Space Organizations Join the Hunt for Malaysian Jet

malaysia_missingplaneThe disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370, now into its eighth day, remains a mystery to investigators and the families of those who traveling aboard her. Since March 7th when it was first declared missing, the search for wreckage or any trace of what might have happened has produced little in the way of results or explanations, prompting numerous governments and private organizations to commit more in the way of technology and resources.

According to a report from the BBC, these have included the use of 42 sophisticated ships and 39 high-tech aircraft combing the waters according to the BBC. For example, listening devices are being lowered into the water to pick up the “ping” of the black box, and sophisticated MH60 Seahawk helicopters from the United States are employing Forward Looking Infra-red (FLIR) cameras that arm the searchers with night vision.

malaysia_plane_searchThis past Monday,  a crowdsourcing platform called Tomnod, along with parent company DigitalGlobe, launched a campaign to enlist the help of citizens to scour satellite images to search for the plane. On the following day, China followed that up by activating the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters. The goal of this charter is to enlist space data from 15 member organizations to provide assistance in the case of a “natural or technological disaster.”

The charter describes such a disaster as:

a situation of great distress involving loss of human life or large-scale damage to property, caused by a natural phenomenon, such as a cyclone, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruption, flood or forest fire, or by a technological accident, such as pollution by hydrocarbons, toxic or radioactive substances.

malaysia_satimageNow that the charter has been activated, space scientists around the planet will enlist all available satellites to gather images from the suspected area in which flight MH370 disappeared. Upon activation, data normally starts coming in within 24 hours. The hope is that one of those images will pick up something that can direct search and recovery efforts, either by showing a crash sight or showing some trace of wreckage.

The charter has been activated 400 times in its history, but Tuesday represents the first time it was called into service to look for a missing aircraft. The only other transportation-related event for which it’s been used was to assist in gathering data after a train full of dynamite exploded in North Korea on April 23, 2004. It was most recently activated on February 13 to help with monitoring the Mount Kelud volcano explosion on the Indonesian island of Java.

malaysia_plane_seaPrior to all that, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was used exclusively to monitor flooding, forest fires, snowfalls, cyclones, oil spills and other damaging events around the world. It was also used to assist in recovery efforts from earthquakes, including the one that rocked Japan in March 2011 and caused a devastating tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant.

The charter, which began after Vienna’s Unispace III conference in 1999 with three agencies, has grown to its current membership of 15 organizations, with the Russian Federal Space Agency being the most recent to join in 2013. Other member organizations include the European Space Agency, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and China’s National Space Administration. The US member organizations include the United States Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

With this latest commitment of resources, technology and personnel, perhaps the world may finally know what took place aboard Malaysian flight MH370, and the families of those aboard her can finally get some peace of mind.

Sources: news.cnet.com, bbc.com, theguardian.com

 

The 3D Printing Revolution: The KamerMaker House

3dprint_canalhouseMany thanks to Rami for putting me onto this story in the first place. Thanks Rami! For years now, proponents of additive manufacturing (aka. 3D printing) have been looking for ways to expand the technology’s already impressive catalog to include the fabrication of buildings. Whether it is office buildings, apartment blocks, or individual houses, the next great leap for 3D printing is arguably the construction of entire domiciles – or at least the building blocks that go into making them.

Such is the goal of Dus, a Dutch architect bureau that announced last year that it was seeking to create the world’s first 3-D printed home along one of Amsterdam’s many iconic canals. Known as the “3D Print Canal House” project, the plan was to break ground within sixth months, before two other firms got there first with their own new-age designs. Now, almost a year to the day later, they have launched their demonstration project.

landscape_houseIn the long run, it still remains to be seen who will be the first company to create an actual 3D printed home, and Dus’ is up against some stiff competition from companies like fellow Dutchman Janjaap Ruijssenaars with his Möbius-strip shaped Landscape House, and the London-based Softkill Design’s fibrous, naturalistic ProtoHouse. Both design concepts seek to utilize 3-D printing in order to save time, energy, and eliminate the waste that is associated with traditional construction.

The Landscape House design calls for the economizing of space by turning the floor into the ceiling and the ceiling into the floor in an endless loop, providing all the living space a family needs while staying very compact. The latter concept looks like something out of the pages of a sci-fi novel – an organic, mollusk-like construction made out of fibrous threads of plastic that economize on weight and material usage.

protohouse But unlike these other projects, which rely in part on traditional construction methods (such as poured concrete), the Dus concept is built by printing all of the home components onsite. This is done using a massive printer called the KamerMaker, a 6-meter (20-foot) tall “room-builder” that rests inside a shipping container. This ensures that the manufacturing center is portable and can fabricate all the necessary components on-site, removing a significant amount of transport.

Basically, the KamerMaker is a scaled-up version of the open-source home 3D printer made by Ultimaker, a popular tool with hobbyists, and is currently one of the largest printers on the planet. Since it’s creation, the company has held public demonstrations to showcase the printer at work and fabricate furniture and other household objects. On the company website, they describe the machine as:

…a real architectural pavilion [that could play host to events]. In other words: The KamerMaker itself is a pavilion, that can reproduce small pavilions!

kamermaker-652322But ultimately, the goal of Dus’ demonstration project, which officially launched this month, is not so much to print a functioning house. Rather, as Hedwig Heinsman – a Dus architect and co-founder of the company- explains it, the aim is to discover and share the potential uses of 3D printing in construction by creating new materials, trying out designs and testing building techniques to see what works.

Heinsman also points out that parts of the house will likely be built and re-built several times over the next three years as 3-D printing technology develops. In the meantime, Dus has opened up an expo center at the site of the 3D Print Canal House so the public can witness the creation process and learn more about the technology involved. For those who may be in the of Amsterdam, tickets to the expo are € 2.50 (roughly $3.50 US/ $3.86 CA), and the hours of operation are available at their website.

And be sure to enjoy this video that talks the launch of the 3D Print Canal House, the KamerMaker, and the drive to create the world’s first 3D printed house – courtesy of 3DPI.TV:


Sources: fastcoexist.com, (2), (3), aol.com, 3dprintcanalhouse.com

The Future of Medicine: Injectable Sponges and Foam

xstat-combat-injury-treatment-injectable-spongesMedicine may be advancing by leaps and bounds in certain fields – mind-controlled prosthetics and bioprinting come to mind. But in some respects, we are still very much in the dark ages. Considering gunshot wounds, for example. When it comes to modern warfare, uncontrolled hemorrhaging caused by a bullet is the biggest cause of death. In fact, “bleeding out” is responsible for 80% of deaths caused in battle, more than headshots, chest wounds, or IEDs combined.

This startling statistic doesn’t just apply to soldiers who are wounded in the field, as about the same proportion of those who sustain bullet wounds die after being evacuated to a medical treatment facility as a result of hemorrhaging. In the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 5,000 US troops have been killed, and some 50,000 injured, while combined military and civilian losses are estimated to have been some 500,000 people killed.

xstat-combat-injury-treatment-injectable-sponges-5The immediate cause of death in most of these cases was bleeding out, which is usually associated with deep arterial wounds that simply cannot be treated using tourniquets. As a result, combat medics pack these wound with a special gauze coated with a material that stimulates the clotting process, then applies strong direct pressure over the wound in the hopes that a clot will seal off the artery. If the bleeding is not controlled, the medic has to remove the gauze and try again.

This process is so painful that, according to John Steinbaugh, a former Special Ops medic, the patient’s gun is first taken away so that he will not try to kill the medic or himself to stop the agony. And in the end, people still die, and all because medical science has yet to find an effective way to plug a hole. Luckily, RevMedX, a small Oregon startup, has developed an alternative approach to treat such potentially survivable injuries.

xstat-combat-injury-treatment-injectable-sponges-4That’s Revmedx and its new invention, the XStat, comes into play. Contained within this simple plastic syringe are hundreds of small sponges (1 cm, or 0.4 inches, in diameter) made from wood pulp and coated with chitosan, a derivative of crustacean shells that triggers clot formation and has antimicrobial properties. When they are injected into a deep wound, the sponges expand to fill the cavity, and apply enough pressure to stop arterial bleeding.

And since they adhere to wet surfaces, the sponges counter any tendency for the pressure to push them out of the wound. After conducting tests of early prototypes, the final development was carried under a US$5 million U.S. Army contract. In most cases, an arterial wound treated using XStat stops bleeding within about 15 seconds. The sponges are also marked with an x-ray absorbing material so they can be located and removed from the wound once surgical treatment is available.

????????????XStat is currently awaiting FDA approval, bolstered by a request from the US Army for expedited consideration. Combined with a new Wound Stasis Technology (aka. a medical foam) that earned its inventors a $15.5 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) back in Dec of 2012, army medics will likely be able to save a good many lives which in the past would have been written off as “casualties of war” or the all-too-common “collateral damage”.

Similar to the XStat, the idea for this injectable foam – which consists of two liquids that, when combined, form a solid barrier to stop bleeding – the inspiration for this idea comes from direct experience. As a military doctor in Iraq and Afghanistan, David King – a co-investigator of the foam project and a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital – saw a great many deaths that were caused by uncontrolled internal bleeding.

DARPA-FoamLocated in Watertown, Massachusetts, Arsenal Medical designed this substance that consists of two liquids to fill the abdominal cavity and form a solid foam that does not interact with blood. This is key, since the hardened foam needs to remain separate and stop the blood from flowing. Comprised of polyurethane molecules, this foam belongs to a family of materials that is already used in bone cement, vascular grafts, and other medical applications.

The team began by testing the foam in pigs that were subjected to an internal injury that cut the liver and a large vein. With the treatment, nearly three-quarters of the pigs were still alive three hours later. Afterward, the team began monitoring how the pigs fared once the foam was removed. In 2013, the company began working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine how to test the technology on the battlefield (though no dates as to when that might have been available yet).

gun_violenceAs always, developments in the armed forces have a way of trickling down to the civilian world. And given the nature and prevalence of gun violence in the US and other parts of the world, a device that allows EMTs the ability to seal wounds quickly and effectively would be seen as nothing short of a godsend. Between saving young people for gang violence and innocent victims from mass shootings, NGOs and medical organizations could also save countless lives in war-torn regions of the world.

Source: gizmag.com, technologyreview.com, medcrunch.net

World Cup 2014 to Open with Exoskeleton Kick

WorldCup_610x343This summer, the World Cup 2014 will be taking place in Sao Paulo, Brazil; an event that is sure to be a media circus. And to kick off this circus (no pun!), FIFA has decided to do something rather special. This will consist of a paralyzed teenager making the ceremonial first kick, courtesy of an exoskeleton provided by The Walk Again Project. In addition to opening the games, this even will be the first time that a mind-controlled prosthetic will ever be used in a sporting event.

Though the teenager in question remains to be chosen, the event is scheduled and the exoskeleton tested and ready. Using metal braces that were tested on monkeys, the exoskeleton relies on a series of wireless electrodes attached to the head that collect brainwaves, which then signal the suit to move. The braces are also stabilized by gyroscopes and powered by a battery carried by the kicker in a backpack.

ReWalk1The Walk Again Project, a nonprofit collaboration dedicated to producing full-body mind-controlled prosthetics, represents a collaboration between such academic institutions as Duke University, the Technical University of Munich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal in Brazil, the University of California at Davis, the University of Kentucky, the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment facility.

Miguel Nicolelis, the Brazilian neuroscientist at Duke University who is leading the Walk Again Project’s efforts to create the robotic suit, had this to say about the planned event:

We want to galvanize people’s imaginations. With enough political will and investment, we could make wheelchairs obsolete.

miguelnicolelis_secom508x339Nicolelis is a pioneer in the field of mind-controlled prosthetics. In the 1990s, he helped build the first mind-controlled arm, which rats learned to manipulate so they could get a drink of water, simply by thinking about doing so. In that project, an electronic chip was embedded in the part of each rodent’s brain that controls voluntary muscle movements. Rows of wires that stuck out from the chip picked up electrical impulses generated by brain cells and relayed those signals to a computer.

Researchers studied the signals as the rats pushed a lever to guide the arm that gave them water, and they saw groups of neurons firing at different rates as the rats moved the lever in different directions. An algorithm was developed to decipher the patterns, discern the animal’s intention at any given moment and send commands from the brain directly to the arm instead of to the lever. Eventually, the rats could move the arm without pushing the lever at all.

neuronsUsing similar brain-machine interfaces, Nicolelis and his colleagues learned to translate the neural signals in primate brains. In 2000, they reported that an owl monkey connected to the Internet had controlled an arm located 600 miles away. Eight years later, the team described a rhesus monkey that was able to dictate the pace of a robot jogging on a treadmill half a world away in Japan.

Small groups of neurons, it seems, are surprisingly capable of communicating with digital devices. Individual cells learn to communicate with computer algorithms more effectively over time by changing their firing patterns, as revealed in a study of a mouse’s brain published last year in Nature. This capacity for extensive plasticity and the ability to learn comes in quite handy when designing a prosthetic.

exoskeleton_FIFA2014German-made sensors will relay a feeling of pressure when each foot touches the ground. And months of training on a virtual-reality simulator will have prepared the teenager — selected from a pool of 10 candidates — to do all this using a device that translates thoughts into actions. In an interview with New Scientist, the lead robotic engineer Gordon Cheng of the Technical University of Munich gave some indication of how the suit works

The vibrations can replicate the sensation of touching the ground, rolling off the toe and kicking off again. There’s so much detail in this, it’s phenomenal.

Capitalizing on that adaptability, several human quadriplegics have received implanted brain chips in FDA-approved clinical trials. One of the first was Matt Nagle, who lost the use of his extremities after being stabbed in the spine. With the aid of electrodes placed in his brain at Brown University in 2004, he learned to raise, lower and drop a piece of hard candy using a primitive jointed arm not connected to his body.

woman-robotic-arm_650x366In a widely publicized demonstration of that system, now owned by a company called BrainGate, a 58-year-old woman paralyzed by a stroke sipped a cup of coffee last year using a five-fingered robotic arm not attached to her body. Despite the slickness of the presentation, however, the woman actually had little control over the arm. Despite it being aesthetically pleasing, the design was a little rudimentary.

However, things have come a long way since then thanks to ongoing research, development and testing. In Nicolelis’s lab, monkeys showed the ability to feel virtual objects displayed on a computer screen when areas of the brain associated with the sense of touch were stimulated. The blueprints for next summer’s soccer exoskeleton include similar sensors that will provide an artificial skin for its human wearer, thus ensuring that they can both move the device and receive sensory feedback.

Walk-Again-Project-Kick-Ball-537x358With the world watching, Nicolelis hopes not only that his “bionic teenager” will be able to feel the ball but also that disabled people everywhere will feel a sense of hope. And why wouldn’t they? In this single, incredibly high-profile event, millions of people around the world who struggle with disabilities will witness something truly inspirational. A paralyzed teenager will rise from a wheelchair, kicks the World Cup ball, and bring countless millions to their feet.

And you’re waiting until June of 2014 to see this momentous event for yourselves, be sure to check out this promotional video from The Walk Again Project, featuring interviews with the people who made it happen and showcasing the exoskeleton itself:


Sources: news.cnet.com, washingtonpost.com, virtualreality.duke.edu

 

Space Video: Could Jupiter Become a Star?

jupiterMy buddy and mentor in all things space and internet-related, Fraser Cain, has produced yet another informative video that I wish to share today. The subject in question is, “Could Jupiter Become a Star”? Naturally, this question has a wider context which needs to be understood if it is to make any sense. You see, for decades scientists have wondered whether or not a gas giant could be converted into a smaller version of own sun.

This is mainly due to the fact that gas giants and brown dwarves are very similar; in some cases, it’s even considered acceptable to say that a gas giant represents a failed star. This is not entirely accurate, since a gas giant does not have the necessary mass to trigger a deuterium reaction (aka. fusion) in order to create one. But, as Fraser points out, there are those who have wondered if an explosion – like that created by the Galileo space probe crashing into Jupiter – could cause a sun-birthing explosion.

sun_magneticfieldThis question has become relevant once again thanks to Cassini’s ongoing mission around Saturn. Thanks to the prevalence of noble (and flammable) gases that make up this planet as well, some worry that crashing a nuclear powered satellite into it will trigger a massive thermonuclear reaction. But, as Cain points out in a blow-by-blow manner, the answer to this question is a “series of nos”. Put simply, the raw materials and mass simply aren’t there.

Still, it’s a cool idea, and it was the focal point of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and all subsequent novels in the series. In this seminal collection of classic sci-fi, we are told that an ancient race (the First Born) tampered with our evolution eons ago, thus giving rise to the hominid we see every time we look in the mirror. By 2001, when the story opens up, we see a space-faring humanity uncovering evidence of this face, in the form of a strange Monolith buried on the Moon.

2010_3After learning that this strange object is sending signals towards Jupiter, several missions are mounted which determined that these same extra-terrestrials are one again at work, this time in the outer Solar System. Believing there is life trapped underneath the heavy ice sheets of Europa, the First Born use their superior technology and know-how to convert Jupiter into a sun, which in turn melts Europa’s ice, giving rise to an atmosphere and letting the life out to flourish.

So while it’s sci-fi gold, its not exactly science. But then again, that’s the beauty of science fiction – you can always postulate that the means will exist somewhere down the road. But until such time as we can manipulate matter, download our consciousness into rectangular monoliths with perfect dimensions, and travel through the cosmos in said same objects, we’re going to have to get used to NOT looking up at night and seeing this:

2010_4In the meantime, enjoy the video. Like all Universe Today videos, articles and podcasts, it’s really quite informative. And be sure to subscribe if you like having all your questions about space, science and the answers to the big questions addressed:

News from Space: Space Elevator by 2035!

space_elevator2Imagine if you will a long tether made of super-tensile materials, running 100,000 km from the Earth and reaching into geostationary orbit. Now imagine that this tether is a means of shipping people and supplies into orbit, forever removing the need for rockets and shuttles going into space. For decades, scientists and futurists have been dreaming about the day when a “Space Elevator” would be possible; and according to a recent study, it could become a reality by 2035.

The report was launched by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), a 350-page report that lays out a detailed case for a space elevator. At the center of it that will reach beyond geostationary orbit and held taught by an anchor weighing roughly two million kilograms (2204 tons). Sending payloads up this backbone could fundamentally change the human relationship with space, with the equivalent of a space launch happening almost daily.

space_elevatorThe central argument of the paper — that we should build a space elevator as soon as possible — is supported by a detailed accounting of the challenges associated with doing so. The possible pay-off is as simple: a space elevator could bring the cost-per-kilogram of launch to geostationary orbit from $20,000 to as little as $500. Not only would be it useful for deploying satellites, it would also be far enough up Earth’s gravity well to be able to use it for long-range missions.

This could include the long-awaited mission to Mars, where a shuttle would push off from the top and then making multiple loops around the Earth before setting off for the Red Planet. This would cut huge fractions off the fuel budget, and would also make setting up a base on the Moon (or Mars) a relatively trivial affair. Currently, governments and corporations spend billions putting satellites into space, but a space elevator could pay for itself and ensure cheaper access down the line.

terraforming-mars2The report lays out a number of technological impediments to a space elevator, but by far the most important is the tether itself. Current materials science has yet to provide a material with the strength, flexibility, and density needed for its construction. Tethers from the EU and Japan are beginning to push the 100-kilometer mark, are still a long way off orbital altitude, and the materials for existing tethers will not allow much additional length.

Projecting current research in carbon nanotubes and similar technologies, the IAA estimates that a pilot project could plausibly deliver packages to an altitude of 1000 kilometers (621 miles) as soon as 2025. With continued research and the help of a successful LEO (low Earth orbit, i.e. between 100 and 1200 miles) elevator, they predict a 100,000-kilometer (62,137-mile) successor will stretch well past geosynchronous orbit just a decade after that.

carbon-nanotubeThe proposed design is really quite simple, with a sea platform (or super-ship) anchoring the tether to the Earth while a counterweight sits at the other end, keeping the system taught through centripetal force. For that anchor, the report argues that a nascent space elevator should be stabilized first with a big ball of garbage – one composed of retired satellites, space debris, and the cast-off machinery used to build the elevator’s own earliest stages.

To keep weight down for the climbers (the elevator cars), this report imagines them as metal skeletons strung with meshes of carbon nanotubes. Each car would use a two-stage power structure to ascend, likely beginning with power from ground- or satellite-based lasers, and then the climber’s own solar array. The IAA hopes for a seven-day climb from the base to GEO — slow, but still superior and far cheaper than the rockets that are used today.

Space Elevator by gryphart-d42c7sp
Space Elevator by gryphart-d42c7sp

One thing that is an absolute must, according to the report, is international cooperation. This is crucial not only for the sake of financing the elevator’s construction, but maintaining its neutrality. In terms of placement, IAA staunchly maintains that a space elevator would be too precious a resource to be built within the territory of any particular nation-state. Though every government would certainly love a space elevator of their very own, cost considerations will likely make that impossible in the near-term.

By virtue of its physical size, a space elevator will stretch through multiple conflicting legal zones, from the high seas to the “territorial sky” to the “international sky” to outer space itself, presenting numerous legal and political challenges. Attacks by terrorists or enemies in war are also a major concern, requiring that it be defended and monitored at all levels. And despite being a stateless project, it would require a state’s assets to maintain, likely by the UN or some new autonomous body.

space_elevator1In 2003, Arthur C. Clarke famously said that we will build a space elevator 10 years after they stop laughing. Though his timeline may have been off, as if often the case – for example, we didn’t have deep space missions or AIs by 2001 – sentiments were bang on. The concept of a space elevator is taken seriously at NASA these days, as it eyes the concept as a potential solution for both shrinking budgets and growing public expectations.

Space is quickly becoming a bottleneck in the timeline of human technological advancement. From mega-telescopes and surveillance nets to space mining operations and global high-speed internet coverage, most of our biggest upcoming projects will require better access to space than our current methods can provide for. And in addition to providing for that support, this plans highlights exactly how much further progress in space depends on global cooperation.

Source: extremetech.com

Cyberwars: Russia’s Cyber-Weapons Hit Ukraine

cyber_privacyAccording to Ukraine’s security services, the situation in the Crimea is escalating in ways that have nothing to do with the deployment of military forces or the enacting of sanctions. It seems that members of the country’s parliament, regardless of political affiliation, are being targeted by cyberattacks. While no shots have been fired and no official declarations have been made, this revelation shows that the crisis has entered a new phase – one of cyberwarfare!

The attacks began two days ago, when members of Ukraine’s parliament, regardless of their party affiliation, saw their mobile communications blocked by equipment in Russia-controlled Crimea. According to Ukrainian security officials, the phone access has been blocked thanks to equipment installed “at the entrance to (telecom) Ukrtelecom in Crimea.” Ukraine’s security teams are now working on restoring service to the parliament members, though it’s not clear when the blockade will be removed.

cyberattackSince that time, other cyber weapons have been detected, the latest of which is known as Snake (aka. “Ouroboros” after a serpent drawn from Greek mythology). This virus, which interestingly enough has the characteristics of both a product of the intelligence services and the military – it can both surveil and physically destroy computer networks – has been wrecking havoc on Ukrainian government systems.

By targeting the Ukrainian government with Ouroboros, the Russians are able to effectively engage in an aggressive, kinetic act without actually declaring war. This is due to the fact that in the digital age, cyber attacks fall into the category of being largely accepted as part of how countries exercise power. Much like how in the Cold War – where there were unspoken rules of what powers could do – these acts fall short of what is considered outright aggression.

cold_warHowever, this will not last forever. If certain capabilities of Ouroboros go live, then it will remain to be seen how the Ukraine reacts. And if the Russians deploy cyber weapons with network-destroying capabilities into other countries, there might well be one country that reacts as though the launch of a cyber weapon is no different than the launch of a missile. It all comes down to perception, and whether or not all sides see fit to limit themselves to cyber attacks.

cybergrenadeUltimately, the Cold War remained cold due to the fact that all sides were able to maintain an agreed upon set of rules. As long as no one stood to gain from the outbreak of full-scale war – due to the proliferation of nukes and the prospect of “mutually assured destruction” – everyone could expect to do what was in their own best interests. The absence of such a set of rules and treaties governing cyber weapons has not yet led to open hostilities, but it remains to be seen if they will hold.

One can only hope a modern day Russia, and Ukraine for that matter, can be expected to do what’s in their best interests as well and avoid an open state of war.

Sources: news.cnet.com, huffingtonpost.com

Happy Anniversary!

fireworks1Today, I got an all=important notification from WordPress.com. It tells me that today is the third anniversary of this here blog, also known as storiesbywilliams.com. Yes, it was on this day, three years ago to the day, that I started this little enterprise in order to publicize my work, share what inspires me, and connect with other writers and bloggers out there.

And as with all anniversaries on this site, I’d like to commemorate this by sharing a few facts and figures, just to put it all in context context. Three years on this site has resulted in the following numbers:

  • 3 years
  • 1095 days
  • 8760 hours
  • 1576800 minutes

Or, to put it in terms of what I’ve actually done with that time, which seems much more relevant:

  • 410,057 views
  • 6,417 comments
  • 2,039 followers
  • 1,541 posts

And as usual, I would like to thank all those who helped make this possible. Since starting this blog, I’ve managed to publish all my works from 2004 onward. These include Source, the Legacies: Preludes collection, Data Miners, Whiskey Delta, and most recently, Papa Zulu. And in the coming months, I plan to release Flash Forward, and finish work on the long-awaited Yuva Anthology.

And, just as importantly, I feel I’ve learned a great deal, thanks to the personal and professional connections I’ve made. And wherever possible, I’ve tried to pass that experience and knowledge onward; and shall continue to do so whenever possible. This site is, was, and always will be about inspiration, and that belongs to no one and everyone.

So expect to hear plenty more from me, and be sure to make yourself heard as well – as often and as much as possible. Here’s to three years more, and to forever looking onward!

space_camera

The Walking Dead – Season 4, Episode 13

The-Walking-Dead-season-4-wallpapers-7This week on the Walking Dead… more pacing, more backstory, more filler! After last week’s bottle episode that focused entirely on Daryl Dixon and Beth Greene in the wilderness, we got a more balanced episode that saw more from that unlikely duo, plus some updates on Beth, Bob and Sasha as they continue to look for Glenn and proceed towards Terminus. And as usual, we got to hear a bit more about their pasts and got another earful about the need to “keep hanging on”.

Throw in some more kills and foraging, and you’ve got yourself another pacing episode as we near the season four conclusion. I know, it sounds like I’m being critical. But in honesty, I found it entertaining and enjoyable.

Alone:
wd4_13_1The episode opens with a flashback on Bob Crowley’s life before he reached the prison. This consisted of wandering through the woods, maintaining a thousand-yard-stare, and then getting picked up by Daryl and Glenn as they found him on the road. As is their custom, they asked him the two big questions: “How many Walkers have you killed?” and “How many people have you killed?” He then joins them, indifferent to what kind of people they might be since he’s sick of being alone.

Flash forward to the present where he, Maggie and Sasha are still searching for Glenn. After fending off a group of walkers in the mist, they proceed to the railroad tracks where they too find a sign showing them how to get to Terminus. Maggie insists they go to this town since she’s sure Glenn would have if he saw the sign, but Sasha thinks its a trap. Grudgingly, they stay together and follow the tracks to the destination.

wd4_13_3Meanwhile, Beth and Daryl continue to track through the woods and Beth is injured when she steps in a small trap. They proceed to a funeral home surrounded by a vast graveyard and put in their for the night, noticing that someone else seems to have taken up residence. As they eat and wait, they continue to bond. Beth is insistent that Daryl accept that there are still good people in the world, but realizes he does because of her.

As they wait for Beth’s leg to heal, a dog comes around to the house and tripping their string of cans. One night, it returns, and Daryl opens the door to find a herd of walkers fighting to get in. Daryl lures them to the embalming room in the basement where he uses surgical tools to kill them while Beth escapes out the back. When Daryl makes it to the road, he sees her bag lying on the ground and a car drive off.

wd4_13_4Daryl runs through the night, following the road, and finds his way to the tracks where he finally collapses. He is then found by a group of armed men who appear to want to scavenge his equipment. A standoff ensues as Daryl points his crossbow at their leader, a man named Joe. We recognize him as one of the gunmen who Rick run afoul of earlier, and he encourages Daryl to come with them and “hurt other people”.

During the night, Sasha suggest to Bob they abandon the search, find the nearest building, and hold up. The next morning, they a wake to find that Maggie has gone on without them. They head along the tracks, hoping to catch her, and find that she’s left a trail of carved messages telling Glenn to go to Terminus. They eventually find their way to a series of buildings and Sasha once again suggests they set down there, but Bob insists they continue.

wd4_13-2Bob challenges Sasha to maintain hope that they find Tyreese and the others at Terminus; but sensing she won’t come, kisses her goodbye. He heads off alone again, and Sasha heads into the tall brick building. Looking out the window, she spots Maggie sleeping below. She accidentally knocks a window pane, which wakes up Maggie and causes Walkers to converge on her. Together, they manage to fight them off.

Maggie tells Sasha that she heard all she said, but that she was still waiting for Sasha and Bob to catch up since she needs them. They come together and eventually find Bob, and proceed on their way to Terminus. Somewhere else along the tracks, Glenn stops to read from a map that points the way to the same location…

Summary:
Compared to last week’s episode, this bit of filler proved to be more entertaining, thanks in no small part to the inclusion of Maggie, Bob and Sasha’s thread. It also managed to hint at what’s coming, thanks to the introduction of Joe and his party of  hunters/marauders. We already know from episodes past that they are some bad news, so I imagine Daryl will have his hands full in the near future.

I also enjoyed the shooting locations for this episode and the action sequences. Maggie really redefined the word badass with the way she used a street sign like it was a battleaxe, chopping and hewing her way through a horde of zombie heads. And that last shot, where she decapitated one of the biters? Holy crap, that was good! And of course, Sasha did pretty good too, wielding a sharpened stick like it was a combination spear/bo staff.

Alas, there were things I didn’t like much about this episode. For one, they seem to be running headlong towards a romantic entanglement between Beth and Daryl. I imagine there are some people out there clamoring for it to happen, but c’mon people! She’s still a child and Daryl is not the type to play the creepy old man! Still, the dynamic between them is very effective, and the budding relationship is touching. I just think it would be better if it didn’t get romantic!

And unlike other episodes, the title wasn’t so double-entendre-y this week. It was very much obvious, and harped on yet another theme that is growing tired on this show. Yes, the message of this week’s episode was more than clear: no one can make it out here alone. And of course this plays into the whole “we got to keep holding on” message that is played at least once an episode.

And what’s also a little bothersome is the fact that next week’s episode looks like more of the same. After hearing from Rick, Carl and James, Daryl and Beth, and now Maggie, Bob and Sasha, we’re about to get a bottle episode dedicated to Tyreese, Carol and the girls.

But there’s only three episodes left and they are already dropping hints as to how its going to wrap up. I predict a showdown between Rick and co. and Joe and his band of very bad men. But we’ll see soon enough!

The Future of Medicine: New Cancer Tests and Treatments

cancer_growingWhile a cure for cancer is still beyond medical science, improvements in how we diagnose and treat the disease are being made every day. These range from early detection, which makes all the difference in preventing the spread of the disease; to less-invasive treatments, which makes for a kinder, gentler recovery. By combining better medicine with cost-saving measures, accessibility is also a possibility.

When it comes to better diagnostics, the aim is to find ways to detect cancer without harmful and expensive scans or exploratory surgery. An alternative is a litmus test, like the one invented by Jack Andraka to detect pancreatic cancer. His method, which was unveiled at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), won him the top prize due to the fact that it’s 90% accurate, 168 times faster than current tests and 1/26,000th the cost of regular tests.

cancer_peetestSince that time, Jack and his research group (Generation Z), have been joined by such institutions as MIT, which recently unveiled a pee stick test to detect cancer. In research published late last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, MIT Professor Sangeeta Bhatia reported that she and her team developed paper test strips using the same technology behind in-home pregnancy tests, ones which were able to detect colon tumors in mice.

The test strips work in conjunction with an injection of iron oxide nanoparticles, like those used as MRI contrast agents, that congregate at tumor sites in the body. Once there, enzymes known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which cancer cells use to invade healthy tissue, break up the nanoparticles, which then pass out through the patient’s urine. Antibodies on the test strip grab them, causing gold nanoparticles to create a red color indicating the presence of the tumor.

cancer_peetest2According to Bhatia, the technology is likely to make a big splash in developing countries where complicated and expensive medical tests are a rarity. Closer to home, the technology is also sure to be of significant use in outpatient clinics and other decentralized health settings. As Bhatia said in a press release:

For the developing world, we thought it would be exciting to adapt (the technology) to a paper test that could be performed on unprocessed samples in a rural setting, without the need for any specialized equipment. The simple readout could even be transmitted to a remote caregiver by a picture on a mobile phone.

To help Bhatia and her research team to bring her idea to fruition, MIT has given her and her team a grant from the university’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. The purpose of the grant is to help the researchers develop a startup that could execute the necessary clinical trials and bring the technology to market. And now, Bhatia and her team are working on expanding the test to detect breast, prostate cancers, and all other types of cancer.

?????????????In a separate but related story, researchers are also working towards a diagnostic methods that do not rely on radiation. While traditional radiation scanners like PET and CT are good at finding cancer, they expose patients to radiation that can create a catch-22 situation where cancer can be induced later in life, especially for younger patients. By potentially inducing cancer in young people, it increases the likelihood that they will have to be exposed to more radiation down the line.

The good news is that scientists have managed to reduce radiation exposure over the past several years without sacrificing image quality. But thanks to ongoing work at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, the Stanford School of Medicine, and Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, there’s a potential alternative that involves combining MRI scans with a contrast agent, similar to the one Prof. Bhatia and her MIT group use in their peestick test.

cancer_braintumorAccording to a report published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, the researchers claimed that the new MRI approach found 158 tumors in twenty-two 8 to 33-year-olds, compared with 163 found using the traditional PET and CT scan combo. And since MRIs use radio waves instead of radiation, the scans themselves have no side effects. While the study is small, the positive findings are a step toward wider-spread testing to determine the effectiveness and safety of the new method.

The next step in testing this method will be to study the approach on more children and investigate how it might work in adults. The researchers say physicians are already launching a study of the technique in at least six major children’s hospitals throughout the country. And because the cost of each method could be roughly the same, if the MRI approach proves just as effective yet safer, radiation-free cancer scans are likely to be the way of the future.

cancer_georgiatechAnd last, but not least, there’s a revolutionary new treatment pioneered by researchers at Georgia Tech that relies on engineered artificial pathways to lure malignant cells to their death. This treatment is designed to address brain tumors – aka. Glioblastoma multiform cancer (GBM) – which are particularly insidious because they spread through the brain by sliding along blood vessels and nerve passageways (of which the brain has no shortage of!)

This capacity for expansion means that sometimes tumors developed in parts of the brain where surgery is extremely difficult – if not impossible – or that even if the bulk of a tumor can be removed, chances are good its tendrils would still exist throughout the brain. That is where the technique developed by scientists at Georgia Tech comes in, which involves creating artificial pathways along which cancer can travel to either more operable areas or even to a deadly drug located in a gel outside the body.

cancer_georgiatech1According to Ravi Bellamkonda, lead investigator and chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University:

[T]he cancer cells normally latch onto … natural structures and ride them like a monorail to other parts of the brain. By providing an attractive alternative fiber, we can efficiently move the tumors along a different path to a destination that we choose.

The procedure was reported in a recent issue of the journal Nature Materials. It involved Bellamkonda and his team implanting nanofibers about half the size of a human hair in rat brains where GBMs were growing. The fibers were made from a polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer surrounded by a polyurethane carrier and mimicked the contours of the nerves and blood vessels cancer cells like to use as a biological route.

cancer_georgiatech2One end of a fiber was implanted into the tumor inside the brain and the other into a gel containing the drug cyclopamine (which kills cancer cells) outside the brain. After 18 days, enough tumor cells had migrated along the fiber into the gel to shrink the tumor size 93 percent. Not only does Bellamkonda think his technique could be used to relocate and/or destroy cancers, he says he believes it could be used to help people live with certain inoperable cancers as a chronic condition.

In a recent statement, Bellakomba had this to say about the new method and the benefits its offers patients:

If we can provide cancer an escape valve of these fibers, that may provide a way of maintaining slow-growing tumors such that, while they may be inoperable, people could live with the cancers because they are not growing. Perhaps with ideas like this, we may be able to live with cancer just as we live with diabetes or high blood pressure.

Many of today’s methods for treating cancer focus on using drugs to kill tumors. The Georgia Tech team’s approach was engineering-driven and allows cancer to be treated with a device rather than with chemicals, potentially saving the patient many debilitating side effects. Part of the innovation in the technique is that it’s actually easier for tumors to move along the nanofibers than it is for them to take their normal routes, which require significant enzyme secretion as they invade healthy tissue.

cancer_georgiatech3Anjana Jain, the primary author of the study, was also principally responsible for the design of the nanofiber technique. After doing her graduate work on biomaterials used for spinal cord regeneration, she found herself working in Bellamkonda’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow and came up with the idea of routing materials using engineered materials. In a recent statement, she said the following of her idea:

Our idea was to give the tumor cells a path of least resistance, one that resembles the natural structures in the brain, but is attractive because it does not require the cancer cells to expend any more energy.

Extensive testing, which could take up to 10 years, still needs to be conducted before this technology can be approved for use in human patients. In the meantime, Bellamkonda and his team will be working towards using this technology to lure other cancers that like to travel along nerves and blood vessels. With all the advances being made in diagnostics, treatments, and the likelihood of a cure being found in the near future, the 21st century is likely to be the era where cancer becomes history.

Sources: news.cnet.com, (2), (3)