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    Monitoring Microbes to Keep Marsonauts Healthy

    October 8, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology

    Timeline of the Mars500 experiment from the beginning (3rd of June, 2010) until the end (5th of November, 2011). The schematic drawing also indicates important steps and events during the confinement (above timeline) including the two off-nominal situations (critical situation simulations) and sampling dates from 18 sampling events. Red area/font denotes the stay of three marsonauts in the simulated Martian surface complex, whereas light blue area represents the timeframe where the facility was untenanted. One reference sampling was performed 6 months after confinement. Crosses represent samples that were used for PhyloChip analyses or NGS, respectively. Samples from each sampling were subjected to cultivation experiments. Red: medical module EU-100; green: habitable module EU-150; blue: utility module EU-250. Yellow stars indicate changing of NANO-filters and cleaning events of the primary filters on day 162 (11th of November, 2010) and 243 (2nd of February, 2011) of isolation

    Timeline of the Mars500 experiment from the beginning (3rd of June, 2010) until the end (5th of November, 2011). The schematic drawing also indicates important steps and events during the confinement (above timeline) including the two off-nominal situations (critical situation simulations) and sampling dates from 18 sampling events. Red area/font denotes the stay of three marsonauts in the simulated Martian surface complex, whereas light blue area represents the timeframe where the facility was untenanted. One reference sampling was performed 6 months after confinement. Crosses represent samples that were used for PhyloChip analyses or NGS, respectively. Samples from each sampling were subjected to cultivation experiments...

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    NASA’s Webb Telescope to Witness Galactic Infancy

    October 8, 2017, Categories  Uncategorized

    The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is a snapshot of about 10,000 galaxies in a tiny patch of sky, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), the HUDF Team

    The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is a snapshot of about 10,000 galaxies in a tiny patch of sky, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), the HUDF Team

    Scientists will use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to study sections of the sky previously observed by NASA’s Great Observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, to understand the creation of the universe’s first galaxies and stars. After it launches and is fully commissioned, scientists plan to focus Webb telescope on sections of the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)...

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    Good-Guy Bacteria may help Cancer Immunotherapies do their job

    October 7, 2017, Categories  Uncategorized

    Rick Spurr, surrounded by some of his grandchildren, was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, which was discovered on his lungs while he was fighting off a bout of pneumonia. Credit: UT Southwestern

    Rick Spurr, surrounded by some of his grandchildren, was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, which was discovered on his lungs while he was fighting off a bout of pneumonia. Credit: UT Southwestern

    Individuals with certain types of bacteria in their gut may be more likely to respond well to cancer immunotherapy, researchers at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center found in a study of patients with metastatic melanoma. The incidence of melanoma has been increasing over the past 40 years. Immunotherapies have dramatically improved the outlook for patients with metastatic melanoma in the past half-dozen years, but still only about half of these patients go into remission.

    UT Southwestern cancer researchers analyzed the gut bacteria of 39 melanoma patients who were treated with imm...

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    Smartphone-controlled Smart Bandage for better, Faster Healing

    October 7, 2017, Categories  Uncategorized

    Smart Bandage

    Advanced Functional Materials A prototype of the team’s design.

    Wireless microcontrollers release precise amounts of antibiotics, painkillers, growth factors or other medications. The bandage, which remains several years from market, could improve treatment of chronic skin wounds related to diabetes. The bandage consists of electrically conductive fibers coated in a gel that can be individually loaded with infection-fighting antibiotics, tissue-regenerating growth factors, painkillers or other medications.

    A microcontroller no larger than a postage stamp, which could be triggered by a smartphone or other wireless device, sends small amounts of voltage through a chosen fiber. That voltage heats the fiber and its hydrogel, releasing whatever cargo it contains...

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