Good Morning All,
One more day till Earth Day! I'm going to buy myself another house plant. :) Anyway, today I found one article about earth day. OF COURSE I'm going to mention that one to you first. :) It's about the organization Freecycle, and the new help it's getting from Yahoo. I think it's a splendid idea.
Other articles today include one about a young woman, who just became the youngest professor in the world, at age 18; an article about a new bionic eye to help the blind see; and an article about a policeman saving a woman from a petstore python.
I hope you enjoy todays articles! I'll be back with more tomorrow! :)
Today's Top 5:
1. World's First True Bionic Eye (Sky News)
2. We Kid You Not: She's 18 & a Prof (New York Post)
3. Yahoo Helps Freecycle Turn Trash into Treasure (News.com AU)
4. New Type of Ocean Current Discovered (Honolulu Star Bulletin)
5. Commander Peggy Whitson Breaks Record for Time in Space for a U.S. Astronaut (Science Daily)
Honorable Mention:
1. First Cloned Sniffer Dogs Begin Training (ABC Australia)
2. Wanted: Astronauts to Join Europe's Moon Trip (Telegraph UK)
3. Princess Aiko Walks to Elementary School as Full Classes Begin (Mainichi Daily News)
4. Oregon Cop Battles 12-Foot Python to Save Pet Store Owner (News 10)
Today's Top 5:
1. World's First True Bionic Eye http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91251-1313409,00.html?f=rss
Thomas MooreHealth correspondent
Updated:09:32, Monday April 21, 2008
Doctors have exclusively shown Sky News the world's first true bionic eye that could allow the blind to see. Breakthrough for the blindThe pea-sized video camera is small enough to fit inside the eyeball. The camera is linked to an artificial retina that transmits moving images along the optic nerve to brain.
It could be implanted within three to five years.
The man behind the breakthrough is Dr Mark Humayun, Professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles, California.
He said: "The camera is very, very small, and very low power, so it can go inside your eye and couple your eye movement to where the camera is.
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"With the kind of missing information the brain can fill in, this field is really blossoming.
"So in the next four to five years I hope, and we all hope, that we see technology that's much more advanced."
The institute has already pioneered artificial vision with the company Second Sight.
The existing Argus system has been used in clinical trials, giving rudimentary vision to blind patients with conditions like macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.
The Argus device relies on a video camera which is built into a pair of glasses to capture images.
TV's Steve Austin had bionic eyeThese are converted into electrical signals which are transmitted wirelessly to an implant behind the retina.
The electrodes in the implant unscramble the signal to create a crude black and white picture, which is relayed along the optic nerve to the brain.
Linda Moorfoot is one of the few patients to be fitted with the implant. She had been totally blind for more than a decade with the inherited condition retinitis pigmentosa.
But she can now see a rough image of the world made up of light and dark blocks.
She said: "When I go to the grandkids' hockey game or soccer game I can see which direction the game is moving in. I can shoot baskets with my grandson, and I can see my granddaughter dancing across the stage. It's wonderful."
Linda's implant has just 16 electrodes but the US surgeons last week helped to fit an even more advanced device to British patients.
The updated model has 60 electrodes to give a clearer image.
The identities of the patients have been concealed while doctors at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital monitor their progress.
Meanwhile in California, scientists are developing an implant with 1,000 electrodes, which should allow facial recognition.
2. We Kid You Not: She's 18 & a Prof
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04212008/news/regionalnews/we_kid_you_not__shes_18___a_prof_107388.htm
By Kieran Crowley
April 21, 2008 --
A Long Island whiz kid who left fourth grade to start college at SUNY Stony Brook has become the youngest college professor in history - at 18.
The Guinness Book of World Records is officially recognizing Alia Sabur, who on Feb. 19 was appointed a full-time faculty professor of cell science in the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea.
Sabur "just became the youngest professor in the history of the world, breaking a 300-year-old record," a Guinness spokesman said. He said Alia broke the record set in the year 1717 by 19-year-old professor Colin Maclaurin, a protégé of Isaac Newton.
"It's really a great honor to be in the company of such great scientists," Sabur, who has since turned 19, told The Post by phone from Louisiana, where she is helping with relief efforts by teaching at the Katrina-ravaged Southern University at New Orleans.
"It's really exciting and it's also a challenge because, obviously, when you get awards and recognition for being so young - you have to live up to the expectations, and I do hope I can do that," Sabur said.
Konkuk University spokesman Choon Ho Kim said, "We are all very excited to welcome Alia Sabur. Alia is quite a unique individual and we are looking forward to her making great contributions at our university."
Sabur, a clarinetist who for good measure is a musical prodigy, will begin her physics research and teaching at Konkuk next month.
Sabur added that "there were some ruffled feathers" on the first day of classes in New Orleans but that the students her age were often more accepting of her than the older adult students - all of whom were surprised to see that their physics professor was a cute teenager.
"Oh, my God," said one adult female student. "I have kids your age and you're teaching my class."
Sabur replied, "Well, you know, this is how old I am. I can't help that."
"I can't believe you're our age," laughed one student. "That's so cool."
Sabur encouraged those with problems to give her a chance - and told them they could drop her course later, if her age still bothered them. "Nobody left my class," Sabur said. "We have a good rapport."
Sabur, who got her BA at 14, would be a freshman in college this year if she hadn't jumped ahead eight grades when she was 10.
Professor Sabur cringed when asked the inevitable question: Does she have a boyfriend?
"I'm accepting applications," Sabur quipped, with a smile. She said she does have friends from New York and from Philadelphia, where she studied at Drexel University - but her travel and killer schedule leave less time for a complete social life at the moment.
3. Yahoo Helps Freecycle Turn Trash into Treasure
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23572964-5014239,00.html
by Glenn Chapman in San Francisco
April 21, 2008 12:17pm
Yahoo has unveiled an Earth Day initiative to divert mountains of landfill trash, using the Internet to match people unloading "junk" with those that want the stuff.
Yahoo is hoping to convince its 500 million users worldwide to join Freecycle.org, a nonprofit organisation devoted to finding new homes for just about anything people are getting rid of.
"Our mission is keeping things out of landfills," said Deron Beal, who started Freecycle in 2003 and is its lone staff member.
"Junk only becomes junk after it no longer has any use. It is amazing what things people find uses for."
One Freecycle member put out an online request for socks, with or without holes. She was a school teacher with a class hand puppet project.
Freecycle offerings have included "a box of chocolates, one eaten - take as quickly as possible."
Mr Beal gave away several tons of concrete chunks left from ripping out his driveway, posting the debris as "urbanite" in a Freecycle group.
Some went to a community garden and the rest was used in home construction.
The new alliance is a natural, given that Freecycle members communicate via Yahoo Groups, private forums that include community emails.
People post or email about what they are seeking to get or give in their Freecycle groups, which are broken down by geography so members are basically communicating with neighbours.
Members interested in offered items respond with messages that explain their interest. Givers choose recipients, who pick things up in-person.
There are Freecycle groups in 85 countries managed by volunteers using their own computers.
"Freecycle is run out of my guest bedroom here and about 10,000 other guest bedrooms worldwide," Mr Beal said.
Freecycle ranks in the top three Yahoo online searches in the conservation category, coming in behind recycling and global warming.
"You have this massive underground movement going on and it is growing like crazy," Mr Beal said.
"That is reassuring, because usually when you see the daily news you think we are doomed.
"If we are doomed and people are basically greedy, selfish folks then Freecycle wouldn't work. I try to remember that." vIf the amount of junk the "free cycle of giving" has diverted from landfills were packed into trash trucks stacked one atop another, the resulting tower would reportedly be four times the height of Mt. Everest.
"This is a delightful example of the power of community," said Erin Carlson, director of Yahoo for Good, the internet company's "social responsibility" arm.
"This is something people can do not just on Earth Day, but every day. Everyone has something they'd like to give or get. Green doesn't have to cost more; it can be free."
Yahoo is spotlighting Freecycle on the environmentally-themed Yahoo Green website and is enticing people to join by seeding groups with giveaways including an electric car and organic groceries.
Freecycle membership is nearly five million and Yahoo hopes the alliance causes Freecycle's ranks to swell.
"If you give away an old, ratty sofa not only are you keeping 100 pounds out of a landfill, you are keeping a ton of raw materials from being extracted from Mother Earth," Mr Beal said.
"That is where we need to go."
Freecycle does have a short list of things that can't be offered for reuse that includes "old boyfriends, old girlfriends, toilet paper and stapled staples."
"It was hard to come up with things you couldn't Freecycle," Mr Carlson said.
4. New Type of Ocean Current Discovered
http://starbulletin.com/2008/04/21/news/story05.html
By Robert Shikinar
shikina@starbulletin.com
Scientists have discovered a zebra-stripe pattern of deep, wide and slow currents that cut east-west across the planet's oceans, each like a plodding conveyer belt at the airport passenger terminal.
The previously unsuspected currents stand in sharp contrast to the heat- and wind-driven express trains such as the Gulf Stream, which typically flow in a circular pattern.
The findings on this ocean's hidden texture will be published in an upcoming issue of the Geophysical Research Letters by a team of four scientists that includes a researcher and a postdoctoral fellow from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Using data from satellites and drifting buoys, the scientists found that weak but persistent currents run horizontally across oceans worldwide, moving particles east or west.
Their cause remains a mystery.
Eventually, the currents, or striations, could explain how nutrients move through sea water and boost marine life, and also might explain the effect of the ocean current on climate, the scientists said.
"These are jetlike features," said Nikolai Maximenko, one of the authors and a researcher with the UH International Pacific Research Center. "We suspect that they must contribute significantly to mixing in the ocean and to earthly interaction, which is important for climate systems."
Contributing author Peter Niiler of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego said future models of climate systems will eventually show the striations.
The discovery started with work by Niiler, who for 20 years had been collecting data from 11,000 drifting buoys in the world's oceans. Monitoring data from the buoys, Niiler and Maximenko noticed strange currents in 2003.
Maximenko, along with UH postdoctoral fellow Oleg Melnichenko, selected two regions for closer analyses in the Pacific: near California and toward Latin America.
The two Hawaii scientists analyzed historical data from satellites and of the altitude and wind. They used a filter to remove "noise" from the data and produced an image of the currents, which also have crests and troughs a few centimeters high.
Dozens of previous research missions in those areas missed the currents, Maximenko said.
One reason might be their weakness.
With a speed of about .02 mph or 1 centimeter a second, they are dwarfed by normal ocean currents and eddies, some of which have speeds of about 30 centimeters a second near Hawaii. To continue the airport metaphor, people running on a conveyer belt attract more attention than the conveyer belt itself.
While weak, the currents persist and can move as much water as swirling eddies in the ocean, said Maximenko, adding, "They are always there."
Scientists also found the currents travel nearly half a mile down, possibly even reaching the sea floor. While feeble, the currents are about 124 miles wide and travel thousands of miles.
Scientists are still trying to explain their existence. One theory compares the striations to cloud bands on Jupiter that form from turbulence in the atmosphere. Maximenko considers this theory unlikely, since land masses interfere in the ocean.
The scientists plan another study, funded by NASA and with more scientists added to the team, that will try to determine the cause of the stripes and their effects.
5. Commander Peggy Whitson Breaks Record for Time in Space for a U.S. Astronaut
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080420114045.htm
ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2008)
Commander Peggy Whitson and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko of the 16th International Space Station crew landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan around 4:30 a.m. EDT April 19 after 192 days in space. All three people aboard the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft were reported to be in good condition after their re-entry and landing.
The landing was approximately 295 miles from the expected landing site, delaying the recovery forces’ arrival to the spacecraft by approximately 45 minutes.
With Whitson and Malenchenko was spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi. She launched to the station April 8 with the Expedition 17 crew, Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.
Astronaut Garrett Reisman came to the station aboard Endeavour on its STS-123 mission, launched March 11. He served for the last few weeks as a member of Expedition 16. He remains aboard as a member of the Expedition 17 crew.
Expedition 16 crew members undocked their Soyuz spacecraft from the station at 1: 06 a.m. Saturday. The deorbit burn to slow the Soyuz and begin its descent toward the Earth took place at 3:40 a.m.
When they landed, Whitson and Malenchenko had spent 192 days in space on their Expedition 16 flight, 190 of them on the station.
Whitson, 48, returned from her second mission to the station. She served as a flight engineer on the Expedition 5 crew, launching June 5, 2002, and returning to Earth Dec. 7 after almost 185 days in space.
She landed Saturday with a total of 377 days in space, more than any other U.S. spacefarer. On April 16 she broke the previous mark of 374 days set by Mike Foale on his six flights.
She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rice University in Houston. She began working for NASA as a research biochemist in 1989 and was selected as an astronaut in 1996.
Malenchenko, 46, a Russian Air Force colonel, is making his third long-duration spaceflight. He spent 126 days aboard the Russian space station Mir beginning July 1, 1994, and commanded Expedition 7, spending 185 days in space beginning April 26, 2006. He also was a member of the STS-106 crew of Atlantis on an almost-12-day mission to the station beginning Sept. 8, 2000.
He landed Saturday with a total of 515 days in space on his four flights. He has the ninth highest total of cumulative time in space of all humans.
Adapted from materials provided by National Aeronautics And Space Administration.
Honorable Mentions:
1. First Cloned Sniffer Dogs Begin Training
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/21/2223407.htm
Posted 3 hours 5 minutes ago
The world's first cloned sniffer dogs have begun training and will be ready to report for duty this year, South Korean customs officials say.
Seven cloned puppies named Toppy ("Tomorrow's puppy") were born in late 2007 to three surrogate mothers under a state-funded project, the Korea Customs Service said.
The Toppies have passed the first round of tests for behavioural patterns and genetic qualities, it said.
"They will report for duty in June after completing a second round of training," Customs spokesman Lee Ho told AFP.
The 300 million won ($320,000) project was carried out by Lee Byung-Chun, who played a key role in the world's first successful cloning of a dog by creating a duplicate of a three-year-old Afghan hound.
Mr Lee used the nuclei of somatic cells from sniffer dog Chase, a golden retriever, to clone the puppies.
Project manager Lim Jae-Yong said that training the clones of a skilled sniffer dog is easier than training ordinary canines.
"The project was successful. This is the first time that cloned dogs have been used as sniffer dogs," he said.
Mr Lee, a former colleague of disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-Suk, has led his own research team since Hwang was indicted in 2006 for fraud, embezzlement, ethical breaches and other charges.
Hwang, once hailed as a national hero before a university inquiry ruled some of his work was fake, is now on trial.
The Government has banned Hwang from research using human eggs after his claims that he created the first human stem cells through cloning were ruled in January 2007 to be bogus.
2. Wanted: Astronauts to Join Europe's Moon Trip
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/21/wspace121.xml
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 10:23am BST 21/04/2008
The European Space Agency is to launch a recruitment drive next month for a new generation of astronauts, but British applicants may be barred as the UK has not contributed to Europe's human spaceflight budget.
Have your say: Why would you make a good astronaut?Are you between the ages of 27 and 37, with a good background in science, an excellent memory, a team player and good with your hands? Can you speak fluent English and a preferably some Russian? Do you fancy spending time on the Moon?
If so, the ESA wants to hear from you.
The agency expects up to 50,000 applicants - mainly doctors, scientists, pilots and engineers - when it opens the competition on May 19. Only four will become astronauts.
While the ESA has promised to consider candidates from all 17 EU states, unless the British government decides to fund human spaceflight, any British applicant selected will likely be blocked from beginning the training.
Only seven ESA member states are contributors to the human spaceflight part of its budget and Britain is not among them. Training astronauts is extremely expensive and it is unclear whether the ESA will take people from non-contributing states.
Those who get past the first stage will be subjected to a battery of psychological tests, skills assessments, medical evaluations and formal interviews.
The four winners, who will be announced in 2009, are expected to spend time in the International Space Station and possibly fly to the Moon and Mars.
They could take part in missions as early as 2012.
3. Princess Aiko Walks to Elementary School as Full Classes Begin
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080421p2a00m0na021000c.htmlApril 21, 2008 Princess Aiko walks to her elementary school with Crown Princess Masako, in Tokyo’s Minato-ku on Monday. (Pool photo)Princess Aiko walked to her elementary school with her mother, Crown Princess Masako, on Monday morning, as the first full day of classes for first graders began at Gakushuin Primary School.
Princess Aiko, 6, started attending the school in Tokyo's Shinjuku-ku on April 10. On Monday, Princess Aiko, clad in a dark blue coat and carrying a black satchel on her back, walked to the school hand in hand with Crown Princess Masako.
According to the Imperial Household Agency, Crown Princess Masako and Princess Aiko left their home at Togu Palace in Tokyo's Minato-ku at around 7:45 a.m. on Monday.
They then walked from the palace to the school, while exchanging smiles with each other.
Crown Princess Masako will reportedly accompany Princess Aiko to school until Princess Aiko gets used to walking there.
4. Oregon Cop Battles 12-Foot Python to Save Pet Store Owner
http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=40905
Written by Jason Kobely, Internet News Producer
Updated 4/19/2008
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- A pet store owner in Eugene, Oregon, is calling a police sergeant a hero for saving her from the coils of a 12-foot python.
Teresa Rossiter had reached into a cage to show the snake to a customer when the Burmese python bit her right hand. It then coiled around her left arm to throw her to the floor.
A friend kept the snake off her neck and body while police were called.
When Sergeant Ryan Nelson rushed into the store, he was ready to kill the snake with his knife. But Rossiter asked him to spare the expensive python. So, Nelson put on gloves and pried open the snake's mouth to free Rossiter's hand.
Two responders from the Fire Department helped unwrap the snake, which was eventually returned to its cage.
Rossiter suffered dozens of puncture wounds, but she, the sergeant and the python are now fine.
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