UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Last STS-129 spacewalk is completed

HOUSTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Space Shuttle Atlantis astronauts Randy Bresnik and Robert Satcher Jr. finished the last spacewalk of the STS-129 mission Monday in five hours and 42 minutes.

The spacewalk that started at 8:24 a.m. EST ended at 2:06 p.m. EST, with the spacewalkers completing, among other things, the transfer of an oxygen-filled high pressure gas tank to a spot on the outside the Quest Airlock. The tank will be used to replenish atmosphere lost when spacewalkers enter and exit the station.

Bresnik and Satcher also removed a pair of micrometeoroid and orbital debris shields from the Quest Airlock and strapped them to an external stowage platform. Then Bresnik moved an articulating foot restraint to the airlock and Satcher released a bolt on a starboard truss ammonia tank assembly in preparation for an STS-131 spacewalk that will replace the tank. The ammonia in the tanks helps keep the space station properly cooled.

The start of the spacewalk was delayed for about an hour when Satcher's spacesuit drink bag became detached. The bag, located in the spacesuit, allows the astronauts to sip water during their activities. Satcher subsequently successfully reinserted the bite valve into the bag.

The two astronauts completed their tasks ahead of schedule and were given permission to take some extra time for picture taking before re-entering the space station.

NASA said Monday's spacewalk was the 230th conducted by U.S. astronauts, and the 136th in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance, totaling 849 hours, 18 minutes.

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Secondhand smoke worse for toddlers

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Secondhand smoke causes greater blood vessel damage in toddlers than in teens, a U.S. researcher said.

Senior author John Anthony Bauer of the Nationwide Children's Hospital & Research Institute at Ohio State University in Columbus said obese adolescents exposed to secondhand smoke showed twice the vascular injury than normal-weight adolescents had.

The vascular changes detected in toddlers and obese teens were well recognized risks for heart disease in adults, Bauer said.

"This suggests that some aspects of adult heart disease may be initiated in early childhood, where prevention strategies may have great long-term impact," Bauer said in a statement. "Secondhand smoke in children is not just bad for respiratory issues, as has been previously described by other researchers."

Bauer and colleagues recruited African-American, white and Hispanic boys and girls, including 52 toddlers ages 2-5 and 107 adolescents ages 9-18.

The study findings were presented at the American Heart Association's annual scientific sessions in Orlando, Fla.

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NASA awards $350,000 in glove competition

TITUSVILLE, Fla., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- NASA says it has awarded Peter Homer of Southwest Harbor, Maine, a $250,000 first-place prize for developing more flexible space gloves for use by astronauts.

Second place in the space agency's Astronaut Glove Challenge went to Ted Southern of New York who won a $100,000 prize.

The competition sought innovative spacesuit glove design concepts to reduce the effort needed to work during spacewalks, NASA said, noting the competitors demonstrated their glove design by performing a range of tasks in a pressurized chamber. Competitors had to develop a complete glove, including an outer, thermal-micrometeoroid-protection layer and an inner, pressure-restraining layer.

"It is remarkable that two designers working on their own could create gloves that meet the requirements for spaceflight -- a task that normally requires a large team of experts," said Kate Mitchell, an engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The Thursday competition was held at the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Titusville, Fla. The designs presented in the competition were measured and evaluated by engineers from Johnson, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and NASA's spacesuit manufacturer, ILC Dover of Dover, Del.

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New device aids tumor diagnosis, prognosis

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- UCLA medical scientists say they have created a silicon chip with nano-sized features that can capture circulating tumor cells in a patient's bloodstream.

The scientists say their device can obtain critical information for examining and diagnosing cancer metastasis, determining patient prognosis, and monitoring the effectiveness of therapies.

Currently, the best method of examining the disease status of tumors is an analysis of metastatic solid biopsy samples, but the UCLA scientists said during the early stages of metastasis, it is often difficult to identify a biopsy site.

But they said by using the new device, physicians can essentially perform a "liquid" biopsy, allowing for early detection and diagnosis, as well as improved treatment monitoring.

The UCLA team said it developed a one-by-two-centimeter silicon chip covered with densely packed nanopillars incubated in a culture medium with breast cancer cells. As a control, they performed a parallel experiment with a cell-capture method that uses a chip with a flat surface.

Both structures were coated with an antibody protein that can help recognize and capture tumor cells. The researchers found the cell-capture yields for the UCLA chip was 45 percent to 65 percent of the cancer cells in the medium, compared with only 4 percent to 14 percent for the flat device.

The study appears in the journal Angewandte Chemie.