Gizmorama
March 17, 2010
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Good Morning,
In the ongoing search for answers on how the universe was
created, NASA considers taking a sample from an asteroid
that is known to be older than our solar system. Read all
the details on this idea and what it could mean for astronomy
as we know it in the middle segment.
Until Next Time,
Erin
Questions? Comments? Email me at: mailto:gizmo@gophercentral.com
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Cells in amniotic fluid become stem cells
NEW YORK - Scientists at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine
in New York say they've found skin cells found in human
amniotic fluid can become embryonic-like stem cells. The
researchers led by Assistant Professor Katalin Polgar found
when compared to cultured adult skin cells, the amniotic
fluid skin cells formed stem cell colonies in about half
the time and yielded nearly a 200 percent increase in number.
"There remains today a need in stem cell research for an
easily reprogrammable cell type, "Polgar said. "Our study
shows that reprogramming of cultured, terminally differenti-
ated amniotic fluid cells results in pluripotent stem cells
that are identical to human embryonic stem cells, and that
it is much easier, faster and more efficient than reprogram-
ming neonatal and adult cells." Amniotic fluid skin cells
can be safely obtained from pregnant women undergoing amni-
ocentesis at about 15 weeks of pregnancy as part of a diag-
nostic workup for chromosome aberrations and other genetic
diseases, the researchers said. About 99 percent of cells
found in amniotic fluid are terminally differentiated cells
mostly from fetal skin, which are shed into the amniotic
fluid as a fetus develops. Such cells, they said, could
become an important source for generating stem cells for
basic research and future therapies. The study appears in
the ahead-of-print online edition of the journal Cellular
Reprogramming (formerly Cloning and Stem Cells),
Hormone hikes cotton yields in droughts
LUBBOCK, Texas - U.S. government scientists say they've
found a naturally occurring class of plant hormones called
cytokinins can help increase cotton yields during droughts.
The researchers, led by John Burke, director of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Cropping Systems Research Labora-
tory in Lubbock, Texas, said cytokinins are known to promote
cell division and growth in plants. Commercially produced
cytokinins are routinely applied in apple and pistachio
orchards to promote fruit growth. But in the recent study,
Burke discovered applying cytokinins to cotton crops can
increase yields in water-limited environments with reduced
irrigation or no irrigation. Burke said tests determined one
application of cytokinins produced a 5 percent to 10 percent
increase in yields under water-reduced conditions. Addition-
ally, tests determined cytokinins didn't help or hinder
yields under fully irrigated or rainy conditions, thereby
making it safe for use in all weather environments. The re-
searcher said to be effective, the cytokinins should be
applied at a relatively low concentration to cotton seeds or
to cotton plants at an early stage of development. The
USDA's Agriculture Research Service said it's working with
commercial companies to make the material available to
cotton growers. Burke has been granted a patent for his
discovery.
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NASA considers sampling another asteroid
GREENBELT, Md. - NASA says it is considering a project that
would return a sample from asteroid 1999 RQ36 that might
shed light on how the solar system was born. "This asteroid
is a time capsule from before the birth of our solar system,"
said Bill Cutlip of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md. If selected, Goddard will provide overall
mission management for OSIRIS-REx, working with the Principal
Investigator, Michael Drake, director of the Lunar and Plan-
etary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems would build the spacecraft. "You can't
underestimate the value of a pristine sample," Cutlip added.
Meteorites, pieces of asteroids that break away and plunge to
Earth, are "toasted on their way through Earth's atmosphere,"
Cutlip said. "Once they land, they then soak up the microbes
and chemicals from the environment around them." OSIRIS-Rex
project science Joseph Nuth added, "With a pristine sample ?
scientists will learn more about the time before the birth
of our solar system, the initial stages of planet formation
and the source of organic compounds available for the origin
of life." OSIRIS-REx was one of three proposals selected by
NASA in December for more study under its New Frontiers pro-
gram. Whichever mission is selected, it must be ready for
launch no later than December 30, 2018. More information
about OSIRIS-REx is available at
http://gsfctechnology.gsfc.nasa.gov/ORIRIS.htm.
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Energy waste creates hydrogen fuel
MADISON, Wis. - U.S. scientists say they have created a
simple and cost-effective technology that uses small amounts
of waste energy to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Assistant Professor Huifang
Xu, who led the study, said his team grew nanocrystals of
two common crystals -- zinc oxide and barium titanate --
and placed them into water. When pulsed with ultrasonic
vibrations, the nanofibers flexed and catalyzed a chemical
reaction to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxy-
gen. The researchers explained that when the fibers bend,
asymmetries in their crystal structures generate positive
and negative charges and create an electrical potential.
That phenomenon, called the piezoelectric effect, is well
known in certain crystals and is the driving force behind
quartz clocks. Xu and his colleagues applied the same idea
to nanocrystal fibers and, so far, have achieved 18 percent
efficiency -- higher than most experimental energy sources.
Rather than harvest the energy directly, the scientists used
it to break the chemical bonds in water and produce oxygen
and hydrogen gas. Xu said the process might eventually be
used to generate power from a multitude of small sources --
walking could charge a cell and breezes could power street-
lights. The study that included Kuang-Sheng Hong, Hiromi
Konishi and Professor Xiaochun Li is reported in the March 2
issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Map of Jupiter's red spot interior created
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA says new thermal images from power-
ful Earth-based telescopes have produced the first detailed
interior map of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The space agency
says the images show swirls of warmer air and cooler regions
never seen before within the Great Red Spot, revealing the
reddest color corresponds to a warm core within the other-
wise cold storm system. NASA said the data give astronomers
and other scientists a sense of the circulation patterns
within the solar system's best-known storm system. "This is
our first detailed look inside the biggest storm of the
solar system," said Glenn Orton, a senior research scientist
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We
once thought the Great Red Spot was a plain old oval without
much structure, but these new results show that it is, in
fact, extremely complicated." Space agency scientists said
the spot -- a cold region averaging about minus 260 degrees
Fahrenheit -- is so wide about three Earths could fit inside
its boundaries. The thermal images were obtained by three
giant 26-foot telescopes -- the European Southern Observa-
tory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, the Gemini Observatory
telescope in Chile and the National Astronomical Observatory
of Japan's Subaru telescope in Hawaii. The research appears
in the journal Icarus.
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