Obama Welcomed By Scientists

With a new president comes a new world of science. When Obama said he would “restore science to its rightful place,” he was signaling an end to eight years of stark tension between science and government. Science staff members held parties in the office on this day because it was a start to a new beginning after the tensions of the last eight years. Obama plans to build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together, something that Bush had not done. With expectations so high, and promises of progress in stubborn areas like alternative energy, Obama has a lot of eyes watching him. With a new president, and a new beginning Obama is bound to have great success in renewing the bond between scince and government.

Current Events-Nicole Carpenter

Europe has recently taken little effort to reduce the release of power related carbons into the atmosphere, but by establishing an Emissions Preformance Standards (EPS) in Europe, it would do so in the least costly way. Currently, Europe has not outlawed any systems, like coal fueling of factories, which are very high in pollution. However, enforcing the EPS would ensure Europe to only invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and capturing the CO2. If the rules of the ETS were enforced, by 2020, Europe will have cut their green house gas emissions by two-thirds. It would be more cost-effective than ensuring this act later, and the government could make money from selling green gas emission permits rather than giving away. The EPS has great potential to greatly reduce the amount of green house gas emittents in Europe.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090120171459.htm

New studies conducted by NASA may suggest that the moon may have not always been a desolate, frozen wasteland.  A rock, collected on the first trip to the moon 36 years ago has shown a surprising clue that leads to the conclusion of there once being a volcanic and molten surface.  This was concluded when the rock, Troctolite 76535 which is made up of olivine and plagioclase, was found to have a magnetic field.  A magnetic field can indicate either, a large collision creating an extreme amount of force and heat, or  the constant melting and solidifying of iron.  Due to troctolite 76535 being made 300 million years after the moon was made there could have been no cataclysmic collision.  Another point of evidence supporting the thought of a volcanic surface and a magnetic field around the moon is that earthquakes have been occurring periodically on the moon.  This is due to a molten core heating and congealing under the surface, which causes tremors.  The magnetic field generated by the once molten surface and the still molten core lead experts to believe that a magnetic field about a fifteenth as strong as Earth's once existed on the moon.

www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/science/space/20moon.html_?r=&ref=science

Current Events-Medicaid

New York City’s governor, David Paterson, wants release a budget next week that will include cuts to the state Medicaid program to reimburse hospitals and doctors for services to low-income patients. This program would provide for broken bones to be put in casts, but treatment for asthma may be cut back. Many State officials argue that New York has been inefficient in Medicare spending, and use money toward expensive hospital treatment of problems that could be handled in the doctor’s office. On the other hand, many people are saying that hospitals employ more people than on Wall Street and cutting back the budget would hurt salaries of employees, causing many to be laid off because of the cut back of money brought into the hospitals. Also, this proposal would affect everyone in the state greatly, as 30% of hospitals are Medicaid.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/nyregion/11hospitals.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

New drug combo may boost stem cell production

Researchers announced Thursday that a combination of drugs (using Genzyme Corp's Mozobil ) shows it may be possible to make bone marrow produce & release extra adult stem cells into the bloodstream to repair the heart and broken bones.
Researchers hope that studying this through mice can be used in the future to help tackle autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis -> where the body confuses healthy tissues for foreign substances and therefore, attacks itself). Hoping to release extra stem cells, we could potentially call up extra numbers of whichever stem cells the body needs, hoping to lead to new treatments of various diseases and injuries by mobilizing a person’s own stem cells from within. Stem cells are the body's master cells, giving rise to various tissues and the blood. They are found throughout the organs, blood and tissue and are in immature form until they generate needed cell types.

Sometime in the future, doctors hope to use stem cells in a new field called regenerative medicine in which tailor-made transplants of tissues and perhaps organs can be grown from a patient's own cells.
To start experimenting with the mice, they treated them with two naturally occurring proteins in the bone marrow called VEGF and G-CSF growth factor. Then the mice received a shot of Genzyme's stem-cell transplantation drug Mozobil.
The G-CSF in combination with the Mozobil produced hematopeotic stem cells (stimulates stem cells involving in making blood cells) Researchers wanted to see if the VEGF growth factor stimulated other types of stem cells involved in building heart, bone tissue, and blood vessels.
The results of the experiment found that the mice given the VEGF and Mozobil released about 100 times more stem cells into the bloodstream compared to the mice that didn’t receive the treatment. The next step is determining whether this technique can be used to actually repair damage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/science/space/11planet.html?_r=1&ref=space

CARBON DIOXIDE (NO S.U.V.'s) DETECTED ON A DISTANT PLANET

Astronomers have found traces, around one part per million to 10 parts per million, of Carbon Dioxide on planet HD 189733b, 63 light years away, while attempting to search for extraterrestrial life. In reality, the planet is far too large and far to hot to support any life, but this discovery goes to prove the capabilities that scientists now have at their disposal. When HD 189733b passed directly in front of and behind its parent star as it orbited, astronomers were able to compare the near-infrared light from the star alone (when the planet was behind it) with the combined light from both using the Hubble Space Telescope. The difference between the two spectrums revealed the light emitted from the planet and the mix of colors in the planet's light contained the telltale signs of carbon dioxide. This discovery came as a big surprise since carbon would prefer to from Carbon monoxide or Methane given the stellar situation, but this discovery further draws the question over the possibility of life in the universe that surrounds us.  

Carbonates confirmed on Mars

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2008/December/120801.asp

New discoveries of Mars appear to show large outcrops of carbonate bearing rocks, indicating that regions of the Red Planet could once have been an ideal environment for life to thrive. Around four billion years ago, the climate of Mars was similar to Earth, with water on the surface and a carbon dioxide atmosphere. However, since Mars has no magnetic field to protect it from the solar wind, the atmosphere was gradually stripped away and dramatic climate change turned the planet into an inhospitable desert. The chemical composition of rocks on the surface provides a clue for determining whether or not life could have survived on Mars. If conditions were right for carbonate-bearing rocks to form, they would also have been favorable for life. However, previous studies of Martian soil by missions such as the Mars Exploration Rovers in 2004 have found very little carbonate indicating that any water on the Martian surface was likely to be far too acidic to have supported life.