NASA in Biological News

Former NASA astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar to speak at NJIT's biomedical engineering seminar

One of the first women astronauts, Bonnie J. Dunbar, now a flight museum president, will speak at NJIT on April 23, 2009. The public is invited to attend this exciting free event during which Dunbar will detail how she made it into the world of flight. The event will be held at 11:30 a.m., ...

Penn State receives new NASA astrobiology grant

Developing strategies for finding life on other planets and in extreme environments on Earth will be the focus of Penn State's new astrobiology initiative under a five-year grant from NASA's Astrobiology Institute for "Signatures of Life from Earth and Beyond." Christopher H. House, associate p...

Observations from space: NASA environmental data and lung disease

NASA gathers a tremendous amount of data on the environment that can be helpful in understanding lung disease. In a session at the ATS 2008 International Conference called Observations From Space: A Unique Vantage Point for the Study of the Environment and Possible Associations with Disease Occur...

Colorado Engineering Firms Win NASA Grant to Develop Innovative Insulation for Next Generation Spacecraft - Super-Insulation May Allow Future Energy Efficient Appliances

DENVER, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Quest Product Development, teaming with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., has completed a NASA research program and successfully demonstrated a new thermal insulation. NASA has awarded the team a Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant to develop and...

ASU researchers use NASA satellites to improve pollution modeling

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Detecting pollution, like catching criminals, requires evidence and witnesses; but on the scale of countries, continents and oceans, having enough detectors is easier said than done. A team of air quality modelers, climatologists and air policy specialists at Arizona State Univ...

Global 'sunscreen' has likely thinned, report NASA scientists

A new NASA study has found that an important counter-balance to the warming of our planet by greenhouse gases ?sunlight blocked by dust, pollution and other aerosol particles ?appears to have lost ground. The thinning of Earth’s "sunscreen" of aerosols since the early 1990s could have given an ex...

'Science Under Siege'

... question-and-answer piece on the topic of science and skeptical inquiry. Ann Druyan's beautifully expressed "Science, Religion, Wonder, and Awe." nasa scientist Stuart Jordan's excellent appraisal of the scientific evidence for global warming, which prompted much critical response and led to another ...

US Government Places 6,1 Million USD Orders Related to Precise Match-on-Card(TM) for Cyber Security Programs

... Match-on-Card technology today. The company has for several years successfully supplied its products to US customers such as the Department of State, nasa and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). Precise Biometrics is a market-leading provider of solutions for fingerprint recognition to prove pe...

Hurricane Katrina: Phone home

...ves? "Our method provides reliable measurement of moisture fields near the flood zone for the first time," notes Prof. Alpert, who also works with nasa on developing models to study global warming weather patterns. This new tool, he says, can add to the bigger picture of understanding climate change p...

Mars mission could ease Earth's energy supply crisis

... Techniques and instrumentation initially developed for ExoMars - Europe's next robotic mission to Mars in 2016 - but now due to fly on a nasa mission in 2018, could also provide the answers to the globally pressing issue of energy supply. A major study by the Imperial College London, fu...

New cleaning protocol for future 'search for life' missions

...The studies are also designed to help guide future nasa and ESA planetary missions. Published today in ...at 74-80˚N) as an international test site for nasa and ESA "Search for Life" instrumentation schedule...nisms living in ice," says Dr Jennifer Eigenbrode, nasa research scientist. This work was carried out ...

SRI International announces findings from new upper atmospheric radar system for scientific research

..., and Massachusetts. The SRI-designed AMISR is the first NSF-funded radar system that was developed and built specifically for scientific research. nasa has used the array to determine the most optimal space weather conditions for launching scientific rockets. Since AMISR is capable of simultaneous mon...

Breakthrough made in assessing marine phytoplankton health

... CORVALLIS, Ore. Researchers from Oregon State University, nasa and other organizations said today that they have succeeded for the first t...ersity of California/Santa Barbara, University of Southern Mississippi, the nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Cornell ...

NASA satellite detects red glow to map global ocean plant health

... Researchers have conducted the first global analysis of the health and productivity of ocean plants, as revealed by a unique signal detected by a nasa satellite. Ocean scientists can now remotely measure the amount of fluorescent red light emitted by ocean phytoplankton and assess how efficiently the...

Two Central High (Philadelphia) grads honored by AIBS

... of Tennessee. Both Felsenstein and Gross are among a long line of eminent scientists and scholars to graduate from Central High School, including nasa astronaut James P. Bagian, Nobel prize-winning geneticist Howard Temin, and linguist Noam Chomsky. ...

NASA uses satellite to unearth innovation in crop forecasting

... upward, pushing staple foods out of reach for millions of poor people. nasa researchers are using satellite data to deliver a kind of space-based human...eek at the the Joint Assembly of the American Geophysical Union in Toronto, nasa scientist John Bolten described a new modeling product that uses data from ...

NASA Earth system science meeting celebrates 20 years of discovery

... Twenty years ago nasa embarked on a revolutionary new mission for its Earth science program: to s...ated whole, rather than as individual parts. To acknowledge this milestone, nasa is holding a symposium June 22-24 to examine the accomplishments of 20 year...

NASA study says climate adds fuel to Asian wildfire emissions

...pua New Guinea. They are now working to understand how climate influences the spread and intensity of the fires. Using data from a carbon-detecting nasa satellite and computer models, the researchers found that seasonal fires from 2000 to 2006 doubled the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released from th...

Star Trek-like technology offers noninvasive monitor for patients and athletes

...iology. She has worked closely with researchers at nasa Johnson Space Center in Houston to develop applications of the Venus system for space. Former nasa astronaut and NSBRI User Panel Chairman Dr. Leroy ...being developed by NSBRI to provide health care to nasa astronauts in space and to improve health care on ...

Biomedical researchers invited to design experiments for the International Space Station

...y been available for widespread medical research. nasa strongly supports the NIH's leadership in this pro...tnership's development when he was chairman of the nasa Advisory Council, applauded the initiative: "The NIH and nasa have a long history of collaboration, and this ann...

International climate change researchers meet, review latest findings

...pointed director of the World Climate Change Research Programme, and former nasa associate administrator of the Office of Earth Science deputy associate administrator for the nasa Science Directorate. Antonio Busalacchi , committee chair and director...

Astronauts may need more intense workouts to maintain muscle fitness in space

... Intensity wins, hands down." In November 2008, nasa delivered an Advanced Resistance Exercise Device (...rewmember during ARED use. Studies are underway at nasa to further develop and validate resistance exercis... well as mitigate risk, according to Judith Hayes, nasa deputy chief, human adaptation and countermeasures...

NASA researchers find clues to a secret of life

... GREENBELT, Md. - nasa scientists analyzing the dust of meteorites have discovered new clues to a ...would presumably work fine, "you can't mix them," says Dr. Jason Dworkin of nasa Goddard, co-author of the study. "If you do, life turns to something resemb...

UAB space freezers deemed a success

...mingham (UAB). A UAB-designed cryogenic freezer called GLACIER, short for General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator, made its nasa debut in late 2008 aboard a shuttle flight to the station. This month's flight of space shuttle Discovery marks another milestone for GLACIER as t...

New aerosol observing technique turns gray skies to blue

...tion. A new detection technique and a new satellite instrument developed by nasa scientists, the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS), should help ease the stru...cally use to detect aerosols. In recent years, however, researchers from nasa Goddard's Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have develope...

AGU journal highlights -- March 12, 2009

...olorado, U.S.A.; Steven Pawson: Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.A; Mark A. Olsen: Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center, nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.A. Source: Geop...

GUMC young scientist selected postdoc Fellow at National Space Biomedical Research Institute

...pend and funds to cover health insurance and travel to NSBRI-related meetings. Fellows also attend a summer institute that provides an introduction to nasa Johnson Space Center's research facilities and programs. "The NSBRI Fellowship represents a unique opportunity to pursue my research related to NAS...

American Institute of Physics announces awards for best science writing

...arth -- but how close? The initial estimates by nasa put the chances of a direct hit on the planet Eart...e to prevent. As Cort was producing "Asteroid," nasa was continually adjusting the odds of a collision ...em to afford humanity a collective sigh of relief. nasa now figures the odds Apophis will strike Earth to ...

NASA-funded carbon dioxide map of US released on Google Earth

...tive maps that detail carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are now available on the popular Google Earth platform. The maps, funded by nasa and the U.S. Department of Energy through the joint North American Carbon Program, can display fossil fuel emissions by the hour, geographic region, a...

Scientists find black gold amidst overlooked data

... About half of the oil in the ocean bubbles up naturally from the seafloor, with Earth giving it up freely like it was of no value. Likewise, nasa satellites collect thousands of images and 1.5 terrabytes of data every year, but some of it gets passed over because no one thinks there is a use for...

New satellite data reveal impact of Olympic pollution controls

...for something else: an unprecedented experiment using satellites to measure the impact of air pollution controls. Taking advantage of the opportunity, nasa researchers have since analyzed data from NASA's Aura and Terra satellites that show how key pollutants responded to the Olympic restrictions. Acc...

UAF researchers to present at AGU press briefing

...," said Walker. The Greening of the Arctic project received funding from nasa and the National Science Foundation. It is part of UAF's work during the In.... University of Virginia: Howie Epstein, Qin Yu, Ben Cook, Domingo Alcaraz; nasa Goddard: Joey Comiso; Earth Cryosphere Institute, Moscow, Russia: Marina Li...

The medium is the message: Manipulating salmonella in spaceflight curtails infectiousness

...al PLoS ONE , are derived from experiments aboard nasa space shuttle mission STS-123, launched in March, ...otating wall vessel bioreactora device designed by nasa engineers to replicate elements of spaceflight. ...are opening up, which may illuminate these issues. nasa is one of the primary partners in the construction...

Tropical forest carbon monitoring gets big boost

...on patterns, producing detailed and stunningly beautiful forest maps. CLASLite works with the old and new Landsat satellites, as well as several other nasa sensors in Earth orbit. The Asner group spent years improving CLAS in Brazil. Applying their advances, they were able to complete a study in Peru i...

Small satellite takes on large thunderstorms

...of bread, consists of three cubes attached end to end in a rectangular shape. The Firefly team is a collaboration of scientists and students at the nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; Siena College, Loudonville, N.Y.; Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Md.; Hawk Institute ...

UI researchers help to improve carbon measurements in global climate studies

...emarked Campbell. "Our approach, based on the relation of carbonyl sulfide to photosynthesis, gives us this unique ability." The researchers used a nasa aircraft and NASA/NOAA funding to gather and analyze airborne observations of COS and carbon dioxide concentrations during the growing season over Nor...

Complex systems and Mars missions help understand how life began

...esearch. Several missions to Mars, to map the planet and eventually bring back samples, are ongoing and planned by the European Space Agency (ESA) and nasa in the coming years. But Zegers argues that, in Europe, Mars research is not well co-ordinated. There is no organisation responsible for managing ...

Compact research freezers to debut in space

...Flight Center in Huntsville. UAB first became involved in space-bound freezers in the 1990s when Lawrence DeLucas, Ph.D., CBSE director and former nasa astronaut, began flying protein crystal growth experiments aboard space shuttles. Today, the CBSE is a leading life sciences and engineering lab that ...

Acoustical Meeting, Nov. 10-14, 2008 in Miami, Florida

...al in front of boats and other watercraft to alert manatees that may be in the path of an oncoming craft. Gerstein has been testing this alarm in a nasa wildlife refuge where controlled studies are possible. He has reported that 100 percent of the controlled approaches toward manatees by a boat with th...

NASA-enhanced dust storm predictions to aid health community

... nasa satellite data can improve forecasts of dust storm... observations on predictions of dust storms. Using nasa satellite data, forecasters could more accurately ...nes, Public Health Applications program manager at nasa Headquarters in Washington. Dust and the pathog...