Ice Stalagmite

Ice Stalagmite
At 1,530 altitude one of the most popular caves in Romania is undoubtedly Ialomicioara in Bucegi Mountains.
Right at the cave’s entrance lies Ialomita Monastery built in the 16th century by ruler Mihnea cel Rau (Mihnea the Bad). The monastery has burnt several times during the history.

While visiting this cave few days ago, saw a few stalagmites...some were impressing, some were simple (like the ones in the photo). The place is pretty interesting.

What are ice stalagmites?
A common stalagmite found seasonally or year round in many caves is the ice stalagmite, commonly referred to as icicles, especially in above-ground contexts. Water seepage from the surface will penetrate into a cave and if temperatures are below freezing temperature, the water will collect on the floor into stalagmites. Deposition may also occur directly from the freezing of water vapor.

Similar to lava stalagmites, ice stalagmites form very quickly within hours or days. Unlike lava stalagmites however, they may grow back as long as water and temperatures are suitable. Ice stalagmites are more common than their stalactite counterparts because warmer air rises to the ceilings of caves and may raise temperatures to above freezing.

Ice stalactites may also form corresponding stalagmites below them, and given time, may grow together to form an ice column.

Info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalagmite

#personalnonsense #stalagmites #RomanianCaves

A White Oval Cloud on Jupiter from Juno

A White Oval Cloud on Jupiter from Juno
This storm cloud on Jupiter is almost as large as the Earth. Known as a white oval, the swirling cloud is a high pressure system equivalent to an Earthly anticyclone. The cloud is one of a "string of pearls" ovals south of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot.

Possibly, the Great Red Spot is just a really large white oval than turned red. Surrounding clouds show interesting turbulence as they flow around and past the oval. The featured image was captured on February 2 as NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno made a new pass just above the cloud tops of the Jovian world.

Over the next few years, Juno will continue to orbit and probe Jupiter, determine atmospheric water abundance, and attempt to determine if Jupiter has a solid surface beneath its thick clouds.

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS;
Processing: Roman Tkachenko

#space #nasa #jupiter #juno #science

#personalnonsense

#personalnonsense

Indeed...

Indeed...

#seduction

First Solar Images from NOAA's GOES-16 Satellite

First Solar Images from NOAA's GOES-16 Satellite
The first images from the Solar Ultraviolet Imager or SUVI instrument aboard NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite have been successful, capturing a large coronal hole on Jan. 29, 2017.

The sun’s 11-year activity cycle is currently approaching solar minimum, and during this time powerful solar flares become scarce and coronal holes become the primary space weather phenomena – this one in particular initiated aurora throughout the polar regions. Coronal holes are areas where the sun's corona appears darker because the plasma has high-speed streams open to interplanetary space, resulting in a cooler and lower-density area as compared to its surroundings.

Source:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/first-solar-images-from-noaas-goes-16-satellite

Image:
This animation from January 29, 2017, shows a large coronal hole in the sun’s southern hemisphere from the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) on board NOAA's new GOES-16 satellite. SUVI observations of solar flares and solar eruptions will provide an early warning of possible impacts to Earth’s space environment and enable better forecasting of potentially disruptive events on the ground. This animation captures the sun in the 304 Å wavelength, which observes plasma in the sun's atmosphere up to a temperature of about 50,000 degrees. When combined with the five other wavelengths from SUVI, observations such as these give solar physicists and space weather forecasters a complete picture of the conditions on the sun that drive space weather.
Credits: NOAA/NASA

#space #nasa #NOAA #suncorona #SUVI #universe

Electronic Beats

Electronic Beats
Scientists create an artificial heart fiber that can mimic the movement in a living heart.

Image:
An artificial heart fiber (left) beating at different frequencies, while a circle-shaped cantilever (right) measures the force of the contractions.
Credit: Veniamin Sidorov VIIBRE Vanderbilt

Paper:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1742706116305967

Source:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/48629/title/Image-of-the-Day--Electronic-Beats/

#research #biotechnology #artificialheart

27 February is reserved to Alan Guth

27 February is reserved to Alan Guth
Happy 70th birthday Alan Guth! Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Guth studied physics at Princeton and Columbia universities. He originally set out to become a particle theorist, but a lecture by Robert Dicke on the so-called flatness problem in cosmology inspired him to seek a solution. Invoking physics from grand unification theories, Guth proposed in 1981 a way to solve both the flatness problem (the density of the universe is suspiciously close to the value needed for eternal expansion) and the horizon problem (widely separated regions of the universe look the same despite there not having been enough time since the Big Bang for them to be in contact).

Those problems disappear, Guth wrote in his abstract, "if, in its early history, the universe supercooled to temperatures 28 or more orders of magnitude below the critical temperature for some phase transition. A huge expansion factor would then result from a period of exponential growth, and the entropy of the universe would be multiplied by a huge factor when the latent heat is released." Guth admitted that his proposal contradicted other observable properties of the universe, but he and others later modified and completed the theory, which became known as cosmic inflation.

Bio:
http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/guth_alan.html

#history #alanguth #physics #cosmology #bigbang

Celestial cycles

Celestial cycles

Work by Charlie Deck

#processing #animation #geometry #math

Pain is not just a matter of nerves

Pain is not just a matter of nerves
The sensation of pain occurs when neural pathways conduct excitation generated by tissue damage to the spinal cord, where the nociceptive information is extensively pre-processed. From there, the information is transmitted to the human brain, where the sensation of “pain” is finally created. This is the general belief. However, researchers from the Division of Neurophysiology at MedUni Vienna’s Center for Brain Research have now discovered that pain is not just a matter of nerves but that non-neuronal cells, the glial cells, are also involved in clinically relevant pain models and their activation is sufficient to amplify pain. The study has now been published in the leading journal “Science”.

Source:
https://www.meduniwien.ac.at/web/en/about-us/news/detailseite/2016/news-in-november-2016/pain-is-not-just-a-matter-of-nerves/

Image:
Glial cells are the commonest type of cells in the human brain and spinal cord. They surround neurons but are distinct from them and play an important supporting role – for example, in material transport and metabolism or the fluid balance in the brain and spinal cord.

#neuroscience #glialcells #humanbrain #research #synapticplasticity

What is VX and how deadly is it?

What is VX and how deadly is it?
When the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un collapsed at a Malaysian airport last week, poisoning was instantly suspected. But on Friday, Malaysian authorities revealed that an autopsy had turned up not just any poison, but a rare nerve agent known as VX.

VX is among the deadliest chemical weapons ever devised. A colorless, odorless liquid, similar in consistency to motor oil, it kills in tiny quantities that can be absorbed through the skin. A relative of the nerve agent Sarin, VX disrupts communications between nerves and muscles. Victims of VX initially experience nausea and dizziness. Without an antidote, the chemical eventually paralyzes the diaphragm, causing suffocation.

Source:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/24/517053496/vx-the-nerve-agent-used-to-kill-kim-jong-nam-is-rare-and-deadly

#VX #poison #nerveagent

All Planets Panorama

All Planets Panorama
For 360 degrees, a view along the plane of the ecliptic is captured in this remarkable panorama, with seven planets in a starry sky. The mosaic was constructed using images taken during January 24-26, from Nacpan Beach, El Nido in Palawan, Philippines. It covers the eastern horizon (left) in dark early morning hours and the western horizon in evening skies. While the ecliptic runs along the middle traced by a faint band of zodiacal light, the Milky Way also cuts at angles through the frame.

Clouds and the Moon join fleeting planet Mercury in the east. Yellowish Saturn, bright star Antares, and Jupiter lie near the ecliptic farther right. Hugging the ecliptic near center are Leo's alpha star Regulus and star cluster M44. The evening planets gathered along the ecliptic above the western horizon, are faint Uranus, ruddy Mars, brilliant Venus, and even fainter Neptune.

Image and info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN)

#nasa #space #science #universe #planets

February 23 is reserved to "Neutrino Astronomy"

February 23 is reserved to "Neutrino Astronomy"
On this day 30 years ago, light and neutrinos arrived on Earth from a cataclysmic stellar explosion that took place about 170,000 light-years away. The event, called Supernova 1987A, was the first supernova visible to the naked eye in nearly 400 years.

Although the bright light tipped off astronomers to the event, tiny particles called neutrinos actually arrived first. A few dozen were spotted by detectors around the world, marking the birth of neutrino astronomy. Thirty years later, scientists are still studying the remains of the supernova to learn how giant stars explode. Researchers are also detecting other neutrinos from beyond the solar system.

Article:
http://earthsky.org/space/supernova-1987a-closest-brightest-supernova-star-death
http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.9087/full/

Image:
This diagram shows SN 1987A's triple-ring system. The supernova's shock wave slammed into regions along the inner ring, heating them up and causing them to glow. The first hotspot appeared in the 1990s; now, two decades later, they're beginning to fade.
Credit: NASA / ESA / A. Feild (STScI)

#history #neutrinos #SN1987A #science #nasa #universe #space

How "Jesus Lizards" Walk on Water?

How "Jesus Lizards" Walk on Water?
The lizards range in size from less than 0.01 ounces (2 grams) upon hatching to more than 7 ounces (200 grams) as adults. Throughout their size range, they can run across water on their hind limbs at about 5 feet (1.5 meters) a second for a distance of approximately 15 feet (4.5 meters) before they sink to all fours and swim. The lizard is often called the Jesus Christ lizard in Central America because of its seeming ability to walk on water.

The stride is divided into three phases: the slap, the stroke, and the recovery. During the slap the foot moves primarily vertically downward. During the stroke it moves primarily backward. And during the recovery the foot moves up and out of the water, returning to the start position of the next step.

The lizards generate force for support during the slap phase, in which the lizards' foot plunges straight down, pushing water down and away from the foot while creating a pocket of air surrounding the foot.

The support force generated by the slap is sufficient to keep the lizards' bodies above the water's surface during the stroke phase in which they propel themselves forward by kicking their leg back through the water.

To stay upright, the lizards also create forces off to the sides called lateral reaction forces.

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgSvN70lJ6w

References:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1116_041116_jesus_lizard_2.html

#biodiversity #coolcritters #lizards #H2Osteps

Mini-guts made with nerves

Mini-guts made with nerves
When it comes to growing intestines, the first inch is the hardest—especially in a petri dish. Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have met that benchmark: they recently reported in Nature Medicine that they had grown a piece of gut—nerves, muscles and all—from a single line of human stem cells. In the future such tissue could be used for studying disease and more.

In 2011 researchers at the same center announced that they had grown intestinal tissue—but it was missing nerve cells and so was unable to contract in the undulating motion that pushes food along a colon. This time around, the scientists grew neurons separately and then combined them with another batch of stem cells that had been induced to become muscle and intestinal lining. Voilà: an inch-long piece of gut formed.

“Just like in developing human bodies, the nerve cells knew where to go,” says Michael Helmrath, surgical director of the Intestinal Rehabilitation Program at Cincinnati Children's.

The scientists then transplanted the tissue onto a living mouse's intestine so it could mature. After harvesting it for testing, they stimulated the bespoke chunk with a shock of electricity. It contracted and continued to do so on its own.

“The function was quite remarkable,” Helmrath says. Intestines now join kidneys, brain matter and a few other kinds of tissue that can be grown in the lab.

Source:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/labs-can-now-grow-your-guts/?WT.mc_id=SA_TW_HLTH_NEWS

Journal article:
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v23/n1/full/nm.4233.html

#research #stemcells #gut #nerves #medicine #health

NASA’s New Horizons, IAU Set Pluto Naming Themes

NASA’s New Horizons, IAU Set Pluto Naming Themes
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) – the internationally recognized authority for naming celestial bodies and their surface features – has approved themes submitted by NASA’s New Horizons team for naming surface features on Pluto and its moons.

In 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft delivered the first close-up views of Pluto and its five moons – amazing images of distant and surprisingly complex worlds, showing a vast nitrogen glacier as well as ice mountains, canyons, cliffs, craters and more. The IAU’s action clears the way for the mission team to propose formal names for dozens of individual surface features.

“Imagine the thrill of seeing your name suggestion on a future map of Pluto and its moons,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Washington. “Months after the Pluto flyby, the New Horizons mission continues to engage and inspire.”

Working with the New Horizons team, the IAU has agreed to naming themes (listed below) for Pluto, its largest moon, Charon, and its four smaller moons—Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Some of these themes build on the connection between the Roman god Pluto and the mythology of the underworld. Other themes celebrate the human spirit of exploration.

Pluto
● Gods, goddesses and other beings associated with the underworld from mythology, folklore and literature
● Names for the underworld and for underworld locales from mythology, folklore and literature
● Heroes and other explorers of the underworld
● Scientists and engineers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
● Pioneering space missions and spacecraft
● Historic pioneers who crossed new horizons in the exploration of the Earth, sea and sky

Charon
● Destinations and milestones of fictional space and other exploration
● Fictional and mythological vessels of space and other exploration
● Fictional and mythological voyagers, travelers and explorers
● Authors and artists associated with space exploration, especially Pluto and the Kuiper Belt

Themes for Pluto’s smaller moons are:
• Styx: River gods
• Nix: Deities of the night
• Kerberos: Dogs from literature, mythology and history
• Hydra: Legendary serpents and dragons

Source:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-iau-set-pluto-naming-themes

Image:
This composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, 2015, highlights the wide range of surface features on the small worlds.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

#space #pluto #charon #universe #nasa #IAU #science

NASA & TRAPPIST-1: A Treasure Trove of Planets Found

NASA & TRAPPIST-1: A Treasure Trove of Planets Found
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.

The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.

“This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Answering the question ‘are we alone’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal.”

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnKFaAS30X8

Source:
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around

#space #nasa #TRAPPIST #research #science #universe

21 February is reserved to Edwin Land

21 February is reserved to Edwin Land
On this day in 1947, the founder of Polaroid, Edwin Land, demonstrated instant photography at a meeting of the Optical Society of America in New York City.
Prior to World War II, Land’s company, Polaroid, had made sheets of plastic that polarized light. In 1943 Land came up with the idea of applying that technology to build a camera that could develop photos within minutes.

The camera contained film for creating negatives and sheets for printing the final picture; in between were chemical reagents that transferred images from film to photograph. Polaroid’s Model 95 camera went on sale the following year.

Bio:
http://www.biography.com/people/edwin-land-9372429

Reference:
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/land-instant-photography.html

#history #polaroid #EdwinLand #photography

Tetra-Mechanism

Tetra-Mechanism
Ohhh, like a robo-mechanism, like celestial spheres of my brain...

Work by Charlie Deck.

#animation #processing #math #coding #science

Title

SpaceX makes landing a rocket look easy 👏
While I was up in the mountains, the Falcon 9 rocket blasted off on Sunday in an historic launch from a NASA pad, depositing a spacecraft into orbit before successfully returning to earth as Elon Musk's SpaceX moved to stake its claim to shuttling humans into space. It was the 8th successful landing (out of total 13) for SpaceX.

One day after suddenly scrubbing a planned lift-off a day earlier for undisclosed technical reasons, the company became the first private space firm to launch a rocket from a NASA facility. The mission is the private space company's 10th resupply to the International Space Station. The launch is the first time that SpaceX is using the LC-39A launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center since it leased it from NASA in 2014.

References:
http://www.spacex.com/falcon9
http://spacenews.com/falcon-9-lifts-off-on-first-mission-from-kennedy-space-center-pad/
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/19/spacexs-falcon-9-reaches-for-the-stars-again-after-aborted-launch.html

#space #science #universe #NASA #SpaceX #falcon9 #ISS

Remember, you are the composer

Remember, you are the composer
of your own life and happiness.
If you don’t like the music, change the arrangement.

#personalnonsense #lifehacks

Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.

Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.

#personalnonsense

Scientists Are About to Switch on a Telescope That Could Photograph a Black Hole's Event Horizon

Scientists Are About to Switch on a Telescope That Could Photograph a Black Hole's Event Horizon
Called the Event Horizon Telescope, the new device is made up of a network of radio receivers located across the planet, including at the South Pole, in the US, Chile, and the French alps.

The network will be switched on between 5 and 14 April this year, and the results will put Einstein's theory of general relativity through its paces like never before.

The Event Horizon Telescope works using a technique known as very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI), which means the network of receivers will focus in on radio waves emitted by a particular object in space at one time.

For the black hole, they'll be focusing on radio waves with a wavelength of 1.3 mm (230 GHz), which gives them the best chance of piercing through any clouds of gas and dust blocking the black hole.

And because there are so many of these antennae all tuned in on a single spot, the resolution of the telescope should be 50 microarcseconds. To put that into perspective, it's the equivalent of being able to see a grapefruit on the surface of the Moon

That's important, because the first target will be the huge black hole at the centre of our galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, which is actually only the size of a pinprick in our night sky.

We've never directly observed Sagittarius A*, but researchers know it exists because of the way it influences the orbit of nearby stars.

Based on the behavior of these stars, researchers predict that the black hole is likely about 4 million times more massive than our Sun, but with an event horizon diameter of just 20 million km (12.4 million miles) or so across.

At a distance of around 26,000 light-years away from Earth, that makes it a pretty small target.

But the Event Horizon Telescope will aim to observe the immediate environment around the black hole, and it should be able to get enough resolution to see the black hole itself.

Reference:
http://www.eventhorizontelescope.org/

Source:
http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-are-about-to-switch-on-the-first-telescope-that-could-photograph-a-black-hole-s-event-horizon

#space #blackhole #eventhorizontelescope #universe

The oxygen content of the global ocean has decreased by more than 2% over the past 5 decades

The oxygen content of the global ocean has decreased by more than 2% over the past 5 decades
Ocean models predict a decline in the dissolved oxygen inventory of the global ocean of one to seven per cent by the year 2100, caused by a combination of a warming-induced decline in oxygen solubility and reduced ventilation of the deep ocean. It is thought that such a decline in the oceanic oxygen content could affect ocean nutrient cycles and the marine habitat, with potentially detrimental consequences for fisheries and coastal economies.

Paper:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v542/n7641/full/nature21399.html

#science #O2 #research #ocean

Penumbral Eclipse Rising

Penumbral Eclipse Rising
As seen from Cocoa Beach Pier, Florida, planet Earth, the Moon rose at sunset on February 10 while gliding through Earth's faint outer shadow. In progress was the first eclipse of 2017, a penumbral lunar eclipse followed in this digital stack of seaside exposures. Of course, the penumbral shadow is lighter than the planet's umbral shadow.

That central, dark, shadow is easily seen on the lunar disk during a total or partial lunar eclipse. Still, in this penumbral eclipse the limb of the Moon grows just perceptibly darker as it rises above the western horizon. The second eclipse of 2017 could be more dramatic though. With viewing from a path across planet Earth's southern hemisphere, on February 26 there will be an annular eclipse of the Sun.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Bill Jelen

#space #nasa #science #naturalphenomena #penumbraleclipse

Typhoid fever is caused by Salmonella typhi bacteria.

Typhoid fever is caused by Salmonella typhi bacteria. Typhoid fever is rare in industrialized countries. However, it remains a serious health threat in the developing world, especially for children.

Typhoid fever spreads through contaminated food and water or through close contact with someone who's infected. Signs and symptoms usually include high fever, headache, abdominal pain, and either constipation or diarrhea.

Most people with typhoid fever feel better within a few days of starting antibiotic treatment, although a small number of them may die of complications. Vaccines against typhoid fever are available, but they're only partially effective. Vaccines usually are reserved for those who may be exposed to the disease or are traveling to areas where typhoid fever is common.

Signs and symptoms are likely to develop gradually — often appearing one to three weeks after exposure to the disease.

Early illness
Once signs and symptoms do appear, you're likely to experience:

☛ Fever that starts low and increases daily, possibly reaching as high as 104.9 F (40.5 C)
☛ Headache
☛ Weakness and fatigue
☛ Muscle aches
☛ Sweating
☛ Dry cough
☛ Loss of appetite and weight loss
☛Abdominal pain
☛ Diarrhea or constipation
☛ Rash
☛ Extremely swollen abdomen

Later illness
If you don't receive treatment, you may:

☛ Become delirious
☛ Lie motionless and exhausted with your eyes half-closed in what's known as the typhoid state
☛ In addition, life-threatening complications often develop at this time.

In some people, signs and symptoms may return up to two weeks after the fever has subsided.

When to see a doctor
See a doctor immediately if you suspect you have typhoid fever. Better yet, find out in advance about medical care in the areas you'll visit, and carry a list of the names, addresses and phone numbers of recommended doctors.

If you develop signs and symptoms after you return home, consider consulting a doctor who focuses on international travel medicine or infectious diseases. A specialist may be able to recognize and treat your illness more quickly than can a doctor who isn't familiar with these areas.

Get informed:
https://www.cdc.gov/typhoid-fever/symptoms.html
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/typhoid-fever/basics/definition/con-20028553

Photo:
Typhoid vaccination at a school in San Augustine County, Texas, 1943

#medicine #typhoidfever #vaccine #prevention #health #infectiousdisease

The Tulip and Cygnus X-1

The Tulip and Cygnus X-1
Framing a bright emission region, this telescopic view looks out along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the nebula rich constellation Cygnus the Swan. Popularly called the Tulip Nebula, the reddish glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust is also found in the 1959 catalog by astronomer Stewart Sharpless as Sh2-101. About 8,000 light-years distant and 70 light-years across the complex and beautiful nebula blossoms at the center of this composite image.

Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars at the edge of the Cygnus OB3 association, including O star HDE 227018, ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula. HDE 227018 is the bright star near the center of the nebula. Also framed in the field of view is microquasar Cygnus X-1, one of the strongest X-ray sources in planet Earth's sky. Driven by powerful jets from a black hole accretion disk, its fainter visible curved shock front lies above and right, just beyond the cosmic Tulip's petals

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Ivan Eder

#space #nasa #science #universe #tulipnebula

It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one.

It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.

#wordsofwisdom #death

February 15, is reserved to Galileo Galilei

February 15, is reserved to Galileo Galilei
Mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher Galileo Galilei was born on this day in 1564. With the newly-invented telescope, Galileo built upon the work of Nicolaus Copernicus (also celebrating a birthday this month on 19 February), observing the moons of Jupiter for the first time. His writings and advocating for a Copernican model of the universe (meaning, that the earth revolved around the sun) led to altercations with the Roman Catholic Church, a trial for heresy, and house arrest. Galileo’s impacts on astronomy and the experimental methods of scientists are still felt today.

Bio:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/galilei_galileo.shtml

#history #GalileoGalilei #astronomy #science

India Launches 104 Satellites From a Single Rocket, Ramping Up a Space Race

India Launches 104 Satellites From a Single Rocket, Ramping Up a Space Race
NEW DELHI — India’s space agency launched a flock of 104 satellites into space over the course of 18 minutes on Wednesday, nearly tripling the previous record for single-day satellite launches and establishing India as a key player in a growing commercial market for space-based surveillance and communication.

The launch was high-risk because the satellites, released in rapid-fire fashion every few seconds from a single rocket as it traveled at 17,000 miles an hour, could collide with one another if ejected into the wrong path.

“They have spent months figuring out how to make an adapter, which will release these small babies into space one after another,” said Pallava Bagla, science editor for NDTV, a cable news station. “Now, all of them are in space.”

Wednesday’s launch was being watched closely by firms that place satellites in orbit, because India’s space agency charges substantially less than its competitors in Europe and North America, said C. Uday Bhaskar, the director of the Society for Policy Studies, a public policy research group based in New Delhi.

Eighty-eight of the 104 satellites released on Wednesday were tiny, weighing about 10 pounds. Called Doves, they belong to Planet Labs, a private company based in San Francisco that sells data to governments and commercial entities, and they constituted the largest satellite constellation ever launched into space.

The chairman of the Indian space agency, A. S. Kiran Kumar, has said that commercial fees covered around half of the cost of Wednesday’s mission.

“I’m sure the global market will be looking at this pretty closely,” Mr. Bhaskar said. “If they can send 90 of them up for $10 million, hypothetically, then just by Moore’s Law, next time they should be able to send 120 satellites.” Moore’s Law originated in the semiconductor industry and held that the number of components that could be crammed onto a computer chip would double at regular intervals.

The previous record was set by Russia’s space agency, which launched 37 satellites into orbit with one rocket in 2014.

Story via NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/world/asia/india-satellites-rocket.html?_r=0

#space #science #satellite #exploration

Autism Researchers Discover Genetic ‘Rosetta Stone’

Autism Researchers Discover Genetic ‘Rosetta Stone’
Researchers at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have found that distinct sets of genetic defects in a single neuronal protein can lead either to infantile epilepsy or to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), depending on whether the respective mutations boost the protein’s function or sabotage it.

Tracing how these particular genetic defects lead to more general changes in brain function could unlock fundamental mysteries about how events early in brain development lead to autism, the authors say.

“The genetics of neuropsychiatric disease is often complicated, but here we have a single gene in which specific mutations can cause either infantile seizures or autism in a consistent and predictable manner,” said Stephan Sanders, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCSF and member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences who is co-senior author of the new study. “This gives us an opportunity to understand both what these disorders have in common and what makes them different.”

Paper:
http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(17)30041-0/abstract

Source & further reading:
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2017/01/405631/autism-researchers-discover-genetic-rosetta-stone

#neuroscience #autism #ASD #research #mentalhealth

The Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula
Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula. Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas.

Ultraviolet light from the hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Evangelos Souglakos

#universe #space #nebula #exploration

On This Day in History, 273 AD

On This Day in History, 273 AD

The Christian martyr St. Valentine was beaten by a Roman mob and executed by beheading.

So...Happy Valentine’s Day!

#history #V'sDay

Unlocking the Mysteries of Orgasm

Unlocking the Mysteries of Orgasm
A few years back, researchers from Rutgers University managed to view the brain areas and nerve pathways that are activated in the brain when we experience an orgasm.

At that time, genital sensation was thought to reach the brain only through the spinal cord. Neuroscientist Barry R. Komisaruk studied five women with severed spinal cords, injuries that left them paralyzed in their lower torsos. During the research, the women used vaginocervical self-stimulation and felt both stimulation and pain blockage. Three experienced orgasm.

Komisaruk and his colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine how genital sensation was signaled to the brain in women without an intact spinal cord. Imaging revealed activation of an alternative pathway through the vagus nerve, a long cranial nerve that had never been shown to extend into the pelvis in humans.

The findings, published in Brain Research (Oct. 22, 2004), “gave neural validation that they [the women] must be feeling sensation,” says Komisaruk. “It turned out to be the world’s first evidence of where orgasms occur in women’s brains.”

Since then, he has been using new technology to identify the sequence of brain regional activity leading up to, during and after women’s orgasms and map where input from the clitoris, vagina, cervix and uterus project in the brain. He also is mapping men’s genital sensations and orgasms. The data so far show that the penis, scrotum and testicles project sensation to different brain regions.

Komisaruk’s current work could help people who do not experience orgasm. “Virtually nothing is known about anorgasmia in men or women, other than that SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants) have a powerful effect on blocking orgasm,” he says.

He and his colleagues are developing a method of neurobiofeedback to enable people with genital sensation but not orgasm to view “their own brain activity in real time and see where the blockage occurs.” Anorgasmic individuals possibly could learn to bypass the blockage by controlling the related brain region.

Paper:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.177.782&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Source:
http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/barry-komisaruk

Interesting reading:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150625-the-mystery-of-the-female-orgasm
http://bigthink.com/experts-corner/this-is-your-brain-during-orgasm-2

Gif:
BOLD (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent) contrast imaging showing a sequence of blood flowing to parts of the brain associated with increased activity. Yellow = Moderate activity, Red = High activity, and orange would be intermediate between the two.

#neuroscience #orgasm #humanbrain #research

Diamond Turbine

Diamond Turbine

Work by Charlie Deck

#math #processing #animation

February 13 is reserved to William Shockley

February 13 is reserved to William Shockley
Today is the birthday of William Shockley, an engineer who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain for the development of the transistor. The three scientists’ work ushered in the modern era of electronics.

Bio:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/shockley-facts.html

#history #physics #WilliamShockley

We are the scientists trying to make sense of the stars inside us.

We are the scientists trying to make sense of the stars inside us.
~ C. Poindexter

#personalnonsense

Solar System Portrait

Solar System Portrait
On Valentine's Day in 1990, cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back one last time to make this first ever Solar System family portrait. The complete portrait is a 60 frame mosaic made from a vantage point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. In it, Voyager's wide angle camera frames sweep through the inner Solar System at the left, linking up with gas giant Neptune, the Solar System's outermost planet, at the far right.

Positions for Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are indicated by letters, while the Sun is the bright spot near the center of the circle of frames. The inset frames for each of the planets are from Voyager's narrow field camera. Unseen in the portrait are Mercury, too close to the Sun to be detected, and Mars, unfortunately hidden by sunlight scattered in the camera's optical system. Closer to the Sun than Neptune at the time, small, faint Pluto's position was not covered.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: Voyager Project, NASA

#space #universe #nasa #solarsystem #science

What are blue jets?

What are blue jets?
Red sprites and blue jets are upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms.

For years, their existence has been debated: elusive electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere that sport names such as red sprites, blue jets, pixies and elves. Reported by pilots, they are difficult to study as they occur above thunderstorms.

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen during his mission on the International Space Station in 2015 was asked to take pictures over thunderstorms with the most sensitive camera on the orbiting outpost to look for these brief features.

Denmark’s National Space Institute has now published the results, confirming many kilometre-wide blue flashes around 18 km altitude, including a pulsating blue jet reaching 40 km. A video recorded by Andreas as he flew over the Bay of Bengal at 28 800 km/h on the Station shows the electrical phenomena clearly – a first of its kind.

The emissions are related to the so-called blue jets, blue starters, and possibly pixies. The observations are the first of their kind and give a new perspective on the electrical activity at the top of tropical thunderstorms; further, they underscore that thunderstorm discharges directly perturb the chemistry of the stratosphere with possible implications for the Earth's radiation balance.

Watch the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY5F_gEexAY

Paper:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL071311/full

Source:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/iriss/Blue_jets_studied_from_Space_Station

#space #ESA #bluejets #naturalphenomena #research

February 10 is reserved to Edith Clarke

February 10 is reserved to Edith Clarke
Today is the birthday of Edith Clarke, the first female electrical engineer and the first female professor of electrical engineering in the US. She was born in 1883 in Howard County, Maryland.

During her career, Clarke published 18 technical papers, received a patent for a graphical calculator, became the first female Fellow of the AIEE, and received the Society of Women Engineers’ achievement award.

Bio:
http://www.edisontechcenter.org/Clarke.html

#womeninSTEM #EdithClarke #engineering

How big is a star?

How big is a star?
Every star you see in the night sky is bigger and brighter than our sun. Of the 5,000 or so stars brighter than magnitude 6, only a handful of very faint stars are approximately the same size and brightness of our sun and the rest are all bigger and brighter.

Of the 500 or so that are brighter than 4th magnitude (which includes essentially every star visible to the unaided eye from a urban location), all are intrinsically bigger and brighter than our sun, many by a large percentage.

Of the brightest 50 stars visible to the human eye from Earth, the least intrinsically bright is Alpha Centauri, which is still more than 1.5 times more luminous than our sun, and cannot be easily seen from most of the Northern Hemisphere.

It’s hard to comprehend the sheer size of objects in space, but let’s give it a try!

Video
Credit/Courtesy: ESO

#ESO #NASA #space #science #stars #cosmos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAwTftmph68

Infinite unwinder

Infinite unwinder
In reality the universe has no geometry.

Work by Charlie Deck

#math #geometry #processing #coding

Bioluminescent sensor causes brain cells to glow in the dark

Bioluminescent sensor causes brain cells to glow in the dark
A new kind of bioluminescent sensor causes individual brain cells to imitate fireflies and glow in the dark.

The probe, which was developed by a team of Vanderbilt scientists, is a genetically modified form of luciferase, the enzyme that a number of other species including fireflies use to produce light. It is described in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

The scientists created the technique as a new and improved method for tracking the interactions within large neural networks in the brain.

“For a long time neuroscientists relied on electrical techniques for recording the activity of neurons. These are very good at monitoring individual neurons but are limited to small numbers of neurons. The new wave is to use optical techniques to record the activity of hundreds of neurons at the same time,” said Carl Johnson, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences, who headed the effort.

“Most of the efforts in optical recording use fluorescence, but this requires a strong external light source which can cause the tissue to heat up and can interfere with some biological processes, particularly those that are light sensitive,” he said.

Journal article:
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13268

Source:
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2016/10/27/bioluminescent-sensor-causes-brain-cells-to-glow-in-the-dark/

Image:
Individual neuron glowing with bioluminescent light produced by a new genetically engineered sensor. (Johnson Lab / Vanderbilt University)

#neuroscience #optogenetics #brain #science #research #calciumions #hippocampus

Do I need to say more?

Do I need to say more?

#personalnonsense

The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble

The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust.

This sharp close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope and is presented here in reprocessed colors. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA;
Reprocessing & Copyright: Jesús M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal

#space #nasa #nebula #universe #science #hubble

Now Hear This

Now Hear This
Gene therapy restores hearing in deaf mice, down to a whisper
In the summer of 2015, a team at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School reported restoring rudimentary hearing in genetically deaf mice using gene therapy. Now the Boston Children's research team reports restoring a much higher level of hearing -- down to 25 decibels, the equivalent of a whisper -- using an improved gene therapy vector developed at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

The new vector and the mouse studies are described in two back-to-back papers in Nature Biotechnology.

While previous vectors have only been able to penetrate the cochlea's inner hair cells, the first Nature Biotechnology study showed that a new synthetic vector, Anc80, safely transferred genes to the hard-to-reach outer hair cells when introduced into the cochlea.

This study's three Harvard Medical School senior investigators were Jeffrey R. Holt PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital; Konstantina Stankovic, MD, PhD, of Mass. Eye and Ear and Luk H. Vandenberghe, PhD, who led Anc80's development in 2015 at Mass. Eye and Ear's Grousbeck Gene Therapy Center.

"We have shown that Anc80 works remarkably well in terms of infecting cells of interest in the inner ear," says Stankovic, an otologic surgeon at Mass. Eye and Ear and associate professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School. "With more than 100 genes already known to cause deafness in humans, there are many patients who may eventually benefit from this technology."

The second study, led by Gwenaëlle Géléoc, PhD, of the Department of Otolaryngology and F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children's, used Anc80 to deliver a specific corrected gene in a mouse model of Usher syndrome, the most common genetic form of deaf-blindness that also impairs balance function.

"This strategy is the most effective one we've tested," Géléoc says. "Outer hair cells amplify sound, allowing inner hair cells to send a stronger signal to the brain. We now have a system that works well and rescues auditory and vestibular function to a level that's never been achieved before."

Journal article:
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.3801.html

Source:
https://hms.harvard.edu/news/now-hear

Image:
Top: Red stain shows mouse hair cells alone.
Middle: Hair cells take up the vector, which carries a gene for green fluorescent protein.
Bottom: All cells that took up the vector are shown in green. Image credit: Charlie Askew and Jeffrey Holt

#research #hearing #deaf #health #genetherapy #medicine

NGC 6357: The Lobster Nebula

NGC 6357: The Lobster Nebula
Why is the Lobster Nebula forming some of the most massive stars known? No one is yet sure. Near the more obvious Cat's Paw nebula on the upper right, the Lobster Nebula, on the lower left and cataloged as NGC 6357, houses the open star cluster Pismis 24, home to these tremendously bright and blue stars.

The overall red glow near the inner star forming region results from the emission of ionized hydrogen gas. The surrounding nebula, featured here, holds a complex tapestry of gas, dark dust, stars still forming, and newly born stars. The intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity.

The full zoomable version of this image contains about two billion pixels, making it one of the largest space images ever released. NGC 6357 spans about 400 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion.

Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: ESO, VLT Survey Telescope

#nasa #eso #space #nebula #science #space

Instead of politicians, let the monkeys govern the countries; at least they will steal only the bananas!

Instead of politicians, let the monkeys govern the countries; at least they will steal only the bananas!

#wordsofwisdom

February 7, is reserved to Bruce McCandless

February 7, is reserved to Bruce McCandless
On this day in 1984, US astronaut Bruce McCandless II (pictured) performed the first untethered spacewalk. With the use of hand controllers at the ends of NASA’s manned maneuvering unit, McCandless was able to steer the craft and fly some 90 meters from the space shuttle Challenger.

Reference:
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-celebrates-50-years-of-spacewalking

Photo:
In this Feb. 7, 1984 photograph taken by his fellow crewmembers aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-41B mission, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II approaches his maximum distance from the vehicle.

#nasa #space #history #spacewalking

Singularity matrix

Singularity matrix
A gravitational singularity is a location in space-time where the gravitational field of a celestial body becomes infinite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system.
But keep your eyes on the dots ;)

Work by Charlie Deck

#math #animation #processing #coding

Saturn - Rings

Saturn - Rings
The rings of Saturn have puzzled astronomers since Galileo Galilei discovered them with his telescope in 1610. Detailed study by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s only increased the mystery.

There are billions of ring particles in the entire ring system. The ring particle sizes range from tiny, dust-sized icy grains to a few particles as large as mountains. Two tiny moons orbit in gaps (Encke and Keeler gaps) in the rings and keep the gaps open. Other particles (10s to 100s of meters) are too tiny to see, but create propeller-shaped objects in the rings that let us know they are there.

The rings are believed to be pieces of comets, asteroids or shattered moons that broke up before they reached the planet. Each ring orbits at a different speed around the planet. Information from NASA's Cassini mission will help reveal how they formed, how they maintain their orbit and, above all, why they are there in the first place.

While the other three gas planets in the solar system -- Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune -- have rings orbiting around them, Saturn's are by far the largest and most spectacular. With a thickness of about one kilometer (3,200 feet) or less, they span up to 282,000 km (175,000 miles), about three quarters of the distance between the Earth and its Moon.

Named alphabetically in the order they were discovered, the rings are relatively close to each other, with the exception of the Cassini Division, a gap measuring 4,700 km (2,920 miles). The main rings are, working outward from the planet, known as C, B and A. The Cassini Division is the largest gap in the rings and separates Rings B and A.

The D Ring is exceedingly faint and closest to the planet. The F Ring is a narrow feature just outside the A Ring. Beyond that are two far fainter rings named G and E. The rings show a tremendous amount of structure on all scales; some of this structure is related to gravitational perturbations by Saturn's many moons, but much of it remains unexplained.

To enter Saturn's orbit, Cassini flew through the gap between the F and G rings, which is farther from the planet than the Cassini Division. As a safety measure, during the crossing of the ring plane, instruments and cameras on board the spacecraft were shut off temporarily. However, the spectacular crossing into Saturn's orbit brought incredible information, images and footage. The instruments on board Cassini are still collecting unique data that may answer many questions about the rings' composition.

Reference:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Saturn_s_rings
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/rings


#nasa #space #science #saturnrings #cassini #universe
#exploration