December 5, 2011

Good Morning,

British researchers have set out to explore the biological effects of deep space travel, and they have found that worms are pretty resilient. Read all the details and why this is important for future space exploration in the last article.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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New concerns about airport body scanners

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The head of a Florida commuter group suggests anyone who flies several times a week may want to avoid airport body scanners in the wake of a cancer report. European authorities banned the machines earlier this month after studies linked them to a small number of cancer cases, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Wednesday. Steve Landes, director of the South Florida Airline Commuters Association, said frequent fliers might want to avoid the scanners. "Let's put it this way: I would have to be a fool to say I wouldn't have any concerns," Landes said. The scanners use low-level radiation to detect dangerous items on passengers. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has declined comment on the Nov. 14 decision by the European Commission to ban the machines at all airports in Europe. The ban was ordered after a PBS Newshour/ProPublica report said that research suggests anywhere from six to 100 U.S. airline passengers each year could get cancer from the scanners.


Study: Security gaps in Android phones

RALEIGH, N.C. - U.S. researchers say some smartphones using the Android mobile platform are particularly vulnerable to hackers. Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at North Caroline State, said some pre-loaded applications are built on top of the existing Android architecture in such a way as to create potential backdoors that can be used to give third-parties direct access to personal information or other phone features. Jiang said HTC's Legend, EVO 4G and Wildfire S, Motorola's Droid X and Samsung's Epic 4G all had significant vulnerabilities. The researchers, however, said they notified manufacturers of the vulnerabilities as soon as they were discovered. "If you have one of these phones, your best bet to protect yourself moving forward is to make sure you accept security updates from your vendor," Jiang said Wednesday in a release. "And avoid installing any apps that you don't trust completely." The research, supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office, is scheduled to be presented in February at a conference in San Diego.


3-D printer creates bone-like material

PULLMAN, Wash. - U.S. researchers say they've optimized a 3-D printer to create a bone-like material that can be used for orthopedic and dental work. Washington State University researchers said they used a ProMetal 3D printer with an inkjet that sprays a plastic binder over a bed of powder in layers about half the width of a human hair. The printer creates a channeled cylinder the size of a pencil eraser that can act as a scaffold for actual bone to grow on. Susmita Bose, a professor in WSU's School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, said it's possible doctors will be able to custom order replacement bone tissue in a few years. "If a doctor has a CT scan of a defect, we can convert it to a CAD file and make the scaffold according to the defect," Bose said Wednesday in a release. The findings are published in the journal Dental Materials.


Worms survive months in space

NOTTINGHAM, England - British researchers say a colony of worms that survived a trip into space is providing insight into the biological effects of deep space missions. In December 2006, a team of scientists led by Nathaniel Szewczyk of the University of Nottingham in England sent 4,000 microscopic worms, known as C. elegans, into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery. They successfully monitored the effect of low Earth orbit on 12 generations of the worms during the first three months of their six month voyage on board the International Space Station. "We have been able to show that worms can grow and reproduce in space for long enough to reach another planet and that we can remotely monitor their health," Szewczyk said in a university release. "Ultimately, we are now in a position to be able to remotely grow and study an animal on another planet." The research was published Wednesday in Interface, a journal of The Royal Society.

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