NASA'S WISE spacecraft ready for launch
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- NASA says its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is ready to go into space and begin its mission of surveying the sky in infrared light.
The satellite, known as WISE, is now installed atop a Delta II rocket that is scheduled to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Wednesday between 9:09 a.m. and 9:23 a.m. EST.
"WISE will scan the entire sky in infrared light with a sensitivity hundreds of times greater than ever before, picking up the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images," NASA said in a statement. "The mission will uncover objects never seen before, including the coolest stars, the universe's most luminous galaxies and some of the darkest near-Earth asteroids and comets."
A prelaunch news conference on NASA Television will be held Monday at 4 p.m. EST, followed by a mission science briefing. Internet TV coverage of the Wednesday countdown and launch will begin at 7 a.m. EST.
All three events will be available at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.
Targeted ultrasound reduces biopsies
CHICAGO, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Targeted breast ultrasound may reduce the need for biopsies for women under age 40, U.S. medical researchers said.
Senior author Dr. Constance Lehman of the University of Washington in Seattle and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and colleagues conducted two studies where targeted ultrasound effectively distinguished between potentially cancerous masses and benign findings in young women who had detected areas of concern in their breasts.
The first study included 1,123 ultrasound examinations of women under age 30, while the second included 1,577 ultrasound examinations of women ages 30-39.
The researchers concluded high-quality breast ultrasound should be the diagnostic tool of choice for young women seeking care for breast lumps and other suspicious signs and symptoms.
"It is time we used ultrasound to reduce unnecessary morbidity and costs associated with more aggressive invasive approaches," Lehman said in a statement.
The findings of the two studies were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago.
DNA sequencing of Pacific island under way
GAINESVILLE, Fla., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- University of Florida scientists say they're taking part in a project to inventory the DNA of every living species on the French Polynesian island of Moorea.
The data gathered by scientists from the university's Florida Museum of Natural History will be used to study ecological processes in depth across the entire island. Moorea's coral reefs in particular are considered crucial indicators of how natural systems respond to climate change, researchers said.
"Nobody has ever sequenced a single place to this level," said Gustav Paulay, the project's team leader for marine invertebrates and the Florida Museum's curator of marine malacology. "And nobody has ever investigated coral reef biodiversity this thoroughly in one place."
The three-year Moorea Biocode Project is now in its second year and the Florida Museum scientists are one of seven teams collecting specimens on everything from terrestrial vertebrates to algae. The island, about 37 miles in circumference, is located 11 miles from Tahiti.
The island's coral reefs are being studied under a long-term ecological research project funded by the National Science Foundation. DNA information is being uploaded to a global sequencing effort known as the Barcode of Life, which hopes to collect a DNA sequence for every living thing on Earth.
Scientists develop tumor-attacking virus
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. cancer researchers say they have developed a tumor-attacking virus that both kills brain-tumor cells and blocks the growth of new tumor blood vessels.
Ohio State University scientists said their achievement shows oncolytic viruses -- viruses designed to kill cancer cells -- might be more effective against aggressive brain tumors if they also carry a gene for a protein that inhibits blood-vessel growth.
The scientists said the protein, called vasculostatin, is normally produced in the brain. In their study, an oncolytic virus containing the gene for that protein in some cases eliminated human glioblastoma tumors growing in animals and significantly slowed tumor recurrence in others.
Glioblastomas are the most common and devastating form of human brain cancer, the researchers said, noting people with such tumors survive less than 15 months on average after diagnosis.
"This is the first study to report the effects of vasculostatin delivery into established tumors, and it supports further development of this novel virus as a possible cancer treatment," Associate Professor Balveen Kaur, who led the study, said. "Our findings suggest that this oncolytic virus is a safe and promising strategy to pursue for the treatment of human brain tumors.
The research was recently published online in the journal Molecular Therapy.
