Thursday, January 29, 2009

Alaska's Mount Redoubt Set To Erupt "Within Days"

Preperations are being made for an explosive, ash spewing eruption of Mount Redoubt, which is likely to come at any time over the next few days. The massive 10,197 foot volcano, located 100 miles from Anchorage, is currently rumbling and displaying signs of seismic activity.

Depending on weather conditions, it could possibly carry ash plumes directly towards Alaska's largest city. The last eruption, almost 2 decades ago, covered Anchorage with a fine layer of ash and darkened the skies, temporarily halting air traffic.

Volcanic ash, made up of rock and miniscule glass shards, can be very harmful or even deadly in some circumstances. Residents of Anchorage and surrounding areas have been advides to avoid leaving their houses in the case of an eruption, and to wear protective gear when venturing out. Sales of dust masks and respirators have increased.

If you live in Anchorage or anywhere near the volcano, good luck and stay safe.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/kenai/story/669692.html

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Gene Therapy Cures?

Gene therapy might promise an end to the fatal "Bubble Boy" disease, possibly curing 8 out of 10 children suffering from the disorder. The 8 kids who received treatment for the rare but deadly condition were able to discontinue their expensive and sometimes ineffective medications during the 4 year follow-up period.

Bubble Boy disease, which affects up to 100 babies born in the U.S. alone, is the result of severe immune system deficiency; most babies affected don't survive past childhood. One of the most famous cases was that of Houston's David Vetter, who lived most of his 12 years behind plastic to cut down on his exposure to germs.

Gene therapy, from the studies done in Italy and Israel, was used on patients under the age of 2. The "researchers removed marrow cells from the patients, equipped the cells with working copies of the gene for the enzyme, and injected the cells back into the patients." (Malcolm Ritter, AP Science, Wednesday January 28)

There are 2 seperate forms of the disorder, and gene therapy seems to show promising results for both, but with a leukemia risk as a side effect for one form. None of the kids in the study showed any signs of leukemia or any other negative side effects.

The study is important because it shows promise as a possible cure not only for this rare disease, but for more common conditions such as sickle cell disease and related blood conditions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090128/ap_on_he_me/med_gene_therapy

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/360/5/447

http://www.genome.gov/13014325

Read about stem cells reversing paralysis in rats:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090129/sc_livescience/studystemcellsreverseparalysisinrats

Here's Your Chance to Vote on New Hubble Image!

The Hubble Space Telescope team is poised to take a new image of something we've never seen before, and it's up to us to decide what exactly it's going to be.

The image choices in the running include unseen nebulae in our own galaxy, three distant galaxies, or an interaction between 2 galaxies.

You can vote until May 1st, and the winning image will be chosen the first week of April. While you're voting, you can also enter a contest to be one of 100 lucky people to win a photo print of the winning image.

You can go here to cast your vote:
http://youdecide.hubblesite.org/

More info about the space images, as well as an interesting video relating to a Hubble discovery:
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/01/28/vote-for-the-hubble-space-telescopes-next-target-no-write-ins-please/

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

NASA Plans Largest Moon Rocket in History

According to Kathy Laurini of NASA, Ares V will not only be "the biggest rocket that's ever been built," but will hopefully enable enormous Hubble-dwarfing telescopes to be sent into orbit, as well as potential missions to the outer reaches of our solar system.

Ares V will stand at a proud 381 feet, with capabilities of carrying around 180 metric tons into orbit. To get an interesting perspective, the nosecone alone will have room for 8 schoolbuses, and it will have the power to carry 17 of them into orbit. Tests will most likely begin in 2018, with a possible moon mission in 2020.

The science and astronomy communities are very excited about what may result from larger than ever telescopes being launched into space. Astronomer Harley Thronson says it best. "It could revolutionize astronomy." Ares V may allow telescopes 3 times larger than Hubble to be used, improving sharpness of images dramatically and detecting objects 11 times fainter than Hubble can currently observe. A telescope twice that size could even be possible given a fold up mirror for the launch.

Besides launching giant telescopes, other missions that will benefit from Ares V include sending probes as far as the sun, Neptune, and the moon Titan. Earth-like planets around stars too distant to currently see might finally be visible.
Protostar and black hole research could drastically improve.

"I can't wait," says Thronson. He's not the only one.

Links of interest:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090121/sc_space/newmoonrocketcouldlaunchgiantspacetelescopes

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090121-aresv-space-telescopes.html

New Imaging Advance Might Help Heart Attack Victims

Doctors and many others have known that heart attacks cause bleeding inside the muscle's of the heart, and now have a way of determining the extent of damage caused in individual cases.

MRI technology has given us the first images of hearts bleeding following attacks, and has allowed doctors to determine that the amount of bleeding most likely correlates to the amount of damage. The images were possible thanks to the magnetic iron content in blood.

When a heart attack happens, blood and oxygen flow to the heart is extremely or completely limited due to blocked arteries, but excess bleeding into the muscle can occur after the arteries are clear again.

Scientists have not done much study on the significance of after-attack bleeding until the MRI images were released. Hopefully the discovery will be used in the future to determine severity of individual heart attacks, more accurate survival rates, and will allow doctors to provide better after care tailored to each case.

Links of interest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090120/sc_livescience/firstimageofableedingheart

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090121/hl_hsn/mriscansrevealpostheartattackbleeding

http://www.americanheart.org

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Strange Discovery Near Black Hole

Based on everything you know about black holes and the conditions surrounding them, would you think that it would be possible for new stars to form nearby such powerful forces? Scientists thought it was impossible, but have just discovered proof that it does happen when they caught infant stars in the act, only a few light years from the black hole at the center of our own galaxy.

Theories are still forming, but it's thought that maybe the high density of our galaxy's center helps the new stars and their "parent" clouds avoid the destructive pull of the black hole.

Astronomers are hopeful that by understanding the forces of our own strange galaxy, they'll be better prepared to understand the even stranger forces of foreign galaxies in the universe.

For the official article and some cool pictures, follow this link to Space.com
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090105-aas-stars-galactic-center.html