This morning, at 09:00 CET, the first European mission to Mars registered another operational success. The Mars Express flight control team at ESOC prepared and executed another critical manoeuvre, bringing the spacecraft from an equatorial orbit into a polar orbit around Mars.
All commands were transmitted to Mars Express via ESA’s new Deep Space Station in New Norcia, Australia. This morning, the main engine of Mars Express was fired for four minutes to turn the spacecraft into a new
Space exploration and underground mining both take place in extreme environments – so perhaps it is not too surprising that technology developed for one field is now being applied to the other.
ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme is accelerating space technology spin-offs to the mining and the minerals industry sector. In a recent workshop with representatives from the sector, several potential areas were identified as being suitable for cooperation.
“Today 7% of our completed tech
Biologists unravel part of the mystery behind disappearance of shell material
Chitin, the Earth’s second-most abundant biological material, is a major component in the flurry of skeletal debris discarded daily by crustacean creatures in the world’s oceans. If left undisturbed, this tough insoluble material, a cousin to cellulose, would pile up on the ocean’s floor and wreak havoc with marine ecosystems. Fortunately, armies of bacteria act as chitin’s cleanup crew,
A condition linked to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity
For over a decade, scientists have known that insulin resistance – a syndrome where the body does not respond as well as it should to insulin – is linked to the development of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome. In fact, one in four adult Americans has insulin resistance, with Mexican Americans having the highest prevalence. But because people with insulin
The fate of Beagle 2 remains uncertain this morning after the giant radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, UK, failed in its first attempt to detect any signal from the spacecraft.
Scientists were hopeful that the 250 ft (76 m) Lovell Telescope, recently fitted with a highly sensitive receiver, would be able to pick up the outgoing call from the Mars lander between 19.00 GMT and midnight last night. An attempt to listen out for Beagle’s call home by the Westerbork telescope array in th
Drug-coated stents are safe and effective at preventing death, heart attack or repeat procedures in “real world” patients who are often sicker or older than those selected for clinical trials, according to a study in today’s rapid issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The drug-coated stents were more effective than uncoated stents, just as they had been in clinical trials, said lead investigator Patrick W. Serruys, M.D., Ph.D., professor of cardiology at Eras
Fruits and vegetables are good for overall health, and a newly funded study at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) may show that certain vegetables, such as broccoli, also offer protection against prostate cancer.
UPCI researcher Shivendra Singh, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has received a $1.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study prostate cancer prevention by phytochemicals found in br
Australian scientists have invented a simple device that is ready to help thousands of premature babies in third-world countries who suffer from respiratory difficulties – problems that can cause brain damage and blindness.
Dr Kurt Liffman of CSIRO Biomedical Devices says, “The Oxymix device is a simple, compact and inexpensive device to mix oxygen and atmospheric air”.
“The Oxymix was originally conceived for use in developing countries where hospitals have access to medical-grade
New research from NASA scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century.
Soot in the higher latitudes of the Earth, where ice is more common, absorbs more of the sun’s energy and warmth than an icy, white background. Dark-colored black carbon, or soot, absorbs sunlight, while lighter colored ice reflects sunlight.
A group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute has identified a small synthetic molecule that can induce a cell to undergo dedifferentiation – to move backwards developmentally from its current state to form its own precursor cell.
This compound, named reversine, causes cells which are normally programmed to form muscles to undergo reverse differentiation – retreat along their differentiation pathway and turn into precursor cells.
These precursor cells are multipotent; that
When introduced to the world in 1998, human embryonic stem cells were considered heralds of a new age of transplant medicine. The prospect of an unlimited supply of cells and tissue of all kinds to treat disease captured public imagination and enthusiasm.
But lost in the glitz of the cells’ potential to treat an array of devastating and sometimes fatal diseases was another quality that, when all is said and done, could match even the prospect of remaking transplant technology.
In what is believed to be the first success of its kind, researchers at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University have cloned a white-tailed deer. A fawn, named “Dewey,” after Duane Kraemer, one of the researchers, was born to a surrogate mother several months ago.
The fawn is believed to be the first successfully cloned deer and Texas A&M is the first academic institution in the world to have cloned five different species. Previously, researchers at the College of Veterina
As a new outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever strikes northwestern Congo, ESA is set to gather satellite data to help resolve the scientific enigma of this deadly disease.
Whenever Ebola strikes Central Africa it can kill in large numbers. More than two dozen people have so far died during the latest epidemic, centred on the town of Mbomo in the Cuvette West region of Congo, near the Gabon border.
The disease causes runaway internal bleeding in humans and also apes. The Ebola virus
A compound extracted from garlic is effective against even the most antibiotic-resistant strains of MRSA, the killer ‘hospital superbug’, and can cure patients with MRSA-infected wounds within weeks, according to new research by microbiologist Dr Ron Cutler of the University of East London (UEL).
In a paper to be published in the New Year, Dr Cutler, an expert in the antimicrobial properties of plant extracts, claims that allicin – a compound that occurs naturally in garlic – kills not only
New research finds that deficiencies in the hippocampus play a key role in alcoholism-related Korsakoff’s syndrome, a memory disorder. The deficiencies are comparable to those found in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the December 23 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers used MRI to compare the brains of five men with alcoholic Korsakoff’s syndrome to 20 men with Alzheimer’s disease
“It’s all just part of getting old” may not be enough to explain the health problems that elderly people suffer, according to two Dutch researchers, writing in BMC Geriatrics this week. They think that the infirmities associated with old age are symptoms of diseases contracted during life. When doctors consider how to treat elderly patients, they are likely to think, ’is this patient ill, or just old? Can their complaints be explained by the “normal ageing process” or does the pati
Feedback
