Sunday Sawse: Space, Science and Tech
Nov 4th, 2007 by admin
Science never ceases its progress, though much of it goes unnoticed in the day-to-day bustle of our busy lives. This week there have been some interesting breakthroughs and setbacks as well as a neat list here or fact there.Here is a look at some of the most strange, discouraging and encouraging scientific news of the week:
Space Station Spacewalk Delayed by Power Problems. NASA canceled Thursday’s spacewalk to inspect a snarled joint for a set of solar panels and instead instructed its orbiting astronauts to go out a day later to try to fix a torn solar wing. Seems like lately every mission to space is confronted with major mission-changing issues.
Woman’s Cells Survive for 60 Years After Her Death and Cure Diseases. Bizarre but true: there is one human being who is biologically immortal on a technicality, and her name is Henrietta Lacks. In 1951 she showed up at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Samples were taken of her cervical tissue and sent to a lab for analysis, which came back with a diagnosis of cervical cancer. Her doctor discovered that the cells from Henrietta’s tumor would not only survive and multiply outside of her body, but they didn’t age either. These cells were basically immortal.
Are We Happier Facing Death? Here’s one for the annals of counterintuitive findings: When asked to contemplate the occasion of their own demise, people become happier than usual, instead of sadder, according to a new study in the November issue of Psychological Science.
Modern medicine has done much to eradicate and cure disease, but it has failed in some areas. Of those areas, at least one disease that cannot be cured is suffered by many people in the world every year - the common cold. However, here are Ten of the Top Incurable Diseases.
Superfast Laser Turns Virus Into Rubble. A physicist and his biologist son destroyed a common virus using a superfast pulsing laser, without harming healthy cells. The discovery could lead to new treatments for viruses like HIV that have no cure.
How to Make a Polluted City a Zero Carbon City. The folks over at the Porter School for Environmental Studies are organizing a one-day event at the Watec conference tomorrow in Tel Aviv, but with a focus on air pollution and the global “ZeroCarbonCity” campaign.
