Let's Smash Some Stuff!

How about this? I'm totally posting breaking news...

A few hours ago, the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) began circulating protons in both directions through the magnetically controlled 17-mile ring, according to an article in the Times. Some may remember that the machine failed last year during power testing due to a faulty electrical connection. As of Friday, however, the collider was once again powered on and began circulating protons through its big, circular tube. This morning, another milestone was reached as the collider began circulating a second beam of protons. In fact, as I am writing this, low-energy proton collisions are taking place underneath the ground along the border of France and Switzerland, where the LHC is located, in the largest 'atom smasher' ever constructed. How freakin' cool is that?

As safety tests are conducted while the proton beams are ciculating, engineers will be ensuring that the system is ready for sustained high-power function. Once safety tests are complete, the power will be increased incrementally along with the number of circulating protons, and although safety tests will continue, true physics experiments will begin as high-energy collisions begin taking place. When the energy is increased to 1.2 tetraelectronvolts, which is expected to be fairly soon if things go well, the proton collisions will be at a speed and energy never before observed in a collider before. The massive magnets that control the motion of the beams essentially aim the beams at one another so that circulating protons smash into protons circulating in the opposite direction in locations where detectors are able to monitor the conditions that occur. The results of these studies, theoretically, will shed light on the makeup of the universe and how the universe was formed. It is also believed that never-bofore-seen elementary particles, such as the elusive Higgs boson, will be observed.

Most of the information gathered from these experiments is supposed to be pretty in-depth as far as quantum physics is concerned, so the standard layperson walking down the street will be unaffected by any of the things going on at the LHC. However, for those of us interested in physics and, you know, the universe, there's about to be some pretty wild stuff going down. It may take a lot of time for the data gathered during the experiments to be analyzed thoroughly enough for true conclusions to be drawn, but in the meantime, we can sleep easy at night knowing that in a strange land (the Franco-Swiss border), pale little men in lab coats (physicists and engineers) are tirelessly toiling at unlocking the secrets of the cosmos.

Is It Friday Yet?

We all know that there are many reasons to love Fridays. Among my personal favorite reasons are the following: I normally analyze all of the data gathered throughout the week on Friday for my end-of-the-week research updates, which is an extremely satisfying activity; 9 times out of 10, I treat myself to lunch out on the town, and if the weather is nice, that involves a pleasant bicycle ride through downtown; my two favorite, non-science themed blogs, Bike Snob NYC and CoMo Cyco, post a hilarious quiz and a selection of witty replies to fake reader mail, respectively; the weekend is approaching and that equals fun times without the burden of work and/or school.

But there's another reason to spend all week anticipating the arrival of Friday, and that is the broadcast of National Public Radio's Science Friday. Science Friday is a once weekly segment of their popular Talk of the Nation program that focuses on science-related topics. Following the standard Talk of the Nation format, SciFri (as those of us in-the-know refer to it) hosts guests whose expertise relates to the particular topics of the week. After a period of discussion or debate, the guest or guests will sometimes field questions from callers, Facebookers, emailers, Twitterers, etc. The show is split into two hour-long segments, normally examining 2-3 topics per segment.

While Talk of the Nation is hosted by Neal Conan, Science Friday is hosted by Ira Flatow, who specializes in science journalism. Now don't get me wrong, Ira is a great host and facilitates intriquing and thought-provoking discussions, but if I could have any job, any job at all, it would be his. Not because I think I would be better at it, because I wouldn't. But because I think he might have the coolest job in the world. After all, each week he interviews some of the greatest minds in the world. And that, indeed, is a pretty great gig.

My intention this week was to discuss what is obviously the biggest news in science right now, and that is the discovery of water on the Moon. If you haven't heard about this, which is indicative of one who has been stranded on a desert island with no human contact for the past week, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) successfully completed its mission. LCROSS and its upper stage, Centaur, were sent on a suicide mission to the Moon, in which the upper stage separated from the satellite and went hurtling into the Moon's surface, creating a large debris plume. The satellite then travelled through the debris plume with analytical equipment that observed and analyzed the debris plume, then also impacted the surface. Both debris plumes were carefully observed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as observatories here on Earth. The data is currently being analyzed, but the investigators have already announced that a small amount of the debris plume consisted of water.

Although this was going to be my sole topic this week, I listened to SciFri's report of the mission over the weekend, with special guest Anthony Colaprete, the principal investigator of the LCORR project at NASA's Ames facility. What I found was that this interview was far more informative than anything I could have churned out here on this blog, and so rather than going into all of the details (of which there aren't many at this point, since the real leg-work of this mission is ongoing), I thought it would be best to let you listen to the podcast for yourself, which can be found here.

If you enjoy this interview, I recommend that you become a regular listener. There are brief descriptions of each of the week's topics, allowing you to select which you would like to hear if you don't want to listen to the entire show. In addition, the topics really do span the scientific spectrum, from psychology to space travel to renewable energy, so it's rare to find a show that doesn't include something that strikes one's fancy.

Watching the Sky Fall

It's that time of year again, folks. The Leonid meteor shower is set to peak on the (early) morning of November 17. According to a Space.com article on the shower, the most intense viewing will be in Asia. However, it is predicted that we here in the U.S. may get a decent show as well. For those of us here in the Midwest, it may not be as spectacular as what may be seen on the East coast. But I'm optimistic that crawling out of bed on a chilly Autumn night at 4 or 5 in the morning will not be totally fruitless. Although there have been a few years that the Leonids have disappointed, more often than not, they create pretty amazing displays.

The Leonids are pretty cool creatures. The particles that create the shower are dust debris from the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which are ejected as the comet is warmed by the Sun, creating a debris trail. Each year, the Earth passes through the trail and, depending on the density of the dust particles, they come zipping into our atmosphere. As they enter the atmosphere at a fairly high rate of speed, 45 miles per second, they ionize molecules in the atmosphere. The ionized molecules then relax to a resting state, but give off photons when they do so. This is what creates the bright, streaking meteoroid trail as they move across the sky. Also, because the dust particles are all moving in more-or-less the same direction in space and therefore enter the atmosphere in the same direction, they look as though they originate from a particular point in the sky. This point is called the radiant point. In the case of the Leonids, that point is near or directly over the constellation Leo, hence the name of the shower.

In the past, the Leonids have created what are referred to as meteor storms, which are unusually spectacular displays. It is thought that the exuberant display that was observed in 1833 produced in upwards of 100,000 meteoroids per hour. Unfortunately, we will likely see a number more along the lines of 25-30 per hour. But it's always possible that we could see many more than that, particularly on November 17. This is due to the fact that we know very little about the stream of debris that the Earth will be moving through.

If you'd like to view the Leonid shower, the most important step is to find a good location. You'll want to be as far as possible from city lights. If you think you'll be able to leave the city lights behind, but not travel far, you should consider traveling East since Leo, the shower's radiant point, will be in the Eastern sky. This should do well to put the interfering lights behind you, and give you a nice dark theater for watching the Leonids. Once you've got a good location, settle in, stay warm, and enjoy the show.

Not sure where Leo is, but want to know exactly where the radiant point will be? No problem. You can go to the AstroViewer Interactive Night Sky Map, punch in your location (anywhere in the midwest will work - I used St. Louis as my location), adjust the date to Nov. 17 and the time to when you plan on being out stargazing, and note the location of Leo. Good luck!

It's Not Rocket Science. Oh Wait...

I've been itching to discuss this topic for quite some time, and stumbled upon an article in ScienceNews that has given me a good reason to take a crack at it. The article summed up the results of the Augustine committee quite well, and, I may add, quite succinctly. This succinctness is good, because no one in their right mind wants to read a report written by a panel of rocket scientists about rockets for other rocket scientists. Actually, that's not totally true. The panel, headed by a former chair and CEO of Lockheed Martin (whose name is Norman Augustine; hence the name of the committee), was charged with reviewing NASA's future plans for manned space flight after the retirement of the space shuttle. Currently, NASA is betting on use of a rocket called Ares 1 to send manned capsules into low Earth orbit and to resupply the International Space Station. After what appears to have been an extremely thorough study by the Augustine committee, the group concluded, essentially, that even though NASA could develop and deploy Ares 1, that it didn't necessarily mean that they should. One of the express concerns that will arise, whether NASA goes ahead with the Ares 1 or not, is what will send our astronauts up in between the time that the shuttle retires, which is next year, and when the next program will be ready for use (the Ares 1 isn't slated to be ready for manned missions until 2017). To address this, the Augustine committee noted that it might be more beneficial to contract International Space Station resupply missions and other low Earth orbit missions to industry, allowing NASA to focus on manned missions to the Moon and Mars. To this possibility, the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairwoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) replied, “we are not prepared to have our astronauts’ access to space held hostage to purchases of seats from nonexistent commercial providers,” adding that the Ares 1 program appears to be on track and perfectly capable.

Giffords' statement is not only false, but very confusing.

Why? Because this is where SpaceX comes into the picture. SpaceX is a space exploration technology company founded and run by a remarkable man by the name of Elon Musk, who is also co-founder of PayPal and owner and chair of Tesla Motors. SpaceX has not only already developed a launch vehicle called the Falcon 9, but a transportation spacecraft called Dragon is also being developed and nearing completion, which will be capable of carrying cargo and crew into orbit and to the International Space Station. In addition, NASA has already contracted a minimum of 12 flights with SpaceX to resupply the International Space Station after retirement of the shuttle, with flights beginning in 2011. So this means that either Giffords was ill-informed when she made the aforementioned comment or just lying, because our astronauts' access to space is already being held hostage by commercial providers. But at a great value to the taxpayers. The Augustine committee concluded that the Ares 1 would not be capable of performing the tasks set forth without an extra $30 billion ontop of the current funding provided. On the other hand, SpaceX charges a flat rate for use of their Falcon 9 and Dragon systems, and for the 12 flights that have already been scheduled over the next 5 years, the total cost comes to approximately $1.6 billion. That's big savings. And not only is a continued NASA contract with SpaceX viable because of monetary concerns, but also because the Falcon 9 is extremely safe and reliable.

Are there any real reasons not to allow our astronauts' access to space be held hostage by commercial providers? Maybe. But I can't think of any. By the way, Falcon 9's inaugural flight from Cape Canaveral is scheduled to take place in just a few short months. I'll let you know how it goes.

Gene Therapy and the Greatest Living Guitarist

In last week's blog post, I discussed the use of gene therapy as a treatment, and possible cure, for Parkinson's disease. At the end of the post, I mention my wish of seeing Muhammad Ali, who I refer to in the post title as the 'greatest boxer of all time,' cured of Parkinson's tremors. Well, I couldn't help but follow up on that post when I saw a brief article in Popular Science about an 8-year-old boy whose eyesight is restored in an eye treated with gene therapy. According to the original article in The Lancet, patients of the study were treated with a vector that encoded a protein that controls the activity of the retinal pigment epithelium, restoring eyesight in six of the twelve patients in the study with congenital blindness. The results indicate that, by studying both children and adults, the greatest improvement in eyesight is achieved when patients are treated with gene therapy at a young age, as the children of the study fared better than the adults.

Despite being somewhat void of details, the Popular Science article did have something that the original Lancet article did not: a video of the 8-year-old boy navigating a maze first using only his control eye, which did not undergo gene therapy injections, and then using his treated eye, which did. The difference is quite obvious. In fact, the first video of the boy trying to navigate the maze using his control eye was somewhat difficult to watch, as he had to be assisted at every turn. He even struggled to find the door knob on the door at the end of the maze. On the other hand, the video of his attempt using the treated eye is much easier to watch. Let's just say, if it had been a test, he would've aced it.

Very cool study and very promising results.

"But what's with the weird title" you ask? As I stated earlier, last week's blog post title makes reference to Muhammad Ali as the 'greatest boxer of all time,' and since I'm following up on that post, I thought I'd continue the theme. For those of you not in the know, the 'greatest living guitarist' refers to Jose Feliciano, who was born permanently blind. At 64 years of age, it's unlikely that Feliciano's vision will ever be restored with gene therapy, but it's appealing to think of a future in which congenital blindness has become a thing of the past.

Gene Therapy and the Greatest Boxer of All Time

Parkinson's is a nasty, nasty disease. There is no doubt about it. Of course, any disease that is described as both 'chronic' and 'progressive' is not going fun to deal with. A degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, Parkinson's disease (PD) is currently incurable, and effective treatments are nearly non-existent.

And this is where gene therapy comes in. Gene therapy has been considered the holy grail of Parkinson's disease treatment for quite some time. Studies that have focused on use of gene replacement therapies in neural cells have shown promise, but have lacked major efficacy, which would be required for large-scale, multi-phase clinical trials. Various gene therapy strategies have been pursued, all showing positive results, but would still leave PD sufferers with continued standard therapies that can often be cumbersome, expensive, and sometimes nearly as debilitating as the disease itself. A new gene therapy, which takes three previous gene replacement strategies and combines them into one, is being reported by Nature as a potential breakthroug in PD treatment.

It makes total sense...take three different types of gene therapy treatment that have shown moderate success and combine them into one single vector. A multi-functional attack that is aimed at rehabilitating the neural cells in three ways at the exact same time. Genius. And it gets better. The therapy has already been tested on humans, and is expected to move into phase II clinical trials soon. I would love to see this treatment become standard, not only because the eradication of Parkinson's disease would be a beautiful thing, but also because it would solidify gene therapy's place as a viable treatment option for other diseases. I mean, let's face it, there's still a stigma that the public has with gene therapy. And not all of it is without reason. Gene therapy has its risks, one of the largest of which is the insertion of the target gene into a place in the genome that causes major damage to cell function or, even more likely, that causes cancer. Another issue is the current trends in gene therapy research. Everyone would like to see the creation of a treatment for PD, but what about gene therapy treatments for colorblindness or baldness? By comparison, research into these kinds of gene therapy treatments seems a little less awe-inspiring. But hey, who am I to judge? After all, gene therapy research on colorblindness could open the door for other types of ocular disorders, and curing baldness is not always just a matter of vanity; for some, it really is a quality of life issue.

Anyways, I digress. What it really comes down to is this: I want to see the great Muhammad Ali standing tall and proud, without the devastating tremors of Parkinson's racking his body, speaking about what it was like to reclaim his title as World Heavyweight Champion from George Foreman in Zaire during the 'Rumble in the Jungle.' And maybe, just maybe, gene therapy could be the key to granting me this wish.

The Sky is Burning!

A team of scientists at the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility in Alaska has published the results of a recent study in which they induced the formation of ionosphere-like plasma within the lower atmosphere of Earth. I'll explain why this is so freakin' cool momentarily, but first I thought I'd briefly share why HAARP itself is worth discussing.

HAARP's purpose, as stated in the Enironmental Impact Statement is as follows:

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is a congressionally initiated program jointly managed by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. The program's goal is to provide a state-of-the-art U.S. owned ionospheric research facility readily accessible to U.S. scientists from universities, the private sector and government...The program's purpose is to provide a research facility to conduct pioneering experiments in ionospheric phenomena. The data obtained from the proposed research would be used to analyze basic ionospheric properties and to assess the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for communications and surveillance purposes.

The facility consists of what's called the Ionosphere Research Instrument (IRI), which is an array of extremely high-power, high-frequency radio frequency (RF) transmitters. The IRI fires electromagnetic radiation into the ionosphere (the same thing that the Sun does, just from the opposite direction and in a highly controlled manner) and then uses sophisticated equipment to monitor the effects. The main idea of all this is to better understand how RF and other signals, such as those that allow us to communicate with our various sattelites, interact with the ionosphere so that we can use these properties to our advantage. This equipment is also capable of altering the properties of the ionosphere for short periods of time. For instance, by exciting the ionosphere with the IRI, researchers are able to imitate an aurora, a phenomenon in which charged particles from the ionosphere impact molecules in the atmosphere causing them to emit light.

And this is where things get interesting. In the recent study, which was featured by Nature, researchers were able to crank up the IRI and direct it at the upper atmosphere. The high energy from the IRI's RF signal excited molecules in the atmosphere to the point that they ionized, creating an artificial patch of ionosphere. So what does this mean and why does the government care about creating artificial ionospheres? To answer this question, I will conclude with a scenario that illustrates a potential application of this ability. Let's say that you work at a CIA base of operations in Eastern Europe. You have gathered top secret data that must be relayed to another base in the Middle East. Because there is not a direct line of sight between the two bases, the communication signal is sent skyward and bouced off of the ionosphere to reach the other base in a process called over-the-horizon communication (the CIA has been using this phenomenon for communications and intelligence gathering for decades). However, the angle at which the signal must be sent is fixed (because the ionosphere doesn't move) and enemy intelligence is monitoring transmissions occuring in this region. So instead, you use an RF transmitter to induce an artificial patch of ionosphere, which you bounce your communication signal off of. The angle of transmission is different than expected and the enemy is unable to intercept the signal. Your information remains secret. You're the big hero.

The end.

P.S. Like the Large Hadron Collider, the construction and power-on of HAARP created a fair amount of panic and doomsday scenario talk. It's worth noting that instead of killing us all, the facility has produced a constant feed of information and a wealth of knowledge on the upper atmosphere. Of course, HAARP has not destroyed the Earth. Neither has the LHC. At least not yet...