New 'bionic' leg gives amputees a natural gait

Ashley C. -- Vanderbilt University has created a brand new prosthetic leg. The new creation has made it possible for amputees to move, without the leg-dragging effect that the original prosthetic’s use
to have. The leg uses a sensor, electric monitor, as well as battery technology, which gives it much better biotic capabilities. This is the first prosthetic that has movable knee and ankle joints.  It has sensors that track its user’s motions. To operate, and predict the movements the user is trying to make, it has microprocessors. This prosthetic limb took seven years to make. It also has a stumble protector. If the artificial leg senses the user stumbling, it will lift the leg up to clear obstructions and plant it back on the ground. This will help to try and keep the user from falling.  This prosthetic was created to help better the lives, and increase mobility of amputees.

I think that this new development in technology will better the lives, of our soldiers, as well as regular people that lose their limbs, by giving them better mobility, and making their lives easier. I always think of how I would feel, if I needed a prosthetic, or if someone in my family need a prosthetic and this would definitely make life easier for them by making life more livable because this prosthetic is lighter, and has more technology involved in making it work better, and simpler for people that need it.

Link:  New 'bionic' leg gives amputees a natural gait

New Planet May Be Among Most Earthlike—Weather Permitting

Marcus G. -- On August 30th Rachel Kaufman wrote an article on the most Earthlike planet we have
seen outside our solar system. The planet HD85512b was found orbiting an Orange Dwarf
Star. Using Radial Velocity to find this planet scientist and astronomers soon found out that
it held liquid water. To be even more shocking is that the planet is close enough to the sun
to feel its heat, but far enough to sustain water in liquid form. As scientists and astronomers
looked at HD85512b they saw it was round enough to have a stable climate. The other fact that
lead scientists to looking for life there is that the star is old enough to not be inducing it to a
lot of solar storms to destroy its atmosphere. Scientists predict that its size it should have the
atmosphere similar to Earth's which consists of mainly Oxygen and Nitrogen.

This interested me a lot when I read this. I like to learn about the universe, because there
is so much out there we don't know. We don't even know everything that happens here on Earth.
I know we are not the only ones in the universe and to know that we are getting closer to finding
more about Alien worlds that might hold life is awesome. Although we cannot for surely know
if this planet may hold life or be able to sustain it with ease it is still a fantastic accomplishment.
The planet is we may not be able to touch for a long time if any, but it helps get an understanding
of planets out of our solar system. Even so science has yet to prove life on other planets.

Link:  New Planet May Be Among Most Earthlike—Weather Permitting

What is killing Killer Whales?

Andrea K. -- Marine experts are concerned with chemical flame retardants PCB's (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) and that they will be affecting the marine animals, causing their specie to decrease, which they are already noticing a decrease in the orcas. The PCB's have been building up in the oceans, since people used them in World War II. The chemicals were later figured out to harm people, animals, and ecosystems and was banned in 1970's. It's affecting the killer whales because the fish they eat, they feed on polluted prey, and absorb the polluted water. Once the orcas eat their prey, they absorb that polluted water, leading to a decrease in the specie. Studies show that high levels of chemical flame retardants were found in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. Dr. Visser, who grew up watching and loving killer whales, she's doing whatever it takes to protect the orcas, and to make sure it does not harm any other marine animals.     

    It made me a little sad to read this article, i love killer whales, and to read about their specie decreasing left me with a bad feeling. I just think it's suprising that the chemical flame retardants would be affecting our marine life now, but it has been building up in the oceans since we used it in World War II. I'm just happy it got banned in the 70's, but many industries are near the coast, so that could be the reason the chemical flame retardants are spreading through out the oceans more. In a way im glad i read the article, because i doubt i would have heard about it anywhere else, so i can know what's going on with our planet. Im also really glad people like Dr. Visser would go out and try to help and protect our marine animals. It makes me want to do better and help out our world more, i know what's done is done, but i feel like we can help out the animals that really need it.

Link:  What is killing killer whales?

Cycles of war = cycles of weather?

Afton T. -- A new study shows correlation between years with an el Nino weather pattern and years with political stress and upheaval. The interesting part is that only countries affected by the el Nino experience this correlation. Other studies have related changes in weather patterns with civil unrest, but since most of the studies were case by case, most people were skeptical, even if completely at random, some cases would coincide with weather patterns. Solomon Hsiang, the leader of the study, classified countries by whether or not they were affected by el Nino, and then researched those that do feel the effects to find the dates of all their civil unrest. They then compared the number of periods of civil unrest during el Nino to the number during normal weather patterns. They found that twice as many conflicts started in countries under el Nino’s influence during the warmer weather patterns. they also found that at least 21 percent of the worlds conflicts can be related to el Nino. There are many reasons that el Nino could affect our society so much. One, people become more aggressive in warmer weather; two, difficulty in fonding a job causes working in the militia to look more exciting; and three, a lack of food causes people to be dissatisfied with their life and more likely to rebel. The interesting point of this article is the way it connects historical conflict to today’s world. It points out the fact that, with all the changes in the weather patterns around the world caused by global warming, the amounts of conflicts worldwide may go up.

This article stood out to me because of the way it linked historical events to topics that are relevant now, such as global warming. I found the fact that people are more aggressive when it is warmer to be interesting, and I have to agree with it: I know that I at least am easier to anger when it is hot outside, and I think that most people are. The article also poses some interesting questions: Do the number of revolutions going on in the Middle East have anything to do with climate change? It also makes me wonder how this will affect us, the next generation. Will we live in a time full of war and strife? I also liked the fact that such a tiny change could affect the world on such a massive scale. A change of .05 degrees Celsius doesn’t seem that big of a deal to us, yet it has such a large and widespread effect. Going back to my original topic, if such a small change affects the world so greatly, then how much of a change will we see as global warming gets greater? All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this article, and the way it made me think.

Link: Cycles of war = cycles of weather?

How a Distant Black Hole Devoured a Star

Patrick F. -- Recent research led by astronomers at the University of Warwick has evidenced the source of one of the brightest beams of energy yet recorded in human history. This beam is concluded to have occurred 3.8 billion years ago following a massive black hole's consumption of a star. This implosion is theorized to have caused the high energy X-rays and gamma-rays observed from Earth recently, 3.8 billion years after the star was ripped apart.

Lead researcher Andrew Levan notes the pure chance which allowed such high energy rays to be observed from Earth: “We still only happen to see this event because our solar system happened to be looking right down the barrel of this jet of energy.” This event, now labeled Sw 1644+57, believed to have occurred in a far away galaxy existent in the constellation Draco. Levan's research indicates that only the consumption of a star in such a manner would be capable of replicating the size, intensity, time scale, and levels of fluctuation observed. This research was conducted using the Hubble Space Telescope, Swift satellite, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and provides valuable insights as well as observable evidence towards the nature and effects of black holes located within star systems.


Link:  How a Distant Black Hole Devoured a Star

The Atmospheric Signature of the Japan Tsunami Could Help Develop a Space-Based Warning System

Matt M. -- Researchers from around the world are hoping that future tsunamis can be predicted by a satellite in stationary orbit over the pacific. This could help be achieved based on a picture captured from a Hawaiian mountain top this camera captured a red atmospheric glow caused by the march 11th tsunami that resulted from the Japan earthquake. Researchers believe that the glow was caused by ocean pressure pushing up on the atmosphere. Even though tsunamis can move hundreds of miles per hour and change the ocean very little they can still impact not only the land but the ionosphere where the air is much thinner and the amplitude of the pressure wave is able to glow. this can cause a faint red glow when the pressure comes in contact with the charged plasma of the earths upper atmosphere.

I hope this works because if it does happen to work then it will save lives because we will be able to predict where a tsunami will hit. However, there could be complications with the system. Just because it will be able to predict a tsunami doesn't mean predict it early enough to give people enough time to evacuate. For example, the glow over Hawaii didn't happen until about an hour before the tsunami hit and that may not very much time to evacuate. If they find a way to improve the system to a day or more hours than just one then yes, I believe this will help people out a lot.


Link:  The Atmospheric Signature of the Japan Tsunami Could Help Develop a Space-Based Warning System

Could New Drug Cure Nearly Any Viral Infection?

Susie M. -- There is a new drug targeted at cells that have viruses in it. This might help cure the viruses which would help a lot of people. Scientists have used animals and humans cells to see if it was going to cure. They used a mice with the DRACO to see if it would cure and unfortunately it did work, and did not have toxic to mice.

I thought this article was very interesting to learn about because I think that they should make a cure. Because a lot of people have bad cells in them and if this cure helps then those people would have a better life. Also if this cure works then a lot of wouldn’t die, or have the feeling when they are gonna die. If you have a lot of viruses then this would be amazing.

Link:  Could New Drug Cure Nearly Any Viral Infection? Technology Shows Promise Against Common Cold, Influenza and Other Ailments, Researchers Say

Pulsar Transformed Into Small Planet Made of Diamond Discovered in Milky Way

Katie A. -- This month, astronomers discovered something in the Milky Way – a planet that seems to be made of diamonds. Once a large white dwarf star, scientists believe that the planet had lost many of its outer layers, and now retains less than 0.1% of its original mass. What remains, they say, is most likely oxygen and carbon, and its density indicates that it can only be a material very similar to diamonds. This material is called crystalline. The discovery was made while using the Effelsberf radio telescope in Germany to conduct a systematic search for pulsars across the entire sky. More and similar finds are expected to occur as a result of this new method of searching.

            This article is interesting to me because everything we find in space is cool. It’s always sort of harder to imagine what could be out there, because it’s an area so foreign and vast that the possibilities are pretty much endless. The more often and the more intently we look to find new things, the more we will find and the cooler they will probably be. A planet made of diamonds sounds like something out of a sci fi movie, and I’m excited to see what else is out there.

Link:  Pulsar Transformed Into Small Planet Made of Diamond Discovered in Milky Way

Cod’s Surprising Immune System

Aiden B. -- This article is about the recent discovery of a new type of immune system found in the cod fish.   It was originally thought that cod (like other animals) had a similar immune system to humans.  New research shows that they do not.  The cod fish lacks the gene MHC II which senses infection, parasites, and harmful bacteria. The immune system of the cod fish instead uses a higher number of the gene MHC I. Scientists continue to study the immune system of the cod to understand how this difference can benefit modern medicine.  This discovery can lead to new medical research and advances.   Also it will definitely affect the fishing industry.

I thought this article was interesting even though it didn’t provide enough detail and information.   Most of the time, the anatomy of other creatures are seen to closely resemble that of a human, this causes people to overlook the small details.   By closely studying the cod’s body functions this new topic was discovered.   I felt that they simply made a summary of the story by leaving out small bits of information that would be good to know to better understand the article.  I also look forward to seeing how this discovery will affect our world.   It’s always fun to learn more about the new advances and discoveries being made today.

Link:  Cod's Surprising Immune System

Childhood Vaccines Cleared of Autism, Diabetes Link

Miranda B. -- Yet another meta-analysis of vaccine research (this time from the US Institute of Medicine) has concluded that there is no link between vaccines and autism. The report, which has been two years in the making, covers vaccines for meningococcal disease, chicken pox, hepatitis B, HPV, DTaP, MMR, hepatitis A, and influenza, which generate the most of the claims for the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). Most of the side effects for which strong evidence of a causal relationship was found were relatively mild and temporary, such as fainting, allergic reactions, and localized swelling. The only vaccines which were strongly linked with severe side effects were MMR and chicken pox (seizures and fever and inflammation of the brain, and certain infections, respectively), and these side effects were found only in immunocompromised children for whom the vaccine is contraindicated anyway. This study offers even more convincing evidence against Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 MMR/autism study which sparked the anti-vaccine movement, and another report that linked MMR and DTaP with diabetes. However, this study is just one boulder in an Everest of evidence that vaccines do not, in fact, cause autism. By this point, any person who believes that vaccines cause autism will not be swayed by any evidence. There is one problem with this report, though- it effectively worked backwards, looking at case reports and trying to see links. This method increases the subjectivity of a report. They had to do it that way because of the lack of population studies for all vaccines but MMR and the cost of conducting studies huge enough to find rates of adverse effects. Basically, the report is flawed (although not fatally) because of the lack of clear and consistent rules for accessing patient data.

Really, this should not be an issue anymore. There has been one (1) study linking MMR to autism, and that study was conclusively proven to be fraudulent and shockingly poorly conducted. The diabetes link is based on one (1) case of diabetes that developed in the Boostrix DTaP clinical trials. Time after time, careful examination of empirical evidence (what some call “reality”) has revealed that antivaccer’s points are not valid. To illustrate these people’s complete lack of sense, one should consider that they complain about the presence of formaldehyde in vaccines, ignorant of the facts that 1) it’s the dose that makes the poison, and 2) humans actually produce some amount of formaldehyde on their own. At this point, any effort to show them sense is a wasted one. The US Institute of Medicine employed people for two years to produce this study, which will not reduce the antivaccer’s numbers. On the other hand, it did clarify the side effects of certain vaccines, so it will be useful to the NVICP. Overall, the article should have focused on that aspect, rather than the old news about autism.


Link:  Childhood Vaccines Cleared of Autism, Diabetes Link