UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

NASA finds ice deposits on the moon

WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- NASA scientists studying radar data from India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft say they have f found more than 40 ice-filled craters at the moon's north pole.

The researchers studying data from NASA's Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, said the water ice was discovered in craters ranging from 1 to 9 miles in diameter. Although the amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, NASA estimates the discovery could involve at least 1.3 million pounds of water ice.

"The emerging picture from the multiple measurements and resulting data of the instruments on lunar missions indicates that water creation, migration, deposition and retention are occurring on the moon," said Paul Spudis, principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. "The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought."

During the past year, the Mini-SAR mapped the moon's permanently shadowed polar craters that aren't visible from Earth. The radar uses the polarization properties of reflected radio waves to characterize surface properties. Results from the mapping showed deposits having radar characteristics similar to ice.

The research findings are being published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Oldest mammalian genome is sequenced

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., March 1 (UPI) -- U.S. and Swedish scientists say they have sequenced the genome of the polar bear -- the oldest mammalian genome to be sequenced so far.

The researchers from Pennsylvania State University, the University of Buffalo, the University of Oslo in Sweden and other institutions said very few polar bear fossils have been found.

"Because polar bears live on the ice, their dead remains fall to the bottom of the ocean or get scavenged," said University of Oslo Professor Oystein Wiig. "They don't get deposited in the sediments like other mammals."

The 110,000-to-130,000-year-old polar bear fossilized jawbone and tooth was discovered during 2004 by an Icelandic geologist in Norway.

"Our results confirm that the polar bear is an evolutionarily young species that split off from brown bears some 150,000 years ago and evolved extremely rapidly during the late Pleistocene," said Charlotte Lindqvist, an assistant research professor at the University of Buffalo.

"This is, by far, the oldest mammal mitochondrial genome to be sequenced," Penn State Professor Stephen Schuster said. "It's about twice the age of the oldest mammoth genome that has, to date, been sequenced."

The study that included researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Iceland and the Norwegian Polar Institute appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Acupuncture, massage have cancer care role

CHICAGO, March 1 (UPI) -- Acupuncture, massage and other alternative therapies have a place in cancer care, a U.S. doctor says.

Gynecologic oncologist Dr. Julian Schink of Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University says offering integrative oncology services as well as counseling and stress management are part of their larger aim of providing for cancer patients' needs from every angle.

"When a patient is diagnosed with cancer many of them want to fully participate in their recovery, but don't know where to begin. This program gives them control over their treatment," Schink says in a statement.

Integrative oncology services -- offered by Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group's Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness include acupuncture, massage, energy healing and naturopathic medicine.

"Our goal is to treat the whole person, not just their illness," Dr. Melinda Ring, medical director of the Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness, says. "Research suggests that a holistic approach can alleviate stress and anxiety, as well as the physical pain and discomfort patients often experience while undergoing cancer treatments by activating the body's innate healing process."

Schink points out integrative oncology services help manage the side effects associated with conventional therapies that would otherwise cause patients to end or curtail treatments prematurely.

Giant ancient Egyptian sculpture found

LUXOR, Egypt, March 1 (UPI) -- An Egyptian-European anthropology team says it has found a giant sculpture of the head of King Amenhotep III at a funerary temple in Egypt's Kom El-Hettan area.

Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said the red granite head of the king who reigned circa 1390-1352 B.C. was discovered along the west bank of the Nile River in Luxor.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the head is intact and measures slightly more than 8 feet high. He described the sculpture as a masterpiece of high artistic quality, showing a portrait of the king with very fine youthful features. Hawass said the head is smoothly polished and perfectly preserved.

Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, the head of the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project -- the Egyptian-European team that made the discovery -- said the granite head belongs to a large statue representing the king standing, hands crossed over his chest and holding the royal insignia.

"Over the past years we have gathered a large quantity of red granite statue pieces, which once stood in the southern part of the great court of the funerary temple of Amenhotep III at Kom el Hettan," Sourouzian said, adding the ceremonial beard is broken off under the chin, but it might still be buried in the temple's rubble.