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OT: The F*cking Science Thread

Is NASA about to unveil plans for a manned moon mission?

Suit up, people — word is we're heading back to the Moon.

According to space policy expert John Logsdon, there's a decent chance NASA has already cleared plans to establish a manned base on the far side of the Moon with the Obama administration. Thing is, they've probably been keeping it under wraps in the event that Romney had won Tuesday's election. Now that Obama has secured a second term, Logsdon says an announcement from the Agency could be forthcoming.

"NASA has been evolving its thinking, and its latest charts have inserted a new element of cislunar/lunar gateway/Earth-moon L2 sort of stuff into the plan," said Logsdon in an interview with SPACE.com's Mike Wall.

"They've been holding off announcing that until after the election," Logsdon added, noting that NASA's mission, direction, and budget could have been revised under a Romney administration.

An announcement would certainly gel with the Obama administration's ambitious agenda for space. In 2010, the President signed the NASA 2010 Authorization Act into law, freeing up close to $60 billion in NASA spending through 2013. This funding would serve as one of the first sparks in a plan to ignite a resurgence in space exploration, including an asteroid visit by 2025 and and a trip to Mars by the 2030s. A manned outpost at the Earth-moon L2 "gateway" — shown in the diagram below — could serve as an important stepping stone in our path out into the solar system.

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"NASA is executing President Obama's ambitious space exploration plan that includes missions around the moon, to asteroids, and ultimately putting humans on Mars," the Agency explained in a statement released at the end of September. "There are many options - and many routes - being discussed on our way to the Red Planet. In addition to the moon and an asteroid, other options may be considered as we look for ways to buy down risk - and make it easier - to get to Mars."

At the same time, Wall points out that NASA has been dropping plenty of hints as of late that a major announcement regarding human space exploration could be right on the horizon.

"We just recently delivered a comprehensive report to Congress outlining our destinations which makes clear that SLS [NASA's new heavy-lift "Space Launch System"] will go way beyond low-Earth orbit to explore the expansive space around the Earth-moon system, near-Earth asteroids, the moon, and ultimately, Mars," NASA deputy chief Lori Garver said at a conference in September.

"Let me say that again," she emphasized, "we're going back to the moon, attempting a first-ever mission to send humans to an asteroid and actively developing a plan to take Americans to Mars."

Read more about NASA's plans for sustainable human space exploration in this extensive pamphlet from NASA, released in June of this year.
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My. Man. Barry.
 
**** yes.


Hopefully this ignites popular support for NASA so that they can actually get the budget to do it.
 
Last xmas break I read the book "The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius". Couldn't put the book down, fascinating read.
 
Aliens are already camping on the dark side of the moon and told mankind to stay the **** away. Didn't you hear? :)
 
****ing Science


http://www.washington.edu/news/2012/11/08/extra-chromosome-21-removed-from-down-syndrome-cell-line/


University of Washington scientists have succeeded in removing the extra copy of chromosome 21 in cell cultures derived from a person with Down syndrome, a condition in which the body’s cells contain three copies of chromosome 21 rather than the usual pair.

A triplicate of any chromosome is a serious genetic abnormality called a trisomy. Trisomies account for almost one-quarter of pregnancy loss from spontaneous miscarriages, according to the research team. Besides Down syndrome (trisomy 21), some other human trisomies are extra Y or X chromosomes, and Edwards syndrome (trisomy 18) and Patau syndrome (trisomy 13), both of which have extremely high newborn fatality rates.

In their report appearing in the Nov. 2 edition of Cell Stem Cell, a team led by Dr. Li B. Li of the UW Department of Medicine described how they corrected trisomy 21 in human cell lines they grew in the lab. The senior scientists on the project were gene therapy researchers Dr. David W. Russell, professor of medicine and biochemistry, and Dr. Thalia Papayannopoulou, professor of medicine.

The targeted removal of a human trisomy, they noted, could have both clinical and research applications.

In live births, Down syndrome is the most frequent trisomy. The condition has characteristic eye, facial and hand features, and can cause many medical problems, including heart defects, impaired intellect, premature aging and dementia, and certain forms of leukemia, a type of blood cancer.

“We are certainly not proposing that the method we describe would lead to a treatment for Down syndrome,” Russell said. “What we are looking at is the possibility that medical scientists could create cell therapies for some of the blood-forming disorders that accompany Down syndrome.”

For example, he said, someday Down syndrome leukemia patients might have stem cells derived their own cells, and have the trisomy corrected in these lab-cultured cells. They could then receive a transplant of their own stem cells – minus the extra chromosome – or healthy blood cells created from their fixed stem cells and that therefore don’t promote leukemia, as part of their cancer care.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...iving-gel-walk-slowly-help-battle-cancer.html

Scientists have created a blob of gel that can propel itself across a surface, mimicking a living creature.

The tiny droplets are made in a laboratory from proteins extracted from living cells.

They feed on the same energy-carrying molecules found in living bodies, allowing the gel to ‘walk’ at a rate of 8 nanometres each step – less than the width of a speck of tobacco smoke.

Scientists say that the droplets could be used to deliver drugs or target cancer cells.

As the gel is made from biological material, it is less likely the body will reject it.

First, scientists have to succeed in controlling its movement accurately.

So far, researchers have only been able to influence how long the droplets stay in motion and the way they churn.

The gel can also self-heal, so it could help make liquid crystal displays – used in laptops and flat-screen televisions, watches and microwave ovens – more robust.
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Montana said:
My. Man. Barry.
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A little bit about this puppy in this video at around 14:30. NDT does a great description of Lagrangian points. Guy would have been an inspiring prof man.

[video=youtube;cVg-snQdrms]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVg-snQdrms[/video]
 
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[video=youtube;T2EmuyHoMAI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2EmuyHoMAI&feature=youtu.be&t=6m6s[/video]
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20268044

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A Canadian man who was believed to have been in a vegetative state for more than a decade, has been able to tell scientists that he is not in any pain.

It's the first time an uncommunicative, severely brain-injured patient has been able to give answers clinically relevant to their care.

Scott Routley, 39, was asked questions while having his brain activity scanned in an fMRI machine.

His doctor says the discovery means medical textbooks will need rewriting......
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This is crazy awesome...

Last week, Google launched ‘Jam with Chrome’, an experimental Web app to play virtual instruments with friends. And now its rolled out 100,000 Stars, that helps you visualize the exact location of stars throughout the Milky Way. With 200 billion stars, there’s a lot to see in our galaxy, and through tapping a myriad of imagery and data from a range of sources, including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), Google plots the nearest stars to Earth’s Sun.

Story:http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/1...-taps-nasa-to-visually-explore-the-milky-way/

Direct Link: http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/
 
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