Gizmorama!

Good Morning,

Read all about the successful Monday launch of NASA’s
Endeavour space shuttle in the first article. The Shuttle
is on yet another maintenance mission to the International
Space Station.

Until Next Time,
Erin

Endeavour launches without incident

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Endeavour roared into
the early morning sky over Florida’s Kennedy Space Center
Monday in the last scheduled night shuttle launch. Originally
set for Sunday morning, the launch had to be delayed because
of low clouds over the space center. Endeavour and its exter-
nal fuel tank, with a combined weight of 4.5 million pounds,
finally lifted off at 4:14 a.m. EST Monday without incident
and without any pre-launch technical problems. The shuttle’s
mission to the International Space Station is being led by
Commander George Zamka, with Terry Virts serving as pilot.
They and astronauts Nicholas Patrick, Robert Behnken, Stephen
Robinson and Kathryn Hire will deliver the Italian-built
Tranquility node — the last of the three nodes that make up
the space station — and a seven-windowed cupola, to be used
as a control room for robotics. The two other nodes are Unity
and Harmony. The STS-130 mission marks Endeavour’s 24th
flight and the 32nd shuttle trip dedicated to space station
assembly and maintenance. The mission is to include three
spacewalks before Endeavour’s scheduled Feb. 20 return to
Earth.

Protein linked to three brain disorders

PHILADELPHIA - U.S. scientists say they have discovered three
different degenerative brain disorders are linked by a toxic
form of the same protein. University of Pennsylvania School
of Medicine researchers say the protein, called Elk-1, was
found in clumps of misshaped proteins that are the hallmarks
of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Huntington’s
disease. “These results suggest a molecular link between the
presence of inclusions and neuronal loss that is shared
across a spectrum of neurodegenerative disease,” Professor
James Eberwine, co-director of the Penn Genome Frontiers
Institute, said. “Identifying these links within the diseased
microenvironment will open up novel avenues for therapeutic
intervention. For example it is reasonable to now ask, ‘Is
this molecule a possible new biomarker for these neurodegen-
erative diseases?’ ” The research that included Assistant
Professor Jai-Yoon Sul and graduate student Anup Sharma,
both from Penn, and Linda Callahan from the University of
Rochester Medical Center is reported in the online journal
PLoS One.

Tiny fossils offer clues to new species

RICHFIELD, Utah - Tiny fossilized jaw bones found in Rich-
field, Utah, helped identify two new rodent species from as
far back as 8 million years ago, a paleontologist says. Utah
Geological Survey paleontologist Don DeBlieux said the small
fossils found by Jeff Roberts and his wife Denise were from
a prehistorical era in Utah that previously offered few
fossils to researchers, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wed-
nesday. DeBlieux said in a report published last month the
pristine condition of the fossils was particularly helpful
in linking the bones to two previously unknown species of
rodents. “It’s pretty significant,” DeBlieux of Roberts’
discovery several years ago. “We don’t know a lot about what
was going on then so it helps us with that and fits into our
understanding of the evolution of modern species.” For
Roberts, having one of the discovered species named in honor
of him and his wife was the real treasure. “It’s the coolest
thing in the world,” Roberts said of the name given to the
species Basirepomys robertsi. The Tribune said the other
rodent species was named Metaliomys sevierensis in honor of
the Sevier County formation where the fossils were located.

Hubble details Pluto’s mottled coloring

WASHINGTON - NASA says its Hubble Space Telescope has cap-
tured the most detailed and dramatic images ever taken of
the distant dwarf planet Pluto. Space agency astronomers
said the images show an icy, mottled, dark molasses-colored
world undergoing seasonal surface color and brightness
changes. “Pluto has become significantly redder, while its
illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter,” NASA
said. “These changes are most likely consequences of surface
ice melting on the sunlit pole and then refreezing on the
other pole, as the dwarf planet heads into the next phase of
its 248-year-long seasonal cycle.” Astronomers said the
images confirm Pluto is a dynamic world that undergoes dram-
atic atmospheric changes and is not simply a ball of ice and
rock. “These dynamic seasonal changes are as much propelled
by the planet’s 248-year elliptical orbit as by its axial
tilt,” the space agency said, noting Pluto is unlike Earth,
where the planet’s tilt alone drives seasons. The space
agency said the new Hubble images will remain our sharpest
view of Pluto until the New Horizons probe is within six
months of its Pluto flyby in 2015. Officials said the latest
images will help planetary astronomers interpret more than
three decades of Pluto observations from other telescopes,
officials said. The Hubble images and additional information
are available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/pluto-20100204.html.