Sunday evening.From the space station crew's standpoint, some of the most precious cargo could well be ice cream.

The first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Sunday evening kicking off a series of at least 12 resupply missions NASA has ordered up under a $1.6-billion contract with Space Exploration Technologies, based in Hawthorne, Calif.

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The mission, utilizing SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket topped with the company's cargo-carrying Dragon capsule, follows on the heels of a successful test flight to the space station in May.

During that mission, Dragon delivered just over 1,000 pounds of cargo that NASA officials said wouldn't represent a significant set-back for the space-station program if something went wrong during the mission. This time, Dragon is carrying 882 pounds (nearly a ton when packaging is included) of more-precious cargo: experiments and hardware for the US, European, and Japanese laboratories; additional components needed to maintain the station; and crew supplies.

IN PICTURES: Launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket

From the space station crew's standpoint, some of the most precious of all the cargo could well be ice cream Dragon is bringing up not the freeze-dried kind, but real ice cream, kept in a new lab freezer Dragon will deliver. It's part of a shipment of "bonus food" the space agency periodically sends. The freezer is designed to preserve samples from biology and life-science experiments running on the station for return to Earth.

Indeed, Dragon's ability to return cargo to Earth is unique among the unmanned cargo craft the station's international partners provide. NASA's space shuttles were the only other vehicles able to do this. But NASA flew its final shuttle mission in July 2011, and the orbiters now are museum pieces.

All of the other cargo craft operating, as well as the capsule a second US company is building to supply commercial cargo service for NASA, become trash incinerators once they leave the station. They and the refuse they carry burn up on reentry.

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California initiative to test appetite for 'genetically engineered' food

Posted: at 10:20 pm

The Associated Press Published Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012 10:03AM EDT

LOS ANGELES -- Calories. Nutrients. Serving size. How about "produced with genetic engineering?"

California voters will soon decide whether to require certain raw and processed foods to carry such a label.

In a closely watched test of consumers' appetite for genetically modified foods, the special label is being pushed by organic farmers and advocates who are concerned about what people eat even though the federal government and many scientists contend such foods are safe.

More than just food packaging is at stake. The outcome could reverberate through American agriculture, which has long tinkered with the genes of plants to reduce disease, ward off insects and boost the food supply.

International food and chemical conglomerates, including Monsanto Co. and DuPont Co., have contributed about $35 million to defeat Proposition 37 on the November ballot. It also would ban labeling or advertising genetically altered food as "natural." Its supporters have raised just about one-tenth of that amount.

If voters approve the initiative, California would become the first state to require disclosure of a broad range of foods containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Food makers would have to add a label or reformulate their products to avoid it. Supermarkets would be charged with making sure their shelves are stocked with correctly labeled items.

Genetically altered plants grown from seeds engineered in the laboratory have been a mainstay for more than a decade. Much of the corn, soybean, sugar beets and cotton cultivated in the United States today have been tweaked to resist pesticides or insects. Most of the biotech crops are used for animal feed or as ingredients in processed foods including cookies, cereal, potato chips and salad dressing.

Proponents say explicit labeling gives consumers information about how a product is made and allows them to decide whether to choose foods with genetically modified ingredients.

"They're fed up. They want to know what's in their food," said Stacy Malkan, spokeswoman for the California Right to Know campaign.

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Genetic labelling mooted in California

Posted: at 10:20 pm

By Alicia Chang

Calories. Nutrients. Serving size. How about "produced with genetic engineering"?

California voters will soon decide whether to require certain raw and processed foods to carry such a label.

In a closely watched test of consumers' appetite for genetically modified foods, the special label is being pushed by organic farmers and advocates who are concerned about what people eat even though the federal government and many scientists contend such foods are safe.

More than just food packaging is at stake. The outcome could reverberate through American agriculture, which has long tinkered with the genes of plants to reduce disease, ward off insects and boost the food supply.

International food and chemical conglomerates, including Monsanto and DuPont, have contributed about US$35 million to defeat Proposition 37 on the November ballot. It also would ban labelling or advertising genetically altered food as "natural". Its supporters have raised just about one-tenth of that amount.

If voters approve the initiative, California would become the first state to require disclosure of a broad range of foods containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Food makers would have to add a label or reformulate their products to avoid it. Supermarkets would be charged with making sure their shelves are stocked with correctly labelled items.

Genetically altered plants grown from seeds engineered in the laboratory have been a mainstay for more than a decade. Much of the corn, soybean, sugar beets and cotton cultivated in the United States today have been tweaked to resist pesticides or insects. Most of the biotech crops are used for animal feed or as ingredients in processed foods including cookies, cereal, potato chips and salad dressing.

Proponents say explicit labelling gives consumers information about how a product is made and allows them to decide whether to choose foods with genetically modified ingredients.

"They're fed up. They want to know what's in their food," said Stacy Malkan, spokeswoman for the California Right to Know campaign.

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Genetic labelling mooted in California

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Genome-wide study identifies eight new susceptibility loci for atopic dermatitis

Posted: at 10:19 pm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2012) Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) and their colleagues have identified 8 new loci associated with susceptibility to atopic dermatitis in the Japanese population. The findings, which appear in the journal Nature Genetics, advance our understanding of the genetic basis of the skin disorder, which affects millions of children and adults around the world.

Atopic dermatitis (often called ecszema) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin condition affecting as much as one-fifth of children and 1-3% of adults in industrialized countries. Those with the condition have skin that reacts easily to the environment and becomes flaky and itchy. While treatment can alleviate some of these symptoms, current techniques remain ineffective in many cases, due in part to a limited scientific understanding of the origins of the condition.

The research group set out to shed light on these origins using a genome-wide association study (GWAS), an approach which identifies gene loci associated with a particular trait. With its strong genetic basis, atopic dermatitis is well suited to the GWAS approach. Three previous GWAS on European and Chinese populations identified 7 loci associated with the condition, but no such studies have been conducted on Japanese people.

To fill this gap, the group conducted a thorough GWAS on 1472 subjects with atopic dermatitis and 7971 controls from among the Japanese population, and then validated their results in a separate study on 1856 subjects with atopic dermatitis and 7021 controls. Analyzing a total of roughly 600,000 genetic variants (called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms or SNPs), they identified 8 new genetic regions associated with atopic dermatitis and confirmed the 7 loci observed in earlier studies. Among these regions, they identified variants at the IL1RL1/IL18R1/IL18RAP and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci, both of which have been associated with bronchial asthma in recent GWAS.

The group's findings thus suggest that atopic dermatitis and asthma have overlapping susceptibility regions, and thus that these regions contain common genetic factors for many allergic diseases. Other loci reveal a wide variety of additional factors possibly involved in the condition, suggesting paths for future research and pointing the way to more effective treatment techniques.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by RIKEN, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Genome-wide study identifies eight new susceptibility loci for atopic dermatitis

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Genome-wide study identifies 8 new susceptibility loci for atopic dermatitis

Posted: at 10:19 pm

Public release date: 7-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: RIKEN Global Relations Office pr@riken.jp RIKEN

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) and their colleagues have identified 8 new loci associated with susceptibility to atopic dermatitis in the Japanese population. The findings, which appear in the journal Nature Genetics, advance our understanding of the genetic basis of the skin disorder, which affects millions of children and adults around the world.

Atopic dermatitis (often called ecszema) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin condition affecting as much as one-fifth of children and 1-3% of adults in industrialized countries. Those with the condition have skin that reacts easily to the environment and becomes flaky and itchy. While treatment can alleviate some of these symptoms, current techniques remain ineffective in many cases, due in part to a limited scientific understanding of the origins of the condition.

The research group set out to shed light on these origins using a genome-wide association study (GWAS), an approach which identifies gene loci associated with a particular trait. With its strong genetic basis, atopic dermatitis is well suited to the GWAS approach. Three previous GWAS on European and Chinese populations identified 7 loci associated with the condition, but no such studies have been conducted on Japanese people.

To fill this gap, the group conducted a thorough GWAS on 1472 subjects with atopic dermatitis and 7971 controls from among the Japanese population, and then validated their results in a separate study on 1856 subjects with atopic dermatitis and 7021 controls. Analyzing a total of roughly 600,000 genetic variants (called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms or SNPs), they identified 8 new genetic regions associated with atopic dermatitis and confirmed the 7 loci observed in earlier studies. Among these regions, they identified variants at the IL1RL1/IL18R1/IL18RAP and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci, both of which have been associated with bronchial asthma in recent GWAS.

The group's findings thus suggest that atopic dermatitis and asthma have overlapping susceptibility regions, and thus that these regions contain common genetic factors for many allergic diseases. Other loci reveal a wide variety of additional factors possibly involved in the condition, suggesting paths for future research and pointing the way to more effective treatment techniques.

###

Reference

Tomomitsu Hirota, et al. "Genome-wide association study identifies eight new susceptibility loci for atopic dermatitis in the Japanese population." Nature Genetics, 2012, DOI: 10.1038/ng.2438

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Psoriasis Free For Life Guide for Natural Psoriasis Treatment Now Available

Posted: at 10:18 pm

Psoriasis Free for Life by Katy Wilson now available as a holistic treatment for Psoriasis. More information can be found at http://bestguidesreviews.com/psoriasis-free-for-life/.

(PRWEB) October 08, 2012

The guide is an eBook created by Katy Wilson. She was a former psoriasis sufferer who turned out victorious against psoriasis after many years. This sad condition pushed her to explore various methods of curing psoriasis and her eBook can be termed as "a gift to all psoriasis sufferers". The main theme of the Psoriasis free for life guide is giving the body the needed ammo required to fight this auto-immune disease. The treatment detailed by the guide can also be done at home.

The Psoriasis Free for Life Guide explains the various causes of psoriasis and how it can be treated naturally. It dwells on all types of Psoriasis like:

It also includes bonus information as listed below:

Those who wish to treat psoriasis once and for all, and learn how to improve their overall health can take advantage of this eBook. The Psoriasis Free For life guide offers something special for psoriasis sufferers.

The Psoriasis Free for Life Guide is now available at http://bestguidesreviews.com/psoriasis-free-for-life/.

Admin BestGuidesReviews 917-72-00-66-8 Email Information

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Ron Paul Gives His Pre-Debate Analysis – CNBC 10/03/2012 – Video

Posted: at 10:18 pm

03-10-2012 20:06 Click to Tweet: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) discusses who he and his supporters will be voting for and what Romney could do to sway his vote. October 3, 2012 My Channel: Fair Use Disclaimer: This video may contain copyrighted material. This material is made available for educational, research, and news reporting purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 USC section 107 of the US Copyright Law which allows citizens to reproduce, distribute or exhibit portions of copyright motion pictures, video tapes, or video disks under certain circumstances without authorization of the copyright holder.

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Technology for the body on the road to cyborgs?

Posted: at 10:18 pm

The Terminator ... an infamous cyborg.

On September 2, 2010, Karen Throsby became the 1153rd person to swim the English Channel, taking 16 hours and nine minutes, and keeping herself going on handfuls of jelly babies.

Many Channel swimmers are purists: wetsuits are banned, never mind performance-enhancing drugs. The sport sees itself as an assertion of human ability in natural form. But Throsby, a sociologist researching the effects of extreme sports, takes a different view.

She was a speaker at Human Limits, a Wellcome Collection symposium linked to its Superhuman exhibition in London on physical and mental enhancement. The question it investigated was how much technology can humans use before they become something else a cyborg, perhaps, or a superhuman, a post-human, or a trans-human. What are our limits?

Some speakers discussed the "singularity": the idea that in a few years' time, we may converge with our technology to the point that some as-yet inconceivable superhuman entity emerges.

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Others highlighted the fear we can feel when new inventions threaten our sense of who we are; uneasy about our authenticity, we look back nostalgically to an era assumed to be more human.

Throsby's contribution was to remind us that even something as apparently basic as marathon swimming involves many artificial techniques: gaining weight, acclimatising to the cold, monitoring one's psychology, and developing new micro-senses an awareness of tiny differences in water temperature, a heightened kinetic sense of the body's balance and position, and so on.

It means self-transformation, and is filled with "uncountable, mundane bodily technologies". Channel swimmers use rubber caps, sunblock, Vaseline to prevent chafing, sleek swimsuits, and energy-boosting snacks. They are accompanied by boats with GPS.

And they use goggles, an invention variously attributed to Polynesians, Persians and the Inuit, but later improved by innovators such as first female Channel swimmer Gertrude Ederle, who smeared paraffin wax on motorcycle glasses in 1926 to make them watertight. More recently, goggles have been made with better rubber, adjustable straps, and prescription lenses. It would be hard to swim far or fast without them.

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Mitt Romney Tries to Prove He Is Human by Telling Sad Stories

Posted: at 10:18 pm

Ever since his post-debate turnaroundon his 47 percent comments, Mitt Romney (or a "spirited fellow claiming to be Mitt Romney") has been employing a novel campaigning strategy: Trying to convince voters that he is human. (Ann can't do all the work herself.) Of course, Romney's not super experienced when it comes to this sort of thing, so his efforts have been a little awkward. Mostly, he's been talking about dead people.

Romney spent the weekend in Florida where he debuted a new version of his stump speech containing three"revealing and personal" stories about deaths that impacted his life. The firstwas about an old friend from graduate school Bill Hulse, aquadriplegic as a result of an accident who recently attended a campaign event:

"It's not easy for Billy to get around. Quadriplegiche can't move, of course, his arms and his legs, and he can barely speak," Romney said. "I reached down and I put my hand on Billy's shoulder and I whispered into his ear, and I said 'Billy, God bless you, I love ya.' And he whispered right back to me and I couldn't quite hear what he said. He tried to speak loud enough for me to hear."

Hulse died the day after the encounter. "Its rare that you get the chance to tell someone how much you love them while you still can," Romney added.

Next up was a tribute to a 14-year-old Mormon church member who Romneycounseled during the boy's battle withleukemia. At one point, he asked "Brother Romney" to help him draft his will: "So I went to the hospital and got my legal pad to make it look official," Romney recalled. "[David] said, I want my fishing rod to go to one friend, and I want my skateboard to go to another friend, and I want my rifle to go to my brother.'" For extra human appeal, he concluded the story with a Friday Night Lights reference:I thought of that wonderful slogan some years later: clear eyes, full heart, cant lose. David passed away, but Ill always remember never forget his courage, his clear eyes, full heart. He wont lose."

Finally, he talked about meeting a woman at the Republican National Convention whose husband had been killed inAfghanistan. Anti-war protesters had picketed the funeral. When asked "What do you think of these people?" she told Romney: "Chris died for them to be able to protest." The lesson? "This is quite a nation we live in."

The response to this new, sad Romney seems to be mostly positive. As one woman who saw him speak in Florida told Politico,"Everyone has him on this pedestal, thinks that hes untouchable, but stories like this make him more human." Her friend, however, found the address to be a little morbid: "There was one too many. After the second one, I thought, 'Please, no more dead people.'"

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