NASA moves closer to launch vehicle test
HAMPTON, Va., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says it's moving closer to the first flight test of the rocket that will send humans to the moon again.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said testing of the hardware for the rocket known as Ares I-X -- part of NASA's Constellation Program -- was completed this week at the space agency's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Officials said the flight of Ares I-X will be an important step toward verifying tools and techniques needed to develop Ares I, NASA's next crew launch vehicle.
The test launch is to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center this summer, climb about 25 miles in altitude during a two-minute powered flight. NASA said the launch will culminate with a test of the separation of the first stage from the rocket and deployment of the accompanying parachute system that will return the first stage to Earth for data and hardware recovery.
"This launch will tell us what we got right and what we got wrong in the design and analysis phase," said Jonathan Cruz, deputy project manager for the Ares I-X crew module and launch abort system. "We have a lot of confidence, but we need those two minutes of flight data before NASA can continue to the next phase of rocket development."
Worm gene may help restore injured nerves
SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have identified a nematode worm gene that can be over-activated to speed damaged nerve cell regeneration.
The University of Utah researchers said their discovery is a step toward new treatments for nerves injured by trauma or disease.
"We discovered a molecular target for a future drug that could vastly improve the ability of a neuron to regenerate after injury," either from trauma or disease, said Professor Michael Bastiani, who led the study.
Co-author, Professor Erik Jorgensen, scientific director of the university's Brain Institute, added: "In the future, we would like to develop drugs that could activate this chain of molecular events in nerve cells and stimulate regeneration of diseased and injured nerve cells. At this point, we can't do that. But this study gives us hope that in the future, we will have a rational approach for stimulating regeneration."
Bastiani said the findings might also one day lead to a treatment for multiple sclerosis, in which nerves are damaged by the loss of their myelin coating.
The study that included Paola Nix, Marc Hammarlund and Linda Hauth appears in Science Express, the online edition of the journal Science.
Another extinction threat faces frogs
ADELAIDE, Australia, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- An Australian scientist says an international study suggests human consumption of frog legs is now threatening the amphibians' extinction.
University of Adelaide Associate Professor Corey Bradshaw said the global pattern of harvesting and the decline of wild populations of frogs appears to be following the same path set by overexploitation of the seas and the subsequent "chain reaction" of fisheries collapsing around the world.
"Frogs legs are on the menu at school cafeterias in Europe, market stalls and dinner tables across Asia to high end restaurants throughout the world," said Bradshaw. "Amphibians are already the most threatened animal group yet assessed because of disease, habitat loss and climate change -- man's massive appetite for their legs is not helping."
The annual global trade in frogs for human consumption has increased during the past 20 years with at least 200 million and perhaps more than 1 billion frogs consumed every year, he said.
The study also included researchers from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, the National University of Singapore and Harvard University. The research is to be reported online in the journal Conservation Biology.
Virus made to kill cancer stem cells
CINCINNATI, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have engineered a virus to target and kill apparent cancer stem cells involved in neuroblastoma tumors.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center researchers say they used a reprogrammed herpes virus to block tumor formation in mice by targeting and killing the cells.
The scientists said their accomplishment adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting early stage cancer precursor cells with stem cell-like properties may explain how some cancers form, are treatment resistant and prone to relapse.
The study also underscores the increasing potential of targeted biological therapies to help people with stubborn cancers like neuroblastoma, which often recur and metastasize, said Dr. Timothy Cripe, who led the research.
"The main finding of our study is that pediatric neuroblastomas seem to have a population of cells with stem cell characteristics that we may need to target for therapy," said Cripe. "We also show that one promising approach for targeted treatment is biological therapy, such as an engineered oncolytic virus that seeks out and kills progenitor cells that could be the seeds of cancers."
The research is reported in the online journal PLoS One.
