What’s In Earth Orbit And How Do We Know?

Tracking all the active satellites and orbital debris around the Earth is a challenging task, even for the US Defense Department. (credit: NASA)

From Space Review:

Whenever the topic of space debris and satellites in orbit comes up a lot of numbers tend to get thrown around by a lot of different people, and it can be hard to keep all the figures straight. Compounding this is the superficial knowledge (at best) of the subject by many media commentators and the tradition of secrecy by the US military, the organization that has historically been the main keepers of the data on space debris.

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The Challenge for Green Energy: How To Store Excess Electricity

From Environment 360:

For years, the stumbling block for making renewable energy practical and dependable has been how to store electricity for days when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. But new technologies suggest this goal may finally be within reach.

“Why are we ignoring things we know? We know that the sun doesn’t always shine and that the wind doesn’t always blow.” So wrote former U.S. Energy Secretary James Schlesinger and Robert L. Hirsch last spring in the Washington Post, suggesting that because these key renewables produce power only intermittently, “solar and wind will probably only provide a modest percentage of future U.S. power.”

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Memory Test And PET Scans Detect Early Signs Of Alzheimer's

PET scans can detect the decline in glucose metabolism associated with decreased cognitive function, particularly in the temporal and parietal lobes located on the sides and the back of the brain, the regions associated with memory formation and language. UC Berkeley researchers are finding that brain imaging shows promise as a method of detecting early signs of Alzheimer's disease. On the left is a PET scan showing normal levels of glucose metabolism, indicated in yellow and red. The levels of glucose metabolism in the brain are decreased in patients with mild cognitive impairment (middle) and with Alzheimer's disease (right). (Credit: Cindee Madison and Susan Landau, UC Berkeley)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2009) — A large study of patients with mild cognitive impairment revealed that results from cognitive tests and brain scans can work as an early warning system for the subsequent development of Alzheimer's disease.

The research found that among 85 participants in the study with mild cognitive impairment, those with low scores on a memory recall test and low glucose metabolism in particular brain regions, as detected through positron emission tomography (PET), had a 15-fold greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease within two years, compared with the others in the study.

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Apollo 11 Mission Gear Up For Auction

Sample Return Bag: Lunar rocks were placed in an aluminum box for return to Earth; this Beta cloth cover went over the box, to contain the dust and any stowaways. courtesy Bonhams

From PopSci.com:

Always dreamed of using Neil Armstrong's moon rock collection bag as an overnight duffle? Now's your chance

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of man's landing on the moon, you can buy yourself a little piece of space history. On July 16, the auction house Bonhams is conducting an auction of lunar memorabilia. The sale includes a number of items that the Apollo 11 mission crew carried onto the moon's surface on the history-making trip. Lunar dust still covers some of the lots.

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President Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren: Is He An Advocate For Forced Sterializations And Abortions?

President Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren

Obama's Science Czar: Traditional Family Is Obsolete, Punish Large Families -- The Washington Examiner

President Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren, took a controversial and amoral approach to the science of population by recommending mass compulsory sterilization and even forced abortion (and/or forced marriages) under certain circumstances. His 1977 tome, Ecoscience, which he co-authored with Paul and Anne Ehrlich, also displays a revealing disregard for the institution of the traditional human family.

Holdren and the Ehrlichs write:

Radical changes in family structure and relationships are inevitable, whether population control is instituted or not. Inaction, attended by a steady deterioration in living conditions for the poor majority, will bring changes everywhere that no one could consider beneficial. Thus, it is beside the point to object to population-control measures simply on the grounds that they might change the social structure or family relationships.

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My Comment: This man is President Obama's point man on science??!!??!!. Was he ever vetted .... and if he was, does President Obama also believe in these opinions?

Read the article as well as the comments section in this Washington Examiner article .... there is enough information there to make you wonder on what is happening with this administrations science policies.

On Sixth Try, Endeavour Lifts Off -- News Updates And Roundup July 15, 2009

The space shuttle Endeavour launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On Sixth Try, Endeavour Lifts Off -- New York Times

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — For the space shuttle Endeavour, the sixth time proved to be the charm.

After hydrogen leaks, schedule conflicts, lightning strikes and a couple of rain delays, the Endeavour, on the sixth launch attempt, finally lifted to orbit Monday at 6:03 p.m. into the humid Florida sky.

That was one short of NASA’s record for the number of delays. Two previous missions, in 1986 and 1995, were delayed six times before launching on the seventh attempt.

The mission, scheduled to last 16 days, includes five spacewalks dedicated to the construction of the International Space Station. It is the only second time a shuttle mission has been planned for that long.

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More News on Today's Space Shuttle Launch

Space shuttle blasts off after month's delay -- AP
Space shuttle Endeavour blasts off after several postponements -- CNN
Sixth time lucky; space shuttle Endeavour blasts off -- Times Online
Endeavour launches on sixth attempt -- BBC
Debris Strikes Endeavour During Liftoff -- New York Times
FACTBOX-The crew of the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour -- Reuters
FACTBOX: Highlights of space shuttle Endeavour's mission -- Reuters

Tracking The Evolution Of A Pandemic

Photo: Birth of a bug: New research on the emergence of the 1918 influenza virus suggests that it may have evolved in a manner similar to that of the current H1N1 strain (shown here). Credit: Center for Disease Control and Prevention

From The Technology Review:

Understanding how viruses evolve could help predict the next outbreak.

A close examination of the genetic evolution of the three major influenza epidemics of the 20th century concludes that all of the viruses involved evolved slowly, through interspecies genetic exchange, and that genes from the catastrophic 1918 pandemic may have been circulating as many as seven years earlier. If true, this means that widespread genetic surveillance methods should have ample time to detect the next pandemic strain, and possibly even vaccinate against it before it gets out of control.

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DNA Is Dynamic And Has High Energy; Not Stiff Or Static As First Envisioned

New research shows that DNA is not a stiff or static as once thought.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Andrew Wood)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — The interaction represented produced the famous explanation of the structure of DNA, but the model pictured is a stiff snapshot of idealized DNA. As researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston note in a report that appears online in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, DNA is not a stiff or static. It is dynamic with high energy. It exists naturally in a slightly underwound state and its status changes in waves generated by normal cell functions such as DNA replication, transcription, repair and recombination.

DNA is also accompanied by a cloud of counterions (charged particles that neutralize the genetic material's very negative charge) and, of course, the protein macromolecules that affect DNA activity.

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40 Years After Moon Landing: Why Can't We Cure Cancer?

Neil Armstrong took this picture of Buzz Aldrin, showing a reflection in Aldrin's visor of Armstrong and the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 mission, which landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969. This is one of the few photographs showing Armstrong (who carried the camera most of the time) on the moon. Credit: NASA

From Live Science:

Richard Nixon had every reason to be optimistic when, during his 1971 State of the Union address, he called for a concerted effort to find a cure for cancer. After all, it took only three years for the Manhattan Project to produce the world's first atomic bomb. Nixon's own presidency witnessed the 1969 moon landing, a goal set forth by John F. Kennedy in 1961.

It seemed that given enough resources there was no job that Americans couldn't tackle quickly.

But with $200 billion spent and tens of millions of cancer deaths accumulated since 1971, most would say we are losing the war on cancer. Cancer is the top killer worldwide, responsible for 7.4 million or 13 percent of all deaths annually. In America cancer will soon overtake heart disease as the top killer, claiming more than half million lives annually.

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Moon Landing Anniversary: 10 Reasons The Apollo Landings Were 'Faked'

Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969 Photo: AP

From The Telegraph:

Below is a list of ten of the most popular reasons given by conspiracy theorists who believe the Apollo Moon landings that began 40 years ago were faked.

1) When the astronauts are putting up the American flag it waves. There is no wind on the Moon.

2) No stars are visible in the pictures taken by the Apollo astronauts from the surface of the Moon.

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Gravity Wells Could Provide 'Parking Lots' For Spaceships

From McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON — Nature has provided five huge rest stops far out in space for the convenience of spacecraft traveling from Earth.

Some NASA folks call them "parking lots" in space.

They're unusual locations where gravity loses its pull and a spaceship can loiter, rather like a marble at the bottom of a cup, without using a lot of fuel. Three of them are 930,000 miles outside Earth's orbit. One is between the Earth and the sun, and another is hidden on the far side of the sun.

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400-Billion-Euro Plan To Pump African Solar Power To Europe

A man pictured next to solar panels whose energy helps pump water into a water tower in a village in Niger, 2004. Twelve European companies launched a 400-billion-euro (560-billion-dollar) initiative on Monday to plant huge solar farms in Africa and the Middle East to produce energy for Europe. (AFP/File/Issouf Sanogo)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – Twelve European companies launched a 400-billion-euro (560-billion-dollar) initiative Monday to plant huge solar farms in Africa and the Middle East to produce energy for Europe.

The consortium says the massive proposal could provide up to 15 percent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050.

Engineering giants ABB and Siemens, energy groups E.ON and RWE and financial institutions Deutsche Bank and Munich Re are among the companies which signed a protocol in Munich.

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NASA Aiming For Wednesday Shuttle Launch, Try 6

Space shuttle Endeavour stands on launch pad 39A moments after the launch was scrubbed due to weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla, Monday, July 13, 2009. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

From Yahoo News/AP:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA is hoping the weather finally cooperates for its sixth launch attempt for space shuttle Endeavour.

Endeavour is poised to take off for the international space station early Wednesday evening, along with seven astronauts. Forecasters put the odds of good weather at 60 percent.

Thunderstorms have delayed the mission three times and hydrogen gas leaks have caused two delays. Endeavour holds the final piece of Japan's space lab, which should have flown last month.

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The Spacemen Who Spent Three Months On A Mission To Mars... Without Leaving Moscow

Still smiling: The six volunteers stayed in good spirits during their three-month mission, despite living in quarters just 12ft across

From The Daily Mail:

A crew of six men saw the Sun for the first time in three months today after they were released from a cramped spacecraft simulator.

The volunteers were taking part in a simulated mission to Mars, which was designed to study the psychological and medical aspects of long-duration spaceflight.

They entered voluntary confinement at the end of March when there was still snow on the ground in Moscow.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1199429/The-spacemen-spent-months-mission-Mars--leaving-Moscow.html#ixzz0LHlGzfR7&D

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Longest Insect Migration Revealed

From The BBC:

Every year, millions of dragonflies fly thousands of kilometres across the sea from southern India to Africa.

So says a biologist in the Maldives, who claims to have discovered the longest migration of any insect.

If confirmed, the mass exodus would be the first known insect migration across open ocean water.

It would also dwarf the famous trip taken each year by Monarch butterflies, which fly just half the distance across the Americas.

Biologist Charles Anderson has published details of the mass migration in the Journal of Tropical Ecology.

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H1N1 (Swine Flu) News Updates -- July 14, 2009

Swine flu experts have warned the virus could become more deadly.
Photograph: AP

New Flu "Unstoppable", WHO Says, Calls For Vaccine -- Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saying the new H1N1 virus is "unstoppable", the World Health Organization gave drug makers a full go-ahead to manufacture vaccines against the pandemic influenza strain on Monday and said healthcare workers should be the first to get one.

Every country will need to vaccinate citizens against the swine flu virus and must choose who else would get priority after nurses, doctors and technicians, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research.

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More News On H1N1

New flu resembles feared 1918 virus: study -- Reuters
U.K. Aims for Broad Vaccination Program -- Wall Street Journal
WHO warns of vaccine shortfall for coming flu season -- Globe And Mail
Swine flu: health experts 'surprised' by spread of virus in the UK -- The Guardian
NHS helplines swamped as swine flu panic rises after death of six-year-old girl -- Daily Mail
67 Air Force cadets stricken with swine flu -- Denver Post/AP

El Niño Is Back, Bringing Droughts, Floods, Crop Failures And Social Unrest

A parched paddy field, blamed on Rl Nino, in Merlebau village near Kota Marudu on the Malaysian eastern state of Sabah in Borneo island. (David Loh/Reuters)

From Times Online:

El Niño, the warming of the Pacific Ocean that creates chaos in global weather patterns, is on its way back, threatening droughts, floods, crop failure and social unrest.

According to scientists at America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a new bout of El Niño is under way as the surface of tropical waters across the eastern Pacific has warmed roughly 1C (1.8F) above normal and is still rising.

Further down, some 150 meters (500ft) below the surface, the waters are heating up — by around 4C (7.2F).

These indications have been emerging for about the past month from satellite pictures and an array of robotic buoys strung out across the Pacific. “The persistently warm sea temperatures are important indicators of an El Niño,” Mike Halpert, of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Centre, said.

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Why It Is Easy To Encode New Memories But Hard To Hold Onto Them

Activated PAK (red) gathers at synapses (green), and might help consolidate fresh memories. (Credit: Rex, C.S., et al. 2009. J. Cell Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.200901084)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — Memories aren't made of actin filaments. But their assembly is crucial for long-term potentiation (LTP), an increase in synapse sensitivity that researchers think helps to lay down memories. In the July 13, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, Rex et al. reveal that LTP's actin reorganization occurs in two stages that are controlled by different pathways, a discovery that helps explain why it is easy to encode new memories but hard to hold onto them.

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Why Are Human Brains So Big?

Human brains are about three times as large as those of our early australopithecines ancestors that lived 4 million to 2 million years ago, and for years, scientists have wondered how our brains got so big. A new study suggests social competition could be behind the increase in brain size. Credit: NIH, NIDA

From Live Science:

There are many ways to try to explain why human brains today are so big compared to those of early humans, but the major cause may be social competition, new research suggests.

But with several competing ideas, the issue remains a matter of debate.

Compared to almost all other animals, human brains are larger as a percentage of body weight. And since the emergence of the first species in our Homo genus (Homo habilis) about 2 million years ago, the human brain has doubled in size. And when compared to earlier ancestors, such as australopithecines that lived 4 million to 2 million years ago, our brains are three times as large. For years, scientists have wondered what could account for this increase.

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Web Site Recreates Apollo 11 Mission In Real Time

Apollo 11

From Yahoo News/AP:

Families crowded around black-and-white television sets in 1969 to watch Neil Armstrong take man's first steps on the moon.

Now, they'll be able to watch the Apollo 11 mission recreated in real time on the Web, follow Twitter feeds of transmissions between Mission Control and the spacecraft, and even get an e-mail alert when the lunar module touches down. Those features are part of a new Web site from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum commemorating the moon mission and Kennedy's push to land Americans there first.

"Putting a man on the moon really did unite the globe," said Thomas Putnam, director of the JFK Library. "We hope to use the Internet to do the same thing."

The Web site — WeChooseTheMoon.org — goes live at 8:02 a.m. Thursday, 90 minutes before the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It will track the capsule's route from the Earth to the Moon, ending with the moon landing and Armstrong's walk — in real time, but 40 years later.

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