NASA remembers its 2009 accomplishments
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- NASA says it will remember 2009 as the year during which it discovered water on the moon and mapped Earth's location in the Milky Way galaxy.
It was also the year the Hubble Space Telescope was upgraded, the number of people living on the International Space Station was increased and an unprecedented survey of polar ice was started.
Here are some of the other events NASA considers among the year's top space-related accomplishments:
-- Four shuttle flights were made to the International Space Station to complete its power-generating capacity, activate Japan's Kibo laboratory and expand the station's interior volume to nearly 26,000 cubic feet.
-- The initial flight of the Ares I-X test rocket was conducted to help develop future launch vehicles.
-- NASA scientists, aside from discovering water molecules in the polar regions of the moon, also found hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, in lunar soil.
-- The space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter began mapping the moon's terrain from an altitude of 31 miles, to return more data about the moon than any other previous satellite.
-- NASA scientists determined methane and carbon monoxide have a significantly more powerful impact on global warming than previously thought.
-- Space agency scientists achieved the first definitive detection of methane and its global variation in Mars' atmosphere, suggesting the planet is biologically or geologically active, or both.
-- NASA celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing by highlighting 49 notable examples of how space agency innovations result in significant advances in healthcare, transportation, consumer goods, environmental protection, computer technology and industrial productivity.
People can vote on which event they consider the top NASA event of 2009 at http://www.nasa.gov/news/09_YIR_poll.html.
Beaches may be reservoirs of E.coli
PARIS, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Beaches may be a reservoir of the pathogen E.coli as a result of migratory bird droppings, researchers in France and Portugal say.
Scientists at the Hopital de Bicetre in Paris and Universidade do Porto in Portugal said E.coli can be very resistant to antibiotic drugs, which makes the infection hard to treat.
The researchers found the same bacteria in the bird droppings as hospitalized people and concluded that people were getting infected by bird droppings on the sand on the beaches in Portugal. The Porto coastline in Portugal, including downtown Porto, has a large seagull population, the researchers said.
During December 2007 through April 2008, wild seagull feces were collected on beaches in Porto, Portugal. Twenty samples were collected every two weeks and the researchers detected E.coli in the samples.
The study, scheduled to be published in the January edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases, suggested that beaches may play a major role in dissemination of drug resistant E.coli and related community-acquired infections. Migratory birds, such as seagulls crossing an extensive portion of the European coastline between Portugal and Scandinavia, may be reservoirs for these emerging resistance determinants, the study said.
Terrorist risks said to be underestimated
WEST POINT, N.Y., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Three West Point Military Academy professors say standard methods of risk analysis likely underestimate the actual risks posed by terrorists.
The military scientists said their study demonstrates the common technique of calculating probabilities of hazardous events ignores the capacity of intelligent terrorists to assess our vulnerabilities, adapt to new situations and create new plans to achieve their objectives.
The researchers compared standard risk analysis methods in which probabilities of events are calculated, to what the authors call a "defender-attacker-defender" model that examines information available to terrorists, and their intentions and decisions.
"We show that treating adversary decisions as uncertain hazards is inappropriate because it can provide a different risk ranking and may underestimate the risk," said Professor Gregory Parnell, one of the study's authors.
Assessing probabilities of attacker decisions will not increase security, but defender-attacker-defender decision analysis models can provide a sound assessment of risk and the essential information our nation needs to make risk-informed decisions, they said.
The study is to appear in the January issue of the journal Risk Analysis.
Scientists ID natural flu-fighting protein
BOSTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they have identified a small family of flu-fighting proteins that increase a person's natural resistance to viral infection.
Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers said the proteins block most virus particles from infecting a cell at the earliest stage in the virus life cycle. The researchers said they also found one protein protects against several human viruses, including H1N1, other influenza A strains, West Nile virus and dengue virus.
After cells are infected, the proteins are critical for the interferon immune response, which makes more of the proteins and activates other defenses, the scientists said.
"We've uncovered the first-line defense in how our bodies fight the flu virus," said Harvard Medical School Professor Stephen Elledge, one of the researchers. "The protein is there to stop the flu. Every cell has a constitutive immune response that is ready for the virus."
The study was led by Dr. Abraham Brass, a geneticist and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. "When we knocked the proteins out, we had more virus infection," Brass said. "When we increased the proteins, we had more protection."
The researchers said their findings could lead to better treatment and prevention of influenza and other viral infections.
The study that included Harvard Associate Professor Michael Farzan appears in the early online edition of the journal Cell.
