amazing stevana: 2013

Friday, October 25, 2013

BUSM researchers identify molecule that could aid lung cancer detection, treatment

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Oct-2013

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Contact: Jenny Eriksen Leary
jenny.eriksen@bmc.org
617-638-6841
Boston University Medical Center

(Boston) Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered a molecule that could help lead to the non-invasive detection of lung cancer as well as its treatment. Using RNA sequencing, the team looked at airway epithelial cells and identified a regulatory molecule that was less abundant in people with lung cancer and inhibits lung cancer cell growth. The findings, which are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that this molecule may aid in diagnosing lung cancer in earlier stages and could potentially, when at healthy levels, aid in treating the disease.

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States, and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths among men and approximately 80 percent of lung cancer deaths among women are due to smoking. The NCI also estimates that approximately 373,489 Americans are living with lung cancer and its treatment costs approximately $10.3 billion in the United States each year.

MicroRNA's are a new class of molecules classified as important regulators of the activity of other genes. In this study, the research team used a next-generation RNA sequencing technology and identified that a microRNA named miR-4423 in epithelial airway cells plays a major role in how these cells develop. In epithelial cells from the airway of smokers with lung cancer, levels of miR-4423 were decreased.

"These results suggest measuring the levels of microRNAs like miR-4423 in cells that line the airway could aid in lung cancer detection through a relatively non-invasive procedure," said Avrum Spira, MD, MSc, the Alexander Graham Bell professor of medicine and chief of the division of computational biomedicine at BUSM, one of the study's senior authors.

Using experimental models in vitro and in vivo, the research team demonstrated that miR-4423 can both promote the development of the normal airway cells and suppress lung cancer cell growth. This suggests that miR-4423 plays a major regulatory role in cell fate decisions made by airway epithelial cells during maturation and low levels of miR-4423 contributes to lung cancer development. Interestingly, throughout the body, miR-4423 seems only to be present in high levels in the airway epithelium, suggesting this could be a very specific process occurring only in the lungs.

"Our findings open up the option to study whether returning miR-4423 levels to normal in the airway could help stop cancer growth and potentially be a way to treat lung cancer," said Catalina Perdomo, PhD, a researcher in the division of computational biomedicine at BUSM who is the paper's lead author.

"Interestingly, when we examined the genomes of other species for microRNAs that might function like miR-4423, we did not find anything in non-primates," said Marc Lenburg, PhD, an associate professor in computational medicine and bioinformatics at BUSM who is one the study's senior authors. "It makes us wonder what it is different about lung development in primates and excited that this could be a very specific process to target for lung cancer treatment."

###

This study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute Early Detection Research Network under grant award numbers R01 CA 124640 and U01 CA152751; the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship under grant award number P50CA58184; and Merit Review grants 5I01BX000359 and R43HL088807-01.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

BUSM researchers identify molecule that could aid lung cancer detection, treatment

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Oct-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Jenny Eriksen Leary
jenny.eriksen@bmc.org
617-638-6841
Boston University Medical Center

(Boston) Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered a molecule that could help lead to the non-invasive detection of lung cancer as well as its treatment. Using RNA sequencing, the team looked at airway epithelial cells and identified a regulatory molecule that was less abundant in people with lung cancer and inhibits lung cancer cell growth. The findings, which are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that this molecule may aid in diagnosing lung cancer in earlier stages and could potentially, when at healthy levels, aid in treating the disease.

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States, and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths among men and approximately 80 percent of lung cancer deaths among women are due to smoking. The NCI also estimates that approximately 373,489 Americans are living with lung cancer and its treatment costs approximately $10.3 billion in the United States each year.

MicroRNA's are a new class of molecules classified as important regulators of the activity of other genes. In this study, the research team used a next-generation RNA sequencing technology and identified that a microRNA named miR-4423 in epithelial airway cells plays a major role in how these cells develop. In epithelial cells from the airway of smokers with lung cancer, levels of miR-4423 were decreased.

"These results suggest measuring the levels of microRNAs like miR-4423 in cells that line the airway could aid in lung cancer detection through a relatively non-invasive procedure," said Avrum Spira, MD, MSc, the Alexander Graham Bell professor of medicine and chief of the division of computational biomedicine at BUSM, one of the study's senior authors.

Using experimental models in vitro and in vivo, the research team demonstrated that miR-4423 can both promote the development of the normal airway cells and suppress lung cancer cell growth. This suggests that miR-4423 plays a major regulatory role in cell fate decisions made by airway epithelial cells during maturation and low levels of miR-4423 contributes to lung cancer development. Interestingly, throughout the body, miR-4423 seems only to be present in high levels in the airway epithelium, suggesting this could be a very specific process occurring only in the lungs.

"Our findings open up the option to study whether returning miR-4423 levels to normal in the airway could help stop cancer growth and potentially be a way to treat lung cancer," said Catalina Perdomo, PhD, a researcher in the division of computational biomedicine at BUSM who is the paper's lead author.

"Interestingly, when we examined the genomes of other species for microRNAs that might function like miR-4423, we did not find anything in non-primates," said Marc Lenburg, PhD, an associate professor in computational medicine and bioinformatics at BUSM who is one the study's senior authors. "It makes us wonder what it is different about lung development in primates and excited that this could be a very specific process to target for lung cancer treatment."

###

This study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute Early Detection Research Network under grant award numbers R01 CA 124640 and U01 CA152751; the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship under grant award number P50CA58184; and Merit Review grants 5I01BX000359 and R43HL088807-01.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/bumc-bri102513.php
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Grand jury in 1999 indicted Ramseys in JonBenet's death

DENVER — And we still don't know who killed her.

A grand jury investigating JonBenet Ramsey’s death found her parents did “unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously” put their daughter into a situation that resulted in her slaying, according to documents released Friday.

Those stark words — printed on four pages of grand jury documents from 1999 released by the Boulder County District Court’s office — indicted John Ramsey and his wife, Patsy, on two counts each:

COUNT IV

On or between December 25, and December 26, 1996, in Boulder County, Colorado Patricia Paugh Ramsey did unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously permit a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation which posed a threat of injury to the child’s life or health, which resulted in the death of JonBenet Ramsey, a child under the age of sixteen.

An identical indictment contained John Ramsey’s name.

Another document, Count VII, alleged that each parent did “render assistance to a person, with intent to hinder, delay and prevent the discovery, detention, apprehension, prosecution, conviction and punishment of such person for the commission of a crime.”

“The grand jury found probable cause to believe that both of the Ramseys were responsible for their daughter’s death,” Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor and current defense attorney in the Denver area, told Yahoo News.

But while the grand jury believed there was probable cause to prosecute the Ramseys, the district attorney at the time disagreed.

“Whether it ever means there’s going to be a prosecution, whether it means there’s ever going to be justice for this little girl, I don’t believe it changes anything,” Steinhauser said. But she added that, hypothetically, new evidence could drag the case back into the spotlight.

Lin Wood, John Ramsey’s attorney, was not immediately available for comment, his office said.

Earlier this year, Wood said: "I have known for years that Boulder prosecutors did not file charges against John and Patsy Ramsey because the evidence to prosecute them did not exist.”

The documents certainly aren’t cathartic for anyone — whether for casual observers or for those who obsessively pored over every scrap of evidence for 17 years. Friday’s answers only prompt more questions: Why exactly did the grand jury reach those conclusions? Counts IV and VII were released, but were there others and what did they say? To whom did the grand jury believe the Ramseys possibly rendered “assistance”?

Answers may never see light because while the court was expected to issue 18 total pages from the grand jury’s report, it only released four after a judge ruled Wednesday that signed pages in the jury’s report would be made public. Judge J. Robert Lowenbach ordered that pages signed by the jury foreman — also called “true bills” — are the only official documents. The Daily Camera, a local Boulder newspaper, sued for their release.

The slaying of the 6-year-old beauty queen drew intense international media coverage and snared the imagination of several authors, made-for-TV film producers and amateur sleuths largely because of the horrific way in which she died. But the case also fanned passions because of home-video footage of her dancing — dolled up in adult outfits and pancake makeup — at beauty pageants, the family’s affluence and a bizarre, possibly red-herring ransom note.

In January, the Daily Camera reported that the grand jury had voted in the fall of 1999 to indict the Ramseys on charges of child abuse resulting in death, but Alex Hunter, the district attorney at the time, refused to prosecute. Hunter said he believed he did not have “sufficient evidence to warrant a filing of charges” against the Ramseys.

Friday’s revelations complicate a public exoneration of the Ramseys from more than five years ago.

On July 8, 2008, former District Attorney Mary Lacy wrote John Ramsey a letter that essentially cleared the family, at least in the eyes of her office. She told him that new DNA evidence shifted suspicion from the couple and their son, Burke, who was 9 when his sister was killed. A lab, Lacy said, recovered an unknown male’s DNA from JonBenet’s clothing.

“The match of male DNA […] makes it clear to us that an unknown male handled these items,” Lacy wrote.

Because the grand jury’s investigation occurred years before the new DNA evidence, it’s impossible to say what effect those findings would have had on the jury’s conclusions.

In that letter, Lacy added in a much more personal tone: “To the extent that we may have contributed in any way to the public perception that you might have been involved in this crime, I am deeply sorry. We intend in the future to treat you as the victims of this crime.” A pre-recorded message at her law office in Boulder on Friday said she was not taking calls.

Patsy Ramsey died on June 24, 2006, from ovarian cancer. John Ramsey, now 69, remarried in 2011.

The morning after Christmas in 1996, JonBenet’s father found her dead with her wrists tied and mouth duct-taped in the basement of the family’s sprawling Tudor home in Boulder’s moneyed western edge.

Earlier that morning, Patsy Ramsey called 911 to report JonBenet missing after discovering a ransom note addressed to her husband. The note’s authors said they were “a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction” and tried to exhort $118,000 in exchange for JonBenet’s safe return.

Is this the end of the JonBenet saga, at least for a while?

“I would hate to say that because I think way back after the grand jury, we thought that was the last word.” Steinhauser said. “And I’m not sure there is any such thing in this type of case. It’s a very, very sad case because we’re talking about the death of a little girl, and probably no one is going to be held responsible for that death.”

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jonbenet-ramsey-grand-jury-documents-findings-212302504.html
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Negotiators looking for only a small budget deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Forget a grand bargain. Reaching even a small budget deal will be a challenge.

That's the early assessment from lawmakers and others as budget talks gear up in hopes of salvaging some agreement after this month's shutdown debacle and debt limit crisis.

Longstanding differences over taxes make a large-scale deal virtually impossible. Republicans say they won't agree to further taxes atop the 10-year, $600 billion-plus increase on upper-income earners that President Barack Obama and Democrats won in January. Without higher taxes, Democrats say they're unwilling to cut benefit programs like Medicare.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan told The Associated Press on Thursday he's still hopeful the talks will produce a smaller deal, perhaps one that eases immediate automatic spending cuts in exchange for trimming the growth of benefit programs.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-24-US-Budget-Battle/id-d0d71ab5820b42918d7762b7ea158325
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Both sides agree: No major budget deal foreseen

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2013, photo, House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., laughs as he walks to his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. Forget a grand bargain. Reaching even a small budget deal will be a challenge when negotiators start meeting in an effort to salvage any kind of agreement in the aftermath of this month’s shutdown debacle and debt limit crisis. "If we focus on some big, grand bargain then we’re going to focus on our differences and both sides are going to require that the other side compromises some core principle and then we’ll get nothing done," Ryan, said in an interview on Oct. 24. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — On this, Republican budget guru Rep. Paul Ryan and the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid, can agree: There won't be a "grand bargain" on the budget.

Instead, the Wisconsin Republican and the Nevada Democrat both say the best Washington can do in this bitterly partisan era of divided government is a small-ball bargain that tries to take the edge off of automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.

Official Capitol Hill negotiations start next week, but Ryan and Reid both weighed in Thursday to tamp down any expectations that the talks might forge a large-scale agreement after several previous high-level talks have failed.

According to lawmakers, their aides and observers who will be monitoring the talks, long-standing, entrenched differences over taxes make a large-scale budget pact virtually impossible.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-25-Budget%20Battle/id-72362e11ada840c2b7e67bca895fc1dd
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HTC One gets bonus Google Drive storage as Sense 5.5 update rolls out abroad

Google is taking a page out of Dropbox's book and offering free extra storage for certain HTC One handsets. The HTC One Max got 50GB of storage space out of the box, but we've been tipped that those with the handset's smaller sibling will net an additional 25GB of room in the cloud,all thanks to the international Sense 5.5 (and Android 4.3) update that readers have already started receiving in Europe. These expansions are in addition to the complimentary 15GB of Drive space available to all Google users, bringing the allotted storage totals to 65GB and 40GB for the One Max and One, respectively. There are a few caveats, though. According to Mountain View, the HTC One Developer Edition isn't eligible for this due to its unlocked bootloader. Furthermore, you can only activate this promo once per Google account, which rules out gaming the offer to get even more space. Got all that? Good -- there's a quiz later.

[Thanks, Jakub]

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/25/htc-one-sense-55-google-drive-bonanza/?ncid=rss_truncated
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Hailee Steinfeld: Sirius XM Cutie

Heading out for more promotional duties for her highly anticipated film "Ender's Game," Hailee Steinfeld stopped by Sirius XM studios in New York City on Wednesday (October 23).

The 16-year-old actress donned a leopard shirt with black leather pants as she enjoyed a cold beverage on the busy street.

Recently, Miss Steinfeld discussed how excited she was when she first heard about her role based on the bestseller by Orson Scott Card sci-fi flick.

"Reading the script, I thought, 'How much fun is this going to be to film?" Hailee stated. "When you go back through [the book], it has some really serious elements that really came into perspective when we were thrown into this boot camp. Thankfully, we were able to have some fun but it was intense."

Also discussing her co-star Harrison Ford, the "True Grit" star joked, "Lots of people will ask if I even known who Harrison Ford is. His work was definitely carried across my generation. Working with him was just the coolest experience."

In regards to her role as Petra, Miss Steinfeld said, "Somewhere in their story, every character I have played really comes through as a young woman, learns to stick up for themselves, creates their own voice and becomes comfortable in their own skin - I really love that."

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/hailee-steinfeld/hailee-steinfeld-sirius-xm-cutie-949094
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The Fascinating Science Behind Why a Tapped Beer Foams Over

Scientists have figured out how flying insects fly. They've created real-life lightsabers. But they're at their best when they're tackling the mysteries of beer. Now, thanks to a research team studying fluid mechanics, we finally know why bottled beer foams over after a tap on the mouth — with slow-mo footage and everything.

Who Wants a Balloon Ride to Space?

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011, AT 3:07 PM
Obama Gets Firsthand Look at a Tornado Damage

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2013/10/balloon_ride_to_space_world_view_enterprises_may_offer_commercial_trips.html
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Thursday, October 24, 2013

ALMA reveals ghostly shape of 'coldest place in the universe'

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Oct-2013

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Contact: Charles Blue
cblue@nrao.edu
434-296-0314
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

At a cosmologically crisp one degree Kelvin (minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit), the Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known object in the Universe colder, in fact, than the faint afterglow of the Big Bang, which is the natural background temperature of space.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have taken a new look at this intriguing object to learn more about its frigid properties and to determine its true shape, which has an eerily ghost-like appearance.

As originally observed with ground-based telescopes, this nebula appeared lopsided, which is how it got its name. Later observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a bow-tie-like structure. The new ALMA data, however, reveal that the Hubble image tells only part of the story, and the twin lobes seen in that image may actually be a trick of the light as seen at visible wavelengths.

"This ultra-cold object is extremely intriguing and we're learning much more about its true nature with ALMA," said Raghvendra Sahai, a researcher and principal scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. "What seemed like a double lobe, or 'boomerang' shape, from Earth-based optical telescopes, is actually a much broader structure that is expanding rapidly into space."

The Boomerang Nebula, located about 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, is a relatively young example of an object known as a planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae, contrary to their name, are actually the end-of-life phases of stars like our Sun that have sloughed off their outer layers. What remains at their centers are white dwarf stars, which emit intense ultraviolet radiation that causes the gas in the nebulae to glow and emit light in brilliant colors.

The Boomerang is a pre-planetary nebula, representing the stage in a star's life immediately preceding the planetary nebula phase, when the central star is not yet hot enough to emit enough ultraviolet radiation to produce the characteristic glow. At this stage, the nebula is seen by starlight reflecting off its dust grains.

The outflow of gas from this particular star is expanding rapidly and cooling itself in the process. This is similar in principle to the way refrigerators use expanding gas to produce cold temperatures. The researchers were able to take the temperature of the gas in the nebula by seeing how it absorbed the cosmic microwave background radiation, which has a very uniform temperature of 2.8 degrees Kelvin (minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit).

"When astronomers looked at this object in 2003 with Hubble, they saw a very classic 'hourglass' shape," commented Sahai. "Many planetary nebulae have this same double-lobe appearance, which is the result of streams of high-speed gas being jettisoned from the star. The jets then excavate holes in a surrounding cloud of gas that was ejected by the star even earlier in its lifetime as a red giant."

Observations with single-dish millimeter wavelength telescopes, however, did not detect the narrow waist seen by Hubble. Instead, they found a more uniform and nearly spherical outflow of material.

ALMA's unprecedented resolution allowed the researchers to reconcile this discrepancy. By observing the distribution of carbon monoxide molecules, which glow brightly at millimeter wavelengths, the astronomers were able to detect the double-lobe structure that is seen in the Hubble image, but only in the inner regions of the nebula. Further out, they actually observed a more elongated cloud of cold gas that is roughly round.

The researchers also discovered a dense lane of millimeter-sized dust grains surrounding the star, which explains why this outer cloud has an hourglass shape in visible light. The dust grains have created a mask that shades a portion of the central star and allows its light to leak out only in narrow but opposite directions into the cloud, giving it an hourglass appearance.

"This is important for the understanding of how stars die and become planetary nebulae," said Sahai. "Using ALMA, we were quite literally and figuratively able to shed new light on the death throes of a Sun-like star."

The new research also indicated that the outer fringes of the nebula are beginning to warm, even though they are still slightly colder than the cosmic microwave background. This warming may be due to the photoelectric effect -- an effect first proposed by Einstein in which light is absorbed by solid material, which then re-emits electrons.
###

Additional authors on this paper include Wouter Vlemmings, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala, Sweden; Patrick Huggins, New York University, New York; Lars-Ake Nyman, Joint ALMA Observatory, Santiago de Chile; and Yiannis Gonidakis, CSIRO, Australia Telescope National Facility.

ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

ALMA reveals ghostly shape of 'coldest place in the universe'

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Oct-2013

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Share
Contact: Charles Blue
cblue@nrao.edu
434-296-0314
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

At a cosmologically crisp one degree Kelvin (minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit), the Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known object in the Universe colder, in fact, than the faint afterglow of the Big Bang, which is the natural background temperature of space.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have taken a new look at this intriguing object to learn more about its frigid properties and to determine its true shape, which has an eerily ghost-like appearance.

As originally observed with ground-based telescopes, this nebula appeared lopsided, which is how it got its name. Later observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a bow-tie-like structure. The new ALMA data, however, reveal that the Hubble image tells only part of the story, and the twin lobes seen in that image may actually be a trick of the light as seen at visible wavelengths.

"This ultra-cold object is extremely intriguing and we're learning much more about its true nature with ALMA," said Raghvendra Sahai, a researcher and principal scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. "What seemed like a double lobe, or 'boomerang' shape, from Earth-based optical telescopes, is actually a much broader structure that is expanding rapidly into space."

The Boomerang Nebula, located about 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, is a relatively young example of an object known as a planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae, contrary to their name, are actually the end-of-life phases of stars like our Sun that have sloughed off their outer layers. What remains at their centers are white dwarf stars, which emit intense ultraviolet radiation that causes the gas in the nebulae to glow and emit light in brilliant colors.

The Boomerang is a pre-planetary nebula, representing the stage in a star's life immediately preceding the planetary nebula phase, when the central star is not yet hot enough to emit enough ultraviolet radiation to produce the characteristic glow. At this stage, the nebula is seen by starlight reflecting off its dust grains.

The outflow of gas from this particular star is expanding rapidly and cooling itself in the process. This is similar in principle to the way refrigerators use expanding gas to produce cold temperatures. The researchers were able to take the temperature of the gas in the nebula by seeing how it absorbed the cosmic microwave background radiation, which has a very uniform temperature of 2.8 degrees Kelvin (minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit).

"When astronomers looked at this object in 2003 with Hubble, they saw a very classic 'hourglass' shape," commented Sahai. "Many planetary nebulae have this same double-lobe appearance, which is the result of streams of high-speed gas being jettisoned from the star. The jets then excavate holes in a surrounding cloud of gas that was ejected by the star even earlier in its lifetime as a red giant."

Observations with single-dish millimeter wavelength telescopes, however, did not detect the narrow waist seen by Hubble. Instead, they found a more uniform and nearly spherical outflow of material.

ALMA's unprecedented resolution allowed the researchers to reconcile this discrepancy. By observing the distribution of carbon monoxide molecules, which glow brightly at millimeter wavelengths, the astronomers were able to detect the double-lobe structure that is seen in the Hubble image, but only in the inner regions of the nebula. Further out, they actually observed a more elongated cloud of cold gas that is roughly round.

The researchers also discovered a dense lane of millimeter-sized dust grains surrounding the star, which explains why this outer cloud has an hourglass shape in visible light. The dust grains have created a mask that shades a portion of the central star and allows its light to leak out only in narrow but opposite directions into the cloud, giving it an hourglass appearance.

"This is important for the understanding of how stars die and become planetary nebulae," said Sahai. "Using ALMA, we were quite literally and figuratively able to shed new light on the death throes of a Sun-like star."

The new research also indicated that the outer fringes of the nebula are beginning to warm, even though they are still slightly colder than the cosmic microwave background. This warming may be due to the photoelectric effect -- an effect first proposed by Einstein in which light is absorbed by solid material, which then re-emits electrons.
###

Additional authors on this paper include Wouter Vlemmings, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala, Sweden; Patrick Huggins, New York University, New York; Lars-Ake Nyman, Joint ALMA Observatory, Santiago de Chile; and Yiannis Gonidakis, CSIRO, Australia Telescope National Facility.

ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/nrao-arg102413.php
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Doomed Paris tower lives out last days in graffiti

PARIS (AP) — Condemned apartments covered in spray paint have probably never been in such demand.

An entire apartment tower in eastern Paris has been turned over to 105 street artists from around the world, giving them a chance to turn each home into its own art installation during the building's final days.

The artists had seven months to tag "Tour Paris 13" — named for the district where it's located — coating apartments sometimes still filled with debris, trash and furniture. All their work will vanish by the end of the year, as the tower, which has nine stories and a basement, is demolished piece by piece after next week.

"I really wanted the artist to intervene on a whole space," said Mehdi Ben Cheikh, the gallery owner who initiated the project. "I didn't want the spectators to come and look at art. I wanted the spectators to come and enter an art work ... which means there are things everywhere — we enter a room, and have to turn around in every direction to understand the surroundings."

The result is a tower exhibiting a range of artistic styles. There's a skull-inspired mural, Arabic calligraphy, a bloody bathroom, and a glow-in-the-dark cow crawling with snakes.

Would-be visitors have lined up for up to eight hours for a one-hour visit, with signs at various points around the block estimating their wait time. Only 49 people are allowed in at one time in the apartment block, which overlooks the Seine.

A handful of people are still living in the building and refusing to leave until the bitter end.

Some of the artists of Tour Paris 13 are participating in an unprecedented international urban contemporary art auction on Friday, with pieces created spur of the moment on Thursday standing alongside works from Keith Haring and Basquiat.

"I've been following graffiti and street art for about 30 years and so this represents another step in slightly different direction," said Martha Cooper, the famous street photographer who is documenting their work in progress. "Having an auction in Paris, in a big auction house, is pretty amazing."

A 1986 Basquiat piece, "Monticello," is estimated to sell at 600,000 to 900,000 euros ($828,180 to $1.2 million), and a 1984 acrylic of Keith Haring's "Sneeze," from 500,000 to 700,000 euros.

"We are the new artists. Graffiti art is the world's biggest art movement," said Mear One, an artist from Los Angeles who was painting live outside the Drouot Auction House on Thursday. "In the 1970s, art was so elite that only the upper level people could do art or appreciate. So it got boring ... and now, we are in a situation where this is the art form.

"All that other art is cool, but it has roots in the past, and we are the here and the now."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/doomed-paris-tower-lives-last-days-graffiti-173904193.html
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Slaying 'Little Dragons': Guinea Worm Moves Toward Eradication

Hawah Alhassan, 5, contracted Guinea worm in a village near Tamale, Ghana, in 2007. The country eliminated the parasite in 2011.

Wes Pope/MCT/Landov

Hawah Alhassan, 5, contracted Guinea worm in a village near Tamale, Ghana, in 2007. The country eliminated the parasite in 2011.

Wes Pope/MCT/Landov

The world has eradicated just one human disease: smallpox. But another illness is getting tantalizingly close to elimination.

No, we're not talking about polio; that virus also has its back against a wall. But a report Thursday puts a parasitic worm ahead of polio in the race to extinction.

The Guinea worm can grow up to 3 feet inside a person's body.

John Bazemore/AP

The Guinea worm can grow up to 3 feet inside a person's body.

John Bazemore/AP

The world recorded just 89 cases of Guinea worm in the first six months of 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That's a 77 percent reduction in cases over the same period last year.

In contrast, more than 300 polio cases have occurred so far in 2013, compared with just 223 reported in all of 2012.

Guinea worm gets little attention in the media, perhaps because of its stomach-churning life cycle. The parasite grows up to 3 feet inside a person's tissues and then emerges from a painful wound in the skin. The worm isn't deadly, but it cripples a person for several weeks while the worm emerges.

The disease is also known as dracunculiasis, or "affliction with little dragons," because the worm feels like hot coals as it exits from the skin.

Back in 1986, more than 3.5 million people got infected with Guinea worm each year. A campaign led by The Carter Center has slashed the number of cases in the past decade. There were only about 1,000 cases recorded worldwide in 2011, and 542 cases in 2012.

If 2013 follows the trend, then the prevalence of the disease will reach an all-time low.

The worm is now endemic in just four countries: Chad, Ethiopia, Mali and South Sudan. The vast majority of cases occur in South Sudan, and that country has made the most progress in eradicating the Guinea worm in the past several years.

South Sudan has reported an 80 percent reduction in cases so far in 2013 compared with 2012, despite a slew of challenges for health workers. A key bridge collapsed on the only road to a part of the country, slowing transportation of vital supplies. Cattle raiding caused populations to move around unpredictably, the CDC's Dr. Sharon Roy and her colleagues wrote in the report.

The biggest challenges, however, to eradicating the parasite are probably in Mali. The country has reported just one case of Guinea worm in 2013. But violence after a coup d'etat has kept health workers out of some parts of Mail since April 2012, Roy and her colleagues write.

People get infected with dracunculiasis through contaminated drinking water. So teaching people to filter water and installing wells have been two key methods to reduce new infections.

If local health workers can't reach people because of violence, then just one infection could quickly spread through drinking water and multiply into 50 to 100 cases.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/24/240496431/slaying-little-dragons-guinea-worm-moves-toward-eradication?ft=1&f=1004
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Samsung sold over 40 million Galaxy S4s in six months

T

Sure, Samsung's sold more than 38 million Galaxy Notes since late 2011, but its latest flagship puts that number to shame. According to a Korean publication, the company has sold 40 million Galaxy S4 units worldwide, just six months after the device hit the market. It's a hearty milestone, ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/jT7Evc9jaC8/
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Pen Pal Of Young 'Jerry' Salinger May Have Been First To Meet Holden

J.D. Salinger wrote nine letters and postcards to aspiring Canadian writer Marjorie Sheard.

Graham Haber/The Morgan Library & Museum

J.D. Salinger wrote nine letters and postcards to aspiring Canadian writer Marjorie Sheard.

Graham Haber/The Morgan Library & Museum

Fans of the reclusive J.D. Salinger are in their element these days. The writer, who died in 2010, is the subject of a recent documentary and companion biography; there's word that five Salinger works will be published for the first time, starting in 2015; and now, the Morgan Library in New York is showing never-before displayed letters that a 20-something Salinger wrote, from 1941 to 1943, to an admirer in Toronto.

For Salinger buffs, this is like a glimpse of the holy grail: seven letters and two postcards, mostly typed, two handwritten. Salinger's handwriting is slanted and spiky.

"He's writing quickly. He may have been writing this in a bar," says curator Declan Kiely. "The thing that jumps out at me is the way he forms I."

In a sea of cursives, Salinger prints his I — it looks like the Roman numeral one. He makes a strong vertical line and two horizontals.

Salinger, shown here in September 1961, comes off as both diffident and confident in his letters to Sheard.

"They're really emphatic," Kiely says.

And he underlines his name — sometimes with one line, sometimes two.

"You see Dickens doing this, you see Edgar Allen Poe doing this," observes Kiely, who is head of the Department of Literary and Historical Manuscripts at the Morgan Library. "A lot of male writers have what I would call a sort of architectural support."

Salinger Before 'Catcher In The Rye'

Salinger's first letter to Marjorie Sheard is dated Sept. 4, 1941.

"Dear Miss Sheard," he writes. "Your warm, bright letter just reached me. Thanks very much. It's unfair to authors that you write only to Aldous Huxley and me."

Sheard had written to praise stories of Salinger's that she'd seen in Esquire and Collier's magazines. Like Salinger, she was in her early 20s and wanted to write fiction. He gives her advice: "Why don't you try writing something for Mademoiselle or one of the other feminine magazines? Seems to me you have the instincts to avoid the usual Vassar-girl tripe those mags publish."

He put his parents' address (1133 Park Ave., on 91st Street in Manhattan) in the upper-right corner. He has typed the letter neatly — no cross-outs or erasures.

"He would have made a great secretary," Kiely says.

Salinger, clearly thrilled to get a fan letter this early in his writing career, ends his note this way: "I hope you'll always read my work with pleasure. So glad you liked the Esquire piece. I write for Marjorie Sheard and a few others. The fact that Esquire's circulation is 600,000, and Collier's is in millions is purely coincidental."

Kiely thinks these letters reveal who Salinger was before Catcher in the Rye made him a literary star.

"He's a combination of diffidence and confidence," he says. "He is right at the very beginning, but he knows that he's onto something."

He's also witty. Later in their correspondence, after Salinger has been drafted and is waiting to be shipped overseas from Army basic training in Georgia, this Upper East Side prep school fellow writes, "Can't you just picture me leading me little platoon over the top? You boys go ahead. I'll meet you at the Biltmore under the clock."

An Early Hint At Holden

And who was she, Miss Marjorie Sheard of Toronto? Only one of her letters to him survives. In a P.P.S. she provides some "vital statistics" — a list of her likes: "Drinking beer, also rum; Sunday afternoon cocktail parties; flirting; dancing in a too-high, too-crowded place; white evening gowns; men who are tall, dark and dangerous; writing letters to Jerry Salinger. My father's a lawyer who plays the cello and writes musical criticisms. My mother is extremely beautiful. My brother is crotchety and practical, but I like him."

Sheard was slightly older than Salinger. Only one of her letters to him survives.

The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of Marjorie Sheard Carter

Sheard was slightly older than Salinger. Only one of her letters to him survives.

The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of Marjorie Sheard Carter

Sheard was slightly older than Salinger. (His correspondence with teenage girls would come later.) Her niece, Sarah Sheard, says Marjorie was quiet and shy. But she had a real writer's voice in that flirtatious P.P.S. A month after his first letter, Salinger is getting curious.

"Dear Marjorie," he writes. "Excuse the delay but I've been up to here and still am. Thanks for writing. What do you look like? Send a huge photo."

She does. In profile, the photograph reveals a nice straight nose and wavy dark hair that flows down her back.

On Nov. 18, 1941, Salinger writes, "Sneaky girl. You're pretty." That same letter also has news: After many rejections, The New Yorker magazine has accepted one of his stories. He tells her it's about a prep school kid on Christmas vacation.

"Let me know what you think of the first Holden story, called 'Slight Rebellion Off Madison,' " he writes. "Best, Jerry S."

Kiely says that November 1941 letter may be the most valuable in this collection.

"It could well be that Marjorie Sheard was one of the first people who learned of the creation of the character Holden Caulfield," he says.

The story was scheduled to run Christmas week, 1941. But it would be another five years before readers actually met Holden, the character who became the hero of Catcher in the Rye and one of the most beloved figures in fiction. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor a month after Jerry wrote Marjorie about the New Yorker acceptance. Editors decided, given the circumstances, that the "Holden story" was "unpublishable."

A Coquettish Correspondent

Sarah Sheard says her aunt, Marjorie, never talked about her pen pal and mentor.

"She was a little coquettish about it," Sheard says. "She would sort of bat her eyes and say, 'Well, you know, I did have this brief, you know, exchange with J.D. Salinger.' Jerry Salinger, she called him."

She saved all the letters, and agreed the family could sell them to pay for the Toronto nursing home where she died last May, just before her 95th birthday.

Marjorie Sheard never published any fiction, but she did have a 30-year career writing advertising. Her young 1940s correspondent became one of the world's best-known authors.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/24/239864193/pen-pal-of-young-jerry-salinger-may-have-been-first-to-meet-holden?ft=1&f=1032
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German 'Bishop Of Bling' Booted From Office Over Lavish Spending

The Vatican announced it's removing a German bishop from office during a church investigation into his alleged lavish spending and perjury charges. The bishop met with the pope last Sunday. The accusations against the bishop, whose diocese is near Frankfurt, have shaken the German Catholic community, with many members calling for a thorough investigation into how the Church spends their money.

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It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Audie Cornish.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

The Vatican today suspended a German bishop who's embroiled in a scandal over lavish renovations to his residence near Frankfurt. He's also facing perjury charges for lying about having flown first class to India on church-related business. The scandal has shaken Germany's Catholics who fund the church with part of their income taxes collected by the state. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Berlin.

SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE: Bettina(ph) (unintelligible) packs new books at this Catholic bookstore in Berlin opened by her grandfather nine decades ago. She is one of the many German Catholics rattled by revelations that the Bishop of Limburg spent $43 million of church money to renovate his new residence and office complex.

BETTINA: (Through interpreter) What the bishop did is simply not right. Many people say that the Catholic Church is stuck in the Middle Ages and spending like this only bolsters their beliefs.

NELSON: The Reverend Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is reported to have spent nearly $4 million on fixing up his palatial apartment in the picturesque German town of Limburg. German media report that his new bathtub cost $20,000. Another 1 million was spent to spruce up the garden. The bishop has defended his spending on what he says were 10 separate building projects with costs driven up because of historic building regulations.

MICHAEL FRIELINGHAUS: (Speaking foreign language)

NELSON: In an interview with the German public television network CDF, his architect, Michael Frielinghaus, dismissed claims that the Limburg project being ostentatious. He said a more accurate way to describe the work is high quality. That's not how many of his parishioners see it. Scores of them formerly left the church after the scandal broke earlier this month. The 53-year-old bishop offered no immediate comment after being sidelined by the Vatican following his meeting with the Pope on Monday.

How long Tebartz-van Elts will be suspended is unclear, but few here believe he'll return to the Limburg diocese or any other in Germany. The Vatican says it is awaiting the outcome of a church investigation into his spending practices before reaching a final decision. Lay leaders in the Limburg diocese held a press conference today to try and appease public anger.

GUENTHER GEIS: (Speaking foreign language)

NELSON: Guenther Geis, who is the dean of the cathedral chapter, said it will be hard to overcome people's broken trust. He called for prayers for the new vicar from neighboring Vis Baden who will take over in Limburg in the interim. But Christian Weisner of We Are Church, a grassroots organization seeking reforms, says it will take more than prayers to restore German Catholics' trust.

CHRISTIAN WEISNER: (Through translator) We need 100 percent transparency. And we parishioners need to have much more to say in how church money is spent. This money isn't the bishop's private stash, but it will take many years to get all the churches' finances out into the open.

NELSON: Weisner adds that there also hasn't been much sign of German church leaders responding to the Pope's call to lead more simple and frugal lives.

WEISNER: (Speaking foreign language)

NELSON: Weisner says German bishops still earn upwards of $11,000 a month and drive high-end cars like Audis, BMWs or Mercedes. Back in Berlin, bookstore owner (unintelligible) says that church officials should learn from the Bishop of Limburg's mistakes.

BETTINA: (Speaking foreign language)

NELSON: Berlin's cardinal rides a bicycle, she says. Why don't more of the Catholic clergy behave like that? Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Berlin.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240291624&ft=1&f=1004
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Book News: Health Woes Will Keep Munro From Nobel Ceremony

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

Alice Munro, the 82-year-old short story writer who won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, will miss the Dec. 10 Nobel awards ceremony in Stockholm for health reasons. Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund wrote in a blog post that "her health is simply not good enough." He added that "all involved — including Mrs. Munro herself — regret this." (Englund's post, in Swedish, is here). Munro said in 2009 that she has been treated for cancer in the past, and had had heart bypass surgery. She announced earlier this year that she plans to retire from writing. Munro, who the Academy called "master of the contemporary short story," is known for her spare accounts of life in small Canadian towns. As NPR's Lynn Neary said at the time of the Nobel announcement: "In a really short space of time, she can provide a fully realized story that provides remarkable insight into human beings, their shortcomings, their complexities, their loves, their lives."

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer speaks about Marcel Proust and how reading fiction can engender empathy in a wide-ranging French interview in La Revue des Deux Mondes, which was translated into English and published in The New York Review of Books. Breyer says that: "Reading makes a judge capable of projecting himself into the lives of others, lives that have nothing in common with his own, even lives in completely different eras or cultures. And this empathy, this ability to envision the practical consequences on one's contemporaries of a law or a legal decision, seems to me to [be] a crucial quality in a judge."

British publisher Granta is rush-printing an extra 100,000 copies of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton's Booker-winning mystery novel set during the New Zealand Gold Rush.

The Best Books Coming Out This Week:

After an unforgettable first novel and a fairly forgettable second novel, Donna Tartt has returned with The Goldfinch, a massive, moving monolith of a third book. The narrator Theo Decker is 13 and on a visit to the Met when a bomb goes off, killing his mother and a man who, as he is dying, begs Theo to take a small painting out of the museum's ruins. Tartt spoke to NPR's Scott Simon about the painting at the heart of the novel: "The word priceless is only really ever used in connection with two things, with art and with human life."

An "encyclopedia of lady things" from the editors of the popular feminist website, The Book of Jezebel covers everything from abortion and Abigail Adams to zits, zombies and Erica Jong's famous "zipless f—-." It's engaging and witty, though unquestionably guilty of the sins of that imaginary feminist website from 30 Rock: "Joan of Snark." That's the "really cool feminist website where women talk about how far we've come and which celebrities have the worst beach bodies." Editor Anna Holmes spoke to NPR's Arun Rath over the weekend.

Canadian author Alice Munro in June 2009.

Peter Muhly /AFP/Getty Images

Canadian author Alice Munro in June 2009.

Peter Muhly /AFP/Getty Images

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/21/238967288/book-news-health-woes-will-keep-munro-from-nobel-ceremony?ft=1&f=1032
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Netflix On The Moon? Broadband Makes It To Deep Space

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) probe, seen in this artist's rendering, is orbiting the moon to gather detailed information about the lunar surface.

Dana Berry/NASA

Here's a funny quirk of the modern age: It takes just seconds to pull up a bad sci-fi movie about invaders from the moon and watch it in HD. But actual communications between the Earth and moon are just as static-filled as they were back in the 1960s.

Until now. NASA says it's just got a lunar broadband connection up and running. The new connection is just a test, but it could allow scientists to collect more data from spacecraft and rovers. It could also allow astronauts to maintain good communications as they travel further from Earth.

Communications in deep space haven't changed a lot since NASA launched its earliest probes in the late 1950s. Everyone still uses giant radio dishes to talk to rovers on Mars or spacecraft orbiting Mercury. Radio is dependable, but here on Earth, we've moved on. Aside from NPR on your car radio, you probably get most of your news via broadband. And broadband sends data in pulses of laser light.

"Our Internet is completely powered by pulsed lasers that run through optical fibers in big cities," says Don Cornwell, project manager for the new communications system at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Lasers are fast and can send huge amounts of data a long way. But doing it from space presents a problem: Ever tried to steady a laser pointer during a presentation?

"Try doing it over 400,000 kilometers," Cornwell says

That's just what Cornwell and his colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory have done. They put a laser transmitter built at MIT aboard a probe called the Lunar and Atmospheric Dust Environment Explorer, which is currently orbiting the moon. Using some very precisely aimed telescopes on Earth, they've been able to send and receive data at broadband speeds.

"We're currently demonstrating 622 megabits per second of data transmission, from the moon down to the Earth," Cromwell says. That's already six times faster than the fastest radio communications, and the laser system could eventually be much faster still.

It's not perfect. For example, it won't work if it's cloudy on Earth. For that reason, Cromwell's team have built multiple ground stations in California, New Mexico and on the island of Tenerife in Spain. And the laser would have to be boosted in power in order to work over longer distances, like between the Earth and Mars.

But if it can be built, it will be a huge help to astronauts on deep-space missions. For example, a laser system could transmit HD video of equipment in need of fixing to engineers back on Earth, Cornwell says. Astronauts could also get their fill of really bad sci-fi.

Those missions are father off, but the unmanned probes of today would also benefit, says John Grotzinger, project scientist for the Curiosity Rover now exploring Mars. Like everyone else, Curiosity uses standard radio communications, and Grotzinger says it's holding the team back: "With this additional [laser] capability we would be less limited in terms of how much data we could both acquire and downlink to Earth," he told NPR in an e-mail. "That would be a really nice improvement."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/23/240250006/netflix-on-the-moon-broadband-makes-it-to-deep-space?ft=1&f=1019
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Mind Blown: Turn Your Favorite GIFs Into Cool Lenticular Cards

It’s no secret that we here at Gizmodo adore our GIFs—we just launched a subdomain dedicated to the looping images!—and now, thanks to the good folks at Gifpop, everyone’s favorite internet format is going analog. The new venture promises to translate the moving pics of your choosing into a custom lenticular card.