New Imaging Method Allows Early Identification of Alzheimer's

Researcher's a UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior have developed an innovative new method of using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with a small molecule invented at UCLA to non-invasively identify amyloid plaques and tangles in the brain, allowing for the detection of diseases such as Alzheimer's disease in their early stages.

Study results found that the new method was able to track disease progression over a two-year period and was more effective in differentiating patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment from normal study subjects when compared to conventional imaging techniques. Researchers are working with Siemens Medical to begin a clinical trial using this new molecular marker in order to obtain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval so that it will be available in the future for use by physicians with their patients.

The results will be published in the Dec. 21 New England Journal of Medicine.

Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-A-Thon

Carl Sagan died ten years ago today, and to commemorate his life, Joel Schlosberg has announced the organization of a blog-a-thon in Sagan's memory.

Carl Sagan had many contributions to science and technology, including discoveries that led to an understanding of the high surface temperatures on Venus, as well as contributions to NASA's Mariner program and others. He was also a best-selling novelist, producing such works as Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot, and the novel Contact, among others.

But Sagan's greatest contribution was in the form of education and advocacy. He advocated for SETI, co-founded the Planetary Society, hosted the PBS television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, and made numerous appearances on the Tonight Show. In doing so, he helped give a popular face to science (astronomy in particular) and introduced people (including me) to the wonders of the universe.

While Sagan's contributions to science were noteworthy, the inspiration he provided to so many others was, in my opinion, held much greater value. As brilliant as he was, Carl Sagan was only one man, and as such could only conduct so much science himself. By advocating and educating, he introduced and inspired a new generation of scientists and thinkers whose discoveries and reach will far surpass anything Sagan could have accomplished by himself.

Europe Launches 54 Billion Euro R&D Program

The European Union will launch the 7th Framework Program (FP-7) on December 22, a program that aims to increase Europe's growth and competitiveness, recognizing that knowledge is Europe's greatest resource. The seven-year (2007-2013) program has received 54 billion Euros (about $70 billion) in funding.

From the EU's FP-7 webpage:

What are the key research areas defined by the European Commission?

FP-7 comprises 4 programs:

The cooperation program accounts for over 60% of the available funding and allows European researchers to work together on collaborative research projects to advance knowledge, to propose solutions to some of the major issues facing us today and to develop new technologies for the future. It promotes cooperation among universities, industry and research centers across the European Union, as well as with the rest of the world. This program focuses on research in: health; food, agriculture and biotechnology; information and communication technologies; nanosciences, materials and production technologies; energy; environment; transport; social and economic sciences; space; and security.

The ideas program is implemented through a new body, the European Research Council (ERC), and provides on average 1 billion Euro per year for investigator-driven frontier research in cutting-edge, “risky” areas.  The first call for proposals focuses on early-stage independent investigators – those ready to set up their own team for the first time. Future calls will cater to all experience levels. Applicants do not have to be in Europe to submit a proposal – but the work must be done in Europe if selected.

The people program provides increased funding for Marie Curie actions, which promote the training and mobility of researchers at all research career stages. This includes fellowships for Europeans wanting to work in another European country; specific international activities to fund non-European researchers to work in Europe and to fund Europeans to work outside Europe; and reintegration grants for European researchers to return to Europe from abroad. European researchers in the US will be eligible for most actions.

The capacities program enhances research and innovation capacity in Europe through activities such as funding access for researchers to major European infrastructures; support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop their research potential or to outsource their research; international cooperation and science and society.

In my opinion, this is a very positive thing for the European Union. It allows their scientists, including small research shops, better research opportunities across the whole of the EU. It will improve cooperation and competition in research endeavors, both of which have been shown to improve research results.

This program will also benefit more than just the EU, as the research results will be shared with the world, much like the research programs funded by the NSF. Cheers to the the EU for launching this initiative.

Innovative New Malaria Vaccine Enters Testing

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health are testing a new vaccine aimed not at curing malaria in an individual patient, but at eradicating the virus from a region.

The new technique involves not only removing the parasite from the infected patient, but at transfering antibodies capable of eradicating the virus into the mosquitoes that carry the infection. By removing this source of infection, the scientists hope to prevent the spread of the disease.

The vaccine was developed with conjugate technology, which joins or "conjugates" molecules the immune system has great difficulty recognizing to molecules the immune system can recognize easily. Primed by the conjugate vaccine,the immune system begins making antibodies — immune proteins that target specific molecules. The antibodies then eliminate molecules the immune system would fail to detect.

Read the NIH press release HERE.

Project Profile: Einstein@Home

This week's profile is for the Einstein@Home project. Like last week's profiled project, Rosetta@home, Einstein@Home uses the BOINC software as a distributed computing platform.

The Einstein@Home project uses the idle resources of a distributed network of computers to search for pulsars, which are spinning neutron stars. The software analyzes data gathered by the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors.

From the Einstein@Home Screensaver description:

The Einstein@Home Screensaver has a number of elements related to current efforts to detect gravitational radiation from periodic sources such as pulsars. The primary element of the screensaver is a rotating celestial sphere showing the known constellations, along with the current zenith positions of three gravity wave detectors. The positions of the detectors relative to the stars changes periodically over a 24 hour period. If you went to one of the detector sites, the stars visible directly overhead at any time are the same ones that appear next to the detector on your screensaver. (This assumes of course that your computer's time and timezone are correctly set!) Also shown are the positions of the known pulsars and supernovae remnants, and a marker indicating the positions being searched as the calculations proceed. When the graphics are shown in a separate window (not as a screensaver) the user can control the display with the mouse and keyboard.

Microsoft Releases Robotics Studio

This week, Microsoft® released a new product called Microsoft Robotics Studio, designed to be a universal platform for robotics for everything from toys to industrial and military applications.

The folks at Microsoft are understandably excited about this new product, as they see many parallels between the robotics industry today and the computer industry of the mid-to-late seventies.

The software includes a visual programming tool that enables non-programmers to easily write software for robots using a drag-and-drop interface, along with a 3-D simulator (using the PhysX^TM engine from AGEIA^TM) to allow you to evaluate how your robot will behave without having to build it first.

I think this is an excellent step toward building better robots, as it makes it possible for hobbyists (licenses of MRS are free for non-commercial use) to participate in advancing the robotics industry, much as they did with personal computers in the late seventies and early eighties.

Researchers Working on System for Harvesting Corn Stover

A research team at Iowa State University is designing systems for simultaneous harvesting of grain and stover (the stalks, cobs and leaves) during corn harvesting, with the goal of providing the raw materials for cellulosic ethanol processing.

The researchers are developing stover attachments that can be used on standard combines. The result would be an additional cost to farmers of about $10,000 to $15,000 instead of the six figures it would take for a separate combine to harvest stover. The attachments would also allow farmers to harvest grain and stover with one pass through a field.

Although tests of the prototype machine have been successful, the researchers acknowledge that there is still much work to be done in terms of stover harvest capacity, transportation, storage, and soil composition.

Read more information here.