NASA Discover Arsenic based life form in salt lake

At their conference today, NASA scientist Felisa Wolfe Simon will announce that they have found a bacteria whose DNA is completely alien to what we know today. Instead of using phosphorus, the bacteria uses arsenic.

All life on Earth is made of six components: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. Every being, from the smallest amoeba to the largest whale, share the same life stream. Our DNA blocks are all the same.

But not this one. This one is completely different. Discovered in the poisonous Mono Lake, California, this bacteria is made of arsenic, something that was thought to be completely impossible.

While she and other scientists theorized that this could be possible, this is the first discovery. The implications of this discovery are enormous to our understanding of life itself and the possibility of finding beings in other planets that don’t have to be like planet Earth.

No details have been disclosed about the origin or nature of this new life form. We will know more today at 2pm EST but, while this life hasn’t been found in another planet, this discovery does indeed change everything we know about biology.

Botulinum toxin A (Botox) Causes Muscle Atrophy

A new study by researchers at the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, is raising questions about the therapeutic use of botulinum toxin A.

The study found that animals injected with Clostridium Botulinum type A neurotoxin complex (BOTOX, Allergan, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada) experienced muscle weakness in muscles throughout the body, even though they were far removed from the injection site.

The study also found that repeated injection induced muscle atrophy and loss of contractile tissue in the limb that was not injected with the Toxin.

“We were surprised by the degree of muscle loss and atrophy in the limb that was not injected with the Botulinum toxin,” says Rafael Fortuna the lead author of the paper will soon be published in The Journal of Biomechanics, “I think it’s fair to say that the paper raises some important questions about the long-term therapeutic use of Botox, especially with children and adolescents.”

The study used dosages that approximated therapeutic doses used to treat conditions like cerebral palsy where muscle contraction can’t be controlled resulting in muscle dystonia and spasticity.

The study follows previous research in Dr. Walter Herzog’s lab, which found that Botulinum toxin A, easily crosses the muscle membrane barrier, resulting in muscles weakness in the surrounding (non-injected) muscles.

This study shows, for the first time, that over time Botulinum toxin A use also results in muscle weakness, atrophy and loss of contractile tissue in non-injected muscles far-removed from the injection site.

”It may be that the benefits of using Botox for these kinds of therapeutic, medical uses, outweighs these potential long-term consequences,” says Dr. Herzog, “however I think this study raises some important issues that need to be followed to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients, in the long term.”

Botulinum Toxin A is also used as a cosmetic treatment, where the drug paralyzes small muscles in the face to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

Herzog notes that while this study was looking at larger doses, the results should be valid for any application of the drug.

NASA Search for ET: Conference announcement

"NASA will hold a news conference at 2 pm EST (1900 GMT) on Thursday, December 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life," it said on its website.
 
Space enthusiasts and believers in alien life took to the blogosphere in a flurry of speculation over the potential meaning of the announcement, though NASA declined to elaborate further.
 
Those scheduled to speak included Mary Voytek, who heads NASA's astrobiology program; Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA astrobiology research fellow from the US Geological Survey; and Pamela Conrad, an astrobiologistat NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
 
Astrobiology relates to the study of life in the universe, including its origin and evolution, where it is located and how it might survive in the future

ESA analyses Super-Earth's Atmosphere

A crude spectrum has been obtained for the atmosphere of a super-Earth orbiting a dim red dwarf star 40 light years away.

The planet's upper atmosphere is apparently dominated by steam or cloudy haze.

The star, Gliese 1214 (GJ 1214) in Ophiuchus, is 300 times dimmer than the sun. Its planet was discovered in 2009 when the MEarth Project detected the planet's silhouette periodically dimming the star.

The planet has 6.5 Earth masses, as determined later by the star's gravitational wobbles, and it circles the little star very closely in just 38 hours.

The transits reveal the planet's diameter to be 2.6 times Earth's – making its average density very low, only about a third of Earth's density.

Using one of the European Southern Observatory's 8.2-metre Very Large Telescope reflectors, a team of astronomers detected a telltale absorption spectrum caused by a tiny fraction of the star's light filtering through the planet's atmosphere during each transit.

The spectrum was featureless, indicating that the upper atmosphere either consists mostly of water vapor or is dominated by high-altitude clouds or haze.

"This is the first super-Earth to have its atmosphere analysed. We've reached a real milestone on the road toward characterising these worlds," said team leader Jacob Bean of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in a statement.

Before this observation, astronomers had suggested three possible atmospheres for Gliese 1214b. The planet could be shrouded by water – which, given its high temperature so close to the star (200 ºC), would be in the form of steam.

Or it could be a rocky world with an atmosphere of mostly hydrogen obscured by high clouds or hazes.

Or it might be a mini-Neptune, with a small rocky core and a deep hydrogen-rich atmosphere, the upper part of which would be clear.

The measurements clearly show no sign of hydrogen and thus rule out the third option. So the atmosphere is either rich in steam or blanketed by clouds or hazes. The planet's low density, meanwhile, indicates that it's a waterworld.

"Although we can't yet say exactly what that atmosphere is made of, it is an exciting step forward to be able to narrow down the options for such a distant world to either steamy or hazy," says Bean. "Followup observations in longer-wavelength infrared light are needed to determine which of these atmospheres exists on Gliese 1214b."

Journal reference: Nature (DOI: 10.1038/nature09596)

Electronics Video Designed for the Dump - Recycle responsibly

Click on the picture to view the Video

NASA Cassini Image: Thermal cracks on Saturn's Moon Enceladus

This image shows a high-resolution heat intensity map of part of the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus, made from data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

The map reveals never-before-seen details of warm fractures that branch off like split ends from the ends of the main trenches of two "tiger stripes."

The features nicknamed "tiger stripes" are long fissures that spray water vapor and icy particles.

These two fissures, Cairo Sulcus (left) and Alexandria Sulcus (right), extend to the lower right, off the bottom of the image. The map also shows an intriguing isolated warm spot, shown in purple-red in the upper left of the image, that is separated from other active
fissures.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/SWRI/SSI

NASA SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory

SOFIA, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is ready to take off into the heavens for its first science flight this week.

Two astronomy professors, Mark Morris of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and Paul Harvey of the University of Colorado at Boulder will use the Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST), a mid-spectrum infrared camera developed by Terry Herter of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. to learn more about star formation from the airborne observatory.

"My primary target is the Orion nebula, which is a star formation factory," Morris said. "It's close and offers the best views of stars forming right before our very eyes."

Morris hopes to better understand the complexities of the star formation process by viewing the infrared energy emitted by warm dust in the interstellar clouds that are forming the stars. The dust is heated by the luminous, newborn stars.

"Nature doesn't form stars in isolation," he said. "It forms them in clusters, out of natal clouds that collapse under their own gravity.

If you observe carefully, you start to get a clearer picture of how all the new stars are interacting with each other and with their environment."

Harvey's immediate goal is to use the unique combination of high image IR resolution available with SOFIA and FORCAST to study the distribution of dust and gas around Sharpless 140, a young, forming star cluster. Sharpless 140 lies almost 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus.

"Observing the birth of stars in our own galaxy is critical, because planetary systems form at the same time that a central star is formed," Harvey said. "Some of the most luminous galaxies in the universe appear to be powered by extreme bursts of star formation."