Space – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Tissue Chips in Space a Big Leap for Research

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in biotech/medical, computing, genetics, health, space

Nov 10
2018

A small device that contains human cells in a 3D matrix represents a giant leap in the ability of scientists to test how those cells respond to stresses, drugs and genetic changes. About the size of a thumb drive, the devices are known as tissue chips or organs on chips.

A series of investigations to test tissue chips in microgravity aboard the International Space Station is planned through a collaboration between the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) in partnership with NASA. The Tissue Chips in Space initiative seeks to better understand the role of microgravity on human health and disease and to translate that understanding to improved human health on Earth.

“Spaceflight causes many significant changes in the human body,” said Liz Warren, associate program scientist at CASIS. “We expect tissue chips in space to behave much like an astronaut’s body, experiencing the same kind of rapid change.”

20181109 00:10 Utc

Posted by Alberto Lao in space

Nov 9
2018

11.08.18 JOVIAN CLOSE ENCOUNTER A multitude of magnificent, swirling clouds in Jupiter’s dynamic North North Temperate Belt is captured in this image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Appearing in the scene are several bright-white “pop-up” clouds as well as an anticyclonic storm, known as a white oval. This color-enhanced image was taken at 1:58 p.m. PDT on Oct. 29, 2018 (4:58 p.m. EDT) as the spacecraft performed its 16th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 4,400 miles (7,000 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops, at a latitude of approximately 40 degrees north. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager. JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and to process into image products at: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/news/jovian_close_encounter. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran. Απολαύστε το φως.

Earth Is Getting Hit by Too Much Antimatter, and Nobody Knows Why

Posted by Michael Lance in particle physics, space

Nov 8
2018

Amid the high speed cosmic rays raining down on us from the depths of space are a handful of antimatter particles called positrons.

Astronomers think that Earth is showered by these ‘anti-electrons’ because of pulsars, but there’s a weird catch – there are more of these particles coming at us than there should be. And now, thanks to a new study, we might finally get some answers.

Cosmic rays are incredibly fast particles, since they’re being shot down from space at high energies. Positrons make up a small percent of these super speedy particles, but nobody is entirely sure where or how they’re made.

Three asteroids will fly dangerously close to Earth this weekend, NASA warns

Posted by Michael Lance in space

Nov 8
2018

You might want to head to the pub and wait for this to all blow over.

The biggest of the three is predicted to be up to 30 metres wide.

NASA Wants To Probe Uranus In Search Of Gas

Posted by Alberto Lao in space

Nov 7
2018

We hear a lot about Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, and that’s because we have extremely fancy hardware floating around and, in some cases, cruising on the surface of those planets. The planets that lie further away from the Sun don’t get nearly as much attention, but they may soon, as NASA is currently spitballing some missions that will give us a better look at Uranus than we’ve ever gotten.

Watch a spacecraft leave the International Space Station

Posted by Michael Lance in space

Nov 7
2018

After delivering more than five tons of supplies, water, spare parts and experiments, a Japanese cargo spacecraft bids farewell to our orbiting laboratory. Live coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. EST. Details: https://go.nasa.gov/2qz6rOs

Electrical properties of dendrites help explain our brain’s unique computing power

Posted by Marcos Than Esponda in computing, neuroscience, space

Nov 7
2018

We humans are intelligent, other living species are also intelligent but we build bridges and cars, we describe the universe and develop several languages while other species don’t. Well it seems the reason is that: we have a different hardware.

Neurons in human and rat brains carry electrical signals in different ways, scientists find.

LIVE LAUNCH: NASA’s ICON Probe

Posted by Michael Lance in space

Nov 7
2018

Click on photo to start video.

For our space fans who are night owls, join us at 2:45 a.m. as NASA streams the launch of the ICON probe. The probe will study the zone where our terrestrial atmosphere meets space.

Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?

Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in space

Nov 6
2018

Abstract: ‘Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is the first object of interstellar origin observed in the Solar system.

Recently, Micheli et al. (2018) reported that ‘Oumuamua showed deviationsfrom a Keplerian orbit at a high statistical significance.

NASA’s mission to ‘Touch the Sun’ just reached its first major milestone with close flyby

Posted by Genevieve Klien in space

Nov 6
2018

It’s been a busy month for the Parker Solar Probe which, if you haven’t been keeping track, is currently moving faster than any man-made object ever and also closer to the sun than anything humans have ever built. The spacecraft launched a couple of months back, but it’s finally ready to do some science, and it just made it first close pass by our Sun, which is obviously cause for celebration.

The probe, which will make dozens of passes of the star, achieved its closest distance of this particular loop (called “perihelion”) on Monday night. Now, its handlers back on Earth are eagerly awaiting word from the craft so that it can share whatever information it has gathered.