UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

NASA's Constellation project killed

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The proposed FY 2011 federal budget kills NASA's much heralded Constellation program, as expected, but provides the space agency with $100 billion overall.

The Constellation program was based on a vision of returning astronauts to the Moon by 2020. However, administration officials said the program was over budget, behind schedule and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies.

An independent review panel determined that even if fully funded, NASA's program to repeat many of the achievements of the Apollo era, 50 years later, was the least attractive approach to space exploration when compared to potential alternatives.

President Barack Obama's proposed budget for NASA includes projects that would support future heavy-lift rocket systems aimed at increasing the capability of future exploration architectures with significantly lower operations costs than current systems.

The proposal includes $369 million for new technology development and test programs aimed at increasing the capabilities and reducing the cost of future space activities.

Officials said $600 million would be used to complete the final five space shuttle missions and allow an orderly retirement of the program, even if its schedule extends into FY 2011. An additional $183 million would extend operations of the International Space Station.

The proposed NASA budget would also accelerate development of new satellites for Earth science priorities and support a contract with industry to provide astronaut transportation to the space station, reducing reliance on foreign crew transports.

Exercise affects insulin sensitivity

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher says what is eaten after exercise produces differences in the way the body metabolizes.

Senior author Jeffrey Horowitz of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor also says many of the health benefits of aerobic exercise are due to the most recent exercise session rather than weeks or longer of exercise training.

"Many of the improvements in metabolic health associated with exercise stem largely from the most recent session of exercise, rather than from an increase in 'fitness' per se," Horowitz says in a statement.

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, finds exercise enhanced insulin sensitivity, particularly of carbohydrates eaten after the exercise session. Enhanced insulin sensitivity means sugar is taken from the blood stream into tissues like muscles to be stored or used as fuel. Impaired insulin sensitivity -- known as insulin resistance -- is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes and a major risk factor for heart disease.

Horowitz says eating relatively low-calorie meals after exercise did not improve insulin sensitivity and suggests exercisers may not need to starve after exercise to still reap health benefits

Horowitz and colleagues studied nine healthy sedentary men, ages 28-30.

Chemicals in forest fire smoke studied

SCOTTSVILLE, South Africa, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- South African scientists say chemicals in smoke from forest fires may regulate seed germination and play a key role in the rebirth of burned landscape.

The researchers, led by Johannes Van Staden of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Scottsville, South Africa, identified both plant growth promoters and inhibitors in smoke.

The scientists previously discovered a chemical compound in smoke from burning plants that promotes seed germination. Such seeds, which remain buried on forest and meadow floors after fires have been extinguished, are responsible for the surprisingly rapid re-growth of fire-devastated landscapes.

In their new research, the scientists said they discovered an inhibitor compound that might block the action of the stimulator, preventing germination of seeds. They suspect both compounds might be part of a natural regulatory system for repopulating fire-ravaged landscapes.

The scientists said the interaction of those and other compounds may ensure seeds remain dormant until environmental conditions are best for germination. The inhibitor thus may delay germination of seeds until moisture and temperature are right, and then take a back seat to the germination promoter in smoke.

The study appears in the American Chemical Society Journal of Natural Products.

Nanomaterial spurs cartilage growth

EVANSTON, Ill., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Northwestern University scientists say they have become the first to design a bioactive nanomaterial that promotes the growth of new cartilage in vivo.

The researchers, led by Professor Samuel Stupp, said the nanomaterial spurs new cartilage growth without expensive growth factors by activating bone marrow stem cells and producing natural cartilage. No conventional therapy can do this, Strupp said.

"Unlike bone, cartilage does not grow back, and therefore clinical strategies to regenerate this tissue are of great interest," said Stupp, director of the university's Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine.

"Our material of nanoscopic fibers stimulates stem cells present in bone marrow to produce cartilage containing type II collagen and repair the damaged joint," said Assistant Professor Ramille Shah, first author of the study. "A procedure called microfracture is the most common technique currently used by doctors, but it tends to produce a cartilage having predominantly type I collagen which is more like scar tissue."

The research is reported in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.