Malaysian satellite launched to orbit

A first for upstart rocket company

A private spaceflight company launched a Malaysian satellite into orbit using a rocket of its own design late Monday, marking the firm’s first successful commercial space shot.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, launched the small satellite atop its Falcon 1 rocket, a two-stage booster that made its first successful test flight last year after three consecutive failures. It was the fifth Falcon 1 launch for SpaceX, but the first to haul a functional Earth-watching satellite into its intended orbit.

The Falcon 1 rocket blasted off at about 11:35 p.m. ET from the U.S. Army’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Defense Test Site on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll, a launch site that sits about 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii.

A malfunction in equipment used to load helium aboard the Falcon 1 rocket pushed the mission four hours beyond its initial launch target, with stormy weather delaying the mission even more.

SpaceX initially hoped to launch RazakSAT in April, but the need to eliminate a vibration issue between the satellite and its Falcon 1 rocket set the flight back several months.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31907433/ns/technology_and_science-space/

NASA to De-Orbit International Space Station In 2016

Despite nearing completion after more than a decade of construction, and recently announcing some upcoming improvements to accompany its full crew of six astronauts, NASA plans to de-orbit the International Space Station in 2016. Meaning the station will have spent more time under construction than completed.

The fact that the ISS has already had $100 billion dumped into it over the years is reason for criticism over the proposed de-orbiting. Proponents of the extra-terrestrial shelter feel 2016 would be too soon to let the 700,000 pound craft crash into the Pacific Ocean. Critics against it say it wastes too much money with few tangible outcomes.

Many of the station’s research programs have already been cut and the US Space Shuttle program is ending in 2010, which leaves few big-ticket programs left on the agenda (save for the station’s yet-to-be-installed Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which searchers for dark- and anti-matter).

But don’t count the ISS out yet–while 2016 is the currently planned decommissioning date, NASA says they’re conducting a study about potentially extending the lifespan of the structure into the 2020’s. [Washington Post]

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-07/nasa-de-orbit-international-space-station-2016

Probe hints Venus once had oceans and plate tectonics

Venus and Earth started life as twins, nearly equal in size, mass and rocky composition. But at some point, their paths diverged, and Venus became a scorched, desolate, hellishly hot wasteland. Venus’s dense, unbreathable carbon dioxide atmosphere heats the surface to upwards of 460 °C. Understanding how such similar planets could deviate so drastically is important for finding habitable extrasolar planets, and for predicting our own planet’s future.

A new map from the European Space Agency’s Venus Express orbiter may provide a fresh clue – in the form of the composition of the planet’s rocks – in reconstructing its past. (Illustration: ESA)

http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/2009july14-venus-express-map

What America’s best economic forecaster is saying.

Could our long national nightmare be over? The economic contraction, this Great Recession, began in December 2007, and there’s no apparent end in sight. As the unemployment rate has spiked, analysts have thrown cold water on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s March sighting of “green shoots.” The stock market’s spring rally has fizzled.

But in this season of doubt, I’m prepared to declare that the recession is really, most probably over. Why? Well, it’s not because the economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal believe it’ll end in this quarter. (These guys wouldn’t know an economic inflection point if it hit them upside the head. All through 2008, when the economy was contracting, they projected growth for the year.)

No, two of the best and most objective forecasters, who are not connected to investment banks or to the CNBC noise machine, have recently called the upturn. Macroeconomic Advisers, the St. Louis-based consulting firm that compiles a monthly GDP index, reported to its clients Monday that while second-quarter GDP was tracking at negative 0.1 percent (recession), the third quarter was tracking at 2.4 percent growth.

The folks at the Economic Cycles Research Institute agree enthusiastically. It’s not because they’ve detected green pea shoots in Central Park. Rather, it’s because we’ve seen the three P’s, says Laskhman Achuthan, managing director at ECRI, which has been studying business cycles for decades and was one of the few outfits to call the last two recessions with any degree of accuracy.

The economic data that get the most play in the news— unemployment, retail sales—are coincident or lagging indicators and historically have not revealed much about directional changes in the economy. ECRI’s proprietary methodology breaks down indicators into a long-leading index, a weekly leading index, and a short-leading index. “We watch for turning points in the leading indexes to anticipate turning points in the business cycle and the overall economy,” says Achuthan. It’s tough to recognize transitions objectively “because so often our hopes and fears can get in the way.” To prevent exuberance and despair from clouding vision, ECRI looks for the three P’s: a pronounced rise in the leading indicators; one that persists for at least three months; and one that’s pervasive, meaning a majority of indicators are moving in the same direction.

The long-leading index—which goes back to the 1920s and doesn’t include stock prices but does include measures related to credit, housing, productivity, and profits—hits bottom and starts to climb about six months before a recession ends. The weekly leading index calls directional shifts about three to four months in advance. And the short-leading index, which includes stock prices and jobless claims, is typically the last to turn up.

All three are now flashing green. According to Achuthan, the long-leading index growth rate has been recovering since November 2008, the weekly leading index has been recovering since last December, and the short-leading index growth rate bottomed in February 2009. In sequence, each turned up, “and by April the three Ps had all been satisfied.” Sure, corporate profits continue to disappoint, and the unemployment rate is climbing. But for ECRI, which navigates by relying exclusively on its instruments, that’s only a part of their picture. They’re the Spocks of the economic forecasting crowd—unemotional, uninvested in anything but the logic of what history and their dashboard tell them. “From our vantage point, every week and every month our call is getting stronger, not weaker, including over the last few weeks,” says Achuthan. “The recession is ending somewhere this summer.” In fact, it may already be over.

http://www.slate.com/id/2222742/

Green gasoline: Coming soon to a pump near you?

It may sound a bit like something from a Dr. Seuss book, but it seems “green gasoline” is indeed on its way to a pump near you. Terrabon, a Texas-based company specializing in biofuels, reports its alternative fuel is completely compatible with gasoline and can be produced using nearly any kind of organic material, including sewer sludge.

Terrabon uses a fermentation process called MixAlco, which was developed by researchers at Texas A&M University, and it’s thought that this type of second-gen biofuel could replace ethanol as the gasoline alternative of choice within the next decade or so since its use would require no special modifications to automobiles or the current energy infrastructure.

Last fall, Terrabon completed work on a $3.5 million facility that’s capable of putting out 300 gallons per day of green gasoline from chopped sorghum. If all goes to plan, a much larger second plant will be built with backing from Valero, the nation’s largest oil refiner.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/07/13/green-gasoline-coming-soon-to-a-pump-near-you/

Spectacular Dream Yachts to Set Sail

So often we’re teased with amazing renderings of things that could be but never will because they lack a bridge between blue sky and real world. The latest virtual tease, a pair of futuristic yachts rapidly rising in virtual visibility, breaks that convention. Designer Kevin Schöpfer plans to set sail in three years.

Schöpfer Yachts’ first design, Oculus, demonstrated a futuristic melding of boat, spaceship and fish at an impressive 250 feet long. Then came the even larger and more futuristic looking Infinitas, an astonishing 300 feet long. Needless to say we were intrigued.

The founder of Schöpfer Yachts is an accomplished architect who studied at Syracuse and Harvard. His resumé includes the upcoming International UFO Museum in Roswell, N.M. and the Wine Room at Nebula Casino in Macau. Schöpfer has worked with internationally acclaimed urban planning guru Paolo Soleri and is working on the post-Katrina proposal to turn New Orleans into a floating city.

How does an architect involved with buildings and urban planning find himself at the helm of a gargantuan luxury yacht design?

 

Five years ago, Schöpfer’s career path and hobby converged to fuel his passion for functional yet elegant design. He saw a “disconnect between the interior and exterior” of many yachts, which he quipped feature interiors from the 17th century and exteriors from the 21st.

“Nobody in the US is looking at what’s next in yacht design, and I didn’t want to have to play catch-up, as did U.S. auto,” Schöpfer told Wired.com. The result of his experiment, the 250-foot Oculus, carried the new design aesthetic from bow to stern inside and out.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/07/schopfer-yachts/

Major Breakthrough With Water Desalination System

Engineers have achieved a major breakthrough with a new mini-mobile-modular (M3) smart water desalination and filtration system. (Credit: iStockphoto/Mustafa Deliormanli)

Concern over access to clean water is no longer just an issue for the developing world, as California faces its worst drought in recorded history. According to state’s Department of Water Resources, supplies in major reservoirs and many groundwater basins are well below average. Court-ordered restrictions on water deliveries have reduced supplies from the two largest water systems, and an outdated statewide water system can’t keep up with population growth.

With these critical issues looming large, researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science are working hard to help alleviate the state’s water deficit with their new mini-mobile-modular (M3) “smart” water desalination and filtration system.

In designing and constructing new desalination plants, creating and testing pilot facilities is one of the most expensive and time-consuming steps. Traditionally, small yet very expensive stationary pilot plants are constructed to determine the feasibility of using available water as a source for a large-scale desalination plant. The M3 system helps cut both costs and time.

“Our M3 water desalination system provides an all-in-one mobile testing plant that can be used to test almost any water source,” said Alex Bartman, a graduate student on the M3 team who helped to design the sensor networks and data acquisition computer hardware in the system. “The advantages of this type of system are that it can cut costs, and because it is mobile, only one M3 system needs to be built to test multiple sources. Also, it will give an extensive amount of information that can be used to design the larger-scale desalination plant.”

The M3 demonstrated its effectiveness in a recent field study in the San Joaquin Valley in which it desalted agricultural drainage water that was nearly saturated with calcium sulfate salts, accomplishing this with just one reverse osmosis (RO) stage.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090713144124.htm

Fussy Baby? Linking Genes, Brain And Behavior In Children

It comes as no surprise that some babies are more difficult to soothe than others but frustrated parents may be relieved to know that this is not necessarily an indication of their parenting skills. According to a new report in Psychological Science, children’s temperament may be due in part to a combination of a certain gene and a specific pattern of brain activity.

The pattern of brain activity in the frontal cortex of the brain has been associated with various types of temperament in children. For example, infants who have more activity in the left frontal cortex are characterized as temperamentally “easy” and are easily calmed down. Conversely, infants with greater activity in the right half of the frontal cortex are temperamentally “negative” and are easily distressed and more difficult to soothe.

In this study, Louis Schmidt from McMaster University and his colleagues investigated the interaction between brain activity and the DRD4 gene to see if it predicted children’s temperament. In a number of previous studies, the longer version (or allele) of this gene had been linked to increased sensory responsiveness, risk-seeking behavior, and attention problems in children. In the present study, brain activity was measured in 9-month-old infants via electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. When the children were 48 months old, their mothers completed questionnaires regarding their behavior and DNA samples were taken from the children for analysis of the DRD4 gene.

The results reveal interesting relations among brain activity, behavior, and the DRD4 gene. Among children who exhibited more activity in the left frontal cortex at 9 months, those who had the long version of the DRD4 gene were more soothable at 48 months than those who possessed the shorter version of the gene. However, the children with the long version of the DRD4 gene who had more activity in the right frontal cortex were the least soothable and exhibited more attention problems compared to the other children.

These findings indicate that the long version of the DRD4 gene may act as a moderator of children’s temperament. The authors note that the “results suggest that it is possible that the DRD4 long allele plays different roles (for better and for worse) in child temperament” depending on internal conditions (the environment inside their bodies) and conclude that the pattern of brain activity (that is, greater activation in left or right frontal cortex) may influence whether this gene is a protective factor or a risk factor for soothability and attention problems. The authors cautioned that there are likely other factors that interact with these two measures in predicting children’s temperament.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090713114501.htm

‘Rosetta Stone’ Of Bacterial Communication Discovered

The Rosetta Stone of bacterial communication may have been found. Although they have no sensory organs, bacteria can get a good idea about what’s going on in their neighborhood and communicate with each other, mainly by secreting and taking in chemicals from their surrounding environment. Even though there are millions of different kinds of bacteria with their own ways of sensing the world around them, Duke University bioengineers believe they have found a principle common to all of them.

The researchers said that a more complete understanding of communication between cells and bacteria is essential to the advancement of the new field of synthetic biology, where populations of genetically altered bacteria are “programmed” to do certain things. Such re-programmed bacterial gene circuits could see a wide variety of applications in medicine, environmental cleanup and biocomputing.

It is already known that a process known as “quorum sensing” underlies communication between bacteria. However, each type of bacteria seems to have its own quorum-sensing abilities, with tremendous variations, the researchers said.

“Quorum sensing is a cell-to-cell communication mechanism that enables bacteria to sense and respond to changes in the density of the bacteria in a given environment,” said Anand Pai, graduate student in bioengineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. “It regulates a wide variety of biological functions such as bioluminescence, virulence, nutrient foraging and cellular suicide.”

The researchers found that the total volume of bacteria in relation to the volume of their environment is a key to quorum sensing, no matter what kind of microbe is involved.

“If there are only a few cells in an area, nothing will happen,” Pai said. “If there are a lot of cells, the secreted chemicals are high in concentration, causing the cells to perform a specific action. We wanted to find out how these cells know when they have reached a quorum.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090707093619.htm

Easy Strength Training Exercise May Help Treat Tennis Elbow, Study Shows

People with pain in the elbow or forearm from playing sports or just from common everyday activities, might be able to use a simple bar and strengthening exercise to alleviate pain, say researchers who are presenting their study results at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s Annual Meeting in Keystone, Colorado, July 9th-12th.

Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis is a common condition effecting nearly three percent of the general population, not just those who play tennis. “Our study illustrated that a novel exercise, using an inexpensive rubber bar, may provide a practical and effective means of adding isolated wrist strengthening exercises to a treatment plan,” said lead author Timothy F. Tyler, PT, ATC, Clinical Research Associate, of the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma in New York City.

The study randomized 21 patients with tennis elbow into two groups. Both received the wrist extensor stretching, ultrasound, cross-friction massage, heat and ice for treatment. The eccentric training group performed isolated eccentric wrist extensor strengthening using the rubber bar (Flexbar, Akron OH) while the standard treatment group performed isotonic wrist strengthening exercises. Three sets of 15 repetitions were performed daily as part of a home program with intensity increased progressively during the treatment period. A variety of pain and movement scales were utilized to determine progress. Patients using the rubber bar had vastly better results on all scales, especially related to strength. In fact, given the consistently poor outcomes for patients in the standard treatment group, it was deemed appropriate to terminate the randomization with 21 of the intended 30 patients having already completed the study.

“Compared to other treatments for tennis elbow such as cortisone injections or topical nitric oxide which require direct medical supervision and often side effects, this treatment is not only cost effective but dosage is not limited by the patient having to come to a clinic,” said Tyler.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090711085220.htm