HuffPost Live appearance

post from Top stories on 21 September 2012 09:51:25 PM. © Top stories

I appeared on Wednesday on the show HuffPost Live in a segment they call Community Sound Off where they have guests pick a Huffington Post article for discussion.

Subject:

Atheism & Religion

Read The Full Article:
http://machineslikeus.com/news/huffpost-live-appearance

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Naked mole-rats may hold clues to pain relief

post from Top stories on 21 September 2012 09:34:54 PM. © Top stories

Naked mole-rats evolved to thrive in an acidic environment that other mammals, including humans, would find intolerable. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago report new findings as to how these rodents have adapted to this environment.

The study was published online this week on PLOS ONE.

Subject:

Animal Research

Read The Full Article:
http://machineslikeus.com/news/naked-mole-rats-may-hold-clues-pain-relief

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US Army grants $3 million for anti-suicide nasal
spray research

post from Top stories on 21 September 2012 09:28:46 PM. © Top stories

For those feeling down in the dumps, the US military now has a solution: an anti-suicidal nasal spray that delivers antidepressant chemicals to the brain.

The US Army has awarded a scientist at the Indiana University School of Medicine $3 million to develop a nasal spray that eclipses suicidal thoughts. Dr. Michael Kubek and his research team will have three years to ascertain whether the nasal spray is a safe and effective method of preventing suicides.

Subject:

Health & Medicine

Read The Full Article:
http://machineslikeus.com/news/us-army-grants-3-million-anti-suicide-nasal-spray-
research

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VERY bright and spectacular meteor seen over
northern UK!

post from Bad Astronomy on 21 September 2012 07:27:10 PM. © Bad Astronomy

Twitter just exploded with reports, pictures, and videos of an extremely bright fireball moving over the northern part of the UK. I’ve seen tweets from folks in Ireland, Manchester, and more. It was traveling east-to-west, and broke up into many[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BadAstronomyBlog/~3/aB8plbd8ol0/

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NCBI ROFL: Putting suction cups on your boobs for
science!

post from Discoblog » NCBI ROFL on 21 September 2012 07:04:38 PM. © Discoblog » NCBI ROFL

In vivo measurement of breast skin elasticity and breast skin thickness.

“BACKGROUND:The mechanical properties of the breast skin play an important role in explaining the changes associated with radiotherapy, tissue expansion, and breast reconstruction surgery. Quantitative measurement of mechanical properties of breast skin is essential for surgical preplanning and outcome prediction. We have measured the skin elasticity properties and skin thickness of the breast using noninvasive methods. METHODS:The DermaLab suction cup and the DermaScanC ultrasound were used to measure the modulus of elasticity and the skin thickness, respectively. Measurements were taken in 16 different locations on the breast in 23 female patients, also with patients in supine and upright position. Different analytical models (plate, membrane, large deformation) that can represent the experiment were studied to extract the elasticity modulus. RESULTS:The average modulus of breast skin elasticity found was 344 ± 88 kPa (Mean ± SD) with 95% confidence interval being 306-382 kPa. The range of the modulus was 195-480 kPa. The average thickness of breast skin was 1.55 ± 0.25 mm with a range of 0.83-2.4 mm.
CONCLUSIONS:Regional variations of breast skin elasticity properties and breast skin thickness were observed. No direct correlations of biomechanical ...

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NcbiRofl/~3/7KIROo45dKE/

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Video: Endeavour's final liftoff

post from Planetary Society Blog on 21 September 2012 05:41:14 PM. © Planetary Society Blog

I was at Edwards Air Force Base this morning for Endeavour's last takeoff, and shot video as it roared past me. Follow the link for 3D video.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/20120921-endeavour-takeoff-v
ideo.html

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Tragedies in Science: The Crash of the Mars
Climate Orbiter

post from Visionlearning blog on 21 September 2012 05:04:00 PM. © Visionlearning blog

In science, as in the rest of life, things don't always go as planned. Accidents, mistakes, and tragedies happen from time to time. In the worst cases, these experiences result in serious losses or even catastrophes that can affect many people. In less severe cases they are the painful (and sometimes expensive) blunders that we can eventually look back and laugh about.

But in almost every case--whether caused by bad luck, bad planning, lack of understanding, simple human mistakes, or systemic problems in a research team or a society--there is something to be learned from these experiences. Always double check your unit conversions. Train your field crew for the harshest possible conditions and the worst case scenario. Recognize your colleagues and their contributions before it's too late.

The tragedies of science often don't appear in text books or journal articles, but they are just as much a part of science as any discovery or triumph. And as you'll see in the first installment of our new Tragedies in Science blog series, even "rocket scientists" make mistakes. By taking a closer look at some of the accidents and tragedies of the past, we can find both practical lessons for the future and inspiration for how to persevere and learn from tragedy.

Please let us know what you think of the first piece in the series! We are also always on the lookout for other tragic stories in science, so please share your ideas.

The Crash of the Mars Climate Orbiter
An artist's concept showing NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter, which was
lost due to a unit conversion error 13 years ago on September 23,
1999. Image courtesy: NASA/JPLSeptember 23, 1999 should have been a day of excitement and celebration for researchers and science enthusiasts everywhere. That was the date--13 years ago this Sunday--that NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter was supposed to claim its spot in orbit around the Red Planet, roughly 180 km above the Martian surface. From that vantage point, the Orbiter would monitor conditions and send information back to Earth as part of the Mars Surveyor Program, which launched a series of missions in the 1990's and 2000's to study one of our closest neighbors in the solar system.

But the $125 million Orbiter was doomed.

As the spacecraft neared its destination, the engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who were guiding it thought everything was on target. Then, when the spacecraft made it's final maneuvers to enter orbit, they lost communications. Something was wrong.

By examining data from the previous eight hours of the Orbiter's journey, NASA realized that the craft's approach had been much lower than intended--about 60 km above the planet's surface instead of 150 to 180 km. The altered course meant a rough ride through the Martian atmosphere that the Orbiter was not designed to withstand. The following day, the engineers concluded that the spacecraft had not survived the miscalculation, and the search for the Orbiter was abandoned.

Within a week of the accident, two committees (one internal and one composed of outside experts) had been formed to investigate what had gone wrong. They concluded that a simple mathematical and communications error was at the heart of the problem: one part of the mission team had used English units while the another part of the team had used metric units when making calculations related to the jet thrusters used to correct the Orbiter's trajectory during it's journey. A flubbed unit conversion had cost them a $125 million spacecraft, years of work, and untold scientific knowledge.

Luckily, unit conversion errors are an easy problem to fix, and you can bet NASA won't be repeating that mistake. In a statement released shortly after the crash, Dr. Edward Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science, said: "The problem here was not the error, it was the failure of NASA's systems engineering, and the checks and balances in our processes to detect the error. That's why we lost the spacecraft."

LEARN MORE
Check out our Unit Conversion module for more about the Orbiter's demise and a primer on how to avoid a mistake like NASA's.

See Time's picks for the "Top 10 NASA Flubs."

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/VisionlearningBlog/~3/oEsS02xmbow/tragedies-in-sci
ence-crash-of-mars.html

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'Forest Killer' Plant Study Explores
Rapid Environmental Change Factors

From Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories: It's called mile-a-minute weed or "forest killer." Mikania micrantha is an exotic, invasive species that spreads quickly, covering crops, smothering trees and rapidly altering the environment. Read the whole article

Read The Full Article:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/21118/Forest-Killer-Plant-Study-Explores-Rapi
d-Environmental-Change-Factors?from_rss=1

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Funding to Boost Sustainable Processes in
Manufacturing

From The Engineer: The government has awarded more than Â£7m of funding to help commercialise technologies that will make process manufacturing more sustainable. Read the whole article

Read The Full Article:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/21117/Funding-to-Boost-Sustainable-Processes-
in-Manufacturing?from_rss=1

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Flexible Robot Hands Get Cheaper

From Design News: Sandia National Laboratories has created a low-cost, highly dexterous robotic hand to help soldiers disarm IEDs. Read the whole article and watch the video

Read The Full Article:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/21116/Flexible-Robot-Hands-Get-Cheaper?from_r
ss=1

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