Science

PITTSBURGH, PA and CHALFONT ST. GILES, UK, 12 October, 2009 -- In an effort to bolster U.S. biosecurity, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced a collaboration aimed at the construction of an advanced development and production facility for the manufacture of vaccines and therapeutics to counter a range of biological threats.    » read more »

October 8, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - The only serving U.S. senator to have flown in space today called on President Obama to use $3 billion of unspent stimulus money to help prevent the continued shrinking of America’s space program.

Florida Democrat Bill Nelson delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor – coming just days before a special commission reviewing NASA and the nation’s space program is expected to deliver its final report to Obama. In so doing, he joined a delegation of Texas lawmakers who also are asking for stimulus money for NASA.    » read more »

Oct. 8, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- NASA begins a series of flights Oct. 15 to study changes to Antarctica's sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. The flights are part of Operation Ice Bridge, a six-year campaign that is the largest airborne survey ever made of ice at Earth's polar regions.

Researchers will work from NASA's DC-8, an airborne laboratory equipped with laser mapping instruments, ice-penetrating radar and gravity instruments. Data collected from the mission will help scientists better predict how changes to the massive Antarctic ice sheet will contribute to future sea level rise around the world.    » read more »

Oct. 7, 2009 -- PASADENA, Calif. -- Using updated information, NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid. The refined path indicates a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036.

The Apophis asteroid is approximately the size of two-and-a-half football fields. The new data were documented by near-Earth object scientists Steve Chesley and Paul Chodas at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. They will present their updated findings at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Puerto Rico on Oct. 8.    » read more »

WASHINGTON (October 8, 2009) – The Union of Concerned Scientists has assembled a detailed summary of key provisions in the recently introduced Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. While many important provisions in the Senate bill have yet to be fleshed out, UCS is urging senators to strengthen and pass the legislation before December's international climate negotiations in Copenhagen conclude.

UCS experts have identified three provisions in the bill that merit greater media scrutiny.

First, the Senate bill allows carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects to receive generous, pre-set subsidies. UCS experts say the Senate should limit subsidies to this yet-unproven technology.    » read more »

Grants to Support On-Going Studies of Autism, Cirrhosis, and Cardiovascular Disease

October 7, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui (D-Sacramento) announced that University of California, Davis (UCD) will receive over $2 million in federal funding for four on-going research projects at their Sacramento campus.

The grants being disbursed are part of a larger release of funds authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support research endeavors at universities across the country working in cooperation with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).    » read more »

(WASHINGTON) - Congressman Chet Edwards announced that vital renewable energy research at Texas A&M University will be bolstered by federal funds he included in the final 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which passed the House today 308 to 114. Edwards is vice chair of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, and was a member of the House-Senate conference committee that wrote the final bill.    » read more »

Protein Marker Test Aids in the Early Diagnosis of Kidney Injury and Reduces Wait Time from Days to Hours

October 06, 2009 -- Abbott Park, Illinois (NYSE: ABT) — Abbott announced today it has received CE Marking (Conformité Européene) for a new diagnostic test that detects an important protein in urine, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), an early marker or indicator for patients with, or at risk of, acute kidney injury (AKI).    » read more »

IBM scientists advance genome sequencing project

Yorktown Heights, NY - 06 Oct 2009: In an effort to build a nanoscale DNA sequencer, IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists are drilling nano-sized holes in computer-like chips and passing DNA strands through them in order to read the information contained within their genetic code.    » read more »

Governor Delivers on State of the State Promise to Create Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium

October 5 , 2009 -- New York Governor David A. Paterson today announced the first round of requests for proposals under the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium, known as NY-BEST. Governor Paterson called for the consortium in his State of the State address earlier this year, and announced the creation of NY-BEST and $25 million in dedicated funding in May.    » read more »

10/05/2009 -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement congratulating Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak after they won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the key mechanism in the genetic operation of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.

Blackburn is a professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Greider was born in San Diego:    » read more »

Secretary Sebelius Releases New Success Story Report

October 1, 2009 -- HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a report on how health information technology can improve health care for Americans living in rural communities. The report examines how the Columbia Basin Health Association in Othello, Wash., uses health information technology to improve health care quality and patient safety as well as promote care coordination and continuity. The complete report is available now at www.healthreform.gov.    » read more »

According To New Data, An Estimated 48,000 New York Children Are Diagnosed With Autism

October 5, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. - New numbers released today by the American Academy of Pediatrics showed that 1 in 91 children suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). According to the new data, an estimated 48,000 children across New York suffer from Autism - more than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand renewed her call today for quality, affordable autism treatment for families. She is pushing legislation that would mandate autism coverage and urging greater federal investment in Autism research.    » read more »

October 01, 2009 -- Berkeley, CA - BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, is the most ambitious attempt yet to map the expansion history of the Universe using the technique known as baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO). A part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), BOSS achieved “first light” on the night of September 14-15, when it acquired data with an upgraded spectrographic system across the entire focal plane of the Sloan Foundation 2.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.    » read more »

Sept. 29, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents -- from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe -- and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council.

Although degraded air quality is nearly always dominated by local emissions, the influence of non-domestic pollution sources may grow as emissions from developing countries increase and become relatively more important as a result of tightening environmental protection standards in industrialized countries.    » read more »